Virtus Reflection

My reactions and feelings about having sister Harriett Hamilton come into our classroom and talk to us about how we are part of the solution to build and maintain safe and caring places for our young people is that it is very important to know the information and get the word out about what is going on and how to prevent child abuse from taking place. The Virtus Adult Awareness training program had a lot of important information that will be very helpful in the future.

Experts remind us that child sexual abuse in our nation continues to be a tragic reality. With the recent Penn State scandal and now the Syracuse stories coming out, it is becoming more and more important for people to be informed of what to do if they suspect something is going on and not to stand by and let it happen.

Day 6

In class today we were given jump ropes to start the day off. After just the warm up I was tired, it really is a good way to get the blood pumping and your heart rate up. When jump roping you are focusing on cardiovascular endurance and endurance. We were then told to jump rope while moving and then switch it up and do it a different way that doesn't feel normal to you. After a while we then go into groups and were told to come up with a routine for jumping rope that was symmetrical and went along with the music that was playing in the background. My group tried our best and was able to get one full completion of what he had planned in the one minute that we were being video taped. It was fun, tiring, frustrating and educational all at the same time. I now know what it is like for the student that I will be teaching in the future if they have trouble with a certain skill or activity.

St. Mary's Lab 1

Today we had our first actual lab experience at st Mary's School. I had the pleasure of working with the pre-k group with my TA Lesley. We started the day off by attempting to play the chicken dance to get the kids moving but they had no interest in the music so we moved on to arts and crafts which immediately got there attention. First Lesley taught the kids how to draw a basketball which most of the students were able to accomplish the task. Some of the students didn't like basketball and wanted to draw something else so since i was wearing a Giants jersey for sports week I decided to teach them how to draw a football which worked out great with the Superbowl coming up and a girl began to talk to me about how her dad is a huge giants fan.

The students also had these magnets that they were playing around with which were very interesting because they were putting them together to make bracelets and belts which I found to be very fun myself.

We then went to the gymnasium where it seemed like the kids just went crazy. Barely any of the kids wanted to listen or behave and a lot of them just decided to sit out on the side and not participate in any of the games that we were playing. Once we brought out the parachute though, all the kids loved it. It seemed as though we had finally controlled the ciaos but it was short lived since after we put the parachute away the kids went right back to running wild!




Lab #1Write Up

Day 5 Lab A2

In class today we had to re-teach our first lab but we were a lot more prepared this time. For my teaching lab I taught the volleyball set which I had learned in the previous semester so I was able to use some things that I learned and saw in my lesson. I felt as thought I rush through many of the demonstration, particularly because we only had 4 minutes and I kind of figured the class knew what to do already. I also need to speak more loudly next time, I started off loud but progressively got quieter as the lesson went on.

A few things that I think I did well on were that I did demonstrate everything that I was teaching well and I had a safety statement. After class one of my classmates came up to me and told me that the part where I had them lay on there backs and set the ball back to the partner was very helpful to them which made me feel that my teaching, even though it was only for 4 minutes, helped someone.

I feel as though I did a lot better my second time and I will continue to get better as the semester progresses. My observations in PED 201 also helped me during this lab because of how hard it is to control the kids at St. Mary's it made this class of my peers a lot easier to control because they actually listened to what i had to say and did what I requested of them.

Day 4

At the start of class we got into a big circle with the music going and everyone had to show off there favorite dance moves by running to the center of the circle and performing them. While the person was performing them, everyone else around the circle had to copy whatever it was that the person in the center of the circle was doing.

After the dancing was done we started playing this tag game on half of the basketball court. At the start one person was it and we had to walk and once someone got tagged they could not move until another person walked over and said there name and what they had taught and the person that was tagged had to say they other person's name and what they had taught as well. Next another "it" person was added and and now you were able to skip instead of just walking.

We gathered in and did our yoga stretched which are starting to become easier and easier each time we do them. I still have trouble with the flexibility portion of the yoga but I am going to continue to work on it in and outside of the classroom.

