Thursday, October 21, 2010

Super Lab!

This week was our third week with the kids at St. Mary's. My classmates analyzed two children in their horizontal jumping skills, leaping skills, and sliding skills while John, Dan, and I played Super Hero games with the children. We had a lot of costumes and really creative super heroes. The kids reaction to those who were dressed up was great. They payed more attention to them and showed a lot of interest in what they were saying.

Within my own lesson I believe I made some mistakes while teaching.The students lost focus and when it came to preforming my game, the children were a little wild. My instructions on the boundaries should have been clearer. Also my voice needed to be louder, and I should have given a demonstration with another classmate to further the students understanding. I tried to be calm and regroup the students, but inside I was panicking. Its hard to see kids do things a totally different way than I envisioned it. But, with the changes I've listed I think their attention and understanding would improve. Also I spoke to some of my peers about how the games went, and most encouraged me that my performance wasn't as bad as I thought.


Overall the lab was great. I really enjoyed playing kickball outside with the kids. They were really good! I wasnt taking it easy on them and they got me out a few times. Also the closing group did a great job. Tracys song and Ians dance were awesome. I think some of the college kids enjoyed it more then the St. Mary's students.

Im learning a lot each week. This is a great experience to get us prepared for teaching.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Pirates invade St Mary's

The second lab at St. Mary's was the real test of our teaching and planning skills. Finally we were able to work with the kids, and have them participate in the games we prepared. I didnt get to do much this week because we were the closing group, and I was in charge of the song. I used a song from the Wiggles about their pirate ship. To get the students intrested I pretended they were my little pirates, and included moves in our dance in a circle that apply to the pirate theme. I had the students "swim", and hop on their "peg leg" and jump down the plank. Being enthusiastic and selling your game or activity is a huge way to get kids interested in what you are doing. A few kids seemed like they werent intrested in doing the dance, but once we got into it they followed along with the rest of the group.

I think all the groups did a pretty good job for their first day teaching. I was lucky enough to see every group because I was taking pictures for Dr. Yang. Once again I saw a lot of enthusasm and the college kids getting down on our students level to communicate and explain things. Some cues I saw being used were saying "criss-cross-applesauce" to get the kids to sit and cross their legs and listen. I also saw some peers use counting cues, such as "one, two, three, GO!"


 As a class we were also responsible for assessing two students in their ability to run, gallop, and hop. This was more difficult that I had imagined. It was very hard to see each skill for each child enough times to get an acurate assesment. I noticed most of the students didnt know the difference between a jump and a hop. All students sucessfully ran, and most were good at the galloping, but hopping seemed to be the most difficult. Many kids kept their non hopping leg in front of their body instead of behind swinging it for momentum. To see more observation on the two students click here.