October 10th, 2012

This was the first day of the badminton unit. I have never taught badminton before, and I believe the last time I have even played the sport was five years ago when I was in high school. The first class I just observed my host teacher teach a class of seventh graders. This for me was an opportunity to observe and learn, giving me a platform to base my lessons upon. My host teacher is an experienced teacher who demonstrates great control over the students. Watching him teach is a great opportunity. I have not had many of these though, because of the odd scheduling of this semester. The next class I volunteered to teach the entire class. It went somewhat well, but their is always room for improvement. I felt as though I could have calmed down and explained the rules and history a little more in depth. My host teacher noticed this and allowed me to observe him once more with another seventh grade class. This helped because it allowed me to see what I had forgotten to explain to the students in the previous class. The last class I felt was an amazing class, because I was able to calm down and explain everything that I wanted. The students were seventh graders, and for some of their first times playing badminton I felt as though the did a great job. Next time though I will have to work on explaining the service rotation rules a little better. Every class though is a learning experience and my goal is to progress each class.

October 9th, 2012

Today was a superintendent's day here at the Victor Central School District. What was discussed today was the creation of the SLO's, or student learning objectives based upon the pre-assessment performed a few weeks prior. It was agreed upon that the goal for the students was that 75% of the students would increase their score by a point. This I believe is a reasonable goal for the students. I was not able to help much during this time, but I was able to help with the excel spread sheets that held the students scores, so in this way I was able to participate in the SLO process. Also today once the meeting broke I was able to find out about the other side of being a Physical Education Teacher. I had to repair equipment for the upcoming badminton lesson by raiding the janitors closet, and using material from there. I have found there are many different tasks a P.E. teacher needs to perform that is not quite taught in college. It is a little humorous but I enjoy working with my hands, so I do not mind it. Also to prepare for the badminton lesson I had to get all of the equipment accounted for, and set it up for tomorrow. I really want to be prepared for tomorrow, so the classes are organized and ready for activity. I find it amazing that I am able to perform all of these different activities that I have limited background in. Being here at the Victor Central School District has really helped me to expand my horizons.

October 5th, 2012

For the last day of the rugby unit the students performed quite well. This unit I have felt has had its ups and its downs. The students have made not only a development in skill, but a development in their characteristic as well. Students who were somewhat off task in the beginning of the unit have really matured, and grown accustomed as to how they should act during Physical Education class. It is an indescribable feeling to see students you have taught a completely new a foreign skill to succeed and apply your teaching. Many of these students I am sure have never played the sport of rugby before this unit, and to catch on apply the skills as quickly as they have is an amazing sight to see. Throughout this unit I have come to know the students, and I think many of them have come to know me as well. My time here at Victor is becoming shorter,and the ending of this unit has made me realize the ending of my stay here is soon. I will miss the family type atmosphere that is present here at Victor among the faculty and staff. Also the amazing acceptance of the Physical Education program within the curriculum. For a Physical Education teacher this would most definitely be a dream school to work at. I had a discussion with my host teacher the other day based upon this type of thinking. He explained how it would be great for me to get into a school with a program like the one at Victor. I though am not sure if this type of program would truly be a place where I would want to work. If an offer came I would take it, but I have always had this "hero" mentality. Ever since I was young I have always wanted to help others, and to go into a program that has everything, I feel would not suit me. I want to make a change, not for glory or any type of selfish idea like that, but to help the less fortunate and at the same time impact them for the positive. This I know is ridiculous thinking, but I would like to take the techniques and skills I have learned and apply them where I know they are needed and will be appreciated. This is just a though that has been rolling through my head lately, but who knows what the future will bring.

