This semester in EDU 255 I learned a lot of information that I never considered would be important when teaching. While being a Teacher Assistant for a Cortland Experience class I was able to take extra time with the EDU 255 information and help teach my COR students in a fun way. It is important to hook your students into the lesson, pin-point good activity, demonstrate what you would like them to perform, explain to them the lesson and rules, and much more. While I was teaching my COR class, I made sure I followed these life long lessons. The class loved my activity and learned a lot from what I taught. I played a jeopardy game on wellness. I had a lot of facts that students new the answers too but also had some questions that were difficult for them to figure out. It was challenging but it allowed everyone to be a winner. I was a TA for this class every Monday for the Fall 2008 semester.
Other community services that I did throughout the semester was was collect can foods for an Church around the area that was doing a fundraiser for needy families. I also helped with adapting two families for the Christmas season by buying gifts and helping wrap gifts for the families. Another community service project that I did was rake leaves for a family this fall. They really appreciated our help. Doing community services really opens my eyes and heart. I grow as a person every time I help someone in need. I think as a future teacher I would want my students to go out and do some kind of community services because it Will help them grow to be bigger and better people.

Orienteering Lab D

On Friday November 14, I taught orienteering again. This time it was in the gymnastics room. It was a follow up to my last lesson on symbols. I gave students different color post its. Whoever had the same color post it was in a group together. Each group was given a map of the gymnastics room that had controls on them. Each control was numbered differently on each map and the groups had to go in the ordered numbers. This prevented all groups being at one control. The controls were the different symbols learned in class. Each group had to be creative and form that symbol. When they decided how they wanted to form the symbol they would call me over and I would take a picture of them. I will be posting these pictures up so they can see each others formations. One control was the Jackie Chan video game. Each player had 20 seconds to play. They would have to run in place and jump over obstacles (which is something that will occur many times when you are orienting). Overall, I think I had a good idea for my lesson and it went smoothly. In the beginning I was a little jittery from running around and getting ready for the lesson. As the lesson went on I calmed down and really enjoyed myself. I did the best I could with keeping an eye on the students. I spoke to students when they were not following the directions. I actually had to have a kid sit out for a few minutes to calm him down in hopes he would stop misbehaving, which in the end he stopped. I continued to go over the safety rules because the room was full of equipment and temptations. At the end of the lesson I had them take a little assessment on the symbols and the cues and then I went over the answers. I feel I took a lot under consideration from my first two lessons in what I did poorly on and tried to improve. I worked on trying to give congruent feedback, as well as keeping more than 50% of the class active. I think I succeeded at that. When the lesson was all done I felt very accomplished and proud of how I did.
Here is my transcript. I need to work on not saying "guys" and "gunna".
Here is my feedback form. I have learned that I need to use the students name more instead of saying guys, or plainly good job by itself. If I said names I would have had a lot more feedback. I am slowly improving however.

At the end of the lesson I gave the students an assessment on Orienteering. Everyone did very well on the assessment.

My Heart Rate in the Explorer Scavenger Hunt

Here is my heart rate throughout the explorer scavenger hunt.

I was surprised to see how low my heart rate was because throughout the entire activity I was running and this graph shows me being lazy; which was not the case. I thought the instant activity with designing a country flag was really neat. I would have never thought to do that type of task. Whenever I think of an instant activity I think of the students running around. So it was nice to see that you can do different fun activities that don't involve running. The scavenger hung was a lot of fun, but at times it was frustrating waiting for the next clue. I can see myself doing an activities like this again because it got the class thinking of history, being competitive, and having fun. If I was to do the activity again I think i would find a different way of sending out the clues to the groups. Having just one phone with 4 other groups sending pictures to it made a lot of waiting time. I also really liked how the activity involved history. I will want to incorporate lessons from there classroom into physical education lessons becuase I feel activity really helps students remeber information. A lot of students are kinesthetic learners and learn more from doing activities, so incorporating games with history, health, science, or other subjects will really emphasize learning. Whenever we receieved a clue we would sprint to that clue becuase we wanted to be the first one done, but we also would have a lot of rest time when we are waiting for the next clue. Therefore, looking at the graph I would have to say that the activity did not keep me as active as they hoped.

