Teachers Assistant Reflection!

This has been a great semester working with all of you in EDU 255 and I hope have been a good resource for all of you! This was a great group of students and you all grew so much throughout the class. You all even taught me things about teaching and made me more prepared as i go to student teach next semester. As i reflect back on my experience as a TA i learned so much about my own teaching through observing all of you in your labs. I really see the importance of using all of the elements on a C9 form to have an effective lesson. It is so important to make sure everything you are teaching as a purpose and your students are learning. Student learning is the number one sign of an effective teacher and i have really learned what it means to reach through this class and my experience at SUNY Cortland. 

I feel as though having a TA in EDU 255 was very helpful because having another student as a resource gives students another person besides their professor someone to go to for help. I wish i had had a TA for this class when i took it because i feel it is very effective. It also put myself on the other side of teacher, instead of observing my own teaching I was observing others and had to dig deeper into the methods of teaching and analyze each little part of being an effective which taught me alot!

I want to thank Dr. B for giving me this opportunity! I really enjoyed working with you this pass year and a half and hope to stay in touch. Dan and Vikki i also enjoyed working with the two of you! We worked very well together and wish you guys the best as you finish your last semester at Cortland. Finally all of the students I really enjoyed working with all of you and wish you all the best as you continue your journey through Cortland's Physical Education department. Hope to stay in touch with all of you!

Exergaming Track and Field unit

Lab D: Exergaming Track and Field unit

As nervous as I was about Lab D it was the perfect wrap up to my 255 teaching. Lab D for me was much more of a challenge from lab B and even Lac C because we were asked to kept on building on what we were learning thought the course and it was our responsibility to incorporate everything into a last 20 minute lesson. Over all I believe that lab D was my best lab so far and I felt the most comfortable while teaching. Finally, I was able to complete the lesson with in the time constraints, but I guess better late than never. My growth from the beginning labs until now was quite significant and I gained much more confidence and learned about various ways to deal with behavior issues and the proper way to provide students with feedback. Because of my experiences in this class I will be able to better myself as a teacher and continue on developing my professionalism as a future teacher and can carry what I have learned onto other teaching classes I will be taking.

C9:

After reviewing my Ta's C9 assessment I feel that I did reasonably well and I received 10.75 points out of the 14 total possible points. However, I fell short on several aspects like having a hook in my lesson and I also lacked an Intratask Variation. The biggest issue that the Ta had pointed out is that I need to work on my enunciation, pronunciation and being precise. The reason for this is because it seemed that my lesson was not tied together properly and had many components in it. Some of the positives that I took out of my C9 was that I had improved from my lab C and I was able to complete the lesson which gave me those extra points for my closure

C10:

My C10 surprised me on what I had found and was a little disappointed in myself. I was unable to hit any of the required targets for practice, lecture/ demonstration, and management

                                    Target                                               My percentages

                                    70+%           Practice                                  32%

                                     15%      Lecture/ Demonstration              54%

                                     10%        Management                             23%

These results are disappointing because it shows that I spoke way too much and did not have the entire class nearly as active as they should have been and that was because I took too much time explaining what was happening or the students were changing positions. One way that I can improve this in the future is to have the students that were on the side stay active with a separate activity until it was their time to go on the x-box

Time Coding:

Similar to my C-10 form my Ta's evaluation showed that I spoke entirely too much and spent lots of time on management because I was setting up the games and switching events.

                                           Target                                    My Percentage

                                           <15%     Management                  39%

                                           >50%         Activity                       17%

                                           <30%        Instruction                    36%

                                           <5%             Waiting                        7%

As I mentioned about I can add and activity for the students that are not using the Kinnect to beef up the activity in the class and I can try not to talk as much so that it cuts out some of the unnecessary instruction. I could have also made sure that I had the games fully set up to the point that they would be ready to go when the class was. Although I did not reach the goals I believe I learned a whole different side of teaching and what I can do to better it when using technology in a lesson.

SOFIT!

Looking at my SOFIT I am seeing similar things as I dd in my C9 and time coding and that is that I used a large amount of the class on management, giving information on general knowledge of the lesson. The actual fitness and game play of the lesson were the least done and those are the most important part which is never good. As my Ta's had pointed out to me that was on of my weaknesses and could be fixed if I toned down the amount of information that was covered and be able to focus on one or two things rather than multiple that can get to be overbearing.

C12:

My C12 teacher evaluation showed that my strengths were in my demonstration with minor “hiccups that seemed very minor”. I also had strengths in my enthusiasm, professionalism as well my management of the environment. However, it was also pointed out that I was struggling with my confidence and poise with conveying my alcohol information to the class. My instructional clarity fell short as well and I believe that was because of the amount of content that I was attempting to fit into the lesson, as my Ta had pointed out, and I was unable to express my ideas properly to the class. In my future teaching I will keep in mind to cut down on some of the information and increase the clarity!

