Anthony Zeppieri Lab B: Dancing

What:  The topic I had for Lab B was Dance.  I didn't know what to do when I was first assigned this topic because I really don't know much with this.  Once I got the references I saw a disco style dance so I thought to myself that this could be a fun and a little challenging topic.  I saw this dance in the packet and the songs that went along with it and I knew I could definitely do this topic.  I started the class off with an instant activity that had the students do karaoke, shuffles, high knees, and back pedals.  This got their legs lose and got them use to using their legs and feet before the lesson started.  I also had them stop on my whistle and do grab the apple put it in the bag, cast the fishing pole, or raise the roof.  This was fun to do because in disco they had some crazy dances so I wanted them to have a little fun with the instant activity instead of just running around.  My main goal for the class was to be able to perform the little dance I had for them with good rhythm to the song being played.  I think I did a good job at showing the cues by doing the dance in whole first and then breaking each of the four parts.  This allowed the students to grasp what I was asking from them.  Also, after each part I showed I had the class add it to the previous step I had them work on.  This I think benefited them because they got repetition on the steps so it was a little easier to remember.

Gut:  How I felt about my lab was nervous and somewhat satisfied.  I was somewhat satisfied because going into this I really didn't think or know how I was going to do and how the class would have reacted to my lesson.  While doing it I gained a little more confidence because I noticed that I wasn't doing so bad.  I saw the classes reactions to what I was explaining and if they didn't understand something they asked a question.  I was nervous throughout the whole thing I can't lie about that.  I kept catching myself messing up little things and I was trying to not show that I messed up, so all of that was just making my heart race.  So points I would let me nerves take over for a little, but then I would take a deep breath and regain composure real quick.  I am also upset at myself because I forgot to do my hook in the beginning and I also forgot my questions for the end.  This to me makes me look unprepared because I had to say "um" and look up or down while thinking of what to say.  I also didn't provide in depth feedback, I would either just say good job, or something along those lines.  Going through my video I got mad at myself because I said "guys" again way to many times.  I knew I had to focus on that too, but my nerves I guess put that in the back of my head and made me think it was the last thing to worry about.

So What:  During my lesson I wanted the class to be able to do the steps without messing up.  I wanted to do this without having to explain myself to much and having the class being active for more than half the class time.  I wasn't able to do this, I had the class listening to instructions and going over the cues for more than half the class and had the class being active for a little under 45% of the time.  I knew from the pre-assessment that only a couple of people in the class were high skilled in dancing and the rest were either medium with little practice or low skilled.  I did the dance I did because it wasn't really to difficult to do, but putting the pieces together might have been hard for a couple of people.  I really haven't had much experience with doing dance for a lesson because I never took a class for it.  My thing I worried about was how could I modify it for someone that was struggling and I was only able to think of doing it without music, doing it a little slower, and doing it all in unison so people can get used to the steps.  I don't know if that was effective, but I saw that the people struggling were doing a little better.  So once that happened I knew time was a big factor so when I saw at least 4 of the 6 people in the class doing it without a problem I continued.  To me I felt like I needed to move on because I knew we were repeating the steps again so hopefully if a student was struggling they would pick it up after doing it again.  I didn't want to stay on one part to long because I didn't want the people who were getting it without a problem to get bored and not be into it anymore.

Now What:  Thankfully Lab B was a warm up for the other labs like how Lab A was.  I was able to get more practice and had more time to get out all my bad tendencies.  I really need to work on not saying guys because it isn't fair to the girls in the class.  I'm leaving them out when I say guys and I need to start working in saying guys and girls especially if I can't stop saying guys.  I think I did a pretty good job explaining my ques, so that I will try and to bring into Lab C.  I need to calm myself down more before I start so I can have a clear mind and not forget what I want to say to my students.  For Lab C I will have to change how I spread out the class because working with the whole class I have to be able to see everyone.  I need to work on giving better feedback to others and recognizing a lower skilled student.  Another thing I have to include is a better safety statement.  I really only said just watch the people around you which might not be elaborate enough for some people.

      

Here I am performing the "roll the dough" part of the dance with the rest of the class.

