10 hours of Outside Practical Experience

I actually have 2 different places where I did my outside practical experience.  The first was at my previous school Herkimer County Community College.  There I helped my previous softball team with their practice by running drills, explaining strategies and ways to handle situations in a game, etc.  I mainly worked with the outfielders during defensive work.  One of the drills I had them do was what we call at SUNY Cortland the T drill.  In this drill one outfielder goes at a time, and you as the administrator of the drill, have to throw softballs at the particular spot for them to run and catch.  The first route they must run is straight back.  On this route the administrator should throw a lob type of ball for them to catch just over their head.  Then they continue running to the left where you will throw them a sharp line drive type of ball that leads them where they have to stretch to catch it.  Then they need to stop as quickly as possible ond run in the opposite direction (to your right) and and run a ways where you will throw them a high but far pop fly that they need to catch up to to catch.  After that they run directly towards you where you wait for them to get near and toss a short ball that they need to slide to catch.

Diagram of T-Drill I drew on paint. Click to see larger image.

In this drill have the rest of the oufielders stand in a line some to the right and some to the left of you.  After the outfielder who is going catches one ball they should roll it in to the line of outfielders and continue running through the drill.  If the outfielder who is going doesnt catch the ball they should leave the ball behind and continue on through the next route.  This drill is meant to tire the athletes.  It is for cardiovascular endurance, stamina, and skill enhancement.

I also did my practical work during our all day softball clinic here at SUNY Cortland.  The  softball team puts this on every year as a fundraiser.  We had a jawdropping 220 girls come to this year's clinic.  Many travel teams bring all their players to the clinic to work through it together.  During the defensive portion of the clinic my fellow outfielders and I ran some outfield drills with every group.  During the hitting session I was individually assigned to teach and administer the tennis ball change-up drill.  This drill is to be done with partners.  One partner is hitting and the other is the tosser.  The tosser must stand on a chair, holding a tennis ball with their arm straight out.  They will then drop the ball in a spot about a foot in front of the toes of the hitter's front foot.  The hitter will then wait for the ball to bounce and then try to hit the ball when it comes back up.  This teaches the players to wait for the ball before initiating the swing.  It helps them in the situation of a change-up being pitched to them.  The hitting session was like a marathon.  There were 22 groups with about 8-10 girls per group.  So it got pretty repetitive explaining the drill 22 times.  Haha.  At the end of the day though, it was worth it because they all had a great time and learned a little more about softball.

D-Day! Day 32

Today was my Lab D day!

     I'll be honest I was so nervous.  I knew I had to make this lesson awesome because there's a lot riding on it.  Number one is that this Lab is weighted the most grading wise.  Number two I didn't do the best I could have on the previous labs so I needed to do well on this one to make up for it.  Number three this is one of my Professor's favorite lessons so I didn't want to let him down.  And lastly the guy who invented the gaming system came to our lessons so I didn't want to let hime down! Stressful!  But I did fine and he seemed impressed so all is well.

     My instant activity was a spring egg hunt.  It was about a week and a half after Easter so I knew it was too late to call it an Easter egg hunt.  I hid the plastic colorful eggs throughout the classroom.  Inside the eggs were the answers to the questions on the diabetes worksheet I had passed out.  Here's one of my mistakes.  I didn't realize how long it was going to take them to finish the worksheet.  Haha, I guess I made the eggs too hard to find.  Next thing I knew it was already 5 minutes into my lesson.  And here's another mistake, I should have played music while they were looking and doing the worksheet because as you can see from my video the first 5ish minutes are just dead air and it was very boring.  I then went over the worksheet and talked about what our focus was for the lesson which was Diabetes.  I drew a picture of a little boy who was "my nephew Evan"  and has type 1 diabetes.  I had described how today was his 7th birthday and all he wanted for his birthday was to eat his birthday goodies which were cake, ice-cream, and candy.  Throughout the lesson I also mentioned that he loved soda too.  Even though these aren't exactly the healthiest choices they were permitted only for today because it was his birthday. 