C13:

C13 allowed me to do a self assessment of my teaching. This was much different than the rest because it allowed me to think about things that I had not done up until this point and showed me that I cannot forget about the simple thing like giving a safety statement, stating my expectations for the lesson and instructional points. The new thing that was stressed and evaluated in the C12 as well as this form was weather or not my voice reflected appropriate levels and inflection thorough the lesson to help hold or get the students attention which I believe I accomplished. Another thing that was asked was did I feel that I related to my class, this is so important because if you cannot relate to your class then you will not be a effective teacher and the students will not take you seriously. I believe that I related well to the class and and big reason for this is that it is a small class and I know all of the students in this class very well. I feel that this is one of the most important for that we have used so far because it asked you to asses your own video and allows you to think about your professionalism and self image as a teacher. It also requires you to give short answers and by writing out your thoughts, having to think about what you have been doing and what you will do in the future as a teacher, is most important in your professional growth.

My Lab D Video! Link to my Video!!

Pilates Homework

1. What is Pilates?
   Pilates is physical movement with exercises and stretching designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body.

2. What is the main focus on Pilates and how does that help anxiety?
   Pilates focuses on breath control, abdominal strength, and joint mobility. These are all simple things that you can perform quickly to help relieve stress that can lead to anxiety.

3. What are benefits to Pilates
   Some benefits of Pilates is increased spine mobility, increased muscle flexibility, and increasing lung capacity.

4.Would you take another class?

I would absolutely take another class especially because my flexibility is very lacking and that would help me tremendously.

5.Why do we focus on quality over quantity in Pilates?

The quality of the exercise is more important because to get the results you want, you need to be doing the proper motions so that you do not injure yourself trying do do a high number of repetitions.

Laura's Homework

What are 3 signs or symptoms of depression?

Feeling sad, depressed, feeling lonely at times

What are 3 cures for depression?

Activity, hanging out and talking with friends, medications

How well did you and your partner work together?

We both worked very well together and were able to find the codes.

How many codes were you able to find?

We found two codes.

Did you and your partner have any issues with finding the codes? If so, what?

Yes we did, we were not think far enough outside the box and thought we had to stay in the building

Did you have fun?

Yes I sure dis!

Lab D: Adventure Activities in the Pool

Ryan Gatt: Lab D

      I cannot believe that we are already done with Lab D. The class as a whole has improved by leaps and bounds from Lab A all the way up to now. When the semester first started I didn't think that there was any way that I would improve as much as I believe I have during this course. 255 has been the most intense class that I have been in this semester, but I can tell that all the hard work has really paid off for all of us. I am much more comfortable standing in front of a group now then I had ever been in the past. Although I have seen improvement from myself throughout this class there is still plenty of room for improvement in my teaching skills. In this reflection I'm going to highlight the main problems that I encountered during Lab D, and talk about how to improve upon them and continue to make myself a better teacher each time I teach. 

C9 Form

C9 TA    C9 Student

      Although I felt that my Lab D went very smoothly, there were many things on the C9 form that highlight what I still need to work on, and what I could have improved on for this lab. The biggest problem with my Lab D as pointed out on my C9 forms is that I did not have a clear learning objective, and this led to me losing a lot of points on my C9 form. I found it hard to include a clear learning objective because the activities that I taught had to be problem solving, so there were many different ways that they could be completed. Looking back I could have used teamwork as my main learning objective, and had cues such as cooperation and participation. Because I did not have a clear learning objective I also did not have any clear cues, I could not give any congruent feedback, and could not do a clear demonstration. It is important to include a clear learning objective when you teach so your students know why they are doing what they are doing. There should always be something that is being learned during the lesson. 

      Something else on my C9 form that I could improve upon is remembering to include my signal for attention and my class expectations in my introduction. I had both of them on my lesson plan but during the heat of the moment I just forgot to state them. It is important to include a signal for attention in my lessons so that the students know what to do when I am trying to get their attention. If the students do not know to stop the activity when I blow my whistle then it could end up being a safety issue, and I could end up getting in trouble for it. The same goes for class expectations, if I forget to tell the class what I expect of them then how can I expect them to act as I think they should? Forgetting class expectations could also end up being a safety issue. This is something that I really need to get used to doing.

Time Coding Forms

Time Coding 1

Time Coding 2

Time Record C-10

Time Coding Results

Management- 23%

Activity- 29%

Instruction- 36%

Waiting- 12%

Time Record (C-10) Results

Practice- 40%

Lecture/Demonstration- 46%

Management- 13%

     I ran into a big problem with my time coding form on Lab D. My first activity which was the "Dolphin Race" did not count as activity time because only 50% of the students were active at a time. What I should have done was tell the partners that weren't going at the time to either do some sort of activity while waiting like treading water, or had them help their partners in some way. This would have improved my time coding form greatly. It is important to keep the students active as much as possible during my lessons because that is one of the main goals of physical education. The students need to be as active as possible during my classes so that they can learn to enjoy physical activity, and will want to do more of it in their free time. I also spent a little bit too much time with instruction and management then I should have. Although I felt it was important to educate the class about obesity I probably could have used some of that time for more physical activity. 

SOFIT C-14

SOFIT C-14

SOFIT Results

Management- 1%

General Knowledge- 50%

Physical Fitness Knowledge- 11%

Motor Content- 34%

    My SOFIT form showed very similar results to the time coding forms. I spent too much time with instruction and not enough time with physical activity. One of the most shocking results from this form was that 50% of my lesson was general knowledge. According to the SOFIT rubric general knowledge should only be about 15% of the lesson. If I could go back and re-plan my lesson I would include much more activity time and I would spend much less time instructing the students because the physical activity part is one of the most important parts of physical education.

