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.