Anthony Zeppieri - Lab D - Cuju

Lab D - CUJU

What-  My teaching group and I had the ancient Chinese game called Cuju.  This game is considered the origins of modern day soccer.  When I found out this was our topic I really wasn't the most thrilled person in the world.  I knew the game was mostly about juggling a ball with a team and trying to shoot it in a goal which I knew was going to be hard for most of the students in the class.  When we choose each section to teach I choose to do the instant activity and the first activity. This really wasn't to hard for me to figure out because I knew I had to start the class off with some type of juggling drill so the students can practice it for further game play.  The main this I wanted the students to get out of my part of the lesson was to be able to juggle a ball using the proper cues.  When I explained the cues I had Hannah demonstrate it because she had past experience with soccer so she was a lot better at juggling then I am.  I gave the class a choice of using a soccer ball, gator skin ball, or a team handball ball during the first activity because I wanted them to have a variety of options to practice juggling with so they could feel more comfortable with a skill they might not be to great at.  During my activity, I handed out a mark up sheet for the class to write down how many times they successfully juggled the ball in a row.  This was for me and the other teachers to see where each student were at so we could know what to do later in the class.  I wanted the students also to be aware of their surroundings because everyone else was doing the same thing and balls could end up flying around the gym, so I wanted them to be careful and to try to control the ball while juggling.

Here I am showing the class the boundaries for my instant activity.

Gut-  Even though my confidence was built up from the other labs I have done, I was still pretty nervous.  I was nervous because I knew we didn't have any help from Dr. B or the TA's, it was all on me and my group.  Also, I was the one starting off the lesson so it was nerve racking because I knew if we got off to a good start it would care on throughout the lesson, but if it went wrong it could have changed the atmosphere for the rest of the lesson.  I was also worried a little bit.  I wasn't worried about our overall lesson and the activities, I was just worried about how the class would react to our game.  It is a very passive and respectful game so it could have seemed boring to the class and I was worried that the class would have been discouraged if they couldn't juggle well enough.  I was very happy though how the other teachers in my group were able to modify the game enough to make it more enjoyable for the class and they seemed to have enjoyed it better when it was modified.

Here are some facts about Cuju and China.  Also a couple of rules for the game of Cuju.

So What-  I planned my lesson to try and make it as simple for the students to understand as I could.  Starting off with a tag game and then having them juggle at least 3 times before having to come back into the game was a good thing because it was a little prerequisite to my next activity with juggling.  I think it was hard for me to really give feedback during my activities because the students were spread out throughout the gym and juggling.  I tried my best to really try and find the people who looked to be struggling the most, even though a majority of the class was struggling to juggle for a high number of times in a row.

Now What-  Now that all labs are finally done, I think overall I built up my skills to be a teacher, but I still have a lot to learn.  I still sometimes forget to do certain things like reiterate a safety statement and to talk about my expectations.  I also really need to work on stopping the class for a teachable moment or to make a modification to the activity because they can be really crucial for the students learning.  Another few things are that I need to be prepared to teach games that I may have never even heard of before, like Cuju, so I can teach it to my students with ease.  And I need talk about classroom behavior more.  I noticed a couple of people during my part kicking the ball without control and it could have made the class a lot more chaotic.

Reflection of Growth:  When we started off with lab A I was extremely nervous.  One was because of the topic I had and two was because I never really taught basically anything.  Anyone could tell easily that I was nervous during this lab because I would struggle to think of exactly what I wanted to say and my body language showed I wasn't all that confident.  Going into lab B I was more confident in the sense that I was more prepared to teach a full dance to a class.  I was still a little nervous, but I learned from lab A that I needed to say certain things so the class could understand me easier.  Lab C I personally think was my best lab.  I was actually confident in myself going into it because I created my own dance and I had a solid game plan going into the lesson.  I was able to portray each step with ease.  I still needed to work on with giving better feedback to the students, but my overall teaching I thought was done well.  I learned a new style in this lab, jigsaw style, and I feel like it worked out well for my lesson even though I could have ended it with the whole class doing the dance instead of the groups performing in front of everyone else.  Lab D was a new challenge for me because of the group teaching.  I learned that working together and communication was a very important thing in building a lesson as a group.  I think as a group we did pretty well even though it was a tough task because of the juggling aspect. I obviously still have much needed improvement as a teacher and I will continue to work hard to improve.

Here I am going over the cues on juggling a soccer ball.

Bri Lab D Gaelic Football

What?
When I found out that my group was teaching Gaelic football I was excited, because the game looked very interesting and seemed like it would be easier to teach than the rest of the games.  In my stats class with Dr. Foley we talked a little bit about Gaelic football, so I knew very little about it from that class.  After watching the game on youtube and researching the rules and how to play the game I was excited to teach, yet nervous since I have never played before.  I was assigned 9th grade part of the lesson.  9th grade being the beginning of the lesson, I was to teach the basics of the game which included passing.  10th grade was then shooting, 11th was soloing and mini game play, and 12th was 6v6 game play.  For our research packet, at first we were all so nervous because of how long the packet was and how much work had to be done especially on a game that most of us never heard of.  We split up the packet by each of us doing our own lesson plans, and then each had different responsibilities to do for the rest of the packet, and at the end we put together our final lesson plan.  Before we taught we revised our lesson plan so that it had more game play in it, instead of the students just doing drills, and then added full game play at the very end.

