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.

Tom Hughes Lab B Strength Training

WHAT?
When I looked at the pre assessment and saw that 90% of the students were high skilled, I was not surprised.  Weight lifting and staying in shape is a big part of most peoples lives.  I didn't want to walk into the class and teach everyone everything that they already knew about strength training.  I wanted to show them something that most of them have never done before.  I chose to do my first class with resistance bands because I felt that most people knew what they were, but never really used them before.  I wanted to show them something that if they wanted to, they can go out and purchase one for a cheap price of 10$ and be able to use it at home, while traveling, or just when there's not enough time in the day to make it to the gym.  So I set up five different stations that the students would use resistance bands or partner assistance to perform an exercise.  I didn't receive the resistance bands that I was hoping for but instead I had to use a set of thin bands that were either too short or kept snapping.  When I realized that I had no choice but to use these, I did my best to tie them together and make longer bands.  I regret doing this because it was very unsafe to use these bands as a strength training exercise when they were weak and prone to snapping.  I ended up having to modify one of my stations to use body weight and gravity to do a squat instead of using the resistance bands.

GUT?
My instant activity went much better then the first time I used it because it related better to my topic and I created boundaries for safety.  I defiantly could of taught my lesson differently.  For instance, I first demonstrated all 5 of the stations and then brought them all the way back to station 1 to start.  As I did my check for understanding, I realize that students will forget the important cues if you overload them with too much information.  I should of demonstrated one station at a time and then had them perform the exercise before moving onto the next station.  The students did get to learn at least one resistance bands exercise for each muscle group.  Unfortunately, I was pressed for time so I ended up skipping the back station which was the bent over row.  I feel that skipping this station was for the best though because I did not want the bands breaking in the students faces as they did the exercise, especially since two bands broke the station before.

My strength training visual aid!

SO WHAT?
After reviewing my lab B on video multiple times I realized I made some key mistakes.  I did not provide a safe environment for my class and even after I realized there were unsafe aspects of my lesson, I never said anything about the bands tendency to break.  "Safety takes precedence over all other concerns.  Regardless of the cause, unsafe conditions must be changed either by stopping the activity of the entire class or of the individuals involved or by removing the unsafe conditions in a less obtrusive way"(Rink pg.134).  Immediately after I realized that these bands were not made for these exercises, I should of stopped activity and modified the exercise. I do think that I did a good job with my positioning though because I kept the group of students in my view the entire time.  "Teachers responsible for a whole group of learners should never remove themselves for long periods of time from a position that allows them to constantly view the whole group"(Rink pg137).

NOW WHAT?
After teaching strength training for the first time, I know what I need to improve for next time.  I need to make sure that my environment is safe before I even begin teaching.  Since my next class will be in Tomik Fitness center, I will have to make sure that everyone knows the proper way to use each exercise that I choose and that everyone takes extra care with the free weights.  In the next class I want to teach the students how to calculate their 1 rep max on 4 or 5 machines.  I also need to give each station a little more time because the amount of time that I gave for my stations in lab B was not enough and I ended up running out of time.  Next class I will be using the reciprocal method, where students will work in pairs and one student will perform and the other one will provide feedback.  This is similar to what I did in lab B but the students didn't really have the chance to provide good feedback.  For my next class I want to make sure that everyone is communicating and providing helpful feedback to their partners.

Modifying my exercise after the bands kept breaking!

                                         Here is a video of my Strength Training lesson!