Click here to watch my video of Lab B, enjoy!

Dylan Everleth Lab B Track and Field

Dylan Everleth Lab B- Track and Field

WHAT:
For lab B my instant activity was "Rock, Paper, Scissors." The reason I decided to choose this activity was to get students involved with an activity that could give them a sense of competition. My focus for this lab was "shot put" and to me, this activity doesn't involve a lot of competition. I felt that when students are put in a situation, they tend to perform at a higher level. What better reason than to add competition to the warm-up. In the activity, students would compete in a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" and whoever won, would choose an exercise to perform and get warmed up. The winner would move on to a new student and the loser would stay and wait for the next challenger. I felt I did a good job at incorporating an activity that could give the students a sense of competition even though the particular focus for the day did not. I felt that I did a good job and giving positive feedback to the students and I also felt that I was very knowledgeable in the unit I was teaching. Although I was very nervous coming into the lesson, I felt that I was a lot more comfortable in front of the class and I felt that I projected my voice much better than in the previous lab.

GUT:
When I came into lab, I still felt nervous. I had learned a lot from Lab A but Lab B was much longer and the addition of transitions, demonstration, and feedback had me nervous that I would fail. As I started the class, I did everything that I had planned out ahead of time. Once the activities started, I was very caught up in giving feedback to the students because I felt it was one of the most important things about teaching. As I began giving feedback, I noticed that I was only giving compliments. As the lesson continued, I started to panic. As I was giving great feedback, but I couldn't come up with any type of feedback to help the students improve. To me, positive feedback is important, but corrective feedback is what helps them improve. Without correcting and helping students to achieve perfection, they will continue to demonstrate bad practice. When I look back at this, I feel that it was something that could be easily fixed. As a teacher, I was giving every other type of feedback and I was very knowledgeable in what I was teaching. I had all the right pieces but I just need to put these together and help the students be great.

SO WHAT:
Being a prepared teacher and actually looking into depth and breaking down the students skills is very important when trying to give corrective feedback. Its very important to come into the lesson knowing exactly what your going to be teaching and knowing exactly what goals you want your students to shoot for. When you can do this, you will be able to see what students excel in and what the need to improve on. As stated in the text, "Concern for quality of student performance can be exhibited by teacher feedback to the class or individual students about how they are performing." (Rink 2010 P84) This is important because it also shows the students that you are here to make them better. As a teacher, you want your students to know that you are here to make them as great as they can be. This will give them confidence in what they do knowing that you will help guide them in the right direction. I think that by providing students with a higher difficulty task to challenge the students, it will help identify some of the weaknesses that students need to focus on and help with providing more corrective feedback.

NOW WHAT:
For my next lab I am going to really challenge my students. I think that a big problem with some physical education classes is that teachers don't challenge students enough based on their age or ability. High school students should really be challenged in class. Most students are already proficient in basic skills which makes giving feedback that much harder when they are doing a simple task. For the next lab I am really going to put the students into a task situation that may help uncover what areas the students need to work on and help me with giving better corrective feedback. I think that giving the right feedback is one of the most challenging things with teaching and it may  not come easy right away. I believe that if I keep trying to improve on it each and every time I teach, then I will get to where I was to be as a teacher.

Here I am explaining to instant activity for the day!

In this photo, I am demonstrating the first cue for 

throwing a shot put. "Tight to the chin!"

Here I am teaching my Lab B. Feel free to leave me any feedback, as it will be greatly appreciated!

Gideon Raucci Aerobic Kickboxing Lab B

What?  I started with an Instant Activity for the students to get loosened up.  Already I played music and got the students to do Aerobic Kickboxing with me.  I planned to give the students a little taste of all the basic moves that were going to be taught later on in Lab C.  After the Instant Activity, I offered students the knowledge of what target heart rate zone they should aim for based on their age and to be at a 85% activity level.  Then I went on to teach them the 4 cues.  The Double Jab, Punch, Low Kick, and Front Kick.  From there we made combinations.  Double Jab then a Punch.  Next Combo was Double Jab then a Punch and then a Low Kick.  After that, the students demonstrated a Double Jab, then a Punch and then a Front Kick.  Students understood the cues pretty well, its just that all of them had to be reminded of the little nitty gritty specific movements that had to be done while executing the full move.  When they were told to switch sides, some had to be more so reminded on the specific movements to execute the full move.  Then we played the music again and used all the moves and combos that were taught in class.  After that, students recorded their heart rate for week one.  Next time they come to class, they'll record in class for week two and see the differences between week one and two for their heart rate.  I believe students had a lot of fun with this.  I think the activity itself just demands a lot of energy and fun so it doesn't make me worry about that.  