C-12

C-12

      My C-12 form showed my strengths and weaknesses in Lab D, it was filled out by a peer. According to this peer one of my main strengths was my professional appearance, which is something that I agree with. I always try to look as professional as possible for my lessons because I want to be taken seriously by my students. According to this form one of the weakest aspects of my lab was the demonstration. I also agree with this because I felt that my demonstration was one of the weakest parts of my lab. Demonstrations are important so that the students can see exactly what they are supposed to do. I will work hard to include better demonstrations in my lessons from here on out.

C-13

C-13

      This is my first time filling out a C-13 form. It shows me what I left out of my lesson and also gives me questions to answer about how well I taught my lesson. The C-13 points out that I did not include a statement of expectations for the lesson, just like the C-9 form also pointed out. Also it highlights that I did not include a clear demonstration which was a major flaw in my lesson. I should have demonstrated a few cues for good teamwork during the lesson. The only demonstration that I did have during my lesson was when I pinpointed that Greg had a very good technique during the "Dolphin Race". It is important to include many good demonstrations in your lessons so that students know what it looks like to correctly complete the objective. If they aren't able to see it, then how can they be expected to do it. Demonstrations are definitely something that I will include more of in the future.

      Overall I can see that over the course of the 4 labs that we have done I have improved a ton, along with every other student in our class. i am excited to observe in some real schools for 256 this winter, and then to continue improving my teaching skills in 355 next semester.

Here is my video

Lab D: Water Aerobics

Water Aerobics: Lab D

We all made it to Lab D! It feels like yesterday we were all nervous about lab A and now look we all completely lab D. It was a hard and stress journey through these labs but they have made us all a better teacher candidate. The first 2 labs were hard because we were all getting used to teaching in front of one another. The last two labs were even harder because we were given topics we did not no much about. I believe the two last labs have taught us all that sometimes we might not know what we have to teach but it is our job to become very knowledgeable in that topic by researching and learning about the topic. Lab C especially should us that at times you need to teach yourself your topic before you could teach your class. As for lab D, we also had to learn our topic but we also had to learn and be able to use certain teaching styles. Overall, I am very happy with how I have involved throughout my labs and how I have learned strategies to become a stronger teacher in the future.

C9 Form TA & Student

My C9 form shows that I had some great things in my lab but I also had some weaknesses. The weaknesses that are shown are that I forgot some key points within my lab. One key point I did not include was my safety statement or my signal for attention. These two key points are very important because it involve the safety of the students. Even though I did have both a safety statement and a signal for attention I did not share it with the class. In the future I believe I should practice saying these two key points because not only are they common to one another but that are what help keep the students safe in my lesson and that is a very important thing to do. Another area were I didn’t not collect all points was demonstration. The feedback I receives was that although I did demonstrate the water aerobic movements I did not give a variety of demonstrations. This is an important point because in some topics especially mine the students might not understand how to perform the movement correctly. If you show the student multiple ways to perform the movement it will be easier for them to catch on and understand. An area where I lost a lot of point was feedback. I did not give much feedback at all due to the fact that I really didn’t give the class any specific cues to give feedback too. In the future I need to make sure I give those specific cues because with cues comes feedback. The areas on my C9 form that I did good in was my start of the lesson, use of knowledge, and use of inclusion and modification. I am very happy I did well in these areas. Overall, I am happy with my C9 form because it helps me pinpoint the areas I need to focus more on.

Timing Coding form 1 & 2

The total percentages I scored were:

Management 24%

Activity 58%

Instruction 18%

Waiting 0%

This is by fair one of the best time coding forms I have receive throughout all my labs. My activity percentage was greater then 50, which is very good and sure, be a goal for most lessons. My waiting percentage was a zero, which shows that I was very prepared for this lab and I knew exactly what I wanted to do next before it was time to do it. My management however was not that good I was a little over the 15% maximum. This shows that at times I did not have my equipment set up and I wasted time getting my equipment ready. The last percentage was in instruction and this was good but a little low. This shows that I should have explain some things a little more then I did. Over all I believe my students were very active most of the time and I am very happy about that.

SOFIT C14

The first thing I noticed when I looked at this form is that my students were very active and involved in a lot of skill practice. This is great news because as a teacher you want your students to be 50% or more active in your lesson. In the student activity part I scored a total of 15 standing, 2 walking, and 24 very active. I am happy with these scores however in the future I will like to build up my score on having the students very active and lessen the score of the students just standing. In the lesson context/ content part I scored 6 management, 7 general knowledge, 3 physical fitness knowledge, 1 fitness and 23skill practice. I am pleased with these scores however next time I would like to see my motor content category score much better then it did this time.

C12

A classmate completed this form.

C13

This form shows my key points I left out in my lab. The key points were signal for attention, instructional points specific, feedback, and safety. This form shows me the things I need to work on in the future to become a better teacher. I believe I did a good job when it came to my appearance, smile, positioning in relation to the class and professionalism. My voice is something I believe I have to work on. Even though I felt confident in this lab my voice was still low at times. Another thing I believe I have to work on is relating to the class. I did not do this key point this time around. Although I did think of ways to relate I just forgot to mention it to the class. For the future I will work on my use of demonstrations. I did not do a good job giving variations of demonstrations in this lab. Overall I believe I have learned from this lab what I now need to work on to become a better teacher.

