Entry #42

Entry #42

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5 PE

Date:  11-7-14

Summary of Today's Activities

The kindergartners came to they gym this morning and I taught them the proper way to underhand roll a ball.  We played a turkey hunt game that students pretended that plastic bowling pins were turkeys.  Their job was to knock down as many turkeys by underhand rolling a ball.  The first graders learned how to underhand toss an object.  The students had to stand behind a hula hoop and their job was to underhand toss their ball in the air and land the ball in the hula hoop that was placed in front of them.  The second graders learned how to properly catch an object and worked with a partner to work on the movement.  We played a game called "Last One Standing".  The group that did not drop their ball won the game.  The 3rd graders arrived in the gym after lunch and they learned the proper way to dribble a basketball.  The day ended with car duty and planning for next week's lessons.  

Reflection

I had a lot of students come up to me after the 3rd grade class and said they learned some new things today when I was teaching the dribbling technique.  I told them before class that I knew that many of them already played basketball, but they needed to keep their ears and eyes open so they can pick up some new tips.  I was proud to see them learning and being active with the activities I had for them to participate in.  In the beginning of each class I asked the class why their heart was beating so hard after we did our warm up.  Many of them of course said because they were exercising.  But I went a little deeper and told them that the heart is working to push blood to the muscles when they are exercising.  Many students yelled "Gross!"  I've enjoyed teaching them things like that.  I'm thinking that when I have my own classes one day that I'm going to have a "Fun Health Fact" each week to teach my students.  

Entry #41

Entry #41

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5 PE

Date:  11-6-14

Summary of Today’s Activities

The day started with bus duty.  Every class went through the same warm up when they walked into class.  The students started to walk when the music started.  About 20 seconds into the song I would yell “jog” and the students would jog.  I would yell activities such as “skip”, “gallop”, and “walk” and the students would perform those movements.  The kindergartners started their underhand roll lesson.  We played a game called “Turkey Hunt”.  The bowling pins or turkeys were set up at the end of the gym and the students had to underhand roll the ball and knock down the pins.  If they knocked it down they would bring their turkey back and sit it in their team’s hula hoop.  The 1^st graders and 2^nd graders played a game called Partner Tag Back that allowed them to work on their underhand toss and catching techniques.  The 5^th graders then came to the gym and learned how to dribble a basketball.  The last class of the day was the 4^th graders and they learned how to dribble a soccer ball. 

Reflection

Dr. Brenner was in my last class of the day to observe.  I was teaching my 4^th grade class the proper way to dribble a soccer ball.  The class had missed their PE day yesterday since they had a rehearsal for their Christmas play.  The class was answering questions correctly and it seemed like they enjoyed the activities.  I can definitely see myself teaching elementary PE.  I applied for an elementary job that was open in the Raleigh, North Carolina area recently so I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying that I get an interview.  What is great, is that the job starts in January so that would be awesome!

Entry #40

Entry #40

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5 PE

Date:  11-5-14

Summary of Today’s Activities

The day started with bus duty.  We then had first and second graders in the morning.  The first graders were starting their underhand toss lesson, while the second graders were starting their catching lesson.  I was supposed to have the fourth graders today, but they had a rehearsal for a school play so I wasn’t able to start the soccer lesson with them.  The first and second graders started with a warm up for 4 minutes.  When the music started I would yell out “Walk” and the students would walk.  About every twenty seconds I would yell out a different activity, such as jog, skip, or gallop and the students had to perform that activity.  I then instructed the class on the proper way to catch an object and underhand toss and object.  The students then worked individually and with partners to work on the movement.  Both classes ended up playing the same activity, which was called Partner Tag Back.  When I blew the whistle, the partners would toss the beanbag back and forth underhanded.  When the music started, the person with the beanbag was considered “it” and the other partner was the “Tagger”.  If the person was tagged they would have to drop the beanbag and the other partner would pick the beanbag up and become the person that was “it”.  When the music stopped the partners would get back together and continue tossing and catching the beanbag back and forth. 

Reflection

Everything went really well today.  I was a little aggravated because some teachers were pulling their students out of my class to re-mediate with them on my time with the students.  I was also a little aggravated that the 4^th grade class wasn’t able to come in today to do their soccer lesson.   That just means that I will have to rush through next week and make sure I cover both this week’s lesson and next week’s lesson in one week.  Other than those occurrences, my day was full of fun and excitement.  The students enjoyed the games we were playing and it looked like they were attaining the information I had provided for them.  The students were answering the questions correctly and I even taught them a little about why their heart pumps so hard when they are exercising.  