Gut?  Just like Lab A, I always am willing to give unconditional energy into this activity.  I energy I bring out gives almost an adrenaline rush like I'm ready for a competitive game.  I felt prepared, happy for the most part, and wanted to bring joy to the students.  Until I had a music malfunction, then I veered off from being professional.  I practiced so much how things were gonna work out, when the music malfunction I froze and lost a lot of control.  I let the music really control my rhythm of things.  My timing, the moves I wanted to execute, even just my thought pattern of what we were going to do next.  I practiced to the point where I wasn't thinking of the transition to make, but this time I did.  In Maslow's Law, I felt I was more focused on my survival mode for myself rather than still being in that creative giving mode, to offer my creativity to the students.  Students wanted to help me out on forgetting about the music and just keep on going which I was grateful for but then I started to feel a bit embarrassed.  Even though Aerobic Kickboxing is a very fun activity in it of itself, I felt that out of my immaturity, I didn't give good enough feedback or payed attention to my students enough compared to how I should.  This humbly brings me to emotionally and mentally prepare for Lab C, for what ever happens, I should always be calm, cool, and collected with times like this challenges me.

SoWhat?  The point of this lesson is to offer a perspective or an opportunity that students can do another different activity helping their cardiovascular endurance rather than the normal running or walking.  And also for them to learn how to defend themselves if they were ever cornered in a real fight.  I had a lot of confidence in myself to teach the moves specifically how it should be executed.  Once it came to that malfunction, I resorted to thinking too much on what I needed to do rather than what the students needed help on.  I need to give more accurate constructive feedback whether students are doing well or not, that way they know why they were doing something wrong or doing something right.  I should also find something to compliment the class on what they have all been successful on so everyone could feel secure as a bonding unit.  

NowWhat?  For this upcoming Lab C, I would be more mentally and emotionally prepared for anything that happens.  The music that I choose will not be online anymore.  I would have to burn a disc and put it in my laptop, that way a malfunction doesn't happen again.  Also for the transitioning from Instant Activity to teaching to playing will be a lot smoother than what I did on Lab B.  I will remind the class what moves they have learned, execute them, then learn different moves and combos for next class. Watch my video above

Anthony Piscitello Table Tennis Lab B

What?: My topic for Lab B was Table Tennis. I started the lab with an instant activity to help warm up the students legs and shoulders. Having limber legs and shoulders are essential when playing table tennis. After the instant activity I began demonstrating how to bounce the ping pong ball on the racquet with control. This is only step one to my progression of table tennis, because like anything else it is important to build from the bottom up. The next demonstration was very similar except it involved a rotation of the wrist in order to alternate hitting the ball from forehand to backhand. I thought the number twenty was an appropriate number to challenge the students because not many students selected the highly skilled section. The progression continued to progress as I demonstrated the four important cues and how to properly hit the ball against the wall on a single bounce while maintaining control. For the most part, the students were able to grasp the concept and if they had some difficulties then I was there to give some positive and constructive feedback. The fourth demonstration allowed the students to hit the ball off the table and against the wall and this began to pose a threat to the low skilled students. To their credit, the tables that were being used did have a dead spot in the middle of the table but it was good to see them giving a good effort. The last activity was teamwork oriented and allowed the students to partner up and hit the ball back and forth along the table and challenge themselves to see how many volleys they could complete. Even though Lab B was fifteen minutes long, it did feel like it ran a lot smoother then Lab A. I thought that my eye contact and confidence was significantly better but can definitely still improve. 

