This is a blog created by Jason Moore a student in Dr. Stephen Yang's EDU 255 - Basics of Effective Instruction in Physical Education for the Fall 2009 semester. As the semester progresses teaching video and audio clips from class will be added. In addition an analysis and other documentation will be used to show how I have progressed at teaching during the semester.
On Saturday October 24th Cortland FC avenged early season setbacks to claim the CCSL playoffs.CFC found themselves behind in the standings after starting their season 0-1-1 after their first two games.Playing a man down for much of the second half CFC was content with a 1-1 tie against ESF.A week later more disappointment as Ithaca prevailed 4-2.Eventually CFC got back on the winning track with home wins against Oswego 3-0 and a narrow escape of Cornell 3-2.To clinch the regular season championship CFC traveled to Syracuse on a cold and rainy Saturday morning and climbed from an early 1-0 deficit to triumph a 3-1 victory on perhaps one of the sloppiest field conditions the players ever have faced.In the semi-finals of the tournament CFC continued their winning streak by seeking revenge for their early season loss as they once again overcame and early deficit to beat rival Ithaca 2-1 in part 2 of Cortaca.Redemption was on mind for the Championship game against ESF.CFC had been winless in their last three meetings (0-0, 1-2OT, 1-1) including last years early exist in the semi finals.CFC found the back of the net within the first two minutes of play and never looked back as they went on to rout ESF 4-0 and continuing their 138 straight minutes without allowing a goal.This was a great way to end the season with a 5-1-1 record in front of a home crowd for CFC, as they repeated as League Champions and won the CCSL playoffs.
On Friday October 2nd we continued our Ultimate (Frisbee) Planning Unit in 255 as we taught Lab B. My topic was while players pass and move and in a defender. I felt what all I could do was improve from my previous experience with Lab A. However, once again it seemed like my nerves got the best of me. I tried to relax before class and up until I taught but felt like the material I was going to cover had been covered by previous students when they introduced intra task variations into their lessons. I felt that I should not be repeating previous information but knew I had to stick to my topic and adapt the best I could.
After analyzing my teaching from Lab A2 I had caught myself saying “you guys” so I went into the lesson trying to eliminate that phrase from my vocabulary. After listening to my audio I did in fact improve by not saying this phrase. However, at times I did fail to eliminate it completely, with only audio to refer back to, it may be possible that the groups I referred to were indeed all guys. Even so, I know I must work on cutting out this saying completely. To see what was said during my lesson, check out my transcription.
One aspect I realized I did much better on was the amount of activity time in my lesson. In Lab A2 I fell short on the amount of time that students participated in activity during the lesson. Being active is the key to Physical Education so it is important not to cut this time shorter than it all ready is for a lesson. As I listened to my audio clip I completed the time coding sheet. This breaks my lesson into ten second intervals and I describe what those ten seconds were spent doing. I fill this for each of the ten seconds until the lesson is over. I improved from the first time coding lesson and scored a 3 out of 4 up from a 1 out of 4 I had during Lab A2.
Giving congruent feedback on the cues for my lesson while using students names is another aspect I can improve on during my lesson. Although I know all my students in the class, I am sometimes reluctant to use their names. I know that this is important because it allows the student to realize that as a teacher I can tell when they are doing the skill or activity well. At the same time I need to allow the student what it is exactly that they are doing proper rather than just saying “good job”. While listening to my audio clip and looking back at my transcription I realized that I gave feedback 12 times to students. Unfortunately only one quarter of the time or to four students did I use their name. The other eight times I did not use a name. Even more disturbing was the fact that I only gave two congruent forms of feedback. Both to students whose named I used. Perhaps using names will lead to more congruent feedback.
You can only improve by practicing. Every time I can teach and analyze my experience I will find more of my strengths and weaknesses. Then I can improve on my weaknesses to make me a better teacher. I look forward to improving for my next lesson.
On Friday September 18, 2009 I completed Lab 2A during Dr. Yang’s Education 255 class. I went into the class more relaxed because I had time to think about what I was going to teach compared to the first day when we were told we would be giving an impromptu lesson. I anticipated doing a lesson in soccer focusing proper techniques of heading a soccer ball with cues, practice, and a quick drill. Unfortunately, another student did a lesson on heading prior to mine. I opted to teach another aspect on heading rather than doing a lesson twice. However, I did not anticipate an incident like this to occur. I had to think of a new technique to focus on minutes prior to teaching so even with my prior planning I still ended up doing a spontaneous lesson. I opened the lesson by having the students grab a soccer ball. Instead of bringing them in to talk about the lesson, I opted to have them get a soccer ball and start dribbling around the gym for about thirty seconds. I used this as my instant activity and it help reduce the amount of time standing around or waiting to get a ball. After this I brought them in to talk about the lesson. At this point I had worked myself up and was nervous because I did not have the time to put ideas together like I desired. Recalling the lesson and looking back at the video I can hear myself stumble to find the right words. I mixed skills focused on in prior soccer lessons and struggled to get the word “cues” off the tip of my tongue. Once I calmed down and took a breath to regain my composure I seemed to have more confidence in myself and in my lesson. I explained a couple of cues that I wanted to focus on: planting the foot next to the ball, pointing the toe down, and keeping your eye on the ball. Next, I had the class line up on the wall and practice the movement I had described and showed to them. At the time, and during the lesson it became clear that I did not properly explain myself as I saw students passing the ball against the wall rather than using the cues to help the movement. What I should have done next would be to practice this motion in full with out the ball. This would have given myself a better transition into actually shooting the ball. Again, I will criticize my action of lining the class up at the foul line to shoot at the red mats on the wall. The spacing and the size of the mats just seemed ideal at the time. I should have told those who were waiting to do the “foundation” or a basic skill of dribbling the ball between your inseam of your feet to keep them moving and to allow them to have more touches with the ball. Looking back I could have also allowed the class as a whole to line up across the gym at the foul line and have them act as a firing squad and tie that into the lesson by saying something such as: I heard in Mrs. Smith’s history class you have been learning about the Battle of Gettysburg, now we are about to do some shooting of our own, on my command aim, and fire! I feel like this would be more interesting way of working on shooting and I could focus on parts of the group as we did this a few times. I have found quite a fair share of criticism during my short lesson but what caught my attention while watching the youtube video was that during the drill, when I had the students line up and practice their form against the wall, I had walked behind the students to observe their form but had stopped to move basketballs that had been in the area from the previous lesson. I did not recall doing this in my lesson but looking at the video I felt like this was a good effort to keep a safe environment for my class by removing potentially dangerous situation such as tripping of the balls. I learned a lot during this lesson and now will be prepared with more than one lesson to teach in the future. Also, I know that learning is achieved by making mistakes and fixing them. I plan on reducing and eliminating the number of mistakes I make in the upcoming Labs so I strive to become the teacher that I know I am capable of being.
Take a closer look at my lesson by checking out the links below
I am a Physical Education student at the State University of New York at Cortland. I graduated locally in 2006 and attended the State University of New York at Potsdam where I played soccer and majored in Secondary Education in History. I decided to transfer back home and major in something I love being active in sports. Physical Education is the perfect fit for me. I plan on finishing my undergraduate work by May 2011. Then would prefer to stay at Cortland to earn my Master's. I ultimately would like to teach here in Central New York and coach soccer and golf.