Gut
While teaching at first I felt a bit nervous, but not as nervous as my previous labs because I was not leading the whole lesson by myself.  Having Katie, Andrew, and Anthony with me made me feel more confident.  Since I taught 9th grade, I felt like my portion of the lesson was a bit boring for the students because it was so basic, so I believe that I could have changed some things to make it more interesting and still allow the students to learn some things.  Gaelic football, has a lot of rules therefore I knew that we had to make sure that all of the rules were explained well so the students understood how to play.  Since there were many rules that made me feel overwhelmed at first with everything that I needed to know, and then be able to explain it to my students.  Even though this was our last lab to teach, I felt like I still need to explains things more clearly in order for my students to understand what is expected of them.  

Here I am with Mr. Billups, explaining to students where Gaelic football originated

So What?
I think my portion of the lesson went well, but could have been better.  I was in charge of the instant activity, and the first activity.  For the instant activity I believe that I explained the directions well and students knew what they were to do.  After the instant activity, I brought the students in and introduced myself and explained what we were doing for the next activity, I also gave them the word of the day which was RESPECT, they were to respect themselves, others, and equipment.   My the first activity, they learned how to do the underhand strike pass and incorporated it into a game of keep away.  After I explained the activity I sent the students off to their groups, but before doing so I should have mentioned safety, so I had to blow my whistle to get their attention and then mention safety expectations to them.   One thing I definitely need to improve on when I teach is giving the students better feedback.  During the lesson students pretty much got the hang of how to hit the ball, therefore it was a bit difficult to give them feedback since they were hitting all of the cues correctly.  In order to provide feedback I could have made the task more challenging.  The feedback I did give to students had to do with them not using the correct pass that they were taught and instead just throwing the ball to their teammates, or they would be running with the ball when they were not instructed to.

Here I am demonstrating the underhand strike pass first without the ball, to show the correct technique 

Now What?
For the future, I think that should work on giving more feedback.  Another thing that I should work on is being more clear with my directions with students.  One way that I can improve on these areas is by practicing what I am going to say before I teach, and rehearse the lesson.  My group did go into the gym the day before the lesson to plan things out, but next time I think I should rehearse my portion of the lesson more.  I also need to think of more ways to challenge my students, during my lesson I believe that students were not being challenged enough and I should have changed up the activity to give them more of a challenge.  Overall, I think that I did a good job teaching, just need to fix some things up.

Lab A-D
At first, when I did lab A I was very, very nervous.  Lab B I felt more confident but still was nervous especially since it was longer than lab A.  Then when I got to Lab C, and I was teaching the whole class by myself I was also nervous.  Then when I got to lab D yes I was nervous but felt better that I had my peers with me teaching.  After teaching each lab I learned many things from each one, what I needed to work on and what I did well with. It being the end of the semester, I have learned a lot from this class and will continue to learn from my mistakes and what I did well while teaching.  After learning all of these things, I will not look at a phys ed class the same way again.  I also am a recreational gymnastics coach, and after learning different techniques from this class I will use them with my gymnasts.  Overall, I believed I learned a lot from this class and have improved from the start of the semester with my teaching.

Andrew Billups -Lab D - Gaelic Football

What-

In lab D my group was responsible for teaching and creating a resource packet for the game of Gaelic football. Gaelic football originated in Ireland and is one of the biggest amateur sports in the world. For my section of the lesson I was responsible for teaching the game play. I taught the students how everything they learned in that class period comes together into such an amazing fun game. A big concern that I had with the game was safety. To score you can punt the Gaelic football or punch it into the goal. There are many chances for a student to get hit in the face or other part of the body that could hurt them. I modified the game so there were no goalies and we used small goals so that the students kept the ball low. Gaelic football is also a contact sport for many obvious reason that was not okay for a physical education setting so I removed that from game play. The main focus in the lesson we as a group wanted to teach the students was respect; to respect them selves, others, and the equipment. Since Gaelic football is a completely amateur sport the players show a huge amount of respect for the game.

Gut-

When it came down to it everything we did fell on us. We didn’t receive any help from the TA’s or Professor B.  This made me nervous. I was also the last out my group to teach so I couldn’t just “get it over with”. But as I watched the students have so much fun playing the game and how well the other members in my group were doing I got less nervous.  As I came up with my lesson I was anxious because I knew I had to modify the game for safety reasons but I didn’t want to modify the game to much because I didn’t want to make it less fun for the students. That ended up not being a problem. I was able to modify the game a lot and also keep in fun were everyone was excited and didn’t want to stop playing.

So what-

I think my section of teaching went vary well. I tried to give as much feed back as I could by stopping the game and helping the students. Since we had smaller games of keep away and 3v3 it made game play easy for the kids. The transition was extremely easy because they already understood the rules. Breaking down the rules for the students helped the students a lot and made the game easier to play.

Now what-

That being the last thing I taught in 255 I feel good about that lesson. I learned a lot and I know that if I ever have to teach again I can take a lot of skills that I learned from this class. Being able to get the students moving right away and also giving the right kind of feedback is very important. I was always not sure when to stop game play and give my input on games. Now I know that I should stop the game whenever I feel that the there is a teachable moment. The more I stop and teach the more the students will learn. That will help me if I teach again.

Labs A-D-

When I first taught in lab A I was extremely nervous I fumbled with my hands a lot and I stuttered my words a good amount. Each lab I saw my self-getting more and more confident. Also in Lab D teaching with partners aloud me to learn a lot. Every Student has a different teaching style. Going from planning by your self to planning with students that all have different ways of teaching really opened my eyes and helped me grow as a teacher. I watched the videos from me teaching and it was nice to see the growth that I made as the semester went on. Practice makes perfect and the more I practice my teaching the better I get. 

Here I am giving my closure to the students

Here I am about to start the 6v6 game of Gaelic football

John Odle- CUJU

What?

