John Odle- Lab B Softball

What?

The Lab B topic I had was Softball. Seeing as though I had not a lot of time allotted in that area, I did not really know where I wanted to go with it. I had played baseball as a kid so I figured that since the games were very similar I would relate one to another. The good thing about this topic was that a lot of the students were not "Low skilled," so I was able to really design my lesson around "medium-high" skilled individuals. This made me happy because I wouldn't have to go back to the basics since mostly everyone had a good sense of what to expect. I tried hard to come with an instant activity that would relate to softball and also be very easy to explain and get the students moving. This activity I though served several different things as I looked at it. It worked on their throwing ability, accuracy their reaction time and it got them moving. The resources that I had gotten were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction of where I wanted to go with this topic and I used them the best way I could.

Gut?

After experiencing Lab A and going through the motion I didn't feel as nervous or jittery as I did before Lab A. When I got into the classroom I knew that I was going next that is when all the butterflies came. I did feel pretty confident because I was prepared. When it was finally my turn to teach I felt a rush of adrenaline hit me and I knew that it was my time. The fact that Lab B was not graded definitely helped ease some of my worries because I knew that the small mistakes wouldn't affect my grade as much. It definitely helped me realize that now was the time to work out all of the kinks and make the mistakes now and get feedback, whether good or bad, from Dr. B and Tyler. When I got into the heart of the lesson the nervousness slowly started to drift away. I was much calmer in this Lab that Lab A, where I was speaking clearly but very fast. In Lab B, I was more prepared and that made me feel more confident walking into this Lab. I was speaking slowly and clearer and I started to feel as if I was a legitimate instructor.

So What?

As part of this lab we had to fill out a Pre-assessment which indicated whether we were low skilled, medium skilled or high-skilled. This really helped in preparation for my lesson plan in that many of the students were more on the medium/high side of the chart which made plan a certain way. I planned my lesson in a way that it would work on things they may have known already which would give them a refresher and them work on things to make them better. I thought my lesson was good but it may have not been challenging enough for my students. As I looked at my video, I saw that my feedback to my students weren’t as specific or focused on what the students were actually doing. The feedback was more or less "Good job"/ "I like that" and not really constructive. "....content-related feedback communicates the teacher's intent to help the students improve the quality of their responses..."(Rink, 2010, pg139). This means that if the teacher wants to help the student better themselves in a certain are that they need to give feedback related to the activity or drill. This something that is needed for every teacher. I think that one of the reasons that I didn’t give the right or more specific feedback was that I really didn’t know what to look for. I knew what it was supposed to look like but I felt as if they had it down-packed where probably the activity was too easy to see the real kinks.

Now What?

With Lab B over I can now move my attention to Lab C. Lab B just like Lab A were good but I definitely feel like I can do better. The last two labs showed me what I need to work on and I will use this to my advantage. One thing that I have to do better is work on more challenging activities or drills that will make my students have fun but yet learn something. Having more challenging drills will help me see those that need a little more attention and that will give me the opportunity to give more specie or constructive feedback. Another that I will have to work on is identifying the students that need that help, it was little easier in Lab B because we had smaller groups but in Lab C we will have the whole class so finding that one person that needs that little extra push will be challenging. There are also some things that I will carry over to Lab C, I thing I was clear and clam which is good but I definitely will have to work on being more clear on what I want to see. Having these practice sunder my belt has prepared me for Lab C and I know that I will be better.

                                        Here I am explaining my Cues for fielding a ground-ball

                                                 

                                                       Link for my Video for Lab B