Head, Neck and Body music video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4C3COHVbY

Learning to Teach PE Like a Rockstar: The Sommersaults "Head, Neck, and Body" Remix

Learning to Teach PE Like a Rockstar: The Sommersaults "Head, Neck, and Body" Remix: Check out The Sommersaults "Head, Neck, and Body" Remix based of Chapter 8 (Rudimentary Movement Abilities).  Video to debut soon!

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!

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!

Steal the Bacon fried from PE?!

The game, Steal the Bacon is in the physical education hall of shame.  As a student I loved playing steal the bacon mainly because I was fast and good at the game.  When your young you don't really realize how the game singles out students and could really hurt someones self esteem each time their number is called and they lose.  This game essentially singles out students to see who is the fastest in the class.  Steal the bacon is in the hall of shame for many reasons.  Student who numbers aren't called are sitting on the side not doing anything physically active, when your number is called you are singled out in front of the entire class and somebody wins and loses each round in the game.  I believe steal the bacon should be in the hall of shame for that reason. 

However you could always alter the rules and change the name of the game as the teacher, and I believe "steal the bacon" could be acceptable in class.  For example, all the students on the sideline could be doing jumping jacks, pushups, or even crunches then once their numbers are called they could run into the middle and grab whatever object the teacher decides to use as the bacon but they do not necessarily receive a point for bringing the object back without being tagged, instead they have to answer a question the teacher has and then they will get the point.  For instance if I call out numbers two and four and team one gets the pin and runs back to their side without being tagged I would then ask them a question, only the two students who just went can answer the question.  I as the teacher then have the ability to make the question as hard or as easy as I want and if I know my students well enough I could ask a question to a students strength or weakness.  I feel that the question part is a good idea because then as a teacher you are controlling the score of the game and you are also able to get everyone to involved in the game more. Steal the bacon just doesn't cut it when it comes to NYS and NASPE standards of teaching, singling students out and having more than half the class sitting on the sideline just doesn't make sense. I feel that my idea for that different version of steal the bacon could meet the standards, all the students were active and as the teacher I controlled the outcome of the game over the students.  

Another game that could be played in-place of steal the bacon could be "Everybody's It Tag".  In everybody's it tag all students are "it," when a student gets tagged they step out of the playing area and do an exercise for example jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups etc.  If two students tag each other at the same time they both have to step out and do an exercise in order to get back in.  This game doesn't single any student out and the entire class is involved in the game. I believe everybody's it tag meets all three NYS and NASPE standards for education. The game can be altered in so many ways, you could have students hoping, jumping, leaping in order to test students on certain skills.   

As a physical educator it is your job to get your students to be as active as possible in a safe comfortable atmosphere. Singling students out is not a proper teaching technique and should be avoided at all costs. As a teacher you have to realize you will learn along with your students, if one version of a game doesn't work, change it up!  You are not being a good teacher if you play the same games year after year, variety is important and adapting games to students needs and wants is very important.  Physical education has a bad reputation in schools and it is our job to change that!

Valentine's Day PE Style!

I was in the gym group this week at St. Mary's.  We had the challenge of creating games for kindergarden to first grade students to participate in relating to Valentine's day and basic locomotive skills.  Overall I thought our group did a good job, being the first group to go.  I started off the activities and I think it's safe to say my game didn't go as planed.  I only had about eight students participate out of about 20 students.  Retaining their attention span was probably the hardest part.  I felt that my game was based more towards older students and i have learned from my mistake.  Ryan and Mallory's games seem to have run smoothly.  After we were finished in the gym we went to the cafeteria for snack time and to play heads up seven up!  After heads up seven up we went outside to the play ground because it was such a nice day out.  I'm looking forward to redeeming myself next week at St. Mary's!

Check out my lab two!