Jim Caswell Lab B Orienteering

Putting red Fred in the shed

What?
For my lab B I was challenged with an activity that I was not very familiar with. Although I did not like the activate that much I still had to teach it to the best of my capabilities so I took a lot of time to try to learn different skills used in orienteering to bring to my class. Upon looking at the pre-assessment I saw that most of my group were low skilled in orienteering, and some (like myself) never heard of it. So I decided to teach one of the most basics and important skills needed for orienteering, using a compass. With the cues of Set the degree, put red Fred in the shed, and follow the direction of travel arrow, my students were taught how to use their compasses to navigate from 1 point to the next. I feel that the lesson went pretty well and my students enjoyed the challenge of using a compass, some for the first time. During the lesson and especially after i watched the video I realized that i have relatively good positioning during activities. For the most part I'm moving around and all students are in view so i can observe them and provide feedback, although sometimes I tended to walk over to the middle of the group which is not good because not everyone is in my view. To be completely honest i had a very hard time with this activity, for starters I had zero interest in it, but i realize as a teacher I'm not always going to like the activity I'm teaching, but need to teach it to the best of my abilities because its not about me its about the class. I also have never used a compass before so i had a hard time explaining what was needed to use them to my class, and it showed when i typed my script a lot of times saying uh, um and stuttering while explaining. Another thing I feel that i could do better as a teacher is provide better feedback. Most of my feedback was just general feedback often saying "Good job", i need to provide better feedback that would mean more to the students. One of my biggest mistakes i felt that i made in this lab was not being completely prepared, and its not because of me being lazy it was more of an ignorant mistake. When I came up with the degrees I should of practiced them out myself and gave the students places to start so that they did not run into a wall (which happen a couple of times), or each other. This is a big mistake to make because its not safe for me not to know completely where the students will end up and if they were running injury could of occurred and it would of been all my fault. Also i should of done better with planning with equipment and gave a compass to each student not just 1 person of the group so each student was able to practice the skill more

GUT

I feel that my students learned the basics skills to using a compass, and gained interest in orienteering. Orienteering, for the most part, was very unknown in my group. Many of the students put in the pre-assessment that they have never heard of it before. During my instruction and the activities my students looked like they were interested in learning something new, and practicing it. When i was observing the students finish their last barring i was pretty excited to see when they landed directly on their first marker, like they were supposed to, and i think they were excited to get it right as well. I showed to them that i was happy by telling them good job and giving them a high five for nailing it. I also found teaching this lesson very rewarding, coming into this i had 0 knowledge of orienteering or even using a compass, so i had to work very hard to be able to confidently bring this new found skill of mine to a class and teach it to them. The fact that i was able to do so pretty successfully was very rewarding to me.

So what?
Now that i taught my Lab B, and watched myself over and over again I realized some mistakes that i made that could potentially be detrimental to my students learning. For example I was not 100% completely prepared. Experienced teachers learn to anticipate safety problems and to arrange equipment, space, and people so that the environment both is safe and facilitates learning (Rink, pg. 134) I did not completely set up my activity by not knowing that if i allowed the students to start where ever they pleased that they could end up running into the wall or table. Although i did catch it by being in good position to view everything, this is a problem that is easily avoidable and should not happen.In reading chapter 7 of the book on page 134 Rink says. " In situations where advance preparation has not been adequate, the teacher's first priority during activity is to make the environment safe." I feel i did a good job at that by being aware that students had the potential to running into a wall so i stopped them and moved them over. What i should of done, and will do from now on when teaching this activity, is practice the barrings and steps i gave the students and give them a specific starting spot so that they do not end up running into a wall or each other. One of the things that i felt i did fairly well, and will continue to improve on is, staying in good position to observe each student during the activity. I didn't stand around in one place for to long, for the most part the whole class was in view so that i can keep them safe and provide feedback. There was a few times that i was in the middle of the class for a good period of time which is never good because the whole class is not in my view and i could miss something that could of been avoided and lead to an injury. Teachers should try not to get caught in the center for any length of time. The center does not allow the teacher to remain visually in contact with the whole group (Rink, Pg 137). One of the most important things i learned about my self as a teacher, that is directly related to student participation in class is i need to provide more and better feedback from now on. A teacher actively engaged in giving feedback to learners potentially maintains a productive and usually safe learning environment (Rink pg. 133). Teacher feedback maintains student focus on the learning task and serves to motivate and monitor student responses. When the teacher gives attention to the student, that student (and others as well) is likely to be more motivated and also to remain of task. Although i did provide some feedback, it was not enough and was mostly just general feed back, like saying good job. I need to do a better job incorporating the different feedback types to provide my students with better feedback so they will have a better understanding of what is needed to be done, while staying motivated. From now on when I want to give feed back like good job, I'm going to ask my self what was good about that, and explain it to the student I'm giving the feedback to. Or if i want to correct the student on something they are doing  I'm going to start by complementing something they are doing good and add to it by telling them what needs to be fix.

