Skateboarding added to schools' P.E. curriculum worldwide

Skateboarding added to gym classes

I thought this was interesting to say the least. New and innovating ideas are coming out in PE all of the time. The concept of skateboarding isn't new, but the use of it within a physical education setting is. It could be a fun unit; it definitely will be different than your everyday physical education units.

Lab A2 Reflection

The above video is my Lab A2 for EDU 255. I think my second time teaching the four minute lesson went better than the first time. It certainly is a lot easier to teach something when you have practiced it. Even though I practiced it still didn't go exactly how I wrote it out on paper. There were some things that I wanted to say or do that I didn't end up saying or doing. I also went over the four minutes and ended up going for five. I guess it is better to go a little longer than too short though.

The following is a list of things that I incorporated in my lesson:

- Introduction - introduced myself and what I was going to be teaching
- Hook - "When you play basketball how many of you have gotten the ball stolen from you? ... Today I'm going to be teaching you a few drills to prevent that from happening."
- Pinpointing - I had everyone stop and watch Andy doing the drill because he was doing it correctly.
- I asked if everyone understood.
- I set boundaries.
- I repeated the three main points of the lesson while they were playing the game that incorporated them all.
- I gave some specific feedback. I remember telling Jen to get a lower stance.
- Checking for understanding - I asked them what the three main points of the lesson were.
- I used names.

The following is a list of things I should have done in my lesson:

- They took a little long to retrieve a basketball, and I just waited for them. I should have told them to hustle or use a countdown to get them to hurry up. I did tell them to hustle at the end of the game though.
- They started dribbling the ball when I was demonstrating how I wanted it to be done. I should have to hold their basketballs and watch me. When I stopped demonstrating they started to stop doing the drill, and I had to tell them to keeping going. I should have said "Watch me demonstrate how to do it and when I say go I want you to practice the drill."
- I didn't really give specific feedback. I only said "good job" during the drills.
- When I was demonstrating the third drill to rotate until the ball is on the opposite side of the defender I had Andy in front of me so he was blocking me. I should have had Andy in front of me so our sides were facing everyone.
- I didn't mention anything about safety. I originally planned to tell them to be careful not to slap anyone's wrists while playing the game but forgot.
- I kind of just watched as they played the game. I repeated the three main points and gave some feedback but not as much as I should have.

Overall I think I did better than I did the first time so I am happy with how it went but definitely not satisfied.

5. Why is the movement task-student response unit of analysis so important in physical education?

A movement task is an activity within a lesson. An example of a movement task would be shooting free throws. Student response is the students actually performing the task. The movement task-student response unit is important in physical education because it gives the students a smaller task within a lesson to perform. The teacher observes the students during the student response to determine whether they are performing the task correctly. If they are then the teacher decides how to proceed to the next task. The next task can continue working on a similar task or move on to a completely different task. This unit of analysis is so important because it continuously gives the students a task, the teacher analyzes how the students are doing, and it gives the teacher an idea of where to go with the lesson.

4. Why is the process that teachers choose to use to teach content important?

The process that teachers choose to use to teach content is important because it affects how students learn and can contribute to accomplishing goals. Every student that you will be teaching will be different so it is important to begin the teaching process at the most basic level. Basic skills have to be learned before moving on to more advanced skills. For example, you need to learn how to throw a ball before learning to throw a curveball. Another aspect that is important when teaching is incorporating different objectives into a single lesson. For example, instead of just telling the students how to throw a ball have them do it themselves. This helps develop their motor skills (throwing a ball). You can also ask them where the ball goes in relation to where they release the ball (cognitive domain). Finally, if they practice throwing with a partner they will hit the affective domain as well. For a student to learn the required information it isn't necessarily what is being taught but how it is being taught that contributes to how well they learn it.

1. What is meant by the idea that teaching is a goal-oriented activity?

Teaching is a goal-oriented activity. One doesn't teach just to talk about meaningless information; there is a purpose and meaning behind it. Teaching and coaching are a like in that they both have goals that are similar. For example, a coach might have a goal (broad outcome) for his/her athletes to improve in that particular sport. Similarly, a teacher might have a goal for his/her students to improve in a particular subject. More specifically, a physical education teacher may have an objective (more specific outcome) for all of his/her students improve their mile time by ten seconds in two months. Without goals teachers would have a difficult time assessing their students' improvement in a certain area and also a difficult time developing a meaningful curriculum. Goals not only give the teacher motivation but also the students. There needs to be motivation for the student to participate and goals for them to shoot for a certain level.

We watched this video in class on Friday and discussed the traits Freddy Mercury possessed that made him a rock star. Some of the traits the class observed were presence, control, and passion to name a few. Professor Yang then erased the word rock star and replaced it with teacher. I never thought of it that way, but all of the traits we named to describe a rock star did actually fit that of a teacher. I guess we all really are rock stars in training!

Day 1 - Practice Teaching

My First EDU 255 Class

My first EDU 255 class with Professor Yang was interesting. I didn't know what to expect and definitely didn't think we would be teaching a four minute lesson to the class. We all had to teach a four minute lesson on anything we wanted. We had the choice to use an item that was brought to class (football, volleyball, soccer ball, basketball) to teach a lesson or use anything else we wanted to. The class was split in half, and we began to teach our lessons. I was one of the last people to go so I was a little nervous that someone else might do what I was thinking. Luckily, no one else did what I had in mind. I ended up teaching the class how to do the triple jump since I have experience coaching track & field. After my lesson I realized I chose something that needed a lot longer than four minutes to teach. I guess that is better than ending my lesson before the four minutes expired though. Everyone in the class was supportive of everyone that was teaching their lesson, and it turned out better than I thought (at least for me). It was interesting to see how everyone had their own way of teaching their lesson but was similar in ways as well. Overall I was a little nervous at first, but I know the more we practice the better teachers we will become.