James Caswell -Lab D Nohejball

Teaching Lab D

Teaching Lab B

What? 
For our Lab D, we were required to teach a game from a different country. The game we were assigned to teach was Nohejbal, which hails from the Czech Republic. Nohejbal is a tough game that is a combination of soccer, tennis, and volleyball. Its basically volleyball with your feet. Thankfully our group taught last, and because of this we were able to see that most students exhibited decent foot eye coordination. Being able to see that helped us shape our lesson plan so that the students were appropriately challenged during our lesson. As a group we decided that we should use bigger, lighter balls in our lesson. In doing this it made the skills easier to be learned and allowed the students a better chance at being successful.We also shaped the lesson to teach the students how to play a full game of Nohejbal. Knowing that the students needed to learn a few different shots to play the game we lined up our lesson so that it would teach those shots from easiest to hardest, so that by the end of the class they could actually play a game. The first shot we taught was just a partner pass that required them to bounce the ball and kick it over the net to a teammate, the second shot was the serve, this is a shot that is required to start the game and is some what complicated because you need to have decent accuracy because you are required to kick it in a certain area on the other side. The third and final shot we taught was the strike, this shot was very tough to do but was necessary because it was one of the most effective ways to score a point. Once we taught the different shots we thought it would be a great idea to allow the students to practice them in a full game of Nohejbal, with a little adaptations. The adaptations we made were simple but effective. The first adaptation was that we had them play with a big lighter balls that made the game easier for the students. The second adaptation was that you could not score a point unless your team used all three of their allowed hits before hitting it over the net.  This allowed to students to actually practice what they just learned in a setting that allowed them to be successful. Knowing that this game was brand new to everyone in the class room I knew that the students were going to need to give  a lot of  effective feedback throughout the entire class.  

Gut 
Going into this I was very nervous. I am not one that likes working with a group and I had no knowledge of this game.Upon doing some research I became even more nervous because I saw that foot eye coordination and kicking were the two most important skills of this game, and I severely lack in those areas. Having to teach something that I am not good at made me very nervous. My nerves were quickly calmed though thanks to my group. After receiving the assignment we got together and talked about it and were very vocal about our concerns and instantly started throwing out ideas. Getting together with the group a lot and coming up with cues helped me improve on those skills so that when I had to demonstrate I could do so confidently. With out the group I don't think I would have been able to do that. Heading into the class we had to teach I was very excited and I knew we had a good lesson to teach because of how great we worked together as a group. This assignment really has changed my opinion on working with a group. before I hated it, but now I realize how important it is as a teacher because there will be times where I will not have the best knowledge of a game or skill to teach my students, so I will have to look for help from others in order to bring the best PE class to my students. 

Me and Mr.Raucci talking something over

So What?