Now what?
Now that I pointed on some areas i need to work on to be a better teacher i will work on them while still bringing in new information to my class. Students now know how to use a compass, so the next class I hope to figure out a little course for them to put their new skill to a test outside. I also need to have less instruction time and more activity, when doing my c-10 i saw that 47% of my lesson was instruction where as only 34% was activity. Students don't enjoy PE when its lecture, they sit in classrooms all day listening to teachers, they come to PE excited to move and be active, i need to do a better job at getting the active so that they look forward to coming to my class.

Watch me teach Lab B here!!!!

Mike Cantelli Lab B- Rhythmic Gymnastics

WHAT 

I helped my students learn about rhythmic gymnastics and ribbons in a couple of different ways. I made a cue card to help the students understand how to perform each ribbon technique. Along with the cue card, I also explained to them verbally how to perform each technique and gave them a demonstration. In this lesson the students learned two different ribbon techniques. The two techniques are the snake technique and the spiral technique. In the lab there were six students that were being taught the two different techniques. After I explained and demonstrated how to do each technique each person got a partner and practiced the two types of techniques. While one person practiced the technique, their partner watched and tried helping and correcting them so they did the technique the right way. The class picked up the different techniques fairly quickly. There were a few students who had trouble at first but eventually after a few tries they were doing each technique with no problem. I believe that one thing that was challenging was actually finding an activity to include the use of ribbons. Its hard to use ribbons and stay active and constantly moving with your legs without the students having prior knowledge of gymnastics techniques.

GUT

I felt that my students definitely learned some new things about gymnastics. When people think of gymnastics the first thing to come to mind are different stunts and different types of events and not ribbons. I feel this lesson gave the students a new outlook on gymnastics and i feel they learned about a different type of gymnastics they never realized before. I feel the lesson as a whole went very well because it seemed like all the students were having fun. Starting with the instant activity all the way till the end when we stopped using the ribbons it seemed like the students were having a good time and I think they would all agree.

SO WHAT

My lesson was on rhythmic gymnastic which is one of the four types of gymnastics. I chose to teach ribbons because we were not in the gymnasium and we couldn't go over floor routines on the hardwood floor. I also felt that ribbons would be easier to understand and had more to do with gymnastics than hoola-hoops. I taught my lesson the way I did because i thought is was the most efficient way to get the students not only involved physically but also mentally. Having the opportunity to not only perform the different techniques but also watch and help their partner become more efficient at the techniques. One thing i learned about myself is i can cut down on saying certain words such as okay, yea, and alright. When watching the video i realized how many times i say the same words and the same phrases. I decided what to do and what to do next when i created my lesson plan. The lesson plan laid out what what to do and when, this way i wasn't just improvising the entire time.

NOW WHAT

In this lesson the students learned many things. Other than the new ribbon skills they learned that there are different types of gymnastics. One of the types was used in this lesson and now in the next lesson another type will be used. For the next class I definitely need to get the student a little more active. In this lab they were only moving their arms. In the next lesson I would like to get them moving around in different spots more. Another thing I need to work on is making sure the class understands the objectives of the class and also making sure they know what my signal for attention is. In this lab I sometimes blew my whistle and sometimes just told the students to stop. One thing I did better since the last lab was not saying guys. I also thought there were times when i could have been a little more clear and well spoken. 

              

                        In this picture I am explaining to the class the cues to the spiral and snake techniques.

                

  

                                                      Check out my lab B video here. Enjoy!

Anthony Tiziani Lab B- Frisbee Golf

What?
For lab B I was assigned to teach a lesson in frisbee golf. As soon as I got this topic I knew that I had to start with the basics of how to throw a frisbee because if i didn't and someone in the class didn't know how to throw a frisbee then they would be behind for every lesson from there on out. I started the class with a quick game of ultimate frisbee becasue it would both get their heart rates up and get them warmed up with throwing the frisbee. The students then got into pairs and practiced throwing with their dominate hands while useing the cues of step, flick wrist, and point. For student sthat were good right away I had them increase their distance to make it a little more difficult.  Whne everyone had their dominate hand down, I had them switch to their non-dominate hand for an added challenge. They also followed the cues for this task and I think (much to their surprise) they did very well at this.  I also had hula hoops on the bleachers to the students to throw to to get them use to throwing the frisbee at a set target. This activity gave them more of a feel for frisbee golf instead of just playing catch with a partner.