October 4th, 2012

Today started extremely positive, with me being ready for classes to enter, and as my host teacher says, "Teach some kids up!" The first class came in and were a little rowdy at first, but many of the students at the beginning of the year stood up and got the other students in the group to calm down. I have put a lot of pressure on these students to stand up and be leaders, and I believe it is starting to work. The students worked well together in games and applied all of the different concepts that I taught to them. This was extremely pleasing to see. Toward the end of class I asked the students to place all of the equipment back correctly. They did, but the students that I have been having act as leaders were there the entire time organizing everything. It was good to see this evolvement from the the beginning of the year until now. The end of the day went good, but not great. Due to a fire drill we were limited on time, and were only able to participate in only a few minutes of game play. This was alright because the students knew what to do, but I felt bad because if their limited time compared to other classes. Coaching today I thought was one if my better days. Normally I am only able to help with activities by being their in support of my host teacher. Lately though he has been giving me more responsibilities, and next week I will actually be running an entire week of practices. Then on the eleventh I will coach my first game. This I am extremely excite for. Today we had an odd number, and I was able to participate as well. It's was a learning experience for me for the skills we were performing. I found out I could perform them quite well. Over all it was another great day.

October 3rd, 2012

Today I thought began extremely positive. I came in early and was able to exercise before my first period class, and it really prepared me before class. I was able to get the students extremely excited for game play today, and they were really into applying the three different concepts of application in game play. These concepts were the application of skills, strategy, and game rules. The first three classs I thought performed these concepts in game play with extreme accuracy and every student I felt deserved a four in their grading for the day. this is the highest score that one can recieve. Also one technique that I used was amking every student touch the ball before they were able eto score a try. This caused every student to participate to the best of their ability and really feel part of the team. I saw smiles, and laughing today. This really made me feel great that I could impact the students in this way. My last class though struggled and all of the positive feelings I had almost deminished. I saw for the first time students arguing, and almost fighting over arguments that were in my eyes pointless. They were all based upon clear cut rules that I had explained in great length. i brought the students in about four times to try and solve this delema. Nothing I did seemed to solve this issue. I hope this is not a common occurence, becasuse if it is their will be some changes put in place.

October 2nd, 2012

The day I thought went quite well. I did not perfrom my usually daily routine of lifting before class. Normally this helps to get my body prepared for class, and teaching, but latley it has just made me tired. What I did today instead was use this extra time to prepare for my upcoming lessons, and to perform some research in to the kidnastics unit I will be performing when I go to Geneva in my second placement for elementary teaching. The book I found most interesting was actually written by an instruct of mine from SUNY Cortland, Eric Malmberg. This I found to be quite ironic. Classes today I thought went well in comparison to yesterday's classes. I really have been trying to decrease the time in which it takes me to get get re-adjusted each week to teaching. By my second class this afternoon I felt like I was back in the routine of teaching. Today many of the students really worked on incorporating punting techniques within their rugby game play. They were using this as a strategy if they were down to their third ruck, and needed a goal. In these lessons like I have said in previous entrys the main focaus of these last lessons is to incorporate game play with skill, strategy, and rules application. The last class I found today was the class that implemented these concepts the best. This class was the class I used for my teacher work sample, and they are somewhat smaller in numbers. This causes each student to touch the ball and perform the technical aspect of the the concepts taught. Overall today was a great day. I hope the progress of the students keeps increasing.

October 1st,2012

Today was not a great of a day as I would have hoped for. While I was teaching for some reason I was not able to articulate the message that I wanted to get across to the students. We have been performing gameplay for quite some time now and I feel as though the manotomy of the lesson is starting to wear thin on me. it is not bad, but I do enjoy change, and teaching new ideas. the students today were somewhat off task, but they tried to erform the activitiy to the best of their ability. The understanding of the activity, and the different concepts we are implementing are starting to come together quite nicely. The idea of spreading out the defense, and apply taught skills correctly is starting to come about. there is one more lesson of full game play left. Hopefully during this lesson all of the students in all of the classes will understand how to apply skills, strategy, and the rules of rugby during gameplay. I have noticed some of the students are taking this activity too seriously. I mean that they are getting to the point where their emotions are so strong that in some cases I have been afraid fights will break out. I find this odd becasue it is a non contact activity, and I try to break the teams up as evenly as possible. When I notice an event like this I bring the students together and remind them about sportsmanship, and how they are held to personal and social responsibilities for a grade. Other then these few and far between events the students are doing well, and it is nice to see them progress in something that I have taught them.