Entry #39

Entry #39

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5 PE

Date:  11-4-14

Summary of Today’s Activities

Since today was a teacher workday, Ms. Boyd and I didn’t do much of anything.  The gymnasium was being used for voters so we were forced out.  We walked around and asked most every teacher if they needed help, but of course many of them said no.  Most of the day was used for teachers to be in their specialty meetings and group meetings.  The special courses did not have a meeting today.  Ms. Boyd invited me to a PE meeting at Park Avenue Elementary.  All of the elementary PE teachers in the Danville Public School System met today to talk about school nutrition and they spoke about some of the cool activities they were doing with their classes. 

Reflection

The meeting at Park Avenue was actually really entertaining and very informative.  Some of the teachers are doing dances with their classes and they showed everyone how to do the dances.  One teacher explained a point system he uses for students to receive free play if they receive 25 points at the end of the week.  He calls it BRAVO. 

B-Be Prepared R-Respect People and Property A-Actively Participate V-Voices are soft O-Open your ears

For each category the entire class performs they get a point.  So if everyone comes to class with the proper shoe wear, then they will get one point for B or Being Prepared for the day.  So it sort of forces students to not want to let the class down from getting free play.  Anyways, I thought it was a cool idea and I plan on doing that with my elementary classes one day.  

Entry #38

Entry #38

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5 PE

Date:  11-3-14

Summary of Today's Activities

The morning started with bus duty.  Ms. Boyd and I spent most of the morning talking about the lesson plans I wrote this weekend.  She seemed to agree with a lot of the things I had planned and I tweaked a few things she felt that would be better for the students.  There were some things that were new to her that she felt were great ideas and she was anxious to see me instruct.  In the afternoon, we had the 3rd graders in the gym.  The third graders started their basketball lesson today.  We focused strictly on the appropriate way to dribble.  I instructed the class by giving them cue words to follow and I frequently asked them questions to see if they were following along.  We then played a game called Sharks and Minnows in which students that were considered sharks were standing in a hula hoop.  The rest of the class was considered Minnows.  The Minnows had to dribble to the other end of the gym without getting their ball swatted away by Sharks.  The day ended with a faculty meeting.

Reflection

Today I simply ran out of time to play the rest of the games that I had planned for my students.  I spent a lot of time instructing and making sure each student understood the proper way to dribble a basketball.  I was glad that we had time to play one game with the class.  I was a little disappointed, but at the same time I was happy to see that students were answering my questions correctly.  The faculty meeting at the end of the day lasted forty five minutes.  The principal talked about some of the decisions she was making and everyone else sat and listened.  The only time teachers spoke was when she asked teachers what they needed for their classrooms.  I thought the meeting was pointless, especially because it was things that could have been discussed through emails. 

Entry #37

Entry #37

School Placement:  Forest Hills Elementary

Cooperating Teacher:  Crystal Boyd

Grades/Subjects:  K-5  PE

Date:  10-31-14

Summary of Today's Activities  

All of the grade levels were in the gym today.  We had two kindergarten classes come in first thing in the morning.  One class watched a Halloween movie in the cafeteria, while the other class went through the haunted house in the gym.  Two first grade classes came in after the kindergartners and went through the same rotation.  One second grade class came in the gym and participated in the haunted house.  Afterwards, they students were split up in groups and participated in a scavenger hunt.  The fifth graders and 3rd graders also were involved in the same activities as the second graders.  The day ended with car duty.

Reflection

Since today was Halloween, the students were extremely energetic.  I had to raise my voice a few times just to get students to calm down and listen to the instructions.  I told them that I understood why they were excited, but if they wanted to do the activities then they had to behave, be quiet, and listen to what I was expecting from them.  Once I had that talk with them everything went pretty smoothly, other than a few students talking while I was instructing.  I would send them to timeout and have a talk with them after instruction.  This week has been very fun and the students seemed to enjoy the haunted house and scavenger hunt.  Next week I will be instructing a few classes on basketball and soccer.  This weekend I will be working on those lesson plans and working to create some fun games to help with assessing their knowledge of the instruction.