The Visitor

After watching The Visitor I was really moved. The Visitor was a story about a professor who discovers a foreign couple living in his apartment. After finding out the couple are illegal immigrants and they have no where to stay, he lets them stay with him. While staying at the apartment the professor begins to build close bonds with the couple. While out with the Professor, Torek the drummer is stopped by police officers because of racial profiling and is arrested for not having a green card. The professor ends up helping Torek fight his case and finds himself with meaning again in his life.
This movie really moved me because it showed the struggles and biases immigrants face in this country. As a physical education teacher I will encounter a lot of diverse students with this new multicultural age. Understand the struggles they face and adopting a multicultural way of teaching is the first step in fostering a non-bias classroom. There are many things that make up a good teacher and cultural competence is a big one.

Total Hours- 3

Skill Builders and Challenger Sports

For about ten 11 weeks now I have been participating in Skill builders and Challenger Sports every Tuesday night. As a lab assistant I am required to come for Challenger Sports, but I volunteer to come to Skill Builders as well. While working in Challenger Sports I get to see the older students and in Skill Builders I get to interact with the younger students. During these sessions I get to see a variety of students with disabilities and how they interact with future PE teachers. Having an aunt with Cerebral Palsy really gives me a passion for working with people with disabilities. While working at both sessions it really is about finding student’s abilities and building on them, rather then looking at their disability. Once the teacher gets past the disability, they really start to connect with their students and build a positive and productive learning environment. Through out the time I spent observing and interacting with these groups I saw many different teaching styles used to coupe with diverse learning needs. Attending these programs has really been an exceptional learning experience as well as a lot of fun.

Total Hours- 11

2010 Polar Plunge Cedar Beach, LI

On Saturday November 20, I attended the Cedar Beach Polar Plunge to benefit the New York Special Olympics. While back on Long Island for the weekend I decided to check out the Cedar Beach Polar Plunge in Mount Sinai. At first I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I got there it was a great time. It was amazing how many people came out on a Saturday morning in 50 degree weather wearing bathing suits ready to run down the beach and dive in to the salty water. Although I didn’t dive in myself, it was just good to be there raising money and supporting the cause. So many people were eager and ready to jump in and with life guards, scuba teams, and EMS crews standing by a few waves of people ran into the chilly water and quickly ran back out to the comfort of blankets and dry cloths. Altogether it was a great experience and it was said they raised around 25,000 dollars, so it was a successful event as well.

Total Hours- 6

Expanding the Cognitive to Motivate the Psycho Motor

Articles: Does Rewarding Children Backfire? http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/paying-kids-to-be-good/
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/does-rewarding-children-backfire/
Physical Activity and Intrinsic Motivation http://www.fitness.gov/intrinsic.pdf
Self-determination theory http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/theory.html
http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html

After reading these articles and learning how to make games using Power Point, Microsoft Word, and Excel, I realized how important improving our students knowledge of a game or skill is in relation to the motivation to be active. It is a growing trend that our youth is being coming more and more less active. In Physical Activity and Intrinsic Motivation it goes in to a study that found in many cases the reason students aren't being as active is because of the lack of motivation. They further found that this lack of motivation could be linked to students lacking the knowledge of the skill or game which acted as an inhibitor. I found these article to be connected to making my games because through using these cognitive games to elevate our students knowledge, in turn it will elevate their motivation to play the games they are learning about. Now that the students are competent in the rules and skills of the game, they are more likely be comfortable with the game, which will make them want to play the game and become more active.

The first two games I created were built using Microsoft Excel. One is a quick and easy question and answer game where excel tells you whether you have the answer correct or not and allows students to continue guessing until they get the right answer. The second game is basically Putting Bingo, where if you wanted to play you would down load the excel file and continue to hit shuffle followed by the print button to create as many different Bingo boards as you need for your class. After printing out the boards you would read off the questions to the students and if they find the answer on there board, they would put a chip over it as they follow the rules of bingo.
Excel Games
1st Game: Putting Q and A
2nd Game: Putting Bingo
-Putting Bingo Questions

The second two games I made were using Microsoft Word. One is a fun board game that you can print out and follow the simple instructions on the game on how to play. Before you start, make sure you print out or write down on index cards the questions and answers you would use to determine if you get to move you piece or not. The next game I made using word was a word scramble using key terms and cues related to putting. By following the key at the bottom of the page, students can decipher what the sequence of symbols really means.
Microsoft Word Games
1st Game: It's Time to Putt board game
-Board Game Questions
2nd Game: Putting Word Scramble