C10

I cannot do this form due to technical difficulties with the video.

Overall I believe my transition through all four labs was very successful. Even though I still had errors in lab D I have came a long way from lab A. I will take all these errors and feedback and turn it into a positive way to become a better teacher in my future. 

Lab D: Exergaming with the Kinect!

Well, we made it! Lab D is now complete for almost all of us. This lab was the most difficult one of them all. In Lab C was  easier because it was less time and we worked with a partner or in a small group. For both Lab C and D the topics were pretty unfamiliar to everyone. It was important for us to learn as much as we could about our topic in a short time. For my Lab D, I found this to be pretty difficult. I think if I had gained more knowledge on the topic the lab would have gone a little smoother. Nonetheless, I'm happy with all my Labs because I can see a lot of growth from the start to finish.

C9

My C9 was missing a lot of key components. This was disappointing because I've been doing very well on the C9s so far this semester. The key points I did include were: starting the lesson with an instant activity, introduction, signal for attention, safety statement, and had visual aids. One of the big mistakes I made was not having a clear objective for my lesson. My objective in mind was too general and because of this I couldn't give effective feedback to my students. I found it difficult to give any kind of specific feedback because they were doing several different activities. The most I could say was "good job" or "way to be active." There was no variation. Feedback is very important because it either let's the students know what they need to work on or what they should continue to do. I also believe having a good deal of knowledge on the topic makes it easier to give feedback. I definitely could have learned a little more about Exergaming and the Kinect system. The other points I was missing were the intratask variation and checking for understanding. With the Kinect system it takes time to change the levels. One thing I could have done was given a survey of who has used the Kinect before and put them together in a group. They could have started at a higher level for a more challenging experience while people who have never played with a Kinect could have played at the lower, more basic levels. I also didn't do very well checking for understanding. I really didn't have anything to check for because there were different cues for each station. I should have gone over the cues at the end of the lesson to make sure they were teaching them to each other. The biggest fault that showed up on my C9 form was my weakness in language. I said "guys" way too much!!! I wanted to kick myself after every time I used the word guys. It is a very hard habit to get rid of but as teachers we need to make sure we are addressing the WHOLE class, not just the "guys."

Time Coding 1 & Time Coding 2 

My time coding form looked like this:

Management - 28%

Activity - 46%

Instruction - 24%

Waiting - 2% 

My management time was not very good in this Lab. I chose to do stations and it turns out stations take a lot of managing so this may have not been the best move on my part. Using the Kinect system also effected my management time because the steps required to get to each game can be lengthy. I almost reached the suggested activity time which is good. Even though I did hit the suggested instruction time of under 30% I believe I could have done more instructing or demonstrating. The only game I really demonstrated was the Just Dance game. I had enough time to demo the other two games but it slipped my mind when the time came. Sometimes it is hard to have students always active but it is important that as teachers we learn to organize our class so the students get the maximum activity time possible.

C10

My C10 form looked like this:

Practice - 56%

Lecture/Demonstration - 25%

Management - 23%

Unfortunately, I did not hit the target times. My management time seemed to be the biggest issue in Lab D and that is because of the stations I had set up. Although I had all my stations set up it took more time than I expected for the students to get to their stations and start playing the games. My activity time was also a lot lower than it should be because my management time was so high. For the future I need to keep in mind how long stations take to set up and make it easy to transition from one station to the next. My lecture/demo time was only 10% off but can still be improved. I think the time I used was necessary though because the students needed to learn how to set up the Kinect system. Overall, I just need to do a better job managing my time. 

SOFIT

Just by quickly glancing at my SOFIT form I can see two things. The student activity was either standing or active and the lesson context was either management or fitness. Just how I stated earlier, a lot of my lesson was managing because of the stations. I tried my best to have everything set up before the lesson started but because I had three stations I still had a lot of managing to do. In the future I think I would want to stay away from stations with the Kinect system because students are standing around a little too much. Dr. B suggested a great idea of having one station where students were doing another fitness activity without the Kinect system. This way students would have been very active and there would be less managing going on. The students also would have been able to see my objective clearer of learning how to exercise in alternative ways. From this form I also determined at the beginning of my lesson there was a lot of standing going on because there were several things I had to go over before the lesson started.

C12

Overall my C12 form was scored on the higher side. I had the highest scores in my enthusiasm level, gestures/body language, and confidence and poise. My management of the environment and instruction clarity could be improved. Rachel pointed out that I didn't explain every game so for a while her and Andrew were standing. This is something I definitely could have avoided by demonstrating how to play every game. I should have also planned where each student was going to go because not everyone got a chance at each station. Originally I had planned to do this but since some students were having more fun at some of the stations I thought they should choose. This probably wasn't the best idea. It added to my management time and decreased the time students could have been active playing a game.