Gut?
I still feel nervous when teaching in class but it has gotten alot more comfortable from lab A. When I would be talking to the class with them all gathered around me I would get more nevous and stumble over my words and leave me looking for things to say causeing me to use my most used filler, umm. I was very disappointed when I wrote out what I said during my lesson becasue I saw just how much I did say 'umm'.  This makes me feel like I could have been more prepared so that I wouldn't be searching for words to say.I felt pretty confident that I had a good lesson that would benefit the students moving forward in the unit of frisbee golf. This is good becasue I will be able to build on it for next time.

So What?
I did a very good job at keeping the students active for more than half of the time.  Keeping the students active is important because it keeps them ingaged, interested, and it also gives them more time to actually practice their skills. That is important because you can only get better with practice. I managed to keep the students working on throwing a frisbee for 56% of the lesson.  The practice time is good but I should have been giving them more feedback. I was just kind of reminding them of the cues, which is a good thing, but constructive feedback is what makes them better. Maybe I should have challenged the students more so that there was more opportunities to give feedback.

Now What?
I feel as if I have gotten better and more confident from lab A to lab B so I am excited to get onto lab C. I am going to progress in the unit and let them actually play frisbee golf so that they have a challenge.  I need to try to practice more for lab C and really try to think out ahead of time everything I am going to say.  This will help me stop saying 'umm'. When I am always saying "umm" it can be hard for the students to undersatand what I am saying. I also need to project my vooice louder because I could bearly hear myself in the video. This will be extra important for next class because I will be outside and I will have alot more students to be addressing.

Click here to watch me teach my lab B!!

Joseph Palo Lab B: Mind and Body Activities

Lab B - Mind and Body Activities

WHAT
My topic was Mind and Body Activities and after my experience with Lab A I felt a lot more comfortable with the topic. I had already done some research on the topic when I was trying to come up with an instant activity so I already had some basic knowledge. I chose a freeze tag game as my instant activity because it is something that the students are familiar with and I knew I could incorporate my topic into it well and get the students heart rates up. For my lesson, I chose to teach three different poses that I thought would challenge the students, but could also be modified for students who struggled with them. The plank was a good pose because mostly everyone was familiar with it and after I saw that I was able to change it up to make it more difficult. The camel pose worked well because it challenged students without any modifications, and the full boat challenged almost every student in the group. I think this was a good way to go about teaching the lesson because they started with something familiar and progressively got to more challenging tasks.

GUT
When I first taught this topic in Lab A I felt a bit intimidated, I wasn't sure that I had the necessary knowledge to be directing the students in the activity, but this time was completely different. I came in feeling confident and ready to take control of the class and lead them through my lesson. Throughout the lesson I felt prepared and in control, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I was able to modify student's form and give them feedback. I was happy to see that the students were engaging in the lesson and really trying the best they could to do what I asked; it made me feel like I had really generated some interest among the group.

SO WHAT
I was a little disappointed when I first got back my C 10 form and saw that only 40.7% of my lesson was activity. After reviewing the video of the lesson though I felt a lot better about it. I could see that there were some minor things I could have done to create some more activity; I think I rushed a little bit through the activity part to make sure that I could teach everything that I wanted to. I could have definitely let my instant activity run a little longer but my explanation needs to be more concise and to the point. As for the actual instruction portion of the lesson I think I spoke an appropriate amount but I could have given them more time to perform the exercises and that would have given me more time to give feedback.

NOW WHAT
Lab B was an extremely positive experience for me; I feel that I definitely grew as a teacher from this experience. I still have improvements to make, but I feel good about the way the lesson as a whole went. My ability to give feedback was one of my biggest improvements this time around I was able to recognize some flaws in form and correct them quickly and easily. "Teacher feedback maintains student focus on the learning task and serves to motivate and monitor student responses" (Rink 139). I think this played a big part in the student's interest in the lesson, because I was constantly interacting with them and trying to help them improve they wanted to keep going and getting better. I definitely have to work on gender neutral language when teaching, I referred to the group as "guys" a few times and even though I was able to catch myself and correct myself a few times it is still unfair to the ladies in the class. For Lab C I intend on making good use of my time and getting maximum activity time for my students.

Here I am demonstrating the proper form of a plank to the students

This is a video of me teaching Mind and Body Activities for Lab B