NASPE Beginner Teacher Standards

As a teacher candidate it is essential that you "practice like you play". In all of the classes here at SUNY Cortland, I have been preparing myself for real teaching situations. Here is how I have been getting myself ready by meeting these standards.

Standard 1: Scientific and Theoretical Knowledge
Physical education teacher candidates know and apply discipline-specific scientific and theoretical concepts critical to the development of physically educated individuals.

This standard requires that as a teacher or teacher in training you must have knowledge of not just how to play different activities but you must know what is actually going on in the body tha tmakes it possible. Throughout my career here at Cortland I have completed courses such as Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2, Exercise Physiology, Motor Behavior, and Motor Development. All of these classes have been focusing on how the body functions. Some have been the actual make up of the body and others are how different parts of the body work together to get things done. For example in Motor Development, a Lab was focusing on jumping and using a jump rope. The focus was on how their coordination has developed over the years and how they differ because of age. All of these classes have given me a very in depth look at how the body works and what really goes on during games and movement.

Standard 2: Skill-Based and Fitness-Based Competence
Physical education teacher candidates are physically educated individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate competent movement performance and health-enhancing fitness as delineated in NASPE's K-12 Standards

Here at SUNY Cortland physical education teacher candidates are required to take activity classes. These activity classes are designed as an introduction on how to teach different sports. Each class is sport specific and focus' on one main sport such as basketball or a certain type of sport such as Tactical Concepts. Since beginning school I have taken somewhere around 16 credits of activity courses learning a lot of valuable information of sport strategies and the different skills of the game. Each class has a required notebook that is full of game modifications, drills, and rules that will be very helpful when planning a lesson. By completing all of these notebooks there is an invaluable amount of information that will keep classes different and fun.

Standard 3: Planning and Implementation.
Physical education teacher candidates plan and implement developmentally appropriate learning experiences aligned with local, state and national standards to address the diverse needs of all students.

Standard 3 is one standard that has become second nature because of all the work on it I have done. Preparing lesson plans are the best example of standard 3. For each class that teaching goes on in a lesson plan is required. For example here is a lesson plan I have written up on teaching a beginner cricket lesson. The lesson focus was throwing and hitting. Before this lesson cricket was a foreign game to myself which I did not know much about. Through doing research I was able to develop a lesson that was made to introduce the very basics of cricket. In the lesson plan there are drills that make learning easy and also many modifications that can make the games easier or harder.

Standard 4: Instructional Delivery and Management.
Physical education teacher candidates use effective communication and pedagogical skills and strategies to enhance student engagement and learning.

Standard 4 is important because engaging students into the lesson really makes the class a lot more fun. Being able to grab the attention of the class and keep them focused because they are having fun is important. By the way you talk to a class beings a lot to the table. If you show no enthusiasm for what you are teaching it will not get your class very far and it will make your students be less enthusiastic to participate in the class.

Standard 5: Impact on Student Learning
Physical education teacher candidates utilize assessments and reflection to foster student learning and to inform instructional decisions.

Using assessments in the classroom is becoming more and more crucial for teachers. Assessments allow teachers to really get a good feeling on the ability level of a class by having concrete data instead of having all of your observations in your head. Developing either peer assessments done by students judging another student or teacher assessments that can be done while the class is participating in games are both equally important. In my statistics and assessments class I had to develop numerous assessments that would be able to collect data on the skills of students in a lacrosse unit. Here is an example of a peer assessment and a teacher assessment that i used to collect data in a lacrosse lesson.

Standard 6: Professionalism
Physical Education teacher candidates demonstrate dispositions essential to becoming effective professionals

Professionalism is one of the most important aspects of being in a classroom. As a teacher you will be coming i contact with hundreds of people a day and you always want to make the right impression. There is an endless list of things that make up being a professional. A few aspects are being respectful to teachers, students, and administrators alike, the way you talk, the way you dress, and the way you run your lessons. I feel I have met this standard because throughout the classes I have taken I always take into consideration how I act around people that teach me and people that I teach with. I feel that acting responsibly around everyone is important because others will look at you and immediately think you are a responsible individual. I have also always been dressd appropriately for my classes when I am either engaging in activities and when I am teaching them. Heres a look at what I wear when I teach.

First Real Experiences!

This semester was a semester filled with firsts. I FINALLY got into the phys ed program and I FINALLY got to start having practical experiences in a real school setting. For 6 weeks this fall I would visit Dryden Elementary School for our PED 201 lab. It was a great time! In group's we had to come up with activities and games to play with the students while observing them and seeing how developmentally different they all are. We observed children between the ages of 5 and 10 which are grades K-5. It was amazing how much stuff you pick up by actually working in a real school setting instead of doing peer teaching.

