Wednesday, March 14, 2012



Slow start to the 2012 National AAHPERD Conference due to a power outage in Boston, but yesterday's Exergame lab was a huge success! We had a very big turn out and informed many physical education teachers about the power of exergames in the classroom.  Many teachers had PEP grants and were ready to bring many systems into their classrooms including the eye toy, iDance and an excellent interactive kick boxing game. I'm looking forward to the conference starting up again tomorrow morning and getting some power back in the hotel room. Stay tuned for more updates for the Conference!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

THE GREAT DEBATE!!!!


The Great Debate started off slow and heated up quickly.  The Sports with Sticks group tried to bring up some points as to why children should learn how to play sports.  They brought up a couple of good reasons to why children should learn how to play sports at a young age but seemed to leave out the relation to physical eduction.  I believe students should learn how to play some organized sports at a young age but I feel that the decision is up to the parents of the child over the physical educator.  As a physical education teacher you may see some students only one or twice a week, three times a week at most for fifty minutes, you need to have the students physically engaged in all the activities in order for them to get the most out of physical education.  Playing sports with sticks most of the time requires students sharing equipment and waiting on lines.
As a board of education member we made a decision that the skills group should be taught in a K-6 grade setting and lifetime activities group should be taught from grades 7-12.  
At a young age children need to learn locomotor movements because you can apply all of the movements  to other athletic activities outside of the class room. Skills such as hoping, skipping, jumping, leaping, sliding, and running are very important to teach while students are young because they can apply those movements in other activities and sports.  Once a student hits seventh grade I believe teaching skills will get repetitive and they will lose interest in physical education.  This is where lifetime activities come into play.  When you can play activities in class that students can relate to outside of the class room it will encourage them to be active. Students love being active and are filled with energy, as a physical educator at the secondary level you did your job if your students are leaving class tired and sweaty.  Using games that require limited equipment that keep everyone in class involved and use skills mostly everyone had developed by the time they have reached 7th grade is important. 
The debate went over very well in class and everyone actively participated. I loved how it was live streamed to the rockstarpe blog and we were able to tweet about certain questions or comments that came up during the debate. It shows you that technology can and should be used in physical education setting!

A Home run at St. Mary's!


    This week theme at St. Mary's was sports and I was part of the special projects group.  We came up with a group game, a song and a cheer.  Our group game was called "Have you ever".  In this game all the students and college students formed a circle, one person was in the middle and since the theme was sports they had to say a sport they have played and then switch out of the middle.  For example when Jack was in the middle he said "Have you ever climbed a rope" all the students who have switched places and the person left in the middle then said a sport he/she has played and the game went on.  Ryan lead the class in a group song called "Baby Shark" the students at St. Mary's seemed to love it since everyone was involved.  Mallory ended the day at St. Mary's with a group cheer which went over very well.  
    During the first part of the day at St. Mary's our group brainstormed ideas for a new bulletin board.  We decided we should take characteristics from our "great debate!" and make a bulletin board.  We will use images to relate to different characteristics of physical activities.  The board right now has words written on it and we figured it is easier for younger children to see a picture of someone swimming and relate to it, rather than just seeing the word swimming written out on paper.  We also did inventory of the physical education equipment at St. Mary's.  I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of equipment St. Mary's has to work with although I was disappointed with some of the quality of the equipment and quantity.  It is important to know as a physical educator the amount of equipment you have to work with.  As we did inventory we also took pictures of each set of equipment so it is easier to identify equipment when it is put away in boxes or bags.  
    I love how in 201 we really get involved in the school.  Whether it is doing inventory, cleaning up class rooms or even reading to the students.  We get involved in mores ways than just teaching physical activities which is great because in reality going above and beyond your expectations is what is going to land you a job.  Going to St. Mary's has really gotten me excited to get more involved in the major.  I cannot wait to teach a full class eventually.  Teaching is such a rewarding job and I know I will always look forward to going to work in the future.  


Thank you for reading my blog, now before you leave be sure to check out my Lab three report!