My community service was more non conventional then anything as I led dance lessons, alongside fellow Classmate Melissa Fromm. We led dozens of dances in the hours we have collected in our visits at the Madison ARC of Cortland, a home for individuals with developmental disabilities. We made many various accommodations while lesson planning that was necessary such as using poly spots to direct where the next dance step is directed, and sequenced arm movements that would subsidize for an inability to use legs for the individuals that were designated to wheelchairs. To make it even more interesting for the individuals we were teachings dance to, we often asked what songs and dances they would like to learn and prepared both before the days of the visit(intra-task). It was a wonderful experience, providing these individuals with laughter and joy from the attention we gave them. We made friendships and left a lasting impact on them in my opinion. This experience actually is the reason for my decision in making "adaptive PE" my concentration of study, not for marketability but to make in impact in many more lives of the differently abled.
Did you know that Autism affects one in every 165 children? Better yet do you know what Autism is? Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. Although there is no cure to be found, science and technologies have configured various strategies to treat specific effects of Autism through therapy and behavioral interventions. Autism results from a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, resulting in impaired social interaction and communication skills. There are interactive games devloped that aid children and adults in helping them slowly fine tune their abilities to communicate. Face Sayis an pc game that allows Autistic individuals with their recognition of various facial expressions. I have made a short youtube video that may give you a visual on how the games look like. Often at times they have an inability to distinguish certain facial expressions, this software has numerous of activities that give a sufficient amount of practice in depicting such. There are other methods that are more physically hands on in helping autistic children with their associations, like the "dream gym". Keeping autistic children physically active enables them to burn off excess energy, thus in return allowing them to concentrate on particular tasks. Like our common theme of being physically active and combining technology to promote being physically educated; it arises here in the case of many children and adults living with autism. We as future Physical Educators, are responsible for shaping programs that try to meet every students need and abilities.
PART B: After visiting the websites posted and the many links that followed, we were asked questions based on what we had read and saw in the videos that came about. The web site takes us to Canada, located in North America right about the Northern borders of good old USA. The location of the website is also from Canada. If I were asked to locate Canada on the map I would hope to be able to do so. After watching the video, the topic struck me as interesting, as how correlations have been found between physical activity and learning. As a Physical Education major, reading and seeing that people are now taking an account associating active lifestyles with enhancing an adolescents ability to learn. The PE teacher was not involved in the experiment due to the fact that all the physical activity took place in the classroom, with the teacher. The children performed twenty minutes of cardio, before they started the actual lesson. Results of the study have shown that roughly 15 minutes or more breaks from the classroom will better the students grades. This theory results from the way they were stimulating their brains and keeping the impulses continuous throughout the day, ultimately allowing them to say focused when it came time to learn. The outcomes relate to the NYS standards, but they are just as different from them. They are similar in the sense that they want every student to be active and develop healthy lifestyles without really concerning what students skill levels are. As long as students are competent in a specific skill and can base that on what activities are performed. The teachers do not look as much in to the cognitive and affective goal and objectives as PE teachers do.
So, its that time of the year again. Long nights at the library, term papers are due, and finals are approaching. Here in EDU 255 we did not have a term paper, but we surely had the infamous, individually taught, 20 minute Lab D lesson! In our lessons we have all shown tremendous growth from the very first day we taught. I can remember the very first day of class as if it were yesterday. We were all unorganized, unprepared, and nervous as can be. Who wouldn't be nervous if they were thrown into the fire on the first day? Lab D was our chance to show our professor and peers what we can really do when we become masters of our domain and true leaders of a classroom. I look back at my previous videos, and replay prior lessons I have taught in my head and none of which really showed my potential like it was shown in Lab D. For starters, I originally had been scheduled to teach elements of bowling. A last minute audible for me to teach a swim lesson was made by the commander in chief, Professor Yang. Though I have very little experience in the art of swimming, I did not approach this change of scheduling as a recipe for disaster. I viewed the change of scheduling as an opportunity to step up and put on my "teaching mask"(as Professor Yang would call it), and display a strong lesson. For the first time in my career here at SUNY Cortland, I felt like I was in charge of every aspect in my lesson. I hit almost every key element, as you can hear or see from the video above, or read in my linked transcript. I hit safety statements, scaffolding transitions, pin pointing, to corrective feedback, you name it...I met it. Even my general feedback analysis shows that I was on my "A" game as it shows I had positive outcomes while visually assessing my students. I could have done better in the activity department, by at least reaching the 50% or above mark in totalclass time activity, as shown in this time coding analysis. I scored respectively based on my time coding form, but I feel it was a strong lesson overall. If you look closely, you can tell that I feel very comfortable, based on my body language and speech. The confidence arose from months of preparation in our regular classes, and the planning I put in to deliver my swift organization. I thank what I call a successful lesson to my fellow classmates, and of course commander in chief, Professor Yang. Thank you, good luck everyone on finals and enjoy your summer!