Each week had a different theme where we had to observe different movements of a certain student of our choice. The first week was an introductory class. We had a list of activities we wanted to play with the students so we could get acquainted with how the full 2 hrs would run each week. The second week was a different story. This weeks focus was on throwing and catching. Each week had a different lab that we had to fill out after the class so we had data to write about and analyze afterwards. Take a look at what I wrote! At some point during the 2 hrs we would each have 1 student taht we would work with and play different drills that we thought of to best demonstrate their ability in the certain skill. For this particular week I worked with a 5 year old boy named Caleb. Compared to the other boys in our group he had a low ability level because of his age. He was not very coordinated which is to be expected because he is just beginning to be in good control of his body. A lot of these activities and labs were also designed to help develop the skills of each student.

Another aspect that we went over was how we taught a class. While observing the student's we would also be taking note of what kind of games, motivation, and attention aided to a better organized class. Believe it or not but there are certain things that work better then others when trying to get a task accomplished. For example in Lab 5 we were specifically observing what kind of thigns got and kept the attention of the students best, and what kind of games were appropriate and relevant to what was going on.

Overall, the 12 hours of experience I got was better then any 12 hours of peer teaching I could do because it really showed me what to expect in regards to behavior, participation, and ability level/game modifications.

Fruits, Veggies, and Exercise. Do you know the difference?

Here are two new games that can get children acquainted with what is good and not good for them.

http://www.playnormous.com/game_braingain.cfm

http://www.playnormous.com/game_bubbletrouble.cfm

The first game Brain Gain is an easy interactive game done online to test the knowledge on what is considered a fruit, vegetable, or a certain type of exercise which would either be strength or aerobic. The strength type could be a exercise such as Door Frame Isometrics shown in the picture below.



A few different options pop up on the screen and you must click the correct answer that goes along with the picture. There are different levels that you go through which ask similar questions about different fruits and vegetables. They will also ask you to decipher between what is a healthy food and what is not shown in the picture below.



I think this game would be beneficial for maybe an elementary school level phys ed class. It is a very basic game which most older student's would find boring and pointless. As I was going through this I was not very intrigued to play this game for a long time probably because of my age and the type of basic knowledge it incorporated. But as for a youger student I can definately see them getting into this game and having fun with it while it would also be teaching them different things about a healthy lifestyle.

The next game I played was called Bubble Rubble. This was a different game which mainly dealt with the physical type of exercise that goes alopng with being healthy. You are playing as a little creature that you move around the screen and try to catch different activities that add onto aerobic fitness. This would include running, swimming, walking, gymnastics, and anything else that would increase your aerobic fitness. There are also activities such as watching tv, talking on the phone, and things of that nature that do not help out your fitness levels. Here is a picture of what it would look like.



This is a good game that would give kids ideas of what they could do to stay in shape. Staying in shape does not always mean lifting weights or going for a run. This will help children realize that there are so many things they can do to stay fit. By looking at all the different activities, they will have a good sense of what to do to stay in shape. This would also be a good game to have student's do at home or as a little intro during class.

Here is a slideshow of the different parts of each game to see what it looks like to play the game. You can also see the different types of questions being asked.



Here is a sample lesson plan, task progression sheet, and an activity sheet that could go along with these type of games and unit.

The Last Hoorah

So the semester is coming to an end and that means the last lesson I'm ever going to teach in 255 is over and done with. Lab D was one of the funner labs we got to do. Everyone had to teach some sort of activity that is not an everyday PE class sport. Bowling, swimming, DDR, stomping, and all the others were lots of fun. My objective was to teach a lesson using physio balls. Physio balls are great tools for a lesson because there are so many different things you can do with them. They can be used for fitness workouts doing crunches, push ups and almost any modification to a workout or they can be used in the most creative ways.
The weekend before I was scheduled to teach I attended the NYSAHPERD conference at the Turningstone Casino. I had a really great time attending all of the different sessions and learning different warm ups, games, and various things about the body. I was lucky enough to walk into the first session I attended and found this fun activity. A few teachers had come up with a fun game that they can tie into a fitness or dance unit. I did my best to take what I had learned from them and make up my own lesson to it.



That is the only video of my lesson I could find on youtube but if I hapen to come across the rest of my lesson I will put it right up here. SO being that I can not do much with this video I'll go through what went on. The goal of this lesson was to have fun and get everyones heartrate into the optimal zone. Looking back this was not a great objective for a lesson especially since the goal is to have objectives that pertain to something other then having fun or getting the heart rate up which should be incorporated into every lesson. I began the class with a small game of squad tag. I divided the class into 4 teams and would have one team go at a time. The goal was to tag everyone else in the class faster then all of the other groups. I made the boundaries the 3-point line and the baseline. Each team would go once but could go twice if I wanted to work on strategizing.