I asked them to be in a plank position but
they could modify it by doing a plank from the knees

      The game we were playing was Stepmania exergaming punching bags.  Basically this is like DDR but instead of stepping on a dance pad you strike a big punching bag with the arrows on it.  I described the activity in that all of my students were team insulin and that each and every one of them was an insulin molecule and that they needed to help out my nephew Evan by travelling in his blood stream and taking care of all the glucose molecules in his blood from eating all of his birthday goodies.  I said that the arrows on the screen were the glucose molecules and that we had to neutralize them.  I let them play a few songs with just one person at the punching bag at a time.  For each song the people who weren't at the bags I had them at practice dance pads hitting it with a partner in a plank position.

"INSULIN SHOT!"

     After a few songs to warm up and get used to it a bit, I had them do an activity I like to call Insulin Shot.  In this activity the difficulty level of the song will be bumped up to hard.  One student will be at each punching bag to start out.  Then 2 students will be assigned to assist the first student at each bag.  These 2 will be waiting behind a line ready to come in and help when they hear the signal.  One of these two will help by taking the left arrow and the other will have the right.  Then the original will only be responsible for the top and bottom arrows.  I will play the song for about 30 seconds.  While the one student struggles to keep up with the arrows the other students are waiting patiently to help.  Then when the time is right I scream INSULIN SHOT!  that is the signal for the others to run in and help.  The goal here is to make a come back and be able to complete the song with at least a 75%.  Everybody seemed to really like this part of the lesson.  It was my favorite part too.  There was a moment in my lesson where Devon had hit the side arrows as I was setting up the song and he had changed the difficulty.  I didn't notice that he did it until I watched the video.  I had thought that the other bag was the one that had changed so there was a moment towards the end where I panicked a bit.  My time coding form shows almost a minute of waiting time there which stinks because I think I would have had <5% waiting time if I hadn't made that mistake.

Day 31

     Today we went in the pool.  Not my favorite.  I'll be honest I really hope I don't get a job at a school that has a pool because I'm a terrible swimmer. 
     Anyway, Mike and Devon taught today and I thought  they did a pretty good job.  For Devon's lab he taught a water aerobics class.  I thought his hook was hilarious.  He told us how he went to a water aerobics class with his grandma! I thought that was a funny image to think about.  But he kind of killed two birds with one stone because he also provided us with an imaginary place to go outside of class for more water aerobics opportunities. 
     Then Mike went.  He did his class on ultimate pool frisbee.  It was really interesting because he gave us noodles to use as arm extestions basically.  We used them for defense by trying to whack the frisbee in the air and prevent a pass from our opponents.  The only thing I would have liked more about that was if he gave us a larger area to work with.  Because there were moments where we just got clustered up and were flinging our noodles around.  That could have been a safety issue but all in all it wasn't really a big deal.

Day 30

     Today was another Lab D day.  Eric and Justin went today and they taught table tennis.  I thought their progressions were really good.  They had us using a bigger ball we used our hands instead of starting off with the ping pong ball and a paddle.  The only thing about this was the balls they chose didn't bounce very well.  I wish we could have used tennis balls instead because it would have seemed more realistic to the bounce of a ping pong ball.  
     For Justin's lesson Professor Yang had Trisha and I flirt with him very inappropriatly.  It was so funny and I thought he did a pretty good job of dealing with it.  Makes me glad I'm one of the last groups going so I can prepare for these types of things and they won't suprise me.

Day 29

     Today was just an in class day.  We talked about things we needed to get done for Lab D and things we need to get done by the end of the course.  Such as the culminating video of our progressions as teacher candidates throughout Lab A to Lab D.
     We also talked about how we should react as teachers to students who are misbehaving.  We discussed the different steps we could take like something minimally severe such as proximity all the way to the most severe which is sending the student to the principal's office.  Proximity can be described as where the teacher is standing in the room.  If I as a teacher notice that little Frankie is misbehaving and trying to show off to his friends, I might stand near him as I observe or speak to the class.  One Frankie notices where I am he will most likely change his behavior.

Day 28

Unfortunately I couldn't attend this class because we had games in buffalo that weekend.  But I heard some great things about Dan's lesson.  Dan did Zumba and I heard his routine was pristine and he was very energetic and motivating. 