When my group got the game Cuju for Lab D, I was not as enthusiastic as I would have been had I got another game. The reason why I felt this way was because from what I saw I didn’t get the game at all. I felt like this was going to be the most challenging game out of all to teach. The good thing was that I wasn’t alone. I had the other students there as my backup and me as theirs. This really took the workload and cut it significantly in four parts, otherwise it might have been a real struggle. One of the reasons why I felt like the game would be hard to teach was because from what we observed from the class, they were only a select few that knew how to juggle with some proficiency. The rest of the class including myself struggled in this skill. My part of the lesson focused on the 6 v 6 game, where there would be three targets and the students will have to hit the targets using the cues and teamwork. With the game Cuju working as a team is a very important part of scoring. If there isn’t any unity then there can only be chaos, which is not what we want in the classroom. While watching the students preform the other skills needed to be at least adequate in the game, I decided to modify the activity to make it a little easier by letting the ball be able to hit the floor. That made the students a little more successful, I think in scoring. One other thing I tried to implement in the game was a little dance that the other team that didn't have the ball could do to “distract” the other so they wouldn't score. The reason for this was I didn't want the students to just be standing watching the game go on but I wanted to make sure they were at least moving and not just waiting.  

Gut

            When our day came to teach the lesson I was a nervous because we had to do everything for ourselves. We couldn't rely on Dr. B to start us off; we had to act like it was a legit class. I felt as if we prepared well and everyone knew what they were going to do and how we would transition, so that eased me. I didn’t want the lesson to be bad or uninteresting because the students would struggle if they hadn’t had a enough experience in juggling. I myself couldn't juggle well so I knew how I would feel if my peers were doing good and I was the one that could be helpful. I watched the students they looked as if they were having a good time which made me feel really good. The one thing the Hannah brought up was the safety of the students which became a concern when the students would be hitting the ball hard and fast. I didn’t want to take away from the game but we had to make sure that everyone was being safe. So I felt good that we stopped the game and addressed the safety concerns that we saw during the drills and games. I felt as if the students learned and were happy with the lesson but if they didn’t we would have to try and make it more interesting and fun with a better game and activity overall.

So What?

I planned my lesson in a way that it would work on things they may have known already which would give them a revision of what little they might have known form previous years.  I thought the lesson was very challenging for the students and made me see what I had to work on with the class to get them physically literate. As I looked at my video, I saw that the class was maybe struggling to hit the target and that just means that I had to adapt and try to make the task easier for the students and then when they become more successful then make it harder. When doing something that you are not familiar with that means that not only you as a teacher are learning nut the students are learning as well.

Now What?

Now that all the labs are done I definitely feel like I have become better more and more every time I taught. Lab D has taught that you need to be prepared to teach anything and any topic. I didn't know anything about the sport and I think that I did a good job. If there complete star students that were excellent at juggling then the game would have been more riveting. Now as a teacher I have to be able to spend more time with the skill before going into such a big game. If this was a unit then I would know where I need to spend more time with what people or persons and what the class needed from me to be more successful.

Lab A-D

From the start of this semester when I found that I would have to be teaching a whole class of my peers, I felt as if that it wasn't something that I was ready for now. I have always been a person that wasn't shy but when it comes to actually teaching in front of people I had just met I felt like I couldn't do it. Once Lab A was over I definitely learned things about myself when teaching. When Lab B came around I felt as if I improved but not as good as I could be. I personally feel as if Lab B or Lab C was one my better performances. I know that I have grown and I do feel that if I had gotten an easier game to teach for Lab D, it would have been my best performance. I now know what I am good at and what I need to do to become a better professional and teacher when it comes to having that real job. 

                                        Discussing the Closure with the class 

Joe Palo Lab D

WHAT?
I was excited to find out that my group would be teaching Tchoukball, I played the game before and I really enjoyed it. During my segment of the lesson I taught 12 grade and I was responsible for the game-play aspect of the lesson. I knew that it would be a difficult to work together as a group on an assignment like this but I think that we came together well and made everything work. The first thing we did was break up the responsibilities, Abbie was designated to take care of the passing which would be the instant activity, Mike was assigned the responsibility of shooting, and Dylan took on the variations of the game. We spent a lot of time together making sure that we were all on the same page for the lesson. We needed to make sure that each part of the lesson flowed into the next. We decided that starting off with a three person would be the best as an instant activity because the students would be practicing passing and catching while getting their heart rate up and running down the gym. We put the shooting lesson in next so that the students could get a feel for one of the main skills of the game, they all did very well with this and started to get the hang of the way the ball bounced off the rebound frame. After shooting we moved on to two 3 v.s. 3 games so that the students could get a feel for how the game would actually be played but in a controlled environment. This worked well because there was a lot of open space to move in and it was easy to stop the game and make quick corrections and restart the game right away. Finally we got into the actual game-play, we played one big 6 v.s. 6 game and had everyone participating together. Everyone seemed to understand the rules and played a very competitive game that ended in a tie. The tie game was a great hook for the next lesson to keep the students interested. We finished with a cognitive assessment for the group and showed them their grades when we had class again on 12/2.

GUT.
I felt very confident upon first getting the topic of Tchoukball because I had played the game before and I knew that it was a fast paced and high scoring game. As we progressed through the assignment I became nervous that the lesson may be more difficult than we originally thought. With all the time we put into planning I thought I would have been more confident by the time we had to teach but I was still extremely nervous. As we got started things were running smoothly and I began to become more comfortable with my responsibilities for the lesson. Once my time came to teach I was confident in what I was doing, I brought the group together and split them into teams and reexplained some of the rules just as a reminder. As the game got underway I felt that everything was going well, there were a few adjustments for some students to make so I tried to adjust them on the fly which I realized was not the best way to handle corrections. I should have stopped the game and addressed the corrections that needed to be made and then resumed the game. This was a good lesson to learn for the future when I am teaching.