After this I brought the class in to give a breif explination of what we were about to do. One thing i stressed was safety. Being that we would be working with drum sticks of some sort I did not want anyone swinging them around, having sword fights, or putting them near anyone else period. I then had everyone grab a pair of sticks and get on a ball with a partner. We then went through the different "moves" that could be used during the song. There was a list of maybe 8 different moves we could do. I had them listed on my poster board just in case anyone forgot what each one incorporated. After about 5 minutes of going through the moves and practicing them, we got a song going and started to dance.

I think that this lesson went fairly well for what I was trying to accomplish. Everyone seemed to be having fun with what we were doing. There was also a lot of thigns I did not do. To start off with, one of the main problems I had was giving feedback. There was no way I would be able to stand in the front of the room and walk around giving feedback to people. I definately should have given a little routine to keep doing so I could walk around giving feedback to each person. Another problem I had was not using intratask variations. Everyone was doing the same movements and there was no change for people who had better rhythm or someone who could not keep up. Giving the class an assignment to make their own routine could have been a good variation for the class.



Overall I could have made this lesson 100 times better then it actually was. I did not do a great job at anything besides the fact that this activity was pretty fun and everyone enjoyed it. Next time I use this(because I definately will) I will have it worked out a lot better so the class can get the most out of my lesson.

Going International

So Lab C was the next teaching trial this semester. For this class Mike and I decided to teach everyone how to play a little cricket. Cricket is one of England's oldest national games that has been played for a few hundred years already. Since noone has really been introduced to the game of cricket on a frequent basis, we started off with the very basics. These were the fundamentals of Bowling(which is the equivalent to a pitch in baseball) and hitting which has many different techniques then a regular swing in baseball.

The first big step was getting acquainted with the game ourselves. This wasn't a very tough thing to do because the basic parts of the game are easy to pick up but when you start getting into the more specific rules, it gets tough because there are so many new thigns to learn. My part of the lesson was the techniques for bowling. I could easily relate and pick up what the fundamentals are because I have been playing baseball for almost my whole life and could pick up on how to do certain things quickly. The bowl in cricket requires the bowler to take a sprinting head start, take a crow hop, and throw the ball with a straight arm bouncing it in front of the wickets trying to knock them off. There are so many drills that you can do to introduce this skill to students.





Starting off my lesson with a quick game of chuck the chicken is one of my personal favorite things to do. This game keeps everyone active and has everyone paying attention and getting physical activity in. It also appeals to everyone because a rubber chicken is involved which makes things more fun. The first drill to start everyone off with is pairing upi and practicing the arm position when bowling. This skill needs to be worked on the most because everyone naturally wants to bend their arm when they throw so it will be the hardest to do on a consistent basis. The other drill I had everyone doing is approaching a target, which was a bowling pin, andd practicing the throw. I had cones set up as a lane for guidance so everyone stayed in a straight line so they didn't drift while throwing and they could get the hang of what an approach is like. I think this drill is the best one to do when teaching a bowl. You can easily progress through all of the aprts of the throw during this drill because the cones give good guidance to stay running straight through your bowl. It can be done walking as we did, or you can have them take a 1/2 speed running approach or a full speed approach.



After watching everyone elses lessons I knew that there would be some sort of behavioral problem I would have to deal with. The first one was Pat and Amy posing as a couple who wanted to be with each other during drills. I caught this and asked them to keep practicing but as I found out afterwards, I left them doing the drill next to each other which did not completely fix the problem. At the end of my lesson 2 guys started fighting over something and I quickly had to go get them to seperate and stop the problem. But as I was going after these two boys Pat and Amy decided to take a walk to the corner of the gym with each other. This was a great example of how you can get distracted by one problem and let your guard down thinking that some other problem won't occur at that moment which happened in this case. As a teacher your really going to have to keep your eyes open at every second even if your trying to fix something.

Overall I feel this lab went very smoothly. It is really getting easier and more automatic on how to teach a lesson. Each one that goes by gives more insight on what to look out for and what you need to do when each little problem comes around. Next test is Lab D. Hopefully this one goes according to plan and I can do my best lesson yet.



And Since I haven't posted in a while, Yankees = World Champs!!

Can he impress again?!

