NACS soccer 2008-2009

This is a story about my underdog high school soccer team that reached the state final four

Success and a Smile

Monday at St. Mary’s was a hectic day because it was Halloween. Some kids were extremely energetic, some were shy, and some kids came out of there shell a bit. One girl in particular caught my attention. She was sitting down with a sad look on her face. Instead of prying and jumping into the little girl’s problem I sat down next to her crossed legged and when Maggie (one of my peer teachers) was done explaining the rules I asked the girl if I could be on her team. She looked at me and gave me a snub yes and walked away. So I went over to her team and I asked her name and she gave me a short response. So the point of the game was to throw and catch an object and eventually move the object from the middle of the area to their goal without dropping it. I lined up so I had to throw the object to the little girl. She just stood there at first and when I tossed her the object it just hit her and fell. I laughed at the stubbornness it was very adorable. She saw me laugh so she smiled and the next time I threw the object she stuck her hands out and caught it and I threw my hands up and said YAY!! Watching her go from sad and nonparticipating to having a huge smile and actually throwing and catching honestly made my entire day. I really felt that I showed her that the game was fun and there was no need to be sad and shy.   

Haunted Hoops!!

Lab 4 was a success; I had the opening game to be assessed.  My game was haunted hoops and the object was for the kids to match up with a partner and throw a spider from the hula hoops, at objects scattered throughout the gym.  Then they had to go get the spider and the object if they made the spider hit the object and throw them both back to their partner who is standing in the hoop.  The game was good however I had trouble getting the kids to listen and understand the directions.  Big thanks to my classmates who were really involved with the kids and were their partners that helped them during the game after it began.  The kids who caught onto the game had fun with it.  One of the kids was a little discouraged about catching the objects.  Once the game began and he caught his first object he got very confident very quick and started having a blast because he and his partner were having so much success catching and passing in the game.  

Lab 3

Lab 3 was great and really tested my endurance!  I had a blast with the games we were playing in the gym.  We played speedball which is always fun and is a mix of soccer, basketball, and hand ball.  The kids surprisingly caught on very well even though some of them were pretty selfish with the goal scoring but that is expected with kids.  To help with the selfishness one of the rules were we had to pass it three times before shooting or the goal did not count.  The game that really got my blood flowing was the scooter game that was similar to speedball.  The scooter game had all the players on scooters and two goals set up with one ball in play.  the object was to pass the ball down the court or slide down the court on the scooter.  After playing the game and pushing my body all over with my legs I was extremely sore and exhausted, the St.  Mary kids and the College kids had a blast playing this game!

Gaming in the Gym!?

The Cortland Mini Conferences this year were great! I really enjoyed the opening flash mob it got everybody in the crowd involved and moving right away. After the flash mob there was a guest speaker who spoke about the brain and how students perform better when they are more active. Once the Guest Speaker was finished I went down to the Exergame Fitness mini conference, where we played video games. Now I say video games but they were not games where someone sits down and uses just their thumbs and a controller, they were games where people were up and participating whether it be a punching bag or a cardio bike the people were engaged and extremely active. I really enjoyed the one game that was a modified Dance Dance Revolution game. The game had a projector screen and two punching bags that had four spots to punch, kick, or knee. I had a great work out from this and really think it could fit into Physical Education setting.

Lab 2

St.  Mary's was really great for lab 2.  I had  a blast playing with the Pre-K kids.  At the beginning of the lab we assessed two students on their basic motor skills.  After that we went out to the playground and from there the kids made us play pirate ship where we could receive ice cream if the kids liked us.  Also by standing in the pirate ship we were in "jail" and in a lava pit while being served ice cream.  Once we got inside our group had a few games for the kids in the gym.  The kids all participated well and had fun.  We played a game where we had to hop out of hoola hoops and another game where we had to throw little stuffed animals through a hoola hoop that was held up by a group member.  I ended the day by helping two of the pre-k kids through our final activity, dance, and song.  I had a lot of fun even tho I was sweating so bad and was extremely exhausted by the end of the day.
 Check out the lab!!

Dodgeball in the PE

I do not think dodge ball should be in a PE program for multiple reasons.  One of the big reasons is that there is no progression for dodge ball and there is no modification where the student can have the choice to not get it or to not throw.  In order to win or lose the game the student must get hit and sit out or throw it hard enough to hit someone.  With dodge ball there is such a sense of chaos with kids running everywhere and throwing balls on top of that.  I also feel with safety as a concern it is also difficult to assess someone on there dodge ball "skills".  Regardless of anyone's argument there is always a better alternative than settling to play dodge ball.

1st day at St Marys

St Marys was great last Monday the kids were so fun and playing ice cream shop and pirate ship was a such a blast!

Learning something new everyday

I read a paper today that stated the student solves problem rather quickly and does not get stressed out, The kid is a genius.