SO WHAT?
I think that my portion of the lesson went well. I know that I could have been more effective with my feedback throughout the game and that is a good lesson to have learned. I became increasingly more confident about my teaching as the lesson progressed and I think that the students definitely enjoyed the lesson. The fact that the students were talking about the lesson throughout the day after the class had ended told me that we did well, we generated interest and we were able to use that to our advantage to keep their attention throughout the entire lesson. The tie game at the end of the lesson could not have been more perfect in my eyes; all of the students were able to participate fully, demonstrate what they learned, and no one came out on the losing end of the game, I wish I could say that I planned it to be that way because it just fit the theme of our lesson so well.

NOW WHAT?
After teaching this lesson I have found that I need to be more vocal with a large group and willing to stop the activity to make adjustments. I tend to try to make adjustments on the fly so that the activity does not have any interruptions, but a lot of the time the corrections that I am making apply to more than just one student so by stopping the activity and getting the attention of the group I am able to correct many students and prevent some from making the same error.

LAB A-D
I have definitely seen a progression in my teaching from Lab A. When I initially taught Pilates in Lab A I was extremely nervous and I wasn't really confident because the topic was sort of foreign to me, I had never done Pilates before and didn't know much about it. I did some research and I was able to create a pretty good instant activity that incorporated some of the movements one would do in a Pilates class and it went well. I brought in some information that would keep the students interested in continuing with the activity and maybe even try it on their own. In Lab B I was way more confident and comfortable with the topic I was teaching I put together a lesson that covered three different poses and had different ways to make each pose easier or harder and I could tell that the students were challenging themselves as best as they could. This lesson made me comfortable with myself as a teacher because I was able to direct the group and teach to all of the different skill levels. By Lab C I had a very good understanding of how I wanted to teach the class, I modeled the lesson sort of after my Lab B lesson because I thought it was very effective, so I first went over the three poses from the lesson before for the new students that joined the group and then I introduced three new poses. I gave the students each a sheet to assess themselves on how well they were performing each of the poses, this was important because it gave them the cues right in front of them for the entire lesson and they could refer back to it at any time. I think having this tool with them for the whole lesson enhanced their learning because they were able to constantly remind themselves of the correct cues. When I got to Lab D I had to take a few steps back, I was sort of familiar with Tchoukball because I had played it once before, but familiar enough to be able to explain the rules to someone or even jump into a game right away. So this involved some research like Lab A did. I had to get myself comfortable with the game and have an understanding of what I was to be teaching. At this point I feel very confident about my ability to teach a large group, I think I have the tools that are necessary to be effective in enhancing student learning.

 In this picture I am holding up a poster that has the six person roster of Team 1 for our Tchoukball game.

In this picture Katie is making a great jumping catch off the rebound frame during the shooting part of the lesson.

Dylan Everleth Lab D

Dylan Everleth Lab D - Tchoukball


WHAT:
When I found out that my group was teaching the sport of Tchoukball, I was somewhat excited and instantly confident in the outcome of this lab. Fortunately for me, Tchoukball was a sport that I had prior knowledge of and felt that I could use this knowledge to contribute the most I could to this group project. The more and more I thought about this lab, I became more confident in the outcome. Tchoukball was very similar to handball and everyone in the class was proficient in throwing and catching, so I believed this would be a lesson that would run very smoothly once the students learned the basic rules and strategies were learned. As I looked over the basic requirements for the lab, my biggest concern was the fact that it required a lot of group participation and teamwork. The success of the lab depended on how well each group could plan together and organize correct progressions. My biggest fear was creating a lesson that didn't flow together and would create gaps that confused students or bored them. When planning for my role in the lesson, I was in charge of the basic rules and introduction to game play. I felt my role was very important because it taught the students the most about actually playing a real competitive game, such as rules and strategies, as well as put them into a situation that they had to cooperate with their teammates and perform at a competition speed. This role made me nervous because I felt that if I didn't do a good enough teaching the students, then it would cause confusion during an actual 6v6 game and could potentially throw off the pace of the lesson. When the time came for my role in the lesson, I spent a large amount of the time, teacher and correcting the students with the correct rules for the game as well as helping them develop new strategies to improve success. When confusion occurred, I fixed it immediately and told all students so it would not come back again later on. The more I helped correct each of the students during play, the level of understanding went up and I believe this contributed to a smooth and successful 6v6 and achievement of our units central focus and maximum learning for each student.

GUT:
I feel like my introduction of rules and team game-play really helped the students for the final 6v6 game. Since the students had been performing drills and individual skills prior to my teaching period, I think I raised the level of interest when I introduced full-speed game-play with actual scoring. I felt relieved at how smooth my activity went. Each student enforced the rules and performed them at a proficient level and I felt they were ready to play a 6v6 game. I was very happy to see that students used the feedback I gave them and strategy suggestions and applied them during game-play. This made me feel great because as a teacher, it was my job to teach them the game and put them in a position to achieve our central focus for the unit. By the end of the lesson, each student was truly wanting to keep playing the game and really looked forward to potentially playing Tchoukball again. This was the type of feeling that every teacher tries to experience.