Gut: During Lab A I was incredibly nervous and jittery even though it was only one minute long. My words were jumbled, I repeated "guys", and overall I felt very unprepared to teach my peers. Lab B did not pose as much of threat to me because I knew that I could talk in front of my peers as long as I relax and have fun with the activity. Also the more time that we spent in the classroom going over all of the worksheets and learning how to write a lesson plan made it much easier to do. The lesson plan provided me with a perfect guideline and solid expectations. I was more worried with the students enjoying the lesson rather than the presentation. It is easy to lose the attention of students when you are progressing step by step and that is why I tried to keep the students active for the majority of the time. My comfort level continues to grow the more that I am in front of my peers.

So What?: The main purpose of my lesson plan was to establish the basics and make sure that all of the students understood the importance of control. I knew that the students would be able to handle the tasks that I provided for them because of the Pre-assessment chart. The fact that every student has participated in table tennis made it very easy to run my lesson. I had a general idea for my time management that correlated with each activity but I adjusted them with the class on the fly. Once I noticed that all of the students were grasping the concepts and understood the cues clearly I knew it was time to move on to the next demonstration. I thought that I did a good job of keeping my students active for the majority of the time and interested in the topic. Another thing that I thought that I did well was giving constructive and positive feedback. I tried to avoid being general and tried to give my students specifics so that they could adjust appropriately in order to gain some more knowledge of the sport. I could definitely come up with some more challenging objectives for the more advanced students when Lab C approaches. 

Now What?: At the conclusion of Lab B I felt relieved and somewhat satisfied. I know that it was not my best work but I am confident that I will continue to positively progress. I thought that the best aspect of my lab was my ability to distinguish between the low and high skilled students and give positive and constructive feedback. I need to stop using the term "guys" when I teach, it is a tough habit to break but I am determined to avoid saying it during Lab C. The ability to watch my Lab B multiple times has opened my eyes and showed me some minor flaws that I can adjust for next time. I thought that my organization was pretty good for being in the gym but the ability to teach on the racquet ball courts will make Lab C easier. I am looking forward to reviewing my TA assessment and preparing a better lesson for Lab C.

           This is me encouraging my students to make contact at the highest point of their reach.

This is me teaching in Lab B. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Katie Lupo Lab B: Aerobics

What: For my lab B my instant activity was called "The Luck of the Draw" this game was all about having fun while getting the boys heart rate up. I started off by getting them into two different groups. I then explained to them that I had a deck of cards laid out on the other side of the gym with an exercise written on each. One at a time, one person from each team had to high skip down grab a card and high skip back. As a team they had to do as many exercises as the card said to do. If they picked an king, queen, or a jack those were all 10 exercises and aces were 11. Whoever had the most cards at the end won the race. Having the boys all do exercises before the lesson got them warmed up and ready to go. The next thing that I did was brought them over to the three cues that I had made up. I explained that there were all kinds of different aerobic exercises that are out there like step and dance. I chose to do dance aerobics because I thought it would be a fun activity that really gets you out of your comfort zone. I taught them two different dance steps, the mambo and the grapevine. When I say that many of the students had said that they have never done any kind of step aerobics so I didn't want to make it hard on them. I really wanted to hook them in when I asked about what the benefits of dance aerobics was. Some benefits are that it is extremely cheap, you get a high intensity work out when you do a full routine, and you can really find classes everywhere for this activity. While I was teaching them most of the boys picked up the steps fairly quickly so I didn't challenge them as much as I should have. I had them get with a partner to see if they could nail the steps together at the same time. I do wish that I made them get back into their groups of three and made them work on it that way as well. I tried making sure I showed them different angles of the steps so they could see how it looks at each one.  After they were taught both steps we had a little routine that put the two steps together. As a group we worked on the little routine and they all were so good I should've put in another step. I ended earlier than I wanted to but I brought them all back in and asked what the two dance steps we learned and also asked them to describe each one. 