Lesson # 2 on Orienteering

Within the next two weeks after my first orienteering lesson, I had to teach again. This time I was not sick and was able to speak loudly for everyone to hear. I was disappointed because I forgot to reintroduce myself and remind the class of the safety concerns. Other than that I feel the lesson went well. I had the class get into four groups. I taught them about nature and man-made symbols that would appear on a map. Within these groups I had them do a relay race where they had to run to the middle of the gym and pick up a card that had a symbol on it. They then had to run to the other side of the gym and place the card on to a paper that stated the name of the symbol. Everyone told me they loved the game. The problems that I saw during the lesson was that I had some management time that caused the students to wait for a few seconds. For a good portion of the lesson, all students were active, which I think is very positive. I worked hard at tring to give everyone feedback, but i still have room for improvement. I made a visual aid that was big, colorful, and showed all the symbols. The signs at the opposite end of the gym where hand written, which in the future I would print out. With every lesson I am imporving but also finding new areas that I need to work on. I enjoy have these experiences because I hope that they will help me to become the best Physical Educator that I can be.
One day I went to talk to my professor and found out that what I thought was a lot of activity ended up being all waiting time. I never considered that only having only 4 groups do a relay only allowed for 4 people to participate at a time. At the end of the activity a lot of my class mates came up to me and told me they liked the relay game, so I guess I figured it was a good lesson. In the end, it was not. When I realized this I was very upset and very disappointed in myself. I will never allow that to happen again. I will always make sure my class will be active. No more relays or activities that require a line.
Here is my transcript from this lesson
Here is my feedback form from this lesson

Lesson #1 of Orienteering

When the day arrived that I had to teach for my C-lab on Orienteering, I ended up coming down with a cold. This cold caused me to lose some of my voice, so I had difficulty speaking loudly. However, I worked with what I had, and tried to speak as loud as I could. I asked the class to listen carefully to me because I would be hard to hear. The lesson for the most part ran smoothly. I had all the students point to the North, South, East, and West. The second task delt with them working in a group and going to certain directions and performing exercises that were on the cards at that location. The hardest part for this lab was giving feedback. When it came time to giving someone feedback my mind would go blank on their name and I would have difficulty coming up with their name fast enough to give them feedback before they ran off to the next station. Also I found it hard to give feedback on the directions people were going. After teaching this lab I now know areas that I need to work on. One would be giving positive congruent feedback, another is working on my projection, and dealing with on the spot situations (losing your voice).

orienteering lesson plan

SUNY
Cortland Physical Education

Lesson Plan _5___of ­­_20__	NYS/NASPE Standards	School and Teacher Names: Teaching Style: Command Practice Reciprocal Self-Check Guided Discovery Inclusion Convergent Divergent Jigsaw Cooperative		Date: October 20, 2008 Grade: Middle School # in class: 25
		Objectives	Assessment Tool	Length of class: 14 mins
Domains
Psychomotor	1a/1	1. By the end of the lesson the students will be able to walk to the degrees of North, South, East, or West successfully.	Teacher Observation	Unit: Orienteering Focus: N, W, S, E
Affective	2/5	2. During the activities the students will be working together cooperatively and give praises when succeeding in finding the directions.	Self Assessment paper	Equipment: Poly spots, stickers, poster holders, and maps
Cognitive	1a/2	3. Students will be able to find more than half of the controls by using a map during class.	Teacher observation
Safety Statement	2/5	4. During the lesson the students will be mindful of their personal space as they go from direction to direction.	Self Assessment paper	References: PECentral.com; Orienteering The Sport of Navigating with Map and Compass By: Steven Boga; Professor Malmberg

Content	Time (mins)	Organization & Transitions	Teaching Progressions	Adaptations Assessments, Reminders
Instant Activity				TBI
Hook & Set Induction	1	T SSSSSSSSSSSS	How many people have always wanted to travel around the United States? Well, today is your chance!
Demo	1	T SSSSSSSSSSSS	Demonstrating where North, South, East, and West are according to the gym by having signs and pointing out the directions.	Signal for attention Cues CFU
Body of Lesson	6	SSSSSS SSSSSS SS T SS	Skill:
			Understanding Degrees: We will explain what degree goes with what direction 0/360=North, 90=East, To be able to tell us what direction and being able to orient yourself with degrees 180=South, 270=West they are facing.
			Reading a Compass: 0/360=North, 90=East Teaching them how to move with a compass 180=South, 270=West
			Map Reading: 0/360=North, 90=East Finish first Students will be able to read a map with degrees and 180=South, 270=West Find the end result
			Learning man-made map symbols: major road, footpath, Check for understanding Intorducing symbols and being able to recognize them building, railroad and on a map fence
			Learning nature map symbols: streams, lake, cliff, and Check for understanding Introducing symbols and being able to reconogize boulder them on a map
			Map symbol relay: major road, footpath, The students will be put into team and they will match building, railroad, fence, Be the first team to finish the relay the name with the symbol. streams, lake, cliff and boulder
			Map memory: Directions, degrees and Put 15 out of 20 controls in the The student will look at a key map and they will have symbols correct spot to remember where the controls are on the map and place them on a blank team map.
			Scavenger Hunt in the gym: Directions, degrees and The first to finish Using a map to locate controls in the gym symbols
			Unscramble word hunt: Directions, degrees and Spell the word the fastest Locating letters to spell out a word or phrase symbols
			Jigsaw Puzzle: Locating puzzle pieces that are spread out around an Directions, degrees and To finish the puzzle area symbols
			Scavenger hunt in the gymnastics room: Directions, degrees and To finish first The students will find the controls located in the symbols gymnastics room using a map
			Scavenger Hunt in PER: Directions, degrees and To finish first The students will find the controls located in PER symbols using a map
			Scavenger Hunt outside: Directions, degrees and To finish first Students will locate controls using a compass symbols and a map
Assess			Finding the correct colors during the Color game, as well as being successful in scavenger games.
Closure			Next week we will be exploring different games from different parts of the United States.

