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Monday, May 7, 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Always Have A Back-up Plan!

For this weeks lab my group worked with the cafeteria group, which was all the older boys. This week was much different than the other weeks when we worked with younger groups because every other time we got the students to play our games and for the most part, things basically went as planned. However, this week trying to teach these students games was basically useless. They had no interest in playing the games we had planned and wanted to just hangout and play basketball with their friends. After realizing that that was all they wanted to do, we decided to just start a pick up game, girls against boys and they ended up having a lot of fun trying to beat all the TA's. I always knew that it was important to go into classes with a back-up plan, but this week just ensured that for me and proved that I will also always have to respect what the students want to do and be willing to do that. To see more about what we did this week, check out my Lab Reflection!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Technology in P.E.

This week in lab we got the chance to experiment with the different games available in the exergame lab. I think that this was a very good experience for us because it made me understand a lot better how many different ways you can incorporate technology as a Physical Educator. My favorite part of this lab was playing the Dance game, similar to DDR. I liked this because it was a fun challenge for me, and also a great workout at the same time. I would love to be able to use this for my classes in the future, however I do realize that this is quite expensive and depending on where I am teaching may not be possible. During this lab though, we also played many small games that would be rather inexpensive. Some of these games were not only fun, but also educational. One that I found potentially helpful was a simple letter game, with the foam pieces we were playing with. While thinking of a game I could make with them. I thought it would be easy enough to simply scramble the letters and outlines around the gym, and have students put the pieces together, and also have them put the alphabet in order. This would benefit them in the phsychomotor domain by making them run around to get the scrambled pieces, and also cognitively by making them put the pieces in order. 
This photo is an example of Ryan and myself playing with the foam pieces I mentioned earlier and a representation of small, inexpensive technology I would definitely consider using in my classes! 

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Go Baby Move!

In this remix of Tyga's "Rack City", Shannon, Amanda, Liz and I discuss infant reflexes and movement in children. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Easter Time Special!

This week at St. Mary's my group got to work with the Pre-K students, doing crafts, reading stories and playing games. I actually had a lot of fun with this and enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I have always loved working with young children, but wasn't sure how it would go with such a big group of them. However, they seemed to really enjoy everything that we planned and it went very smooth. My group decided that since Easter is coming up, we should do something fun and related to that. So we started off with our craft of making Easter eggs. The kids seemed to have a blast with this and also enjoyed the book that we read to them after. Following the story time, they had a snack then came into the gym with us for game time. This is when I got my chance to teach the game that I prepared. I was nervous for this because I thought that it would be very difficult to hold their attention, however it went surprisingly well and they really enjoyed it. The reason I think it was so successful was because in the beginning, they had to hop and slide around, getting out all of their built up energy, and then worked into the more relaxed part of the game and since they had blown off some steam they were then ready to listen. I was overall very happy with how this lab went and am excited for when we get to go back! Also, don't forget to check out this weeks Lab Refelction!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sport's Week at St.Mary's!

For our third week of lab at St.Mary's, I was a part of the gym group. As this group we got to observe and work with a diverse group of students, with a range of ages and skill levels. I really enjoyed doing this because it was exciting to be able to help the children have fun by teaching them games. With a sports theme, we tried to keep our games related to sports and worked on many different athletic poses with the students which was also very interesting in itself. After finishing up with our games we went downstairs for snack/to play board games & color with the students. I also really enjoyed this part because I felt like I got to connect with the students in a different kind of way than I do when just playing games in the gym. I got a better chance to talk with some of them one on one and got to know them a little better than I did before. Which was very exciting and made me more motivated to want to go back and work with them some more! Also, don't forget to check out my lab reflection for this week!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Dodgeball in PE?

Dodgeball is the type of game that singles out the kids that want to participate, and discludes the ones that do not. It usually ends up with the more athletic, competitive people having a great time, and the kids who probably need to be physical educated the most sitting out or being targeted and not enjoying themselves. However, I think that there are many different variations that can be made to the game to eliminate these problems, and also limit the safety concerns associated with the game. If I were to teach a dodgeball game in my classroom, I would make it more like the game of trenchball, where instead of being eliminated when hit by a ball, one would have to go to the "trench" on the other side of the court and try to catch balls to get back into the game. This makes everyone more involved and allows more motor skills to be incorporated more often. It would also be a good idea to have a game of "dodgeball" on only one side of the gym, and another activity for anyone who did not want to participate on the other side. Because of this, I do not think that the game of dodgeball should be in the Physical Education "Hall of Shame" but that Physical Educators have good enough judgement to know what is appropriate and what's not.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Party in the USA!