GUT: While I was setting up I was so nervous I was shaking and all I could think about was how I didn't want to forget anything. I kept trying to tell myself that I need to just stay confident and I'll be fine. I got them into their instant activity and after I was done realized that when you do any kind of relay race you have to still have everyone moving and that was the one thing that I forgot. While one person went down to get a card I was suppose to have the rest of the guys jogging in place until the teammate got there. This made me really angry, I felt like I was just trying so hard not to forget anything that I ended up forgetting a lot of important things. After this point I felt like I had pretty good control over the class. I was proud of the way that I explained the steps and how I showed my students the steps. There was one point when I got really nervous and that was when I realized that the class was definitely very skilled at the steps that I taught, I knew I didn't have anything else planned so I did the only thing that came to mind and that was to grab my phone and do the routine to the song. I didn't feel like this was my best lesson. Teaching aerobics is something that I really never want to teach again, it is hard when you know nothing about the subject and I think that's why I was so nervous. 

So What: In the lesson I really wanted the class to perfect the steps that I had chosen. Before I taught I really didn't think I was going to have enough time to finish all that I had planned because I really didn't think that the class was going to perfect the routine as fast as they did. In a way I could be somewhat proud because maybe that means that I taught the routine well, but I definitely should've had a plan B just in case. I don't think I challenged that boys as much as I could've. Teaching step aerobics was just really hard for me to do. It's not only hard to come up with a routine myself, but I was really hard for me to think of how I could modify the steps. When someone was having trouble I just did it with them in slow motion that was really the only thing that I could think about doing. When they nailed the steps all I could think of making them do the steps with a partner at the same time. 

Now What: For the Lab C I really need to learn from what I did with lab B. I need to continue to go into it with a clear mind but also try to better prepare myself even more than I did. I need to have a plan B if something happens like they perfect the moves that I wanted them to do. Maybe teach myself 3 more moves than I plan to do so when I finish early like I did for lab B I can incorporate those moves with the others. I also learned a lot about managing my time. There was so much I wanted to do in lab B but I didn't think I'd have time to fit it all in so I took a lot out. Next time I should go through and pretend that I'm teaching and actually time myself that way I can plan if I need to add stuff or take things out. For lab C I am also going to read a lot more things on water aerobics by doing that I hope to gain a lot more confidence.

Here is a picture of me showing the cues.

WATCH MY VIDEO

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

Andrew Billups Lab B- Badminton

Lab B- Badminton

What?

The topic I had for Lab B was Badminton. At first I was not sure at all for what I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure if I wanted go over serves or regular game play. Then I thought back to when I took racket activities with professor Fuchs. I remember him first going over the serve and teaching it step by step. You can’t play a game of badminton with out being able to serve so I felt I should also start my lesson with that. The instant activity I used was just to get the students used to how hard and how soft they need to hit the birdie. After that I went into teaching the forehand serve. After teaching the cues and demonstrating each step I had the students practice there hits into designated targets I repeated these steps for the backhand serve. For the last activity I had the students get into groups and see how many times they could get points by hitting the hula hoops with the birdies. After teaching lab A this was much easier and less nerve racking. I felt much more confident and more focused.

Gut

During Lab A I was very nervous I felt that I was slipping with my words and also wasn’t able to stand still. Going into lab B I was nervous the same thing was going to happen. The night before classes I was extremely nervous. I was nervous that I would struggle with the same tasks that I struggled with the in the last lab. A problem I noticed I have is over thinking things. Once I started teaching for lab B all of the nervous jitters that I had in lab A went away. I was also nervous that the “students” would not be interested at all and not want to participate in the activities I had. Building my lesson plan I was constantly changing my plans and ideas of what I wanted to do. This ended up making me think I wasn’t prepared , which again only made me more nervous. Like I said the longer and the more I taught the more comfortable I got.

So What?

As I watched my video what I noticed is that students where not as active as I hoped. 31.1% of my time was spent on management. 28.9% was activity time. 30% instruction time, and 10% wait time. So one of the main things I need to work on is talking and explain less and letting the students play and practice the skills I taught. Also after watching the video of me teaching I see that my feedback to many of the students was extremely “general” (rink,140). I need to work being more specific with my feedback and going over specific tasks that a student is struggling with. I also need to work on my class feedback. I only gave class feedback one time throughout the whole lesson, which is something that I need to change the more that I teach. Also after watching the video I noticed the tasks I chose were very simple. The students needed more of a challenge and more tasks that would really make them work to get better. Although some students were hitting the targets with ease there were some that struggled so I need to make sure I make activities that effectively entertain low skilled, medium skill and high skilled students.