C13

My C13 form was missing a lot of key components. Some of the things I was missing include: statement of expectation for the lesson, instructional points, opportunity for clarification and feedback. These are all very important things that I should have included in my lesson. As far as appearance, smile, and poise I think I did well. I always feel very confident with my appearance and presence going into lab. I also believe my voice has been one of my strong points all semester. Since my class is so small it has been easy to get them engaged and enthusiastic about the lesson but I did not have such luck this time around. Some students really loved the lesson but other students I couldn't get them motivated. In the future I need to clarify my instructional objective better. I did not do a good job with this. I think the students learned a little about the Kinect but I don't think they fully understood the benefits of the Kinect. I also wish I had more time or took the time to explain other Exergaming systems. 

Check out my Lab D Lesson Plan and Lab D video as well! 

Pilaties Homework:
1. What is Pilates? 
Pilates is a system of exercises using special apparatus, designed to improve physical strength, flexibility, and posture, and enhance mental awareness

2. What is the main focus on Pilates and how does that help anxiety?

Some of the main focuses of Pilates are centering, control, flow, breath, precision, and concentration. All of these things can help with anxiety. Learning how to breathe properly and controlling your body are very important to helping anxiety. 

3. What are benefits to Pilates?

Some benefits to Pilaties are: body awareness, stronger core, more lean muscles, and body control. 

4.Would you take another class?

Yes I would take another Pilates class. I found it to be very relaxing. 

5.Why do we focus on quality over quantity in Pilates?

"A few well-designed movements, properly performed in a balanced sequence, are worth hours of doing sloppy calisthenics or forced contortion." Joseph Pilates. Doing a few reps of exercises with correct form are better than doing multiple reps with imperfect form. 

Lab D: Sport Stacking

Lab D: Sport Stacking

My lab D compared to my lab C was much better, I believe. I felt more confident teaching, I was better prepared. I feel I did pretty well, I felt I had good tasks for the students and even though I forgot to do some of the demonstrations I wanted to do, I felt my demonstrations were pretty good. I thought my instant activity was very good and how I used the straws to incorporate my health focus which was asthma was also great. The students seemed to enjoy that. 

C9 Form

According to the C9 form that was filled out by one of our TA's, I did pretty well. I received full points on eight of fourteen of the things assessed. For my instant activity, I only received half credit because my instant activity did not start within 30 seconds. This did not begin within 30 seconds because for my instant activity I had to show the students the picture of what I wanted them to do. I had picture of the 3 stack in an up stack and down stack. For my instant activity I had the students doing a relay race, which had them down stacking and up stacking 3 cups. The students did not have any prior knowledge on knowing how to do this so in order for them to have a general idea of what I wanted them to do I had to take the time to show them the pictures and then how I wanted them to perform the relay race. It is better to have an instant activity that can start within 30 seconds, what this does for students is that it gets them active right away and can get them excited to as what you are going to teach. What I was lacking on also was my hook/anticipatory set, I only received half credit for this because I just stated my objectives and expectations but I did not really have a hook itself that peaked the students interest. I was hoping that my instant activity could serve as my hook but I did not really reference it during my introduction. I discussed more of the asthma aspect because I had the students put straws in their mouths and breathe out of those. Asthma was my health focus for my lab D. It is better to actually plan a hook for your lesson because it peaks the students interest and gets them excited about what you are going to teach. I did not have any intratask variation at all; I had a few students who were very good at the skills I was teaching, so they seemed to get bored after a little while. I needed to challenge those students so that they would not become bored. It is important to challenges the students who can be challenged so that they continue to learn throughout the whole lesson. One other thing that I continue to lack on is my feedback, for this lesson I received .25 out of 2 points. I was not sure how to use specific feedback for this lesson because my teaching style was guided discovery. I did not want to be too specific because the idea of my teaching style is to have the students discover things themselves. But after talking to Dr. Baert after my lesson, she explained it more as to how I could have done this. I could have walked around and looked at what each student was doing right compared to my cues. I noticed I gave just positive feedback, while this is good it is even more beneficial if I would have used feedback specific to the cues, used student’s names, and gave feedback to more than 50% of the students. Good feedback is beneficial to students because it enhances their learning. If you do not give feedback than the students won't know if they are doing it correct or not.

Time Coding

From what I received from the time coding sheet that was filled out by one of the TA's was alright. I did well on my management time and on my waiting time, for my management time I received 12%. For this you want to receive less than 15%, so I accomplished that goal. For the waiting time, I had 4%; this also was a goal I accomplished because for waiting time you want to receive less than 5%. What I struggled with for this lesson was my instruction time and my activity time. For my instruction time the time coding sheet states that 53% of my lesson was instruction. You want to try to have lesson than 30% of your lesson be instruction. I did not accomplish this because I did have a lot of time spent on showing the students how to do the skill and not enough time having them actively doing it. What I could have done was while I was demonstrating, have the student's practicing the skills with me as I was teaching them. This is beneficial to the students because they could be actively learning. What this ties into is my activity time, according to the time coding sheet 31% of my lesson was activity. The goal for activity time is to have more than 50% of your lesson be activity. I believe this goes with how high my instruction time was. Because I spent so much of my time instructing, my activity level was low. This needs to be improved on because it is important to have your students very active during your lesson not only for the physical aspect of it but it also keeps your student motivated and excited to learn.