SO WHAT:
I felt that the way I taught my portion of the lesson really did a good job of introducing team game-play to the students. I really stressed on teamwork and calling each others names for passes to reinforce the act of teamwork and help the game run smoother. Knowing that none of the students knew what the rules of the game were, I really tried to simplify the rules in a way that each student could remember them easily while playing. By introducing a smaller game like 3v3 half court, I think it really helped the students get comfortable with the basic rules and strategies at full speed before they jump into a 6v6 full court game. I based what rules to teach the students from a question to ask myself that I got from the text, "Teachers should ask themselves if not applying a rule will cause bad practice habits that cannot be easily changed." (Rink p92). By asking myself this question when planning, I can include important rules of the game as well as exclude rules that are less important for first time game play and could potentially cause issues and slow down the lesson.  I also believe that constantly checking for understanding of rules and when a rule was done incorrectly, telling the student and checking for understanding was important. Feedback was very important when introducing game play, because it helped the students become more competent with what they were doing. This was reinforced with the written cognitive test that each student took at the end of the lesson. I was pleased to see that each student achieved the objective for the assessment which was based on rules and concepts of game-play. This was very important to me because I felt that I did a good job of teaching this concept in a way that each of my students were knowledgeable in what we as teachers expected them to be. The average score of the class (4.5/5) was well over the minimum score to achieve our objective (3/5) which was great to see as teachers. This ensured that the students were learning during each of the activities.

NOW WHAT:
I believe that I can continue to help students with introductions to game play by coming up with new and more informative modifications of the full game to help students learn more and get hooked on the game. I think one thing I really need to improve on is when giving corrective feedback, I should stop the entire activity and address all the students to ensure understanding of the entire class and prevent the same problem from re-occurring. I think this a common problem that teachers face but can be easily fixed. As for the written test, seeing that all students achieved our objective fairly easy, I as a teacher should work to challenge the students more and assess them a little bit harder that will help them learn more and more. When teaching, I need to put the students in situations that will challenge the students, but also prevent the students from struggling. I believe that if I continue to challenge the students and continually strive for greater and greater learning from my students, I can help students achieve the best of their ability as well as become a greater and greater teacher.

REFLECTION FROM LAB A-D:
From the beginning of this semester starting with Lab A, I was very uncomfortable with teaching my peers. I was nervous about speaking in front of other students, and began to panic when the time came for my time to teach. I didn't know the correct ways of teaching  a lesson and constantly feared forgetting basic things at the beginning and end of my lesson. As my labs progressed, I became more comfortable with what I was doing. I began to remember what I needed to include and how to do it, and the lessons became a lot easier to create and execute. Lab B was a big confidence builder as a realized how much more comfortable I was becoming with teaching. Lab C was a big eye-opener for me as a felt I didn't give this lab as much focus as I should have. I was not as prepared as I thought I was and because of this, my lesson did not go as well as I had planned. This was a big eye-opener as it showed me just how important planning a lesson is. I will look at this bump in the road as an improvement in my teaching. As the final lab concluded and I taught my portion of the lesson in Lab D, I can now look back and see how much I have improved as a teacher since the beginning, not only am I much more comfortable speaking to others, but I can also see how much greater of a teacher I have become when it comes to creating, planning, and executing. I still have more improvement to come as a teacher, and I will continue to improve.

Here I am explaining the rules of game-play to the students!

Here I am demonstrating a basic offensive possession in Tchoukball in slow motion to the class!

Lab D Abbie Adams--Tchoukball

Lab D-Abbie Adams- Tchoukball

What-    In Lab D I knew I had to use my prior knowledge from Labs A-C of strategies to teaching that worked and things I should stay away from.  Tchoukball was an international sport that I have only seen before never actually played. Since we were team teaching we had to look at everyone's strengths and weaknesses to see what part of the lesson we each should teach.  I knew that I could get the class interested in the unit so I handled the introduction.  Mike was very skilled at shooting and had experience teaching throwing so he taught a shooting activity.  Dylan researched and watched videos of the game so he knew the rules very well so he explained and applied this into a small game.  Finally, Joe was good at gathering a large groups attention so he handled the actual game at the end of the lesson.  Working together was key for Lab D.  All four of us are varsity athletes at the college so we not only had to work together on completing our resource packet we also had to work together to find times to meet.  We did both and were very prepared to teach our lesson.  During my portion I did the introduction.  I introduced myself and had the other teachers introduce themselves.  I made a safety statement and included a signal for attention which was the whistle.  I explained that communication was going to be stressed throughout the lesson so the students were expected to call the person's name if they wanted a pass.  I started the instant activity which was the three man weave.  I knew that the majority of the class had probably performed this before since we had an athletic class so I only did a quick demo with two students for a quick reminder.  After a minute or so I introduced three types of passes that can be used in the game of Tchoukball the line drive, arc pass and no look pass.  I demonstrated each at different angles with a student and explained that they were to try to use each in the three man weave.  After a minute or so I wanted to make sure the students were learning so instead of calling the person's name I asked them to call the type of pass they were using.  This forced the students to cognitively engage the cues into the game play.  After they practiced this for a few minutes I brought the class over to the projector where I had a video of the game of Tchoukball prepared.  I used this as the hook because I thought it was pretty cool so I knew the class would feel the same.  I also said, "By the end of class you should look something like this."  This was my expectation for the day.  During the video I did not just let the class watch and zone out.  I explained some of the rules and pointed out boundaries such as the arc way and the rebound frame.  Our transition ran smoothly because after the video was done Mike took over and started teaching his portion.                                             

 