Now What?

Lab B, just like Lab A was a tool that will help me improve. I know now going into lab C the things that need to be changed. I need to make activities more difficult and really challenge the students to work harder. I also need to get straight to the point when explaining my cues so there is much more activity time for the students. The word guys still slips every once and while and I really need to work on that because it is not fare to the females in the class if they are constantly referred to as guys. Lab C I want to come in focused and not nervous, have great activities and engage all of the students for the maximum amount of time.

Demonstrating the importance of a good follow through

Here is my lab B video

Lab B- Brianna Musselman Volleyball

What?  
My topic for lab B was Volleyball.  The first thing that came to my mind was, "This is going to be great." I have played volleyball during physical education class over the years in high school and middle school. Also had it as a unit for Team Sport Methods freshman year, and one of my best friends is a volleyball coach, so I had someone to turn to for some advice in the sport who is more experienced than myself.  I believed that this topic would not be too difficult to teach, since I have more experience with Volleyball compared to my Lab A topic which was inline skating.  I started the class off with an instant activity called, the wave drill.  It kept everyone involved and moving all at once, was simple, and had to do with the sport of volleyball.  Not only did it involve movement, but I also added in communication, when I yelled out "ball is coming" the class was to respond with "got ball".  This was added because it is very important in the sport of volleyball, and got the class to work on their communication skills, which is part of the affective domain.  After the instant activity, we went through the cues of the forearm pass which was our focus of the lesson, then did two other drills to work on the forearm pass.  According to the pre-assessment data, all of the students were either medium or high skilled.  This being said I tried my best to make it challenging, but think I could have done a better job with it, by focusing on a harder skill like the serve or making the task more complex.

Gut
During the day before I had to teach I was feeling pretty confident, and ready to teach.  Then when I got to the gym the nerves hit me, even though I was prepared and knew what I was going to do throughout the lesson.  During the lesson it appeared to me that the students did not seem that excited about the topic and the focus.  Yet they all participated and did well with the skills.  While speaking to the class, I felt more confident than I did during Lab A.  I believe that confidence is key, having confidence will make the lesson and teaching become more natural.  Not having to worry about forgetting what to say, or stuttering my words makes it harder for the class to understand, which can lead to frustration of both myself and the class.  Knowing that I had 15 minutes to teach my lesson, I was afraid that I would run over time, but it ended up that I was short on time.  As the class finished up the second activity, I looked at the timer and I still had a lot of time to teach.  With the time that was left it was too much just to end there with my closing, so I quickly added another activity for my students.  Even though I felt nervous about the time, I gained back my confidence by adding one last activity for my students.  Felt proud of myself that I was able to think of something that was easy to explain, simple, and had everyone involved. After teaching Lab B I felt confident and proud of myself.  I did also feel worried because I believe that the tasks I had my students do were not challenging enough.  Now I know for next time to change things up and offer more of a challenge for my students.

So What?
While the students were performing the drills, I walked around the gym and gave feedback to my students.  After reviewing my video I noticed that while giving feedback to my students, I went right to what they should be doing instead of how to fix their mistakes.  According to the text "Teachers will often couple evaluative and corrective feedback together, such as, 'You really got your feet into position that time; now let's try and follow through on your stroke'. In the first part of the feedback, the teacher was making a judgement about previous performance, and in the second part of the feedback statement, the teacher was giving the student information on how to correct the future performance" (Rink 140).  Comparing my way of giving feedback to what Rink has in the book was different, instead of judging what they did previously I went right to what they should be doing for the future. I need to be more positive first when giving feedback, instead of showing them what they should be doing.  During the first activity, bumping with a partner I noticed that two of the groups were not having much of a challenge with the bump.  So I added in that their partner was to throw the ball away from them so they were to move to the ball to get under it, and they were more challenged.  According to Rink this was an example of "Changing and modifying tasks for individuals and small groups" (144). "Extend the task laterally (another way to practice the same task at the same level of difficulty) for individual students. " (145).  I sort of figured while writing my lesson plan that I would need to make it more challenging to students as they were getting the hang of the drill, especially because volleyball is a very popular sport and most of the students in my class were either high or medium skilled.  I also was looking out for those who were performing as a "low skilled student" because on Monday when I was a student and Hannah was teaching I was told by Dr. B to perform as low skilled so there was variety of skill among the class.  So with that in mind, I made sure I paid close attention to those students who were having difficulty and made changed things up for them to be more successful.  It is important that as a teacher you can accommodate all students, whether they are low medium or high skilled.