Pre-planning:
Previous instruction in this activity (earlier grade levels)

This
is the first time they have worked with Orienteering.

Post-planning:
“Assessment Drives Teaching:” future needs based on
assessment results

Giving the
students, the knowledge to be able to do a scavenger hunt by
themselves.

Teacher
Reflection Notes:

"Guiding and inspiring
youngsters in the process of becoming physically educated and healthy
for a lifetime."

Orienteering

Orienteering

P.E. Mini Confrence

SUNY Cortland's P.E. Mini Confrence is always a huge success. Many Physical Education Teachers from around the area come to learn new teaching techniques from other teachers. I went to the Main speaker and he was very enlightening. I was very moved by his presentation. I never knew that I was going to see a speaker that is as famous of a physical educator as he was. He has won many awards for his patience and helpful teachings to adapted students. After listening to him speak and watching clips from his life, I was very interested in becoming an adapted concentration. I only hope to some day make a positive impact on others lives like he has. I was so privledged to have seen him speak. For the rest of me teaching career I will think about him and how I want to positively change children's lives like he has. He is an inspiration to all physical Educators.
Before he spoke our class did an introduction to the confrence. We came out saying "We will teach you". It was so much fun and really got us involved and ready for the confrence. I also liked the little activity we did, that got everyone down onto the basketball floor meeting one another. It was a great way to meet future employers.
I can't wait for next years Mini Confrence and I hope to be apart of it more.

Feedback

Feedback is very important for students to hear from their teachers. Feedback allows them to understand areas they need to improve on and areas that they are being successful at. It is important with feedback that you make it go along with the cues that are taught and that you are positive with what you say.
After listening to my transcript, I gave feedback to five students. Two were boys and three were girls. I found that I am pretty even with feedback between the sexes but I usually just give feedback to the same individuals over and over again. Before I listened to my transcript I figured that my feedback was just going to be general, however I was surprised to find out that they were not all general. I was specific and postive with skills that students were performing. It was weird listening to my transcript becuase there was many breaks inbetween each feedback because I was walking around to each group. I liked listening to my transcript for my feedback because it made it very clear to me what I need to fix and how encouraging feedback should be.

Is that MY voice?

Transcripts are a great way to help students learn how to teach. Listening to their voices allows them to know if they need to have a more energenic voice or speak up louder.
For me, I feel that I spoke clearly so everyone could hear me but, I also feel I could have been more enthusiastic about my lesson. After listening to my transcript, I now know what I need to fix, but I was very happy that I did not say "um's" and 'uh's" a lot. Areas that I need to improve on are using more descriptive words when explaining a task and getting more involved in the game. I was just walking around to each group a lot and not being energetic and encouraging to the teams. I would just say a few feedback comments here and there (however, feedback is for another blog in the future).
After I was done instructing the lesson I was very annoyed with myself becuase I forgot to add an important challenge to my lesson. I really wanted to have individual scoring within the group so that there was some competition and more involvement in the activity.
For the most part, I was satisfied with how I taught and I really enjoyed listening to myself on the transcript because now I know how to improve.

Teaching Improvements

After watching a video from a lesson that I taught, I found that I had a lot of improvements to make. First off, it is crucial to speak loud. I could barely hear myself in the video, and in order to be an effective teacher the class must be able to hear you clearly. Also, I failed to introduce myself to the class before I started teaching. Students should feel comfortable with you as their teacher and if you do not tell them you name it is difficult for them to respect and trust you. When you are introducing a lesson you should always tell the students about the safety rules, so that you have a space that is fun, safe and full of learning for the students. When I was doing my lesson I did not tell the safety rules till after the lesson was over. This is bad because learning the rules after the lesson is pointless knowledge to them and a child could have been hurt.
I also realized that I did not entail a lot of the teaching skills and criteria into my lesson. I left out cues, challenges, pinpointing, feedback, and checking for understanding. Cues are very important when teaching young children a new skill. Cues help students learn and remember information better, and in my lesson I did not leave these students with a cue to remember. I also did not give the class a challenge that would have got them very excited about the class and the lesson. Also, when the students were partnered up and working on bumping I should have been going around to every group and giving them feedback of the good skills they had and areas that they needed to work on. At the end of the lesson we talked about the safety tips but failed to question the class for understanding of bumping. Many kids are not willing to raise their hand when they don’t understand something because they do not want to be embarrassed in front of their peers. Therefore, it is important to ask simple questions to the group to make sure they understood what to do and remember the proper techniques.
This lesson was a great introduction of how to be a better teacher. I now know what I am good at and what I need to improve on. I mostly have a lot of improving to do, but I am very willing to work hard to be the best teacher that I can be.