Teaching Lab A Start to Finish

Let's Recap! On the first day my Basics of Effective PE Instruction course my professor had each student teach a skill to half the class. This experience was nerve racking as we were all were put on the spot without any time to prepare, (no better way to begin to really assess your teaching skills). As you can see I was completely shaken and my instructions could have been more clear. Although I unknowingly posses some strong suits, as I scanned the "student" for understanding, gave some positive reinforcements and positive instruction. However there were still many areas that I need to work on. Let's take a look at
Day 1:


The next week and a half we reflected on our teaching and were give the time to prepare a mini lesson and re-teaching the same skill. In some ways this was easier and in others way it was more challenging, but we'll get to that. First look at the product:


So, there you have it! Now lets take a closer look. One are of  improvement was I felt a bit more confident in the teaching cues for the skill, basically leading to clear teaching instructions for my "student", which is extremely important to be able to accurately relay the knowledge.

Get geared UP!

First we get into proper serve position.

Instructing my peers to strike the ball with the heal of their hand.

 I presented a connection between the skill and life, this often times facilities as a motivator and engages the student cognitively; although my delivery could have been clearer. I offered some positive reinforcement but probably should have been more enthusiastic, because as the teacher is becomes your responsibility to motivate student and help them enjoy the activities. Although there were some positive aspects of this teaching experience it is very clear to me that I need to continued to address many different elements of teaching simultaneously. As I was finishing up it came to my attention that I didn't have an even number of students, therefore a left a student out of the activity. Although my classmates were able to manage, this is not something I will let happen again. Remembering back to last semester dance class my instructor always made a lost and found for those who were partner-less and I now understand the importance of that. It is all too easy to overlook one person especially as you start working with a large body of students. By making a "lost and found" or simply checking to make certain everyone has a partner I can avoid possibly leaving a child out!!!

So there is a transcript of my lesson.
There are a few major problems.  First, I tend to use the word "alright" way too much. Also at one point I was asking for assistance in my demonstration but the funny things is I never actually said that. I need to learn to communicate more clearly!

Locomotor Tag

The first activity of the day was simple and yet possessed the of essence of physical education. We began with basic locomotor movements ie. walking, jumping, skipping, and galloping in a fun game of tag. This little game gave us a little cardio workout and focused on the basic movements while creating a slight motivational competitiveness yet fostering teamwork to free those who were frozen (Egyptian Pyramid). Then we did more practice with balance, and flexibility. The beauty of the days activities is that we didn't use ANY equipment!!! I especially like this type of teaching for many reasons. First and foremost it demonstrates creative play more similar to what younger children engage in while simultaneous giving kids new ideas that they'll be able to do at home with their families (siblings) for fun (and exercise). The class broke into groups to revisit their previous skill teaching lab methods and worked on different ways to improve. The final activity of the day was to drive home the point that as a PE instructor you need to project your voice. The class formed two lines facing each other about 1-2 feet away from each other and repeated, "There ain't no bugs on us, there ain't no bugs on us, there might be bugs on you guys, but there ain't no bugs on us."





There are a few good reasons PE instructors have to project they voice. One being that as a PE instructor you need to be able to ready attention of students on the other end of the gym for instructional and safety purposes.  Simple put, it would just we a waste of precious time to huddle in with every variation of the activity.

On a completely different topic it is my opinion that all PE classrooms such have music; it changes/enhance the atmosphere tremendously!

PE Environment

Today we skimmed the surface of some of the key elements to effective physical education environments. For starters is important to get student engage right away. It's PE - not lecture! Get them moving and active in either a warm-up or activity. This gets the blood pumping and helps with cardio endurance. Also, you need to give clear task instructions and designate a means in which you will get their attention while in the middle of activities. This helps establish and maintain guidelines/structure that both the instructor and the students will benefit from. Another important element that facilitates in creating a thriving environment is visual aid. Informative visual aids are for students to refer back to help them succeed. That is the point of PE; to achieve development in the psychomotor, cognitive and affective domains of learning…RIGHT?! In addition to these components, as an instructor you need to make the connections between activities and pertinent information, as this will act as a source of motivation.

Domains of Learning

A common misbelieve of Physical Education is that it's only purpose is to develop the psychomotor domain; that simply is not the cases.  As a physical educator you have a duty to develop your students in all the domains of learning (psychomotor, cognitive and affective)! Today's class revealed that with a little creativity and a well structured lesson plan development in all three domains is achievable while still having fun and keeping cost down. We began with Ultimate, in which we partnered-up and tossed a Frisbee back and forth (psychomotor & affective). To step it up we were then instructed to find as many new ways to throw the Frisbees as possible (psychomotor and cognitive). Next we practiced our newly learned tosses while running up and down the gym (field) with a required 5 passes between partners. Then we bumped it up to 10 passes with a defensive player. During this progression partners worked together improving both the affective and psychomotor domains.

To drive the point home, without any equipment (FREE) we played a cognitive, psychomotor game of clap hands and memory recall to increase development. As an appropriate winding up activity we practiced relaxation/stretching movements to develop all three domains. The final activity, The Name Game, focused primarily on cognitive and affective development although there were some elements of movement.

So in a nutshell, with little equipment the class worked on all three domains of learning (some simultaneously) and had a great time. This is what PE is all about!

First Class

I now have a greater appreciation for all that goes into creating an effective instructional lesson. The class was divided into two groups and each class member had the opportunity to teach a particular skill to the rest of us. I have to say I was unsuspecting of this since your typical first day is going over the syllabus, course objectives and expectations. This hands on approach was extremely intimidating but I can say I have high hopes for this class. This course is not just regurgitating info, which I'm good at, rather it provides a forum to apply teach theory and develop teaching skills in a controlled environment. I expect that this course will be very useful in my professional development. !Excellent!


Take a peak:

First Blog

Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself. My name is Kim. I'm a student at SUNY Cortland. This is my first experience with blogging: something new :) So, this blog will cover many different topics relating to Physical Education. I'm currently taking a course in the fundamental approaches to effectively teaching Physical Education.  So, it is my honor to share with you what I learn along the way and my personal experiences. That being said, I expect to increase my abilities as a teacher and thus the abilities of my student! So let dove in.
Over the break, I attend three classes. Dance, Self Defense and Sport Psychology. It was an extremely busy couple of weeks but well worth it! I learned some new skills. I'm particular excited about the self-defense skills as I hope to one day be able to incorporate a self-defense unit into a school's Physical Education curriculum.