SOFIT

A SOFIT form was filled out by a peer student. The SOFIT analyzes what exactly was happening during the lesson. It is categorized as student activity and lesson context. For my lesson a lot of the time the students were sitting, this can be explained by me having the students sit during the lesson because of what I was teaching them. In order for the students to complete the tasks, the students needed to be sitting to stack the cups. While the students were sitting for most of the lesson, they were still active by moving the cups a lot of the time. As talked about above with my time coding sheet, a lot of my time was spent as management, which is just like instruction time; this is because I was demonstrating a lot of the time. I could have changed this by having the students practicing with me as I demonstrate. This is important to improve on because the students could have been learning while I was teaching them and I could have spent more of the time having students being active. The majority of the other time as far as lesson context was spent as skill practice. This is good because in order for the students to actually learn the skills being taught they need to actually practice them.

C-12: Peer Evaluation

For our lesson we had a peer who actually participated in the lesson complete a peer evaluation form. From what I got from this evaluation is that I for most of the questions I received a 2 which is on the high side, so that is good but can be improved on. The points are on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest. Only for one, I received the highest score a 1; this was for my professional appearance. What I lacked on again is my enthusiasm, this was the question I got the lowest score on, I received a 3 out of 5. This needs to be improved on because in order to have your students enthusiastic about what you're teaching them, the teacher needs to be enthusiastic. This also motivates the students to learning what is being taught. I always struggle with that probably due to being nervous and not being confident in my lesson. From what I got from the comments on this peer evaluation is that I knew what I was talking about and my lesson was very informative. This is good because if the students feel that you are very confident in what you are teaching, the will be more interested in learning. With being informative the students are actually learning what you are teaching.

C-13: Self Analysis

Lab D was the first lab that we had to fill out the C-13 form which is a self-analysis. It was a little hard for me to fill this out because the video of my lab D got messed up, but I did get a little information from my video and from what I remember from my lab D. For the most part, I could check off each thing, the only part I could not check off was feedback. I barely provided any feedback if I did, it was just positive feedback. Now that I basically have the rest of the lesson aspects down for the most part, I now need to improve on giving feedback. Since I have such a hard time giving proper feedback, I need to start writing feedback down a head of time so that I will be more prepared to use it. Another thing that I know I need to work on is my enthusiasm when teaching, I am not very enthusiastic when teaching. I need to improve on this so that the students actually are excited about what I am teaching them. 

Goals

My goals for the future are to be more enthusiastic while teaching and to actually use feedback. Those are the most important aspects that I need to improve on. I basically feel that I have the rest of the aspects down, for the most part, other than some of the things that I forget to do during the lessons. For example, I had better demonstrations that I wanted to do but I completely forgot about them. I feel like I have become a lot more comfortable teaching, I was definitely less nervous during this lesson. I need to be more enthusiastic so that the students are actually interested in what I am teaching them, which will make them want to learn it. Also with feedback, that I need to improve on because the students won't know if they are doing the skill correctly or if they need to improve on something. I could do this by writing down some feedback ahead of time to use during the lesson. Overall I think EDU 255 was a great class, I learned so much in this class. At my last school we didn't really break down the lesson like we did in this class. We never really used a lesson plan, we just planned activities to do. This class was great because it showed me all of the components of a full lesson and many of the other parts of teaching.

Lab D Audio

My video got messed up so this is a video but with just the audio of 5 minutes of my lesson. 

Pilates Homework Questions:

1. What is Pilates?
1. Pilates is a physical movement program designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body.
2. What is the main focus on Pilates and how does that help anxiety?
1. The main focus on Pilates is postural symmetry, breath control, abdominal strength, spine, pelvis, and shoulder stabilization, muscular flexibility, joint mobility and strengthening through a complete range of motion of all joints.
2. Pilates helps with anxiety by using breath control which relaxes you by making you breathe in through the nose and out through your mouth.
3. What are benefits to Pilates?
1. Benefits to Pilates are increased spinal mobility, increase muscle flexibility, increased muscular strength and endurance.
4. Would you take another class?
1. I would take another class, to get all of the benefits it gives.
5. Why do we focus on quality over quantity in Pilates?
1. We focus on quality over quantity in Pilates because if you just focus on quantity you may not be doing the move correctly so you wouldn't actually get the benefits.

Lab D                    TEAM BUILDING





Lab D was an interesting lab because it involved a lot of different aspects in our lesson plans.. My lab consisted of team building, outdoor activity, depression, guided discovery, and QR codes. This was a really fun lab which in my case ended up being a "treasure hunt". I think i did a lot better in Lab C especially with my time coding sheet.

C9 FORM

Looking at my C9 form it could have been a lot better. Some strengths consisted of my instant activity. It made students think and be active at the same time.My visual aid was good also. It was neat, had contrast, and was visible from 30 feet. Another strength was my feedback. Although the students were scattered all over the campus whenever I saw them I asked how they were doing, what they found, and how I could help I could have worked on using my whistle for a sign for attention. I also could have worked on my objectives. I should have told students to set a goal on  how many QR codes they could have gotten.