Gut:  Lab D put all of us through a test.  Most of us have never taught an international game that we never have played or even heard of before.  Most of us have never even team taught before.  And, none of us have ever had to complete a 70 page resource packet before.  Overwhelmed was definitely the first thing I felt.  I felt a little pushed for time to complete all of this before Thanksgiving break.  After I took a deep breath I realized everything was going to be okay.  I knew that this all was going to be a lot of work but I knew if we worked together as a group we could do it.  Putting together the unit plan definitely helped us create one lesson plan which we taught in Lab D.  After completing the resource packet I felt confident about teaching Tchoukball.  I now knew a lot about the game.  The rules, equipment, history, progressions to teaching and so much more.  This made me have a confidence to teach about something new and interesting to me.  My hope was the share that same feeling with my students.  I knew if I could use what I did well in Lab A-C and what I should stay away from I would be able to teach this lesson successfully.  I felt relieved that three other people were working with me.  I felt this way because I enjoy working in teams.  All my life I have played team sports and this would not be any different.  If everyone did their job our team would be successful and we were.  We took what we were each good at and applied it to our teaching.  I knew that I could get the class interested in the unit so I handled the introduction.  It is amazing how my feelings about teaching have changed throughout 255.  In Lab A I felt extremely nervous.  Our TA's made it seem so easy yet there was so many things to remember.  I thought to myself bowling?  How am I supposed to get my students heart rate up with a bowling activity?  In Lab B I felt antsy.  I knew a little bit more about teaching after paying attention to what my peers did but still was nervous.  In Lab C I felt less nervous and more self-assured I knew I did okay on the first two labs but now I had to show improvement in this lab.  Finally in Lab D after my panic attack of what seemed an overwhelming work load I felt a true sense of confidence.  I was more prepared than I have ever been from working on the resource packet.  I thought to myself, I spend that much time and hard work on something so I am going to knock this Lab out of the parl.  I was still nervous but I think I will always be because if you're not nervous you don't care about your teaching enough. 

 

So What?  I knew going into Lab D that the majority of my students had never played or even heard of Tchoukball before.  Since it is an international game I knew I had to teach this starting from scratch.  However, after watching the game and doing some research I could see that this game had many skills in it the students have already learned.  I used positive linking to link the skills students learned in previous units to the Tchoukball unit.  For example, I knew the students had prior knowledge from handball and ultimate Frisbee that they were only allowed three steps and the object could not hit the floor.  Students had a good base on throwing and catching from units such as softball.  In the instant activity I used positive linking when I asked the students to perform the three man weave.  I already knew that most of my students had played sports such as lacrosse, basketball, hockey, etc. So they properly had already performed the three man weave.  I still demonstrated quickly just for a refresher or in case this was new for a few students.  After I let the students practice a basic three man weave I introduced something new that related more specifically to Tchoukball.  I introduced three types of passes used in the game.  Then I let the students practice in-cooperating them into the three man weave.  I wanted to maximize positive transfer of learning in skills such as passing, communication, teamwork, shooting.  I wanted to utilize positive transfer for each domain as well.  I also wanted to minimize negative transfer.  No defense is something new to the students so we made sure that we stressed.  We needed to be careful wording this to the students because saying something such as no defense whatsoever pay turn the students interest levels off.  Instead we said the only defense is positioning yourself to catch the other teams shot.  This got the students thinking tactically and peaked their interests.  I knew going into Lab D what things I needed to keep doing well and what things I needed to improve on.  I knew in the other labs I did not check for understanding as much as I wanted to so during Lab D I made sure I was having the students teach each other by asking questions.  I also really wanted to make sure the class was more physically educated/ literate after the lesson.  One thing I did during the instant activity was had the students use the academic language of the cues they just learned in the three man weave by calling out what type of pass they were using.  By doing this students were using cognitive knowledge in the physical.  I was happy that I taught my students of the physical through the physical.               

Now What?  Now that my last lab of 255, Lab D, is complete I feel great about the profession I have chose.  I could feel my growth throughout the semester.  I am happy with how I did in Lab D.  I am excited and ready to move onto 355.  I gained a sense of confidence in my teaching.  I still know there is things I can improve on such as being less nervous, instruction and commanding attention.  Throughout my college career I will continue to improve and work on things I need to improve on to be a better teacher.  This will not stop after college though.  When I become a Physical Education teacher I will still work on improving myself to help my students.  Now that Lab D is over I can take a deep breath.  It all was a lot of work but in the end it was definitely worth it!     


Reflection of Growth:  Now that 255 is coming to an end I look back and am amazed on how much I grew throughout the course.  The main thing I gained was a sense of confidence in my teaching.  Going into Lab A I had never really taught in front of my peers before so I was extremely nervous.  I thought to myself what are they going to think about me?  What if I mess up?  Then I was given an instant activity of bowling.  It had to get my students heart rate up, I had to state my name, signal for attention, hook, expectations, and a safety statement all within 30 seconds.  This was what I thought then was overwhelming.  I prepared to my best ability and survived Lab A.  In Lab B we were given a new topic.  I was given High Intensity Interval Training.  I felt better about teaching in front of my peers because I knew they all had to go through the same thing and I knew everyone in my class a lot more at this point.  I decided to do station training and I felt good about the outcome of the lesson.  I however still needed to focus on what my students were learning.  Were they more physically literate as a result of my lesson?  In Lab C, I kept this in mind.  I did more checking for understanding to ensure learning.  Now I was in a new environment.  I did not plan as well as I should have of the space I had available so the students didn't get the full benefit of the lesson.  After I handed in the Lab C resource packet I thought I felt relieved until we were told we had a longer one due for Lab D.  Now I was overwhelmed.  I took a step back and stopped being dramatic and realized I could do it.  We were team teaching for Lab D.  I knew all of the things I had done well in the previous labs and something's I needed to work on.  After the resource packet was complete for the first time I had a true confidence in my teaching.  I was more prepared then I had ever been so I knew Lab D was going to be great.  I wanted to make sure my students were more physically literate as a result of my lesson so I did everything in my power to do so.  Of course I was still nervous but like I always say if you are not nervous you don't care enough!        