One of the issues Dan faced was that he had a blind student in his class.  All of his cues and direction was visual based so he had quite an issue in his hands.  But he got through it okay and we learned a valuable lesson to be prepared for anything.

Day 27

     On day 27 Trish was our first Lab D candidate.  She did a magnificent job!  None of the TAs or Professor Yang had any bad things to say.  She put in a lot of work to make a yoga video which she starred in. 

She did a great job with handling some of the misbehaving students in class.

Day 26



I don't know what this code is for.
It is just an example of what a QR Code is.

     Today we did a Scavenger Hunt ran by one of our TAs Steven Miner.  He incorporated technology into it by making the clues QR codes.  So we had to split up into teams and each team had at least one person with a smart phone.  So we would scan the code, and it would give us a letter with a corresponding number and a clue to where the next QR code was.  This was a fun and interesting way to incorporate technology into a problem solving, teamwork type activity.

     We then went back to the classroom and discussed more on lab D.  Trish is doing her Lab D next class! Good luck to her!

Day 23-25

Last week  was just more preparing for Lab D.  We got a chance to go in the exergame lab Friday and we played with the iDance pads and the Punching Bags as well.  I'm all about those punching bags.  It is so fun.  I'm definitely rolling with a boxing theme and I'm incorporating diabetes into my lesson.  "Fighting Diabetes! Go team Insulin!"  Corny but it works.  I've got my lesson all planned out in my head now it's just a matter of getting it all down on paper.  Time for organization.

It has been hard for me to concentrate on school lately because our softball season has really been rollong.  We play 3 days a week now and it has been difficult managing my time.  But I guess it is just like when I'm teaching I'm going to have to balance teaching and coaching too. 

Cortland Softball did great this weekend.  We demolished our opponents.  We scored 44 runs in 2 days!  That's sending a message!

Day 20-22

     So I realize it has been a while since my last blog but really I just missed one week of blogging and that was last week.  Because the week before that we didn't have class, and the week before that we were on spring break.  Which was amazing by the way.  We (the Cortland Softball team)  travelled to Florida and played 8 games down there in beautiful 80 degree weather.  I loved it.  We went 6-2 which isn't bad but you know that we wanted to go 8-0.  But we learned a lot as a team and grew a little closer living and always being together for a week.
     Anywho, so about this past week of class, we really just talked more about our preparation for Lab D.  This lab is like Billy Fucillo HUGE!  It pretty much means everything.  If I suck out in this lab I'm done for.  But I have faith in myself.  My class is going to be so much fun!  I have exergaming.  It's amazing what they have out there that combines fitness with electronic gaming.  There's these punching bag things that look really cool and also there's a fighting game for the PS2 which has an attachment to it that involves you actually moving to play the game.  So I immediately want to do some sort of boxing theme.  I think it would be fun.  I definitely need to go to the exergaming lab and test out these games.  Half because I really need to practice it and be able to do it so I can teach it, and half because I just want to go play.  There's so much to do to prepare for this!  I'm a little nervous but I think it'll be okay.

Day 19

Today we played Shinti.  I thought this group did did a really good job of stressing the international side of the games.  We learned a few good things about the country of Scotland (which is where shinti originated) such as what the flag looks like, the national animal, instrument, and geography.  They incorporated this info in physical learning which was great!

As far as the actual skills of the sport, let's just say the pro shinti league won't be calling me up any time soon! Haha

Day 18

Today we played Omnikin ball.  This is one of my all time favorite games to play! It's so fun and different.  It's exciting for everyone, when they walk in the gym and see a giant, bright, pink ball.  It's like moths to a flame, everyone just wants to play with it!

I thought Dan did an amazing job again!  His cues for the serve were unforgettable, "clap, and SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

Day 17

Today's the day my group taught the class tchoukball.  Leslie started us off with the kindergarten age group and she went over the basics of throwing.  I thought she did really well.  She seems very comfortable dealing with lessons to do with younger students.  Then Max did his lesson.  His lesson was based on a 4th grade age group.  He focused more on passing.  One of the things that he did well was pinpointing students, of both genders to demonstrate. 