Now What?
Now for Lab C I know what I need to change in order to be more successful.  I believe that I can still speak more clearly, and in order to improve on this I must practice it as an everyday thing while talking with my peers.  Also I need to work on my time management, since I had extra time, for my Lab C lesson plan I might have to add in another drill so that I do not have that extra time.  And if I don't have time to do that extra activity at least I will be prepared with something instead of having to come up with an activity in the heat of the moment.  I also should challenge my students more since they all seemed to be doing well with the forearm pass.  Like Dr. B said, we are teaching 12th grade, and I do believe that my lesson was more of a middle school lesson and too basic for high schoolers.  They did not seem that thrilled with what we were doing.  For Lab C I will make sure that there is game play involved and that I make things more interesting and fun!

                       Here I am explaining the cues for the Forearm pass to my students

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Lab B Abbie Adams-HIIT

What-  When Dr. B first told me I was doing HIIT I had to think if I ever knew what this was.  After a few minutes I knew it stood for High Intensity Interval Training.  This seemed pretty intimidating.  My first time teaching an actual lesson and I was doing something I have barely heard of?  So, I asked around and looked through my resources I was given.  Wait I thought.  I do this everyday.  I'm on the Hockey team hear and like any other athletic team we train everyday and do stuff like this a lot.  This made me feel a little better.  So I collected a series of my favorite cardio and strength exercises and make stations.  After looking online I knew that I was working with some pretty high skilled students.  My goal was to have everyone get the best workout they could in the time allowed and burn a lot of calories.  I learned that as a teacher it is hard to rotate to all your students when you have 7 different people doing 6 different thing.  Also, it is hard to keep track of time.  My plan was to do each exercise for 30 seconds then rotate.  However, I did not have time to look at the clock to see when it was time to switch so I used my best judgment.

Gut:  I had a mix of emotions going on through my head the day of teaching.  I felt nervous, excited, confident.  I felt nervous because I have never made an exercise routine for anyone other than myself before.  I kept thinking in my head if this was going to challenge the students enough or be too difficult.  Its like my Coach always says, "I play on the line on how hard I can push you".  It was also nerve racking that I was the first person to go on the first day.  I felt nervous because I wanted to set a good example for what others in the class were supposed to do.  I felt excited about this lesson because it is a topic that I found out that I love.  I was excited because I could see myself teaching in the future in front of a high school class.  I also felt confident in my preparation.  I had good equipment and a good lesson.  I knew that this was going to push my students to do there best and I was happy that it did.  Overall I am happy about my performance in Lab B.  After watching the video I could tell that I was nervous but was happy in my overall lesson because my students learned something and stayed active the majority of the time. 

So What?  I knew from the pre-assessment that the majority of my students were either medium or high skilled in HIIT.  From knowing my students I assumed that the majority have trained in this way before even if they didn't realize they had.  When first organizing I knew I want the highest amount of repetitions in a number of different skills for the longest time.  I knew I would have a group of either 6 or 7 students so I arranged 6 different stations.  The fist rotation of 6 was focusing on mainly legs doing a cardio exercise followed by a strength exercise for about 30 seconds.  I arranged the space in a circle so it would allow me to see everyone quickly when I positioned myself in the middle.  I used hula hoops to store extra equipment and task cards for safety reasons.  And I had students rotate in a circle so there would be no collisions.  On the task cards I wrote out how to perform the skill and on the bottom I wrote how to make the skill easier and harder so the individual could challenge themselves by choice.  When giving feedback to my students I tried to correct their from without discouraging them.  For example I would say "Good job, just make sure you're keeping your trunk nice and straight".  I would try to look at every student before I blew the whistle to switch.  I felt I changed my position as a teacher nicely by walking around within the circle.  But, using another angle could have been helpful as well.  From the feedback perspective I used too many good jobs instead of being specific.  I was thrown a curve ball when John asked to go get a drink.  According to the text, "The ideal situation is to have students leave and take care of these needs without having to request permission of the teacher".  When John asked I said yes and he had one minute.  Knowing my student would have been helpful in this situation because I could develop a trust with them throughout time. 

