Saturday, November 29, 2008

Lab #5: Reflection

1. Task one: Reflection.
2. Task two: Object Control Skills Part B Worksheet.

1. Consider the activities/games that you have utilized so far during the past four labs. Were they appropriate for the students at St. Mary’s? Why or why not?

I found that most of the games I have chosen for the students at St. Mary’s were inappropriate because the students I worked with that week were too young, and the game had somewhat complicated goals for the students to follow. However, I did have 2 games that were very age and ability appropriate (Star Tag being one of them). Star Tag worked because it had a clear and easy objective and when the students met the goal they were rewarded with a star sticker!

2. What might be some limitations to games or activities when using them in the process of assessing motor skills?

Some limitations to games or activities when using them in the process of assessing motor skills is making the game a competition because then the students are just interested in getting to one place and winning rather than doing the actual task at hand. When they are suppose to skip they run for a bit and then finally realize that they are suppose to skip at the very end and skip a few times and then that is all of the skill we get to see. I would recommend that doing simple drills is one of the best ways to get a clear assessment of the students’ motor skills.



I found that doing

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Lab # 4: Object Control

A. To observe the interaction between Cortland students and St. Mary’s students.
B. Complete Observation and Reflection from Task A Worksheet.
C. Complete Chart (Gallahue Checklist) on
Overhand Throw.
D. Complete Chart (TGMD-2) Overhand and Catching Checklist.


1. Reflecting on your experience so far at St Mary’s, what do you think have been some difficulties or challenges you have faced? Consider all areas – environment, children, etc.

Some difficulties I have faced are getting the students motivated to play games. I don’t know what else I can do to get them excited to play other than bringing in reinforces (such as stickers). I also find that some of the students have difficulties with communicating and this causes them to act out and be distracting to other students.

2. What ideas/suggestions do you have to resolve the difficulties or challenges that you wrote about in #1?

Some ideas/suggestions I have to resolve the difficulties I have would be to do more research about what the students like to do and how to incorporate what they need to learn in the games I create. As for the students being distracting when they start acting out after having difficulties communicating, I would maybe want to talk to them and find out what is going on and how I can help, and if they start being way to distracting I can remove them from the activity so others are not distracted.



This was my favorite lab so far. The students really enjoyed the game "Shooting Stars", they had to catch a ball, then try to hit a star, which was placed inside a hula hoop (inside the hula hoop to make the target bigger so they don't get discouraged if they do not hit the star) that was hanging on the wall, with the ball. When they successfully caught the ball and hit the star they got a star sticker. The reinforcement of using stickers really helped with keeping the students on task. Without the stickers I think they would have lost interest in the game very quickly and today wouldn't have been as successful. This teaching tactic worked really well and I will surely use it again.
I find that I have trouble communicating clearly to young students what I want them to do, I need to work on this necessary skill in order to be a successful teacher. I also find that I have trouble motivating students to play games, and other than bringing in reinforcers I need to learn how else I can motivate them to participate. I think that once I am in a classroom I will get a lot more practice and become successful at communicating and motivating students.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

2008 SUNY Cortland P.E. Mini-Conference

On 10/10 SUNY Cortland had its P.E. Mini-Conference, where students and teachers from the surrounding area came for professional development day. Here teachers and students participated in workshops varying from "What Research Says about Physical Activity/PE & Academics" (presented by John Foley) to Hi Tech/ Low Tech PE (presented by Stephen Yang & Students). These workshops had a lot of information for both students training to be P.E. teachers and current/retired P.E. teachers.
I presented with Dr. Yang in his Hi Tech/ Low Tech PE workshop. I took the game "Animal Scramble" and made 3 totally different ways to play this game and have the students moving around more than what the creators intended.
It was amazing to see the reaction of teachers when I showed them how the game was ment to be played, and how I modified it to get the students more active when they play.
This was a great experience for me because it taught me that I can use technology in my P.E. classes, even if I have to modify the games to make them more physically active.

If you are interested in seeing my handout with the games I presented at the Mini-Conference please e-mail me at

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Lab #3: Locomotor Skills II

B. Locomotor Skills Part B Worksheet.


1. Observe the St. Mary’s student(s) as they participate in the activities. Describe the variability of the movement patterns you observed. Be sure to note with whom you worked , what grade they were in, and any differences in age, gender, or ability.

The locomotive skills were very limited. When they were playing the games they started out running and then at the end they would do the specified skill. The 6 year old, kindergarten, boy was more advanced with the horizontal jump and slide, while the 5 year old, kindergarten girl was lacking in almost all of these locomotive skills. They both seem to have an idea of what the movements should look like.

2. Describe “teaching strategies” that YOU used today towards connecting with the children. What were they? How did YOU use them? What was the effect? Were there any strategies that were more effective than others? If so, why?

A few teaching strategies I used today was having the kids demonstrate each of the locomotive skills before we played the game. This then allowed me to see who needed help and if we needed to modify the game a little bit. I also played the games with them so they could see how I was doing it and they could then copy me if they need a little bit of help. I think that playing the game with the students help them see what they should be doing and therefore makes this a better strategy for teaching.

3. After being at St. Mary’s for these past weeks and observing and working with the students, can you briefly describe an effective strategy (or strategies) that you used to capture the children’s attention and keep them on task for your activity.

An effective strategy that I used to capture the children’s attention and kept them on task for my activity was keeping them involved when I was explaining the rules and the locomotive skills we would be playing. This really keeps their attention because they know I will ask them questions and they might get to demonstrate how to do something.