Being able to observe the students play other games that required them to use hand eye coordination and kicking played a huge role in how we structured our class. We saw that all the students were decent at those skills, so instead of teaching them those skills over again we structured our lesson so that they would be allowed a chance to practice those skills and then added more on top of it to make them even better. Our first task was when we gave the students a chance to practice those skills to just refresh them on how to do them. Our second and third skills made it a little harder because they were more specific to our sport. Doing our lesson this way helped our students learn and apply the skills very effecivly. Changing up what we were teaching kept the students engaged in the class and active because they didnt spend all their time doing the same thing over and over again. This is important because you want the students to learn the skills and practice them while be active as much as possible, and if they are bored they tend to become less active. Throwing in a game at the end of the class was an effective way of letting the students practice what they just learned and figure out when is the appropriate time to do a certain kick. Another effective thing we did was that we made adaptations in the game play. We used a lighter bigger ball than you would normally use in a real game of Nohejball. This is important for the students because it slows the game down and makes it easier for them to be successful. This is important because no student wants to play a game that they are not good at, no matter if its something brand new to them or not, if the game is to hard and they are not good at it there is a chance the student will become uninterested in the class and stop trying. Making the game easier, like we did, made it so the students would remain active because they were being successful while doing it. Once we saw that the students were able to play the game with no problem, with the easier ball, we made it harder for the students by giving them a smaller ball to play with. This was important because it kept the students challenged if students think something is to easy they could become bored with the class and not try anymore. The smaller the ball the harder it is to kick the new ball being introduced in the game kept the students active and challenge. The other adaptation we put in was that they had to use all three of the allowed hits. This was important because it forced the students to play the game correctly. Normally in a game like this students would just hit the ball over the net with out using all of the hits or effective teamwork. Forcing them to use all of the hits, by saying they do not score a point unless they use all three, forces them to work as a team and to play the game correctly. The most important thing I did throughout our lesson was provided a lot of feedback. Knowing that this game and some of the skills were new to the students I knew that I was going to have to pay close attention to the students and provide a lot of feedback. Feedback is information learners receive about their performance (Rink, Pg 139). Most of the feedback I gave was specific corrective feedback. Specific corrective feedback gives the learner information on what to do or what not to do in future performances (Rink pg. 140). When giving corrective feedback I made sure to sandwich it between positive feedback to highlight what they did right as well as give them an area to work on to improve. This is important for student learning because no student wants to be consistently told what they are doing wrong, and really enjoy it when they are told what they are doing right. If I was giving just corrective feedback highlighting just the negatives students could become discouraged and end up not trying or giving up. Structuring the feedback the way I did made it so students could feel good about themselves that they are doing somethings right, but also understand what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. 

So what? 

After observing the students playing a full game of nohejbal I saw the the students were able to pick up this game very quickly. The next step I would take in this class is to teach them more strategies on how to play the game to make their game play that much better. All of the first class was geared towards offensive game play, I would begin teaching them the defensive side of the game.  I would also begin allowing them to use a soccer ball, which is normally used to play a game of Nohejbal. Another thing I would do is incorporate communication into my lesson plan and give them points towards their grade for good communication. During the first lesson I observed that students who used good communication were more successful than those who weren't. I made the adjustment during class and brought it to the attention of the students, but for my next lesson I would stress it even more making sure that the students fully understand how important it is.  

Give good Feedback to joe

Giving Feedback to Katie and Bri

Reflection 
Coming into this class I was very confident of my teaching skills. Prior to coming to Cortland I had coached multiple teams and thought that I was already a great teacher because of that. Boy was I wrong. Teaching and coaching, although somewhat similar, are very different. Coaching you only have to know one sport, teaching a PE class requires you to be knowledgeable in multiple sports and activities. Also coaching is easy because for the most part all the kids want to be there and I didnt have to worry about making sure they kids were engaged and active. PE class is required, so some students might not want to be there so its up to me to motivate them to participate and be active. I also learned the importance of preparing, The first lab, Lab A, I didn't prepare much, I thought I could just walk in and do a lesson with no problem. Preparation is key for a teacher and I learned that this year, you have to prepare everything from time management, to equipment to what you are teaching that day and unit its very important to have that ready ahead of time. I notice a lot of great improvements in my teaching throughout the year. In Lab A i stuttered and stammered with a lot words because I was not prepared and was trying to speak off the top of my head instead of having something ready to go. This effects the students because I was not completely clear on what I wanted them to do. Another thing I did in Lab A that was not good, and that I improved on a lot was addressing the class as guys. In lab A  I said guys a lot. Doing that could make the girls in the class not pay attention because they don't think I am talking to them because well they are not guys. It is important when addressing the class as a whole to not say anything that could give the students a chance to not pay attention. In Lab B I did not provide much feedback at all if any. This is something I did extremely well in Lab c and Lab D. When I did give feedback in Lab B it was mostly general feedback like telling the students good job. Telling a student good job does not provide them with proper feedback. Its necessary to tell them why what they were doing was good. I Provided great feedback in my labs C and D after seeing how poorly I was at doing so in my previous labs. This class has improved my teaching in many areas, but the ones I listed seem to be the most important to me. Being prepared, addressing the class approtielty and providing feedback are very important in teaching a class. 

How I started.Lab A 

How I Finished with Lab D