Lab B was a big day to show what I got. I had to watch everyone else teaching their lessons and do great and now it was my turn. Our task on this was to get a specific skill or drill and be able to get the whole class involved in learning something new. The drill I was assigned to was the circle drill. This involved having a circle of 5 or more people with 2 more people on the inside. The outside players were the offensive team and the 2 inside were the defender's. The offensive players had to stay in place but pass the frisbee to someone else without the defenders intercepting or batting the frisbee down. One modification to the drill was not allowing an overhead or hammer throw because that would allow students to too easily get the frisbee from one side of the circle to the other, not giving the defenders a fair chance. I really wanted everyone on offense to be focusing on their forehand and backhand throws while the defenders really had to work on forcing a pass to a certain side, anticipating which side that would be, and working together to get that job done.

Check out my whole lesson and what I said!

I think that I did a very good job running the class outside. Each time I've taught it's become more routine, and seems to get easier. On this particular day, I got to be teaching while just getting sick and losing my voice after a weekend full of yelling at baseball games. In the beginning of the class I let everyone know to listen extra close since I could not raise my voice too loud to get their attention.



The beginning of my lesson was a little long but I needed a bit of time to explain this drill to everyone. I introduced myself but didnt have the best hook. I definately could have had something interesting to say so they would be more drawn into the lesson but I'll learn from my mistakes and get a good one next time. The demonstration went really well. The drill was easy enough so that I didn't have to explain so many details to everyone and get them confused before we even started doing anything. I quickly had everyone get into 2 more groups and spread out so everyone had lots of room. One group only had 6 people in it and was forced to be in a box which I modified to be very spread out so they could pass to the person next to them since they would not have been able to pass to everyone if they couldn't pass to the person next to them. Everyone grasped the concept of the drill easily and looked to be having a lot of fun while going out. I tried my best to get around to a majority of the class and give them a little feedback. With a lot of people I did the good ol' "Nice job" or "Good throw" while not really giving the feedback on the skills I was trying to have everyone focus on but I did get around to a bunch of people and reinforce the lesson focus. After a while I made sure everyone was changing defenders so they could all get work on how to defend someone. One modification I made to a group was to add another defender so it was harder for the offense to get the frisbee across which made the drill more intense and fun for everyone.

Overall I think this lesson went really well. Aside from all the good things I felt I did, there was definately a lot of room for improvement. For starters I could cut down the time I spent talking to everyone and have them playing more. Another thing was the amount of waiting time for the lesson. Even though the drill called for the offensive players to be standing still, I could ahve thought of something to get them all going for a period of time. Yet again, This seemed a lot easier and less stressful to be inf ront of everyone doing a lesson. It's all coming together and I'm really moving forward with my approach to teaching.

Yankees ALDS champs! Big series coming up against the Angels. Lets Go Yanks!!

Take 2!

Alright so the second time around didn't come as a surprise this time. Before this I had a little bit of direction as to what I would try to do while teaching. A few things I had to keep in mind was the amount of time spent doing activities as opposed to talking and instructing.



This was much better the second time around. The way I went about instructing and managing my time flowed better then the first time I taught. While I was teaching, I had all the students actively participating for 54% of the time. That is at the right level of time you want to spend having the kids moving so your not talking too much and boring them. At the beginning I had them quickly come in and listen to a quick intro then had them go and start setting with a aprtner. This was allowing me to evaluate each student to see where I can start giving instruction when I bring them in again. Everyone seemed to have the concept and be fairly competent at setting so I could start at a more advanced level then having to teach the very basics. A quick check for understanding was done to see how well they knew the cues and what they were supposed to be doing. Overall I think this was a much more affective lesson based on how much time the students were able to practice the skill. I also walked around giving feedback to let them know how they were doing and giving helpful hints if they could use a tune up on something. It's getting easier and more of a habit to teach in a more effective fashion. Until next time.... Go Yanks

The Beginning!!

Well here goes nothin. It's the first post so lets make it a good one! This past week has been one giant learning experience. There has already been so many things we've gone over and learned in each class. Going to the first class and having ourselves recorded was a surprise. It was a great idea since it made us think off the top of our head and put together a short lesson on the spot.



So I got the video going and I think it was pretty good for a spur of the moment teaching experience In the beginning I was standing there giving instruction a lot to everyone on techniques. I didn't start with a game like I probably should have but it was the first day so its ok. I did go over hand position, where your legs should be and what you should do to get a good set. After I was done talking to everyone, when we divided into pairs, I had each person getting some practice with what I just went over. I probably should have been walking around giving some feedback but I was setting with someone. After when I brought everyone in I went over the techniques checking that everyone remembered. And that pretty much rapped up my mini lesson.

So that was what i thought about some stuff I did when I was teaching. I'll be back soon! Go yankees!