 

 

 

 

Here's me demonstrating the three man weave with two students

 

 

 

 

Here's me explaining the three types of passes

 

 

 

Hannah ANthes - Lab D - Cuju

                                                                       What

            In my portion of the lesson, I was teaching 10^th grade. Prior to my teaching, students learned the basics of juggling. In 9^th grade they learned how to keep a flat foot, to have a tight angle and to keep their eye on the ball when playing cuju. Transitioning into 10^thgrade, students were beginning to incorporate strategy of how to keep a juggle, while adding in shooting and formation. In this class, encouragement was essential. This sport takes a lot of skill and practice. It may become frustrating at times. Throughout the lesson, students were told to encourage one another with positive and uplifting words. The class was broken up into three groups of four.  They worked on two different types of shots. They were power and finesse. Power shots were used when a formation was farther back from the goal, while finesse was used when the shot was close to the goal. The different formations could have been a square, diamond, circle, and triangle. This idea was meant to help establish organization when trying to shoot on the goal. There was a lot of positive encouragement that occurred in the class. When giving the instructions I only stated “use positive and uplifting words.” Students brought it upon themselves to encourage even more. Jim for example, continuously kept giving high fives to the other members of his group. I heard Mike say “we’re a team, let’s go.” The word team, is so important. It identifies a group of people who are united towards the same goal. I’m sure all the members of his group felt very included. One other component that went well was that students comprehended the usage of the two different shots. There was a distinction for what they were trying to accomplish depending on how far away they were from the goal. When practicing, it was nice to see the students using the cue words and communicating to one another in this way. The whole idea of power and finesse went very well.

     

Here is a photo of me going over the main cues for shooting .

Gut

            Going into today’s class, I was a little concerned for the students. As previously stated, juggling and shooting at a goal takes a lot of practice. Unless there were a lot of soccer players in the room (which there was not), controlling and shooting a ball is a new concept for a majority of the class.  I was really excited to see the different groups succeed. When they got the ball through the hoop, it was like a reward for working hard to accomplish that task. I thought to myself “Wow! They are making this sport look really fun.” And the smiles on their faces showed me that they were having fun. We did have a lot of smiles, but as I expected, I also saw a look of frustration on some of the students faces. This is where the words of encouragement came in. When another student or I saw frustration one of us would encourage the student that was having some difficulty. I tried to always start with something positive, and then explain one thing they could fix and then assure them that they are doing okay. I felt very proud of the whole class for putting in a good effort. This sport is very hard. With the help of the other coaches and students, we were able to work together to create a safe environment, physically and emotionally.

                                                                   So What

Building this lesson, I had to keep in mind the success rate.  “For many physical education activities, a very high rate of success is probably not appropriate for the teacher to aim for. In some activities, 80 percent success is too high (e.g., basketball free throw shooting). The teacher must consider the nature of the activity and what a skilled person would consider successful and then adjust this downward for a beginning learner” ( Rink, 2010, page 11) While participating in the shooting for cuju, the students’ aim in the whole activity was modified to allow for a higher success rate. For example, the goal was lowered so that students could pass the ball through or bounce it in. When juggling the ball, students were allowed to let the ball bounce, hit the ground and continue juggling. Lastly, when in game play, if the ball hit the goal it was worth one point, if it went through, it was worth two points. There was an opportunity to earn more points through this modification. These modifications were used to help the class benefit as a whole. Those who were more advanced did not have to apply these modifications. They could stick to the traditional rules of cuju; those who were beginners and just wanted to get the hang of the different concepts could apply all of the modifications. This allowed for everyone to play on the same court, no one was excluded. This style of cuju was able to reach out to the entire player and meet their needs. It was about doing what is best for the student, not what is easiest. For the formations, the students could also design a complex pattern or keep it simple. Whatever they decided was according to their comfort level. Another option was picking the size and texture of the ball the students would like to practice with. This once again allowed the student to choose what was most comfortable to them. At the end of class, students could leave knowing that they accomplished something and they were accepted no matter what level or skills they came with. Their efforts contributed to the class to make it a better learning environment.

                                                 

Here is a photo of some of the students practicing juggling , they allowed a bounce to help control the ball when shooting at the goal.

  Now What

After doing this lab, I learned that one of my weaker areas is getting the attention of the students. It is very hard to communicate information if the students are still participating in the activity. After reviewing the video, I see that I need to freeze the learning environment, take a moment to explain what needs to be said , and then allow the students to continuing practicing . One of my strengths is pace and timing. On the video, I can see myself moving consistently from one group to another. Each group was given and equal amount of my time. I did not favor one group over another. In my portion of the lesson, I got through everything that I needed to teach and clean up. The next teacher was able to take what I had done and then smoothly transition into their lesson. Some things that I can do better in my next lesson are to space out the gym even more and use my signal of attention even more. I would also like to try to add in even more styles of learning. Each person learns differently, and it is my job to promote what the lesson is so that each student is learning and doing it in an efficient way.

                        Reflections of Lab A B C D and student learning

Through this progression of labs I have learned so much. In my teaching I have seen so much growth as well. From the first lab I barely could speak loud enough for the camera to hear me. Now I can be heard loud and clear because I found my teaching voice. I discovered early on that interacting with the students was one of my strong points. I made a good rapport with each of them. Now in lab D, it is very natural to use a student’s name and to go in depth with them, really making sure that they understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. In my c11, it shows that in eight minutes of teaching, I used a student’s name eight times. That is a good rate of one name per minute. It shows that I have developed and  am in tune with the students. In lab A, I took too much control and did not give the students enough time to have the student practice. The time they were active was not enough. In Lab C and especially Lab D, I was able to explain, teach, and then get the students into motion. Instead of constantly explaining everything, when the class as a whole struggled with a task, I was able to turn it into a teachable moment and make modifications when needed.