To end the class we got into groups of 4 and a TA to go over what we will be doing next class on Friday. In my group was Emily, Lesley, Justin and the TA was Danielle. I am pretty confident going into Friday's lab and am looking forward to watching the video.

Day 3

Today in class we got back with our partners from last class to throw the frisbee back and forth to warm up and brush up on what we had learned last class. After a few minutes we joined together with another pair and had to find our own area in the gym and pretty much play keep away against the other pair. It was 20 seconds of high intensity physical activity followed by a 10 second resting period. We did this repetition 8 times and it was extremely tiring. Following this activity we stretched for a few minutes and did some yoga exercises.

We then got back into our groups of 4 and now we were one team. We had to run across the gym scoring points in all of the 4 goals but we had to pass the frisbee a minimum of 5 times. This activity was easy until we were aloud to play defense. My team came up with the strategy to have 2 of us stay back and guard our goal while 2 of us went around scoring points on the other goals. Our strategy worked very well because not that many teams scored on our goal and the 2 of us that were scoring had an easier time knowing who to pass to and what direction they were heading.

We then went to the classroom to wrap up what we had just done and go over the class website to make sure that the entire class had a good understand of what was taking place in the course and how to navigate through the online portion of the class which is a big part of it.

Day 2

Today as we walked into class we were handed colored penny's which split the class up into 4 different groups. We then had to find a partner that had the same color penny as you, my partner was Emily, and throw a frisbee back and forth. After a while we had to come up with two other ways to throw the frisbee. Two different types of throws that Emily and I came up with were a forehand throw and a bounce throw. We then got onto a court and had to pass back and forth into the designated goal area and later on a defender was added to make it so we had to run around more and work harder.

We then did a lot of different types of yoga stretched that were new to me. I had fun doing some of them but wasn't able to do a few. I found out that I need to work on my flexibility a lot more for the future.

Before we ended class Eric, who was one of the TA's, had the entire class form a huge circle in the center of the gym to play the name game where we had to say our names and then act out what we had taught in the previous class. It was a very good way to learn everyone's names.

St. Mary's Day 1

Our first time going to St. Mary's school was extremely fun. We went from station to station interacting with kids of all ages. We first played with the kids in the gymnasium which was a little crazy at times but as the day went on it was easier and easier to talk to the kids and set up games and activities. We then went to the pre kindergarten class where I helped with puzzles. We then went downstairs to the snack area where I played cards with a few of the older kids.
I find that blogging about going to St. Mary's every Wednesday will help me keep track of everything that I am learning and being able to put it into words will help me better understand what it is exactly that I am learning. I am looking forward to next Wednesday's meeting, I had fun this week.

Day 1

In today's class we had to pick from 4 activities which were basketball, football, volleyball and soccer. The object was to teach our fellow peers in our group for 4 minutes. If the item that we had planned on using was already in use then we had to come up with a back up activity just in case. We didn't have much time at all to plan out what we were going to do; we had to pretty much wing it. I chose the volleyballs because I have had more experience in the activity then the other activities that were available. I was the only one in my group to say a safety statement and the TA's complimented me on that which made me feel better about my perfomance in today's class.

My thoughts on blogging are that it is a good way for you to keep track of what you are doing day to day and it gives my friends and family an opportunity to see exactly what it is I am doing here at SUNY Cortland.

Creating a blog!

My initial reaction to creating my blog was both positive and negative. It was positive because I was excited to try something new and different since I have never blogged before. It was negative because it was kind of hard to figure out but luckily my roommate was able to help me through the process.

Over the winter break I took an online class through SUNY Cortland. It was Educational Psychology and helped me better understand why kids do act certain ways and why they do certain things. It gave me a much better understanding of how to teach all different types of classes and students.

I play for the Cortland Club Roller Hockey team will be traveling to Feasterville, PA this weekend to participate in the teams first tournament of the semester.