The Third two games I made were using Power Point. One is a cool question game where students must choose between four answers to get the question right and save the galaxy. The next game is a treasure hunt where students must correctly answer the question in order to receive and opportunity to guess where the treasure is on the grid. In order to play this game simply down load the power point file and change where the treasure is and begin asking your questions. This game works best if you split you students into groups to make it more competitive. You can use any questions, but there are putting questions that go along with it.
Power Point
1st Game: Learn to Putt to Save the Galaxy
2nd Game: May the Best Putter Find the Treasure
- Treasure Hunt Questions

During learning how and actually making these games I used the following sites:
PowerPoint Games http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/ppt_games.html

Microsoft Word Games http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/word_games.html

Microsoft Excel Games http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/excel_games.html

A. I watched videos and read the documents.

B. This web site is from Canada which is located just above the U.S. in North America. I know this because I traveled there when I was younger. I thought this piece was very interesting because it proved that increasing physical activity helps stimulates students minds, keeping them focused and on task. Through this the student did better in their other subjects. The PE teacher wasn’t involved because all of the activity being done took place in the class rooms, rather then in the gymnasium during PE. They went right from physical activity to learning class material, which they found had an increase in the student’s grades. Many of the students increase one reading level and many others became a lot more interested in the material they were learning. On top of all of the cognitive improvements, the students were also strengthening they bodies and becoming healthier then they were before. The out comes were related to the NYS PE standards because they emphasized creating a safe and healthy environment as well as engaged them in daily physical activity. At the same time it left out some of the standards in the fact that resource management and the affective domain were not addressed.

WEB SITES:
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/leishman-brain090422.wmv
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/city_park_school_results.html
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/recess_on_behaviour.html
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/deskercise.html


C. My Lesson Plan and Progression Sheet from Lab D

Teaching the Golf Putt

For my lab D I had the task of teaching a golf putting lesson. I felt the lesson went pretty smoothly with just a few hick-ups. I started off the lesson a little short on time so I had to skip my instant activity and mover right into the lesson. From there I explained the cues on how to putt and had the students break into groups on the separate putting greens. After reminding the students to peer assess one another and give good feedback, I told them to begin putting and started to give my own feedback. Throughout the lesson I kept the students active as much as possible, which you can see in my time coding form. Also, to motivate the students to be on their best behavior, I set up WII Golf and told the students that which ever group was behaving and performing the best could switch over to the WII Golf. I found this to be very effective. As the end of class came a little early for the lesson, I aloud any students that had to go to class leave, while the rest finished the lesson. After watching the video I noticed it was a little rushed, but it had a lot to do with the short amount of time I was left to teach. I noticed because of rushing I wasn't able to further change up the task by dropping in cones on the putting greens and having the students putt around them. With more time I would have been able to incorporate this. I was able to verbally change up the task for some by asking to keep score with their partner or for another student who had an injured arm, I had her use a hockey stick and tennis ball to make it a little easier. Altogether I felt to students learned a lot and had a lot of fun.

AAHPERD Conference in Tampa 09'

A few weeks ago while attending an APEM (Association of Physical Education Majors) meeting, I was presented the idea of going to the National AAHPERD conference. At first, all I could think about was how much money it was going to cost and the amount of class I was going to miss. But after a lot of persuasion by some of my fellow PE majors, I decided to go for it. Boy was I not disappointed. From the second I arrived to the conference I was over whelmed by the amount of people, information, and ideas from all over the country. I found one of the hardest things while at the conference was simply just deciding what sessions to go to. From learning to Brazilian dance to learning how to engage urban youth, there was an endless variety of educational sessions to interest everyone. For 5 days a struggled to try and fit in ever session I was interested in and barely came close. On top of all the sessions going on every day, they held a monster exhibition in the middle of the conference consisting of well over a few hundred stands. These stands advertised everything from the newest equipment on the market to new technology and inventive ideas.
Being a some what quiet person, I have to say in the beginning of the conference I was a little hesitant to introduce my self to all of these new people from all of the country. But very shortly after watching many of the older PE majors socializing, I went from have no confidence to a PHD in introductions and networking. By the end of the trip I had met the President of AAHPERD, sat down and had a long conversation with the Eastern District President, and socialized with many other professors, administrators, and even my old PE teacher from high school. The amount of knowledge I acquired from these people was just as, if not more insightful then the sessions themselves.
The last part and probably the best part of this trip was the fact that I left Cortland for Tampa with one or two new friends and came back with close to 20 great friends. The amount of fun and time I spent with the group was priceless. For an educational trip it felt a lot more like an amazing vacation.