Day 5

Day 5...

     So today was not my best day.  I learned a few things... like always having a collared shirt on me in case I forget to wear one for my teaching day.  Haha.  Yup I forgot to wear a collared shirt.  Rookie mistake.  I knew in the back of my mind that I had to but for some reason my brain forgot to send a signal that morning when I was getting dressed.  Oh well, lesson learned.
     After that I was all flustered about making my 4 min teaching better than the last time and in the end it ended up being worse.  I made many mistakes.  I forgot to make a safety statement.  I also did something different as far as setting up the students.  I taught dribbling a basketball.  When I first did it I had everyone get a ball and get in a circle which I thought was original.  But this time I tried a more horizontal approach.  I had everyone get a partner and dribble back and forth which just didn't seem fun and it ended up not running smoothly.  Before I started teaching I thought of a neat way to explain using only your finger tips when dribbling too.  I thought I might explain it by saying, "pretend like you have a thumbtack sticking out of your palm.  So if the basketball touches your palm the thumbtack will pop the ball."  But I never stated that either.
     Day 5 wasn't my finest.  But professor Yang made me feel better about it when he said, if you were perfect at it then you wouldn't have to go to school for it.  That's why this is a learning experience.  And that's why we practice teaching so much in this class.  I'm learning a lot through experience.  For anyone who reads this no matter what, even if you forget your shirt...

Keep Smiling :)



Keep Moving  

~Emily Woudenberg



Day 4

Day 4:

     Today we worked focused on how to imporve our teaching.  We talked about things that professor Yang does to make his lessons better.  And how we can incorporate those things into our lesson plans to make ours better.  For example incorporating a hook.  A hook is something that is interesting and relates to some outside information. 
     For my lesson I plan to use the globetrotters as my hook.  I'm teaching dribbling and the globetrotters are famous for their dribbling tricks and what not.  We teach on friday.  I am glad we know when we're teaching so I know to be prepared.

Keep Smiling :)

Keep moving 

~Emily Woudenberg

Day 3

Day 3:

     Today started off very similar to day 2.  We started off with the Frisbees again.  It's an easy instant activity.  Then we gathered and talked about the Chinese New Year.  I think throwing in cool facts about other things besides the same old P.E. stuff is important.  I think it helps us to develop into well rounded people.  As an educator why should we narrow our focus to just our particular expertise? Why not expand and incorporate other themes into our lessons.  With the example of the Chinese New Year professor Yang named one of his games "firecracker."  Because the Chinese use fireworks to ward off evil spirits.
     I'm learning a lot about the little things that make an okay lesson into an amazing lesson.  As in everything else in life it's the little things which separate good from great.  QUICK SOFTBALL TANGENT!  The motto for the Cortland softball team this year is a quote from a Gatorade add:  "Good is the enemy of great."  If you are okay with being good you will never be great.  In other words good should never be good enough!
     Professor Yang really pays attention to the little things.  You can tell he does a lot of planning before hand.  There are many things that he does that I need to remember to do.  For example he makes safety statements that are very clear so that everyone knows what he's talking about.  Another thing is like what I said before incorporating other information like world events and some fun facts into the lesson. 
     I feel my biggest downfall as a teacher candidate right now is my lack of practice in a class setting.  I have had plenty of practice speaking to groups and explaining things.  I've had practice as a captain for softball in high school and in college.  Also as an instructor for some softball camps.  But it's just a matter of perfecting the minor details that make the lesson run smoothly.  Such as the placement and spacing of students in a drill or activity, the timing of each activity, and perfecting my vocabulary to make sure everyone understands what I'm trying to say the first time.  Those are things I'd like to master by the end of this course.

Keep Smiling :)

Keep Moving    

"Good is the enemy of great!"

~Emily Woudenberg

Day 2

Day 2:

     Today was definitely a fun day.  Professor Yang reminded us that it doesn't take a load of fancy equipment and gadgets to make sure our students are having fun and being physical.  We played with frisbees.  Simple items. And we all had a ball.  We played catch with a partner and experimented with different ways of throwing the frisbee.  There's the Backhand, Forehand, Bounce, Through the Legs, etc...
    Then we incorporated a goal.  We split up into different sections of the gym and worked on throwing and catching the frisbee to our partner a certain number of times towards the designated goal lines marked by poly spots.  We'd work our way from goal line to goal line and see how many times we could do that in a certain amount of time.  Then the TA's came into the mix and played defense on us while we strived to accomplish the same goal.  I tried to be tricky and juke out Sarah (the defense) but of course I tripped over her feet and fell straight to the floor without any grace whatsoever!  HAHA! Hey all you can do is laugh right?
      Then we continued class with a yoga session.  Yoga is a great tool.  It's a great way to calm everyone down as an endcap to class.  I think I want to use it in my lessons in the future.  Especially if I'm teaching elementary students.  I remember when I was younger my classroom teacher had a hard time settling us down after PE because we were all worked up from the fun games we had played.  So I think it might be useful and neat to teach the children some simple yoga poses.
      We ended class with a little name game.  Everyone got in a big circle.  The point of the game was to have everyone go through and say their name, what they taught on day 1, and continue doing the same thing for each and every person who introduced themself in the circle beforehand.  Let me just tell you that I was glad I went 4th out of about 30.  Everyone did great though.  I was really impressed.  I think it was cool and a good reminder for us about how important it is to remember names.  If you remember someone's name it makes the relationship you have with that person slightly more personal.  It lets them know that they're important to you.

Keep Smiling :)

Keep Moving    

~Emily Woudenberg



Day 1

255 Day 1:

     Day one of Profesor Yang's class was like splashing ice cold water on your face; shocking yet rereshing.  We started off meeting in the gym rather than the classroom and jumped right into teaching.  After all, the course is called "Effective Instruction."  So why not start off by showing what we've got so far!  How else are you going to build from it?
     So we split into two groups and we each took turns teaching our peers in the group one skill for 4 minutes.  As far as equipment we were offered to share a few volleyballs, soccer balls, footballs, and basketballs with the other group.  Luckily for me my "W" last name gave me time to think because I was one of the last one's to go in my group, so I was able to observe my classmates and pick up some ideas along the way.
     The teaching assistants for this class videotaped our teaching performance.  I'm very interested in viewing mine and learning what my mistakes were and how to become a better teacher.  Its a lot like when we videotape in softball.  Its hard to just listen to someone's critique of your performance and be able to make proper adjustments.  But when you can actually see what you're doing wrong it helps click, and it makes it more real I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Keep smiling :)

Keep moving,  

~Emily Woudenberg

First Post

So this is my first post...

     I never thought I'd like the blogging scene, but now that I'm doing it its really not that bad.  I like that you can customize your page and stuff,  brings me back to the Myspace days. 
   
     Over winter break I helped my previous softball coach at Herkimer County Community College with the hitting clinic.  I was impressed with his ability to remember so many young athlete's names.  That's one thing I'm definitely going to have to figure out; my own personal tricks to remembering many names in a short period of time.  I always love being able to help with clinics because it gives me the opportunity to get my feet wet in the teaching/coaching pool. 

Keep smiling :)

Keep moving    

~ Emily Woudenberg