355 Field Experience: Teaching Full Lesson

It was the big day, it was finally time to teach our full volleying lesson to our 2nd/3rd and 6th grade classes. We came in prepared with a lesson plan, assessment rubric, as well as a variety of activities to have the students practice the underhand serve and the underhand forearm pass. We decided that since volleyball is a common game found being played on beaches that we would have a beach theme. For our instant activity we played lifeguard tag where the lifeguards wore sunglasses and tried to tag seagulls that were flying and squawking throughout the gym. We then broke the students up into groups and had them rotate throughout four different stations. At one of the stations I was assessing the students underhand forearm pass for post assessment purposes. At the end of the 4 group rotations we offered the students a chance at trying our end of class challenge by underhand serving it into a number of hoops across the gym before our lesson came to a close. We only assessed in the 2nd/3rd grade class because that was the class we had pre assessment results for. We could've had better time management when teaching out lesson, we seemed to either be running out of time or having extra time. In the future I think we should rehearse a little bit better just so that we aren't scrambling throughout the lesson. The students really seemed to enjoy the activities we had the students do. Our master teacher even complimented us on our "Hula Hoop Tic Tac Toe" Game. One piece of feedback our master teacher gave us that really stood out to me was that we need to make sure that all students are listening when we are giving directions and that nobody is misbehaving. We were just trying to get through the directions as fast as we could so the students didn't get antsy and I think that might've caused some confusion at the stations. Overall it was a great learning experience and great practice being in front of actual students in a legitimate classroom setting instead of just teaching to my peers in a college setting. I learned a lot from it and I think it'll influence my future teaching in the long run.

355 Field Experience: Week 5 (4th Grade)

Again, this class had a carnival day just like the 2nd/3rd grade class. They had the same stations, the only difference was that for this class we had a substitute because our master teacher had to go pick up their child from school. Our substitute wasn't just any normal substitute though, she was a former SUNY Cortland professor who is now subbing in local schools. While at SUNY Cortland she taught adaptive phys ed classes and she was actually our Master Teacher's professor when he used to go to the college. It was really insightful hearing what she had to say about today's physical education programs. She was open to giving advice and told us to start getting on the substitute registry as soon as possible and that we should be reaching out and networking with schools and potential employers. She was also really good with classroom management by keeping the students motivated by being upbeat and social with the students. It was something that really stood out in my mind as something I could do when I'm out and going with my teaching career.

355 Field Experience: Week 5 (2nd/3rd Grade)

Students were having a "carnival" day in class. This included a bounce house, the Wii fit, walking on stilts, and other stations. This class seemed to be a little more hyper than usual and my master teacher informed me about one of the students special needs. One student in particular he informed me of how he had ADHD and that he was highly medicated. It just so happened that the student hadn't taken his medication that day and he was more of a distraction than usual. Knowing this was the case, my master teacher seemed to have a little more patience with him but at the same time he was very concentrated on making sure he stated his expectations early and often and constantly reminded the student of classroom behavior to keep him in check and to avoid him becoming a distraction to his classmates.

355 Field Experience: Classroom Observation

We observed a first grade classroom for our classroom observation. During the class the students were listening to the teacher read them a book and after they completed the story, they began playing "Time Bingo" as a way of learning how to tell time on a clock. The classroom was arranged with posters with days of the week, months of the year, different punctuation, vowels, maps, and math symbols.Students were sitting at desks in groups around the classroom as opposed to sitting on the floor in groups in the gymnasium. The students seemed much calmer and attentive in the classroom. The most important thing I learned from the classroom observation was that it is important to keep students interest level up to keep them on task. Once students lose interest in the lesson, that is when they start misbehaving.