Now What?  Now that Lab B is over I have a few things to think about.  I am happy with Lab B but I know I can improve.  I want to try to look at the students skills from different angles so I can provide better feedback.  I also want to work on providing more specific feedback to my students.  Using more names would be helpful in this.  Now that I know it is very hard to keep track of time especially in stations I want to bring some kind of music that stops every 30 seconds and pauses to let the students get to their spots and get ready to do the next exercise.  I really want to emphasis challenging advanced students and making harder skills easier for no so advanced student verbally.  Having them written on the card is nice but verbal communication is key.  After watching my video several times I realized I said guys quite a few times.  I want to delete that word from my vocabulary and I also would like to slim down on the word "so".  I want to come to Lab C even more confident and prepared than I did for lab B.  I'm excited to teach the whole class!!

                                                         Here's me teaching Lab B =-)


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Lab B Clayton Cross- Tabata

What?- For Lab B I had teach something I had never heard of before. I was pretty worried at first. All I could think of was, “How am I supposed to teach something that I have no idea what it is.” I then had to research my topic; Tabata. I learned that Tabata is usually eight intervals of high intensity workouts but only last about 20 secs for each one. It helps increase the heart rate quickly by being an aerobic and anaerobic exercise. In my Lab B, I had the students do pushups, jumping on and off of stepping boxes, kettlebell thrusts, and jumping over cones from side to side. I knew that most of the class was low skilled so I didn’t have them go the full 110% expected for high skilled tabata users. My goal was for the students to learn how the intervals worked and some activities you could use for intervals. I would eventually want them all to be able to say that they are high skilled at Tabata by the end of the lesson.

Gut?- I was nervous to teach this time around because it was something that I had just learned myself. Usually you teach something you know, but there are those times where you have challenges and have to move around them. “There is not a direct relationship between the ability to do something and the ability to teach something,” (Rink 41). I felt like I was prepared but also not prepared at the same time. I knew what I was going to do but not really execute it. Next time I definitely need to make sure that I am planned out all the way through the lesson. This is the reason why my confidence was lower than it should have. If I don’t have high confidence then the students probably won’t respect me and not follow directions and listen to me. They could also just have a hard time learning from me. I also kept saying “guys”. Saying that word for an entire group is just so natural, that I don’t catch myself saying the word, but catching myself saying words like everyone or all of you. I need to remember my mistakes, and know what not to do for next time.

                                           Here I am teaching the 12th grade students Tabata.



So What?- The lesson for Lab B was Tabata. From the pre-assessment I knew that most of the class had either never heard of tabata or was low skilled. I was able to modify my lesson plan so it would be easier for the students to follow along. I used easy activities for the intervals; ones that 12th graders would know how to do. I also had the students go at about 80% instead of the usual 110%. Knowing where your students are level wise for an activity is important. You don’t want to be teaching a lesson for low skilled students at a high skilled level. The ability to change around your lesson plan because of pre-assessment is great to have. Giving feedback to students is so important for their learning. Corrective feedback allows them to correct what they may be doing wrong and positive feedback allows the student to recognize that they are either doing better or just doing well.

Now What?- In Lab B I wasn’t the most prepared. Once I figure out what I’ll be going for my lesson, I should really expand on it and make sure how I’m going to execute it. The more precise I am with my lesson plan the smoother the lesson will be. I was able to manage my time pretty well with the lesson plan though. I was doing well with not saying guys, but then about mid way through the lesson I began to say it quite a bit. I need to keep working on that. Language is key to professionalism.





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