Halloween at St. Mary's!

Today was a wild experience with the children at St. Mary's. Since this is an after-school program, many of the kids were very excited to go trick-or-treating after their activities. To maintain organization throughout the gymnasium, we worked on keeping the children interested and focused on their individual fun Halloween-themed activity. My group lead the children at the end with a group chant, song, and dance to dance out some of those jitters. I enjoyed playing a game with the younger group of children by walking around with a bin while they worked on throwing beanbags into the bin. Today's activities were focused on overhand throwing and catching skills. Check out my analysis for Lab 4! 

St. Mary's Interaction

This past weeks experience at St. Mary's school was very fun and exhilarating. I was able to make up tag games with the kids on the playground and really get them running around. I learned that changing up the rules and using variation in different tag games can really keep the children moving as well as keeping them interested and having fun. Once in the gymnasium, my group had the older 3rd graders, who were all vigorous and full of energy. We played a fun combination of handball, basketball, and soccer called Speedball. Every kid interacted well with this variation and one young boy was able to punt the ball from one end of the gymnasium into the basketball hoop at the other end. It caused for an energetic commotion and a giant smile on the boy's face! We played other goal-oriented games with scooters which made it so everyone had to use different cognitive skills and muscles. Lab 3 Analysis!

Let's Play some Dodgeball!

Dodgeball is a fun game that is great for conditioning, agility, arm strength, and hand-eye coordination. I think is crazy for people to say that this should not be played in physical education. Come on…. It gets kids moving around, using their psychomotor skills, using strategy, and improves ones competitive position.  Competition is part of life, and dodgeball certainly teaches kids to give it their all or they can simply quit and lose. Don’t we want to teach children to take advantage of being competitive and how that is a part of life? Oh of course- the elimination factor. As we evolve in the PE setting, we know that we can alter any sport, game, or activity to fit the needs and equality of all students. There can be a penalty for “getting out” such as a side activity in a “jail” so that the students want to come back in. They may need to catch a ball thrown by their other teammates from across the gymnasium to return to the main floor-which creates an awesome, intense competition and excitement when numbers are close. As for safety-I do not see a safety or injury factor to dodgeball. Maybe years and years ago when they did not have such a variety of balls to play with such as nerf balls and smaller foam balls. Injury is obviously a risk in all sports, exercise, and athletics. I honestly think people need to stop being such babies about this topic. To say that it is a dangerous activity is just unreasonable.
                There is absolutely a place for dodgeball in the physical education curriculum. It is how the activity it structured and modified that relates to our goals in overall fitness, athletics, and fun. There should always be a goal in mind when planning activities for students. The physical educator must ensure that students are learning about target heart rate, agility, throwing mechanics, catching skills, etc. while playing any game. When taught from this perspective, dodgeball becomes a valuable learning tool, not a lesson in humiliation.

Developing a Physical Lifestyle for Children

Out student's health should be a top priority as a physical educator. Possessing particular fundamental skills that are learned through physical education helps our students accomplish and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical fitness that with follow them into their future and is goaled toward leading a physically active lifestyle. According to the American Obesity Association (www.obesity.org), 81% of the parents of elementary, middle, or high school children are concerned with their children’s getting adequate daily physical education.  For that reason, physical and skill assessment is extremely important for our students.  This way, we can continuously be aware of our student’s physical development as well as their fundamental skill development. As children progress and advance their essential skills, they are also enhancing their cognitive development as well as their motor domain. Continuing this type of impression and awareness increases the child’s movement skill acquisition as well as help the child make adaptive change toward their proficiency in movement and increased motor control. Since we want our students to be healthy and fit, educating them on nutrition and illness is an important aspect to our profession as well. Children that face malnutrition or are unaware of the vitamins and minerals that our body needs, may never entirely reach the growth means for their age level.  It is particularly vital for us as physical educators to recognize and demonstrate the factors affecting childhood motor development. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (www.nichd.nih.gov) really clarifies how play facilitates cognitive and affective growth in young children. It also explicates the important means of developing both fine and gross motor skills and how affective development is very dramatic during the preschool years.I am happy to read that as more parents become more concerned about healthful living, there has been considerable public attention being drawn to children's fitness levels. This encourages me to join the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) considering they are focused on improving youth fitness levels and providing quality physical education daily.

The beginning...

 My initial reaction to creating a blog you ask? Not too sure about it. I am not into presenting all of my work online and I'm very use to my personal paper planner. I think social networking has contributed to the laziness and poor interpersonal communication of my generation and I honestly do not enjoy it's benefits. Although I feel this way, I am willing to participate and try to understand it's connotation.
As for my summer endeavors- I participated in many outdoor activities that will better my teaching to children in outdoor recreation. I learned the fundamentals of flat-water kayaking and competed in a 20 mile race. I also mastered wind-surfing as well as went on multiple camping trips. I participated in different styles of yoga including Hatha and Bikram. All of these activities have helped me stay focused on fitness and health and will help me become a better educator.