TIME CODING

My time coding was a lot better than Lab C. I previously had gotten a 1 where this time I received a 5. On my management I got 2% which is required to be less than 15%. My activity time was over 50%. i received 80%. All students were very active from the start of my lesson. My instruction time was less than the required 30%. on this category I got 13%. On waiting time, I got 4% out of 5%. i8 felt that especially for this activity it would be hard to have students waiting around because they were constantly on the move.

C12

My C12 was done by Tyler. He gave me some really good congruent feedback. He said he like how I incorporated my health topic, depression, into the QR code search. At the same time he said i needed to work on my checking for understanding because some students were confused at what to do.This feedback can help me on what I need to work on in the future.

C13

I think the C13 form is a great tool to self analyze. It really shows what i need to work on. Although I had an introduction I did forget to state my signal for attention. I think this is because I knew that students were going to be away from me a majority of the time in my lesson. I thought my lesson could have been a little more organized. I was able to tell a couple groups of students to get back at a certain time, but not the whole class. i should have given a specific time of return  to the entire class in the beginning of the lesson. Because of this I was not able to debrief my lesson at the end of class. For "next time" if students disperse I will be sure to give a set time of return.

SOFIT

For my SOFIT my management was less than 1%. At the same time i felt like I could have given the class some more specific instructions. The game play of my lesson exceeded the  required 50%. student were active a large majority time. My general knowledge category could have been a lot better. I needed to incorporate more learning into my lesson.

GROWTH/GOALS

Looking back on all the labs it makes me think of how I have improved and what i need to improve on. During lab A I was extremely nervous and scared to be in front of a bunch of strangers. I believe I have improved on being comfortable and being  in front of others. By lab C I was very comfortable in teaching my lesson. Although I think my voice has gotten better in speaking clearly, I still think it can be louder. Another thing I can work on is my time coding sheet. Trying to find a "happy medium" between all categories is key. One thing I wish I did differently in lab D was give students an exact time to return. If I had done this i would have been able to debrief my lesson. One more thing i can work on is saying "guys". In lad C I did not say it at all but in lab D for some reason I said it a couple of times. Next time i will try to slow down and think more before I speak. I really enjoyed teaching lab D because I think it was something different had students enjoy variety and environment change. Personally the highlight of this lesson was being able to see the students react and figure out the codes.

http://youtu.be/FyULrZTQ6JA





Pilates Homework

What is Pilates?
Pilates is a physical movement program designed to stretch, strengthen and balance the body.

What is the main focus of Pilates and how can it help with anxiety?
Pilates focuses on postural symmetry, breathing, abdominal strength, spine, shoulder and pelvis stabilization, muscular flexibility, joint mobility, and strengthening range of motion in all joints. it can help with anxiety because it helps relax you.

What are the benefits of Pilates?
Benefits of Pilates include increased muscle flexibility, increased muscular strength and endurance, improved posture and balance, decrease in lower back pain, improved bone density, and improved pelvic control.

Would you take another class?
I would take another class because it can help me relax when i am stressed out.

Why do we focus and quality over quantity?
We focus and quality because it is important to know HOW to do the correct move rather than HOW MANY.

Liz Kinect Hw

The games I played were just dance and the adventure game. Some fitness components in the games included cardiovascular endurance, agility, and reaction time. These components are beneficial in the long run because they all can improve your health. The one game I was more involved in was the adventure game only because I liked it better than just dance but I feel that just dance keeps you more active than the adventure game.

Greg Kinect Hw

The stimulant discussed when used in large amounts that can lead to loss of balance is alcohol. This stimulant affects the liver the most. The cue used to run fast during sprinting is lean forward. The one we had the most trouble with was throwing the javelin up towards the sky. The last cue that was important in the long jump was the layup position and bringing your knees up. I believe I displayed proper sportsmanship during the lesson because I participated in everything even when standing on the side.

LAB D: THE FINAL LAB

As a whole, I felt like Lab D was a pretty nice way to end the 255 semester. There were some things that I had struggled with throughout the whole semester but I feel like I now have the tools to make it in 355 and 256. One of my biggest struggles was the time coding sheet and finding that balance of activity time and management time (more on that later). That has been following me since Lab B and it is something that I need to make better. That would be my main goal going into next semester: Scoring five out of five on my time coding sheet.

C9 FORM

There were things that I did right on the C9 form but like always, there are always things that I can work on. Most of the parts of my lesson that were lacking, in my opinion, are normally strengths such as transitions, safety awareness and my pace. My visual aid was also lacking a bit of excitement as I had complications getting that done in advance. I feel like some of these things were lacking because I talk to much, which always seems to be my problem going into every lab. I think this is so because I get really paranoid that students may not understand what is going to happen sometimes or what I expect out of them so I may sometimes over explain things when I shouldn't. It is something that I need to work on going into 256 and 355. I also didn't do an adequate job preparing the class for being on the ice rink; it was cold and I should have mentioned them to bring gloves but it was one of those things that just slipped my mind at the time so I will have to remember that for next time.

TIME CODING

 My biggest problem to date is this darn time coding sheet. Every time I get this back from my TA, I can't believe that my management time is always higher than my activity (45% versus 32%) time even though I plan it on my lesson plan to have more activity time than anything but it never seems to work out the way I ever want it to. I talked for what seemed like a few minutes during the presentation itself, well it was actually almost six minutes, which makes me go crazy because I tried so hard to plan it out. I do feel like I have taught enough now where I can use this to my advantage for 256 and 355. The main thing that I have learned is that the section of your lesson plan that says time lies to you, so I will plan more time.

