Lab A Brianna Musselman- Inline Skating

WHAT?
              My activity for Lab A was Inline Skating.  Not knowing much about this activity, I looked up some activities that related to inline skating to use as an instant activity.  During my first time teaching, I had the students perform an Indian run and have them shout out as they ran past the line "passing on your right", or "passing on your left" depending on which side they were on.  My theory behind this activity, was to get their heart rates up by running around the gym.  This activity was also to stimulate a rule in inline skating, which is to shout out as you are passing another skater "on your right/left", as a safety concern in the sport.  But, the problem was that I did not explain to my students how this warm-up activity related to inline skating.  During my second time teaching, I changed up the instant activity by putting them in three groups and had them do different exercises to get their heart rate up.  Before starting, I explained how these activities related to our topic of inline skating.  Also during the first time teaching I did not introduce the unit that we were working on until the end of the warm-up.  Then when I taught the second time I introduced the unit in the very beginning of class, so that the students knew what we were going to be focusing on.

GUT!
         After my first lab I felt pretty okay with myself, but not totally satisfied.  I believe that I did a great job with getting the students heart rates up, but did not do a good job with explaining why we did the Indian run activity.  Yes the activity got the students moving and heart rates up, but it was just a simple activity of running around in a circle.  Therefore I feel like I was not creative enough and should have added something to the run to make it more interesting and fun for my students.  After my lesson when I realized that I did not make the connection of the warm-up activity to the unit, it made me feel forgetful since I had planned to make the connection but did not.  Without the connection, the students did not get much out of the warm-up other than getting warmed up and ready to start the class.  If I had made the connection, they might have taken the warm-up more seriously and actually learned something out of it.  And since I did not introduce the unit in the beginning of class, the students really had no idea as to where we were going with the lesson.  During my second time teaching, I did make a connection between the instant activity and the unit.  I  made sure that I explained why we were doing these activities by relating them to inline skating.  After doing so, I felt like my students got a lot more out of the warm up than the first time around, they got their heart rates up and were able to relate the 3 exercises to inline skating.  Being able to make that connection is a very important aspect of physical education since they are learning something rather than just focusing on the Psychomotor domain.  Also during the second time teaching since I made sure I introduced the unit before starting the warm-up, the students were more aware as to what was going on, and kept them focused during the warm-up.

SO WHAT?
      Making sure that I explained the connection between the warm-up and unit is very important because without that connection, students do not know why they are doing the activity, they might just think "oh this is another boring warm-up that the teacher is making us do".  And as a physical educator we want our students to be involved and be learning something from everything we do instead of just getting exercise.  Introducing the topic in the beginning of class is very crucial  because they will hopefully get interested about the topic and want to stay involved.  Without doing so, they might just run through the motions, and may not be interested since they do not know what is going to come next.

NOW WHAT?
      After learning from my mistakes, next time before I present my lesson to the class, I will make sure that I practice either in front of a mirror, or in front of a group of people to be better prepared and not be forgetful.  Also this will help me be more confident in front of the class, and have more confidence.  Having more confidence and have practiced more will make it a better environment for myself and the class, because the little things of the lesson will come to me with not having to think much about it. For instance, before the first time teaching I practiced in front of friends and felt somewhat confident but still a bit nervous.  One thing I did forget while teaching the second time was to introduce myself and explain safety rules before starting the activity.  If I had practiced more for the second time teaching, I may have not forgotten these important points.  So now I know for Lab B, that I need to practice more before presenting, make sure introduce the topic in the beginning of the lesson, and be sure to explain to my students the connection between the instant activity and the unit so that they stay interested and want to learn more.  Learning is a very, very major point of physical education, therefore I must remember to make the connection next time I teach.


  Here I am with my students, explaining to them what my expectations are for them, by the end of this class.

 Here is the video of myself teaching the class. Lab A "2".