http://www.youtube.com/embed/ca1TdrVdgB4?fs=1

Cover to "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus featuring Payge Lehman, Shannon Flood, Amanda Blasi, and Liz Beville!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 For our lab this week, I was in the Special Projects group and spent the beginning of my time there putting up a bulletin board, then playing with the kids for the rest of the time until our closing dance and cheer. I enjoyed my time there even though I could not be participating and interacting with the kids the whole time. I realize that have references such as bulletin boards about being active is very beneficial for children and should be done on a regular basis. After finishing the bulletin board, I had a time to form a bond with one specific student that seemed to be shying off and staying on the side, not participating in much of anything. I played basketball with this specific student and got her to loosen up and had her laughing and smiling by the end. This was a very good feeling for me and made me even more sure that this is what I want to be doing. The dance and cheer that we did at the end was also a very interesting experience for me because it brought everyone together for one last little hoo-rah! I think that overall it was a very successful week and I am excited to be able to go back!



Also, don't forget to check out my lab reflection from this week!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Virtus Training

The Virtus workshop that Sister Harriet lead us through during class was very helpful in preparing us to deal with children and potential child abuse situations. It not only pointed out many different warning signs of abuse but also what steps to take if this tragic event is suspected. A big lesson that I learned in this area was the fact that the police are not the first people you should call, but a good action to take would be to call the hotline immediately. As disturbing as I found it that there was people in the video that were previous child abusers, I think it was very helpful for us to be able to see this so that in the future we can know what to look for. These simple things that the video and Sister Harriet taught us seem fairly obvious, but when you think about how much you could help a child by reading the potential warning signs of abuse, they must be taken seriously. Examples of this would be how if someone would looked into the situation at Penn State with Jerry Sandusky, and how much time he must have been spending with children, the whole child sexual abuse scandal may have been able to be avoided. This taught me that it is better to look into something suspicious and be wrong, than to let something go that could end up effecting a child's life forever.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Lab 1

Going to St. Mary's for the first time I was not quite sure what to expect, but I was excited to find out. I have always loved working with kids and was anxious to see what we would be dealing with throughout the semester. I found this experience to be very fun, and loved how outgoing the kids were. I do realize that there will also be challenges that come along with this, and that not all kids will be cooperative or want to participate all the time. But, I think the biggest thing I took from this experience was that one needs to keep their patience in order to be successful in this profession. If I can try my hardest to do this I think I will be successful and helpful as a future educator, and working with the children at St. Mary's will be a great start on that road. I am excited to see what the rest of these labs will be like, and to finish my blogs and write-ups about them so I will be able to look back in the future and remember how it all began.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Physical Activity Impact on Affective Growth

Physical activity has a large impact on most children in every area of development. One specific area that is impacted by physical activity is affective growth. Affective growth is how students learn to interact and react with other students and peers. The way that physical activity is intertwined with this is because lots of physical activity involves students working together to accomplish a common goal, which will therefor make them feel more comfortable being on a team with one another. This in turn will make them more comfortable with these people in the classroom and in life in general.

"Learn Through the Physical"

Chapter one of our text for this class was somewhat basic, but very interesting at the same time. One thing that I learned from this chapter was the concept of learning through the physical. This was discussed in the section about concept learning. This section of the book talked about how many basic educational concepts can be taught on a playing field or court. Physical education and play can also be used to re-enforce educational concepts and make it easier for some students to learn depending on what style of learning they prefer. The reason that many students can pick up on learning through the physical faster than learning in a regular classroom setting is because learning while "playing" and doing physical activities is fun! This makes it much easier for these students to keep their concentration on the lesson being taught.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Entering PED 201 was very exciting for me, but at the same time sort of intimidating. I was excited to finally be getting into my Phys Ed classes that gave me real life experience in this field, but was not sure what to expect on the first day of class. However, I was relieved once I got there and we just went over the syllabus and discussed what we would be doing in class and in lab. The overall environment of the classroom made me look forward to the rest of the semester and excited about what we would be doing. All of the technology we will be using in the class will be somewhat of an adjustment for me because I have never taken a class that used the computer this much but I think it will be an interesting change.
Hey everyone! My names Payge Lehman and i'm currently a Sophomore here at SUNY Cortland studying Physical Education. I'm excited to be starting my core classes and to finally be exposed to public schools and get the chance to work with children. I've never used a blog account before so this will take some time to get used to but I think I will learn to find it very useful and hopefully even enjoy it. Over my break between semesters I was enrolled in an educational psychology class and I think that this class was very helpful for me and will make me more successful in my field because I got a better idea of how to deal with children with different abilities and disabilities. Hopefully I will be able to use these skills in the lab section of this class this semester and I am excited to find out!