Then it was my turn.  My age group was 8th grade.  I focused on shooting.  I set up a bunch of hula hoops standing up along the wall to be pretend rebound frames.  And I also had the two rebound frames set up as well.  I tried to set it up so that the students had a chance for a lot of reps in a short period of time.  I thought that went well but I should have made it somewhat of a competitive drill instead of just a reps drill.  For 8th grade they probably got a little bored half way through the circle.  After that I gathered the group and went over the rules for shooting.  I tried to make it quick but I also wanted to make sure everyone knew what the rules were that way when Justin taught everyone would understand it and be able to play more.  For Lab B when I did my script I noticed that I said "OK" a lot! and I didn't realize how annoying that was until I actually listened to it.  So in this lesson I made a consious effort to not say "OK" as much. I worte my Lab C script and I did better but I still said it a lot! AGH! so annoying...  Here's my Time Coding sheet as well.  Still only one point :/

Then it was Justin's turn.  He always does such a really good job.  Everything he says flows so nicely.  He always remembers a safety statement, a hook, and every other little thing that I always seem to forget to do at least one of! Haha, I'm a little jealous of how good he's been doing.  Nonetheless props to Justin for sure!

Day 16

Today was the first day of Lab C.  The first group did the game Hantis.  It was really cool.  I wish we could have had enough time to play full games.  I though Mike, Eric, and Kyle all did a really good job.  They set the bar for everyone else who's going.  My group goes Friday.  I'm a little nervous but I think we'll do just fine.  We're teaching tchoukball.  I'll talk more about it for my next blog.  Here's my Lessson Plan, and my 40 progressions for tchoukball shooting.

Day 15

Today was half in the gym and half in the classroom.  Cassie conducted a lesson today on rugby.  It was a good lesson for the amount of time that she had to deal with.  I didn't know that you could only pass backwards or laterally in rugby.  After she was done we discussed some things that she did well and overall she did a really good job.



After that we went down to the classroom to discuss due dates for Lab C and then we talked with our groups about things we want to do with our lesson.  We've got some great ideas and we're going to meet up tomorrow as a group to help sort some things out and bounce ideas off of each other.

OFFICIAL "Let's Move" Flash Workout Instructional Video

I was watching this last night and I want to do this in a flash mob in the middle of campus so bad! or at least just in our class on the last day maybe. It'd be a great way to end the semester with a bang! You can't help but move when you hear this song!

Day 14

Today we discussed more about lab C in class.  Our goup is teaching tchoukball.  So we discussed who's going to be teaching whch age group.  I am doing 8th grade.  Then our group went to go se Penny to write a sign out card for our equipment next friday.  Thank god our packets aren't due that day because I don't know if I'd be able to get it done in time!  We also had some homework due today.  Silly me I didn't add it to my blog.  I did it the old fashioned way by printing it out.  I should have known to just post it to my blog!

the FLAAAAANG!

Here's a video of my Lab B performance. I taught the Fling, but on this day it was known as "The Flaanng!" We put a little southern accent on it because it is a lot like line dancing. I wish I had enough time to incorporate the line dancing music to make it more authentic but unfortunately that will have to be for a day in the future!

Day 13

     Today we spent our time in the classroom clarifying some things and discussing more about the lesson plant template.  We also talked about way that we can get our future students more cognitively involved during class such as the use of riddles and puzzles or even incorporating things that children have learned in their other classes like math and science.
    We were also assigned our topic for Lab C.  We were assigned tchoukball.  This game is so fun! We played it in high school.  It's a much different game.  Here's a link to give you a glimpse of what it's like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0VWFK8PGWQ&feature=related

Day 12

     Today was the last day of teaching for Lab B.  I thought everyone did really well.  One thing that threw some people off is that Professor Yang had some of us misbehave while others were teaching to test their ability to handle situations like that.  I was one of them and he asked Kim and I to tie each other up with the jump ropes.  Mike was teaching at that time and he was standing close to us and didn't even notice.  I'm not saying that I would do any better, thats just proof that as a teacher you constantly have to be aware of all of your students because they can very easily misbehave or sneak away even.