In my first attempt in Lab C, I'd say I pretty much bombed the entire lesson. I was responsible for the intro part of mine and Ricky Miano's lesson, but could not remember the rules to my instant activity! I eventually received the opportunity to redeem myself in teaching the second portion last Monday afternoon. I started off well, scaffold off of Ricky's intro and everything was running smoothly, at least for what I thought. During my lesson, I was tested by our highly insightful TA's(Teacher Assistant); as they organized a scenario in which students inconspicuously snuck out of the classroom, in hopes of catching my attention, testing my alertness I must have while teaching. I was able to deter one student from losing my sights as I made a conscious effort to keep watch of his doings, but eventually six students exited my classroom right under my nose. I admit, I could have paid more attention to the class roster number to have prevented such a large act of delinquency. For the most part I think my lesson was solid aside from the slight snooze, I was swift in teaching my students the desired skills of the activity and was energetic about it as well. I would say see for yourself, but unfortunately I was not recorded, just take my word for it until next time!
Our "Lab B" topic was Ultimate Frisbee. If you haven't played, my question to you is why the heck not done so already!? I must say it is one of the most fun games existing today. It can be played anywhere, a beach, backyard, or even a gymnasium like we did. I was teaching the 3vs3 defensive aspect of the game. Many people theorize, offense fills the seats, but defense wins championships and I couldn't agree more. I felt passionate about teaching the components of defensive stances and strategies. It showed as I stressed proper use of techniques of "good defense", in my transcript. Though I stressed importance of technique, I did not stress components of safety, nor did I give enough individual corrective feedback. Thankfully, I have two more shots at improving my teaching performance and try to hit all aspects of a successful lesson.
We have recently been given a rubric that determines how much time in our lessons the students are actually engaging in activity. Time coding is a rubric broken off into four catergories, management, activity, instruction, and waiting. Obviously in a physical education class, the more activity students are able to engage in, then the more successful the class is. Just like any good professional athlete, we are encouraged to view videos of our performances to further analyze. After viewing my performance and grading it based on our assigned rubric, I scored a 2 of 5 in total score. I will use this result to keep on striving for improvement.
This week's given assignment was a different technique used by our wise professor. Our stenographer type assignment plays a bit interesting in understanding more on how accurately and consciously we must speak while teaching. Our goal was trying to pin point which bad habits in our speech we can pick up to eventually figure out how can we correct them. Very insightful technique in my opinion because we are able to self-analyse our performance. For the most part I did a whole lot better than I thought, but judging from the words that I typed up, I could have spoken a whole lot more. In the script one will notice that I did not "check for understanding", which is something very important when teaching a new skill. Take a read for yourself, I am sure there will be things missing that I can improve on, if you see any, please leave me a comment in how I can improve. My Script
First day of 255, we were all put to the infamous test!!! We all have had trouble presenting in front of an entire class, imagine how it must have felt being filmed teaching your peers. At first I can admit I was pretty confident, but sooner than I had expected I began feeling a bit jelly kneed as I was runner up to teach a skill from a given sport. From watching the video, I think I pulled it off for the most part, I had great posture I feel, and looked very into what I was trying to convey. But then, I saw one major flaw that may be my handicap, the way my voice projects. Professor Yang had previously mentioned how "great vocal projection" is "key" in gaining attention from your students. In the video, I was able to hear everyone else's voice but my own, I definitely have got some work to do before I can call myself "teacher ready".
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