            A few things I did throughout the four labs to help enhance the learning of the students was to be professional. One can only make a first impression once. From the very beginning I identified myself as the teacher. I came in looking and acting in a professional manner. Before the students even came in my equipment and supplies was already set up. This showed the students that I was ready to teach and the students should be prepared to learn. When teaching my voice was firm and I used my signal of attention to re-group. When using my visual aids, they were neat, colorful, and provided cues for the activities. This helped the students remember the basics of what we were doing for that class period. In each activity every student was active. There was not a time when one student was standing or sitting from lack of activity. It was very helpful to ask certain individuals why they thought we were doing a certain task. It showed me that they were learning the main objectives of the lesson. To benefit the whole class, providing boundaries and safety cues kept the environment for each student safe. I believe that this ensured confidence because the student knew that they were safe. Having this confidence and safety makes the whole class more enjoyable. Modifications were also very important in lab D. The simple change of allowing the students to bounce the ball and changing the texture of the ball made a great difference. They were able to learn the different shots better with more control. The end result made more sense to them because the progression of juggling to juggling with a team, to shooting the ball was more evident. These were some of the ways I was able to enhance the learning of the students for my segment of the lesson.

                                               

Clayton's Lab D

What?- When I chose the game Cuju for my group I was not excited at all. I felt like it was going to be the hardest of the four games to teach. Although it would be hard to teach I still had to work with my fellow group members to do as well as we possibly could. From observations in other classes I knew that most of the class was going to be low skilled in Cuju, due to the fact that the game is mostly soccer juggling. For my part of the lesson, I really wanted the students to work on team work and good sportsmanship. These two components are key in the game of Cuju. As a team you have to work very well together, and it needs great communication skills with each other. There should definitely be good sportsmanship for Cuju, due to the difficulty level of the game. As a teacher you would want students to make fun of other students for not being good at a certain skill. I wanted to enforce these two components within a mini game of 3v3. Each team would take turns trying to score in the hoop. Therefore only half of the students are very active, due to the rules of the game. One team would strategize by creating a formation for their next turn while the other team was trying to score themselves. This would have the students at least working together increasing their affective domain but also moving a little. There is no defense in the game of Cuju. I eventually had to modify the 3v3 game even more than I had already done. During the middle of the game I told the students that if they make it through the hoop it would count as two points and if they were to just hit the hoop it would count as one point. This increased the scores which increased the student success.

Gut- I feel like my mini 3v3 game prepared the students for the final 6v6 game at the end of the lesson. The students looked excited when I told them they were going to play a mini game. They probably wanted to try to score as team against opponents. The students were having some difficulties trying to juggle together as a group, but they always kept trying. One of the rules I had was that there had to be at least two passes as a team before trying to score. Most of the time all of the teams made more than two passes before trying to score. This definitely showed good teamwork and that they were actually trying to team juggle and try and find the best way to score. By the end of the lesson student success had increase due to some modifications before and during the lesson.

So What?- As a teacher and not really knowing much about the game that you would be teaching is a little nerve racking but you must do the best to your abilities to teach the students what they need to know. Knowing that Cuju is a very difficult game for most, I knew I would have to make some modifications before the lesson. I had to change some of the original rules so it would be easier for the students to learn the game. I even had to make modifications during my lesson to make it even easier for student success. I feel like playing a mini game before going straight into a large game is important. Students get a feel of the game and are able to ask questions before they are rushed into a large game right after learning a skill. There were some times where I noticed students were having some difficulties and I needed to give them corrective feedback. In earlier labs I didn't give as much corrective feedback as I should have, but I feel like in this lab I gave more corrective feedback than usual. Corrective feedback is were important for student learning. Students can't learn off of just "good job."

Now What?- I still need to give more corrective feedback. Positive feedback is always good, but it isn't enough for student learning. I need to really emphasize safety at all times. There were sometimes where some students just shot the ball as hard as they could even though they could have just easily shot the ball through the hoop. Students sometimes just get in the moment and try to kill the ball, but someone else could seriously get injured.  I need to be a more energetic teacher. Students don't want to learn from a teacher who doesn't seem enthused with their own lesson. The more enthusiastic I am, the more the students will probably get involved and learn more.

From the beginning with Lab A, I had very little confidence. I was very soft spoken and didn't speak clearly at points. I wasn't well prepared, even though I thought I was. Although you may know what you want to do for you lesson, you need to know how you will execute it and might need to do a run through of it. This then followed through into my Lab B. I knew exactly what I was going to do for my lesson, but had no idea how to execute it. I wasn't as nervous but still was not too confident. For Lab C I had some time to actually prepare a lot for my lesson. I actually felt like I executed it a lot better than my first two labs. I should have stated safety first, before the students got into the pool. As a teacher you must always think of the environment as a safety concern. I had more confidence for Lab C because I felt well prepared. I still need to get more energetic with my lesson I am teaching. I increased student learning by informing them that it is possible to get a good work out in the pool and only last about five minutes. In Lab D, I felt confident and prepared. I probably could have spoken louder, and need to be more enthusiastic. Outside of the classroom I am really outgoing and enthusiastic.  I need to apply that side of me into my teaching. I gave more corrective feedback in Lab D than I usually do. I even modified the game during the middle of the lesson so students had a higher success rate and would learn/benefit from it. Personally I feel like Lab D was by far my best lab. I have learned that I still need to work on my teaching style to become a great teacher. Good teachers are not good enough now a days.

This is me explaining the rules to a 3v3 game of Cuju.