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