Time Coding

This activity really broke down for me the actual time I spent doing instruction, management, activity, and waiting. I had never really thought about how much time I was spending on each so it was interesting to see. I thought I did fairly well especially because we didn't even know we had to teach that day it was just sprung on us so I didn't have a lesson plan and had to go with the flow. This is good though because sometimes in a real classroom situation that is what you have to do.
By looking at the time coding I noticed that I spent more time on instruction than I should have. I spent 32% of the time giving instructions at the beginning and end of class and I should have spent less time on that so they could have more activity time. The amount of activity time was 58% which I think is good. But one thing to keep in mind is that in many schools children only have P.E. class one or two times a week for not a very long duration so as a future educator I want to make sure that these children are engaged in activity for as long as they can because that's my job.

Lesson Intro

After watching myself during the Lesson Intro I saw some strengths and some weaknesses to work on that will make me a better teacher. Some strengths that I noticed were I spoke clearly well when telling the class their lesson for the day. Also, I demonstrated to the class what the activity was so that way they knew what to do. If I had an actual class I would have chosen a student or two to demonstrate it for their peers. I felt the topic was easy so it was easy to understand. Some things I could have done better was I told the class that they were going to be throwing at targets but I never told them if they were going to get in groups and how they would move around the gym. Also at times my eyes drifted and I wasn't focusing on the class which is not good. I could have also changed the pitch of my voice to make the lesson more exciting and engage the students. Another aspect of the lesson I would have changed is when I was introducing myself to the class I used my first and last name instead of just saying Ms. Wagar. I'm glad we video assignments like this because now I can reflect back on this.

Reflection of Teaching

Some things that I thought that went well was I was walking around when the students got with their partners and were practicing the skill. As I was walking around I was able to give feedback to the students and help encourage them to do better. Also I thought I used a strong voice. The class was in a small circle so it was easier for them to hear me. This was valuable because on the other half of the gym was another group making t harder to hear if I didn't have a strong voice. Some thing that I could have improved on when I first gathered the group I should have faced them a different direction. From where we were standing my class was able to see the other class on the other side and this caused a few of them to be distracted. You can even see them watching the other side instead of listening to y instructions. This impacts student learning because if you don't have their attention once they get into groups they won't know what to do.

St. Mary's video

Portfolio Showcase

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Portfolio Showcase at Park Center. I saw so many great portfolios and it really gave me some inspiration on how to do mine. Also, by looking at these I can see how much time and effort people put into these. This tells me that I better start mine now and organize it well because this is my future and I want to produce something I am proud of. Looking through there work I noticed they put in some things I have already done which is good to know that I can use those as artifacts. I noticed one student did his portfolio on a website. This was intriguing because it was labeled very clear and easy to find artifacts and his resume. Also a positive side to putting it on the web is if you make a mistake or a typo it is very easy to change it and not mention it is easy access. With this being a technological century I thought his was very well done. Some good advice the students gave me was to save EVERYTHING! and add pictures. Pictures can enhance the message you are trying to convey, espically if someone is just skimming through a picture will grab their attention. Thanks to Yang for taking pictures at St. Mary's I now have a lot of pictures to choose from. It wasn't something I would have thought about but now I can see how valueable it is. I'm glad I went to the showcase because those kids have been in my position and knew what they were doing so it was good to get advice from them.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa is on the go

This was our last week at St. Mary and I am really going to miss the kids. This was such a great experience to be our in a real setting working with the children. It was nice to have this experience because now I know what to expect. Sometimes when we got to St. Mary's we had to change our plans based on weather, number of children, or the limited space and this is what teachers have to deal with on a regular basis. You need to be flexible and be able to adjust and adapt to different situations and that is what we learned there. During this lab we had a Christmas theme and worked with the pre-k students. Professor Yang introduced us to some new toys. These gadgets kept the kids entertained for quite some time. What you would do is have these little cones about 5 of them and spread them out and then the actual device would call out a number or color and you would have to "stomp" it and it would register and go to the next color. This was good for pre-k because they are learning colors and number so it re-enforced it to them. After that we read and book to the class and then went to the gym. In the gym we tied jump ropes together and made a sleigh, the kids grabbed on and we put objects in hula hoops that were placed on the floor. We pretended like the children were the reindeer and Santa and we had to drop the gift off to the houses which were the hula hoops. After that we played a tag game and then it was time to go. This semester at St. Mary's went by so fast and I am glad I was a part of it and really enjoyed it there.

Cotton Eye Joe!

This week at St. Mary's was different from all the rest. This time was group was assigned to clean and organize the closet area. Seeing as it was toward the end of our time at St. Mary's other groups have organized the closet and there wasn't much left for us to do. So we basically wandered around and got to see all the different age groups instead of being with one all day. First I stayed in the gym and played basketball with some of the kids. And then I got to watch my peers teach to the kids. This was a nice experience because everyone has different teaching styles and there is not one right way to teach. I got to see how they used different strategies and saw what worked for them and what didn't. Next I went to hang out with the kids in the pre - k room. I love working with them because they are sponges. Anything you do they will do so it is important to keep everything positive and fun with them. Some were coloring pictures of turkeys for the Thanksgiving day theme and colored them in traditional turkey colors like yellow, orange, and red. There was only one kid who colored outside of the "normal" fall colors. He colored his green because he said it was his favorite color. I thought this was awesome! He wasn't sticking to what everyone else was doing and did his own thing. Some of the children at the table who noticed this sort of frowned upon him and his pitcure because it wasn't like theirs. As a teacher it is important to embrace and support a creative envirnoment so kids are not cookie cut outs of one another. Especially at a young age you want to see their creativity shine. Our group had the honor of coming up with the closing song. We chose Cotton Eye Joe. This is a great song because the movements are simple and the song is upbeat and catchy. Even if the kids were not moving at the same pace they were still moving and that is what you want to see, kids just being active.