I found that the students skills were very limited. The games that we played also affected how well the students performance of the skills, they again were rushing through the skills. I realize that we now have to play games that are not competitive, and greatly slowed down so the students do not rush.
A teaching tool that I discovered works really well with the young students was having them demonstrate a skill to the class. Not only did they get excited about showing the class, they all listened and became more involved when I explained rules. They responded to questions, and even asked questions if they were confused. I really enjoy using this teaching tool.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Lab #2: Locomotor Skills

B. Locomotor Tasks Part A Worksheet.


Observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and Cortland students.

1. Observe the St. Mary’s student(s) as they participate in the activities. Describe the variability of the movement patterns you observed in your students. Be sure to note with whom you worked, what grade they were in, and any differences in age, gender, or ability.

The variability of the movement patterns was very limited. The only locomotive skill that Alexis and Colin could completely do was running. Both the gallop and hop were still missing vital steps when Alexis and Colin were attempting to do them. I did not notice any difference between male and female ability. The only difference in ability was the age difference, the older ones seemed to be able to do all of the necessary steps to complete the activities, unlike the 5 year old Alexis and Colin.

2. Describe the effective “teaching strategies” that you observed. What were they and on whom did you use them? How were they used? What was the effect? Were there any strategies that were more effective than others? If so, why?

The effective “teaching strategies” that I observed was when we were instructing the class we kept the instructions of the games short and sweet and gave examples, especially for the younger students. Another effective strategy that was used was play with the students so they could see how it was suppose to look, this can be used for students of all ages, if they get confused or don’t know what to do they can always just look at you to see what you are doing. There are strategies that are more effective than others because if you are giving the students way to much information chances are they won’t remember it all nor will the game be played like you intended. When this simple idea is broken games don’t go as planned which can really mess up a whole class period.



Watching the students do the locomotive skills while playing games became difficult because most of the games were competitive and caused the students to run in the beginning and then for the last part they would do the skill. I would use games that are not competitive and more self challeging and reward the students.
I liked this lab because we learned how to use the TGMD-2: Test for Gross Motor Development. Which is a great tool to have as a P.E. teacher. It makes identifying where students are having problems with their motor development a lot eaiser, it's quick and very efficiant. I could see me using this tool in my P.E. class.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Lab #1: Stability

A. To observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and Cortland students.
B. To get to “know” some of the students at St. Mary’s through play and participation.
C. To make yourself aware of Stability (static and dynamic movements) across the different phases of motor development (Table 1.6, page 21 of Gallahue text)

TODAY IS FAIRLY INFORMAL! Have fun but be purposeful, try to learn a little about your students.

a. Individual activities within your group a. Fine motor activity (finger twister, coloring, etc.)
b. GET CREATIVE! b. Observation of fine motor activity (eating, coloring, etc.)
*All activities must be planned and approved! c. It Rocks: The Money Train Game

PREK CLASSROOM * Assigned group stays with PreK for entire time – DO NOT rotate with other group
a. Play with kids – parachute activities
b. Fine Motor Activities (coloring, books, story time, etc.)

TASK A – Gross and Fine Motor Observation: Please answer the following questions, all responses must be typed:

Observe the interaction between St. Mary’s students and your peers (Cortland students). Try to get an idea of the behaviors of the St. Mary’s students – Do they listen well? Do they remain on task? What do they attend to? What motivates them to play?

1. Based upon observation, what are the differences in motor behavior and social between the St. Mary’s students you observed? What differences did you observe between grade levels, gender, and ability? Do you think that grade level, gender, and ability have any influence on motor behavior?

Based upon what I observed, I saw that the motor behavior of the students were at the elementary level. When we were playing tag, some of the students running abilities were still at the elementary levels because they were not using their arms correctly, instead of the arm swinging at a 90 degree angle the arm was swinging at a range from 45 degrees to 120 degrees. The social behaviors of the students were typical of their age range. The younger students wanted to play with everyone, including us, and games that really didn’t have any clear objective to them. While the older students wanted to play games that were more organized and had a very clear objective, they also did not care if you played or not, although they did like to show off their skills to us. The differences I observed between grade levels, gender, and ability were the children in 4th,5th and 6th grade stayed on task, listened very well, wanted to play all the games we could think of, and their ability to play the games were at a mature level. It was interesting to motivate the older students liked to have challenges or competitions, while the younger students just liked to play. With the Students in Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade the students tended to fall of task, not listen to directions, they also hesitated to play games until they saw that everyone was playing and having fun. Gender at the younger grades did not play any role, but at the older grades the students tended to always pass to a boy because they now know that girls are just not as strong as the boys. I do think grade level played a role on motor development and their ability to do certain activities.

2. Based upon your observation, what fine motor activities did you observe (describe these) when watching the St. Mary’s students? Were there differences between age? Gender? Ability?

Based on my observation some fine motor activities that I observed were tying sneakers. The younger students did not have the ability to move their fingers quite as well as some of their classmates. However, I did not see any difference in genders with this fine motor skill.



This lab was interesting because we got to see how the students fine motor skills were developing. I saw that most of the students when coloring knew how to hold a crayon, but had a lot of trouble with drawing things such as a circle or a straight line without assistance. I also watched the difference between an older child tying his sneaker and a young child tie his sneaker, the big difference was that the older student had a lot more control and was more efficient at moving his fingers than the younger child, who had a lot of trouble moving his fingers to accomplish the task of tying his sneaker.
Playing with the students allowed me to see how their gross motor skills were developing. Most students were at the elementary level for running, which surprised me because I thought that students developed walking and running fairly early and would perfect this skill earlier than what they were.