FEEDBACK

I feel like this was something that could go either way. I liked the feedback that I was giving when watching myself again, for instance the feedback that I gave to Amanda about the snow plow stop, but while I was watching everyone skate, during the lesson, it felt like I wasn't really saying enough and that is something that confuses me just a bit. I obviously could have done better during the lesson but I felt as though I wasn't doing enough and when I watched myself again, I thought to myself, well it could be worse, I could have kept my mouth shut. The biggest problem on my feedback sheet was the difficulty of what I was asking. A lot of people on their assessment forms did not get all the way to the hockey stop, which was my intent going into the lab. I felt as though most people in the class were decent skaters but I was quickly proven wrong at the beginning, although a lot of the students showed significant improvements from their instant activity warm up which made me very happy. I need to pay more attention to the students sometimes, as I can sometimes get carried away with what I had on the lesson plan and not stop and thing about if the students are having trouble.

C12 FORM

According to the C12, I did pretty well in most categories, scoring a 1 in enthusiasm, body language, appearance, and management of the environment. I scored a 2 in clarity, demonstration, and confidence and a 3 in voice inflection. I think that this is pretty accurate. Things happen that I couldn't control, an ankle injury bothering me for a few days stopped me from demonstrating much and the loud area might have hurt my voice, next time I WILL JUST HAVE TO YELL LIKE I'M DOING NOW! 

C13 FORM

Going through this form, I felt as though it was pretty accurate to the rest of the forms. My voice was a little lacking, I did not give a clear demonstration of what I was asking the class to do (ankle) and my feedback was a little iffy at times. Another big thing that I didn't do was change the activity to make it easier for them, as my gut was telling me the whole time to just go for it and things would be okay. Things were far from okay as the students were left struggling with what they were trying to do. Double Whammy: No demonstration and hard objectives. My goal for next time is to come to the lesson with plans in my head with what to do if students are having an easy time or a hard time (Lab C was too easy, Lab D was too hard, go figure that one).

C14 (SOFIT) FORM

This form didn't really give me much to work with, as the only thing filled in up to the 17th minute was what the class was doing. There also wasn't any names on the sides where it says student, just male or female was circled and there were no comments on the other side of the page. So the only thing that I can really talk about was that certain students were standing at certain times, whether it was because I was giving instructions or they were using coaches eye, or they were getting ready for the final game or the closure. I'm not sure but I have narrowed it down to one of those things, I just need to work on that for 256 and 355.

Pilates questions

1. What is Pilates?
1. Pilates is a physical movement program designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body.
2. What is the main focus on Pilates and how does that help anxiety?
1. Pilates focuses on postural symmetry, breath control, abdominal strength, spine, pelvis and shoulder stabilization, muscular flexibility, joint mobility and strengthening through a complete range of motion of all joints.
2. Pilates helps anxiety by relaxing you by taking deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. 
3. What are benefits to Pilates?
1. Benefits include spinal mobility, increased muscle flexibility, increased muscular strength and endurance, increased lung capacity and circulation, improved posture and balance, improved body awareness, decreased low back pain and much more.
4. Would you take another class?
1. Honestly, I'm not a flexible person so in that sense, no but in regards to getting flexible, then yes
5. Why do we focus on quality over quantity in Pilates?
1. Focusing on quality targets correct ways to do it because Pilates is ineffective if done incorrectly.

Exer-gaming questions

1. What was the stimulant we discussed that when used in large amounts can lead to loss of balance?

Alcohol

2. What organ specifically is damaged when this stimulant is used irresponsibly and on a frequent basis?

Liver3. What was the cue that was critical to run fast during the sprinting?

High knees
4. What was the cue that many of you were having difficulty with in the javelin section?

Follow through to sky
5. What was the last cue that was important in the long jump? Hint: Think Car!!

Lay up
6. Did you feel that you displayed proper sportsman ship during the lesson and if so what was it?

I think I did for the most part. I couldn't give this 100% because of my ankle but I cheered for everyone that went and for those that set new world records with either the sprinting, javelin, or long jump.

Exer-gaming questions (2)

• What game did you play?
• The games that I played were soccer and ball rebounding.
• What fitness components were in the game?
• I needed muscular endurance to continuously kick the soccer ball and deflect the balls in the other game.
• How are these fitness components beneficial to you in the long run?
• They keep me up and moving and able to keep moving. Without muscular endurance, how do you expect to do anything?
• Which game did you find to be more actively involved in?
• The soccer game because there was a lot of parts to it. I didn't get the opportunity to play the dance game much or it would have been that.

QR code questions

What are 3 signs or symptoms of depression?

                  Trouble sleeping, withdrawn, lack of energy

What are 3 cures for depression?

                  Exercise, therapy, medication

How well did you and your partner work together?

                  I would say very well

How many codes were you able to find?

                  2

Did you and your partner have any issues with finding the codes? If so, what?

                 Running out into the parking lot in a snow storm was difficult, and finding the QR code on a tire was                     hard too

Did you have fun?

             Overall yes.