DAILY BURN 1 Week Experience

I consider myself a very healthy and active person so when one of our assignments for our final was to track what we eat and our exercise i was very happy because its something that comes natural to me although i never have recorded it before. I work out everyday and i try to eat as healthy as i can. Setting up the Daily burn was very easy to do and to top it off it was free!! Something that will benefit many people. When i first stared tracking my nutrition i noticeed that what the amount of exercise i was doing i wasnt eating enough food throughout the day. With this food tracker, it shows you how much of each substance you are eating and what you should be eating more of, something that i had no idea of. I was eating a lot of carbs, something that you should limit, and i wasnt eating enough fruits and veggies. So the last day, i definietly tried to eat a good heart dinner with chicken, rice and green beans. It was very easy to track my work outs as well. When i work out i do a ton of different things, from squats to ab work to running, and witht his website, it was easy to find waht work out it did and how many reps and sets i did of each. Its cool to be able to look back and see what i did a week ago.
I have never used an online tracking device like this before but just from doing this for about a week, it definielty captured my attention. I love seeing the progress that im making and different tips that the website has for us. Like i said, i love knowing what i need to be eating and what i should be eating less of and more off to stay healthy. Even though i consider myslef a healthy person already, this will just help keep myself on track. Sure this isnt going to be easy, you have to remember to track waht you do everyday, but its totally worth it. Take 10-20 minutes out of your day to track waht youve done and what youve eaten and it will help you make you life healthier. Just from doing it for 1 week i can see that im thinking about what im eating more and im making it a point to go to the gym every day even when im home from finals when i could be resting.
This online website would work perfectly for standard 1b of having students create their own personal fitness plan. Students could chose which training plan they want to do, whether they want to lose weight or gain muscles they can pick their own training plan which is also FREE!!! Students can track their food consumtion as well as physical activity and set goals for themselves, something that is important in a physical setting. I feel that this website would be a great unit in a physical education class. Maybe a class could do something like the biggest loser competition and have them log their progress on this website. Since this is a free website, every student should be able to participate.
Another tool that could be used for tracking the progress of the students would be to simply take screenshots of the progress and put them in a word document and hand them into the teacher. They could take a picture of their nutrition for the day and of their exercise for the day and do that for a week and put all of the pictures on one page of a word document and hand that in at the end of the week to show that they are indeed tracking what they need to be tracking. There could also be a before and after sheet hanging up somewhere in the gym, to see their progress every week.Overall i feel that Daily burn would be a great tool to help students achieve a healthy lifestyle out of a school setting!

Having Fun While Getting Healthy

I recently just played two games online that i must say were quite fun. They were called Lunch Crunch 2 and Pyramid Pile Up. The first game, Lunch crunch 2 was a fun and easy that children can see what food are good for them and what food are bad for them by replacing bad foods such as cakes and cookies with good foods such as fruits and veggies. As a college student i thought that i wouldnt find a game that was made for younger kids fun, but i was wrong. I found myself getting into the game and getting frustrated when i messed up. I was not only getting into the game but i was also learning things as well. As i got further into the game, new foods were being added to the selection. By the end of my game i messed up a few times because i wasnt sure if the food i was picking was health or not, i think it picked up a potatoe, and thus lost the game for myself. This game would be great for kids to help understand what foods a good for them and what foods arent, and being able to chose your hardness level makes it a game that almost anyone can play. I lost on a medium level so there is even room for me to improve and learn different types of healthy foods there are.

The next game a played was Pyramid Pile Up and i think i enjoyed this one a little more because it was more of a challenge for me. With both of these games i was very surprised as to how into the games i got. I breezed through the first level, placing the correct foods in the right spot on the pyramid, but on the next level, the chommpies came in and messed me all up!!! It was hard but fun at the same time to try and fiigure out where the chompy was going to go. Once the color coded backround to the foods were gone you had to know what food group that food was from which made you think about what types of foods are from each group. One food that tricked me the first time was the almonds and the eggs. I had no idea that both of these were considered meats. Things like this make this game very beneficial for younger kids in there developement of determining healthy foods.

If im a college student and i enjoyed playing these games, i cant imagine how much fun younger kids would have. Not only did i have fun though but i learned some things as i was playing. Teachers should definielty use these games to aid in the learning of whats healthy for kids. Instead of just giving them a sheet with the food pyramid on it and maybe listing what foods go in each group, these games are a hands on way yo ensure that the students are really learning these facts. I totally recommend these games for teachers to use. So try them out and see how you like them. Even if you 45, you can still have FUNNNN!!!

                                                      My FUN Experience (VIDEO)


Here is a lesson plan that teacher can use for the game Pyramid Pile Up as well as 2 assessments/activities they can use to see how well their students learned from the game.

Activity 1
Acitivity 2
task progressions

FINAL PART 1B and 1C

1 B

1.)    The website is from Toronto Ontario, Canada and the school that is featured in this video is in South Saskatoon, Canada. There is also another school that is mentioned in this video is in Naperville, Chicago, USA.

2.)    I found this new piece very interesting and it captivated my attention as I continued to watch the short video.  Before this video I had some standard knowledge of how exercise helps people focus more but mainly because I am a very physically active person and I personally see the benefits of it.  Watching this video just made me believe it more that exercise really does get the brain moving, as we see in the video that physically activity stimulates the “sleepy” part of the front brain.  I’ve always been told that you should work out in the morning before you go to work or school and now I see why. The students that were able to participate in the physical activity for 20 minutes straight before their classes saw improvement in the focus and reading abilities.

3.)    I feel that the Phys Ed teachers weren’t being involved in this experiment because they are the typical gym teacher that we tend to see more and more in schools these days. The gym teachers that just have the students play a game of soccer or basketball and have students sitting out or waiting their turns. They even said in the video that the program is different from a “regular” gym class and im guessing that that school happens to have just a regular gym class where more than half of the students are standing around or not even participating.  As a physical educator I will do my best to have 100% participation but not by just physically doing so but cognitively doing so as well. My students will be using their brains as well as their bodies. Maybe try and incorporate topics that they are learning in their other classes such as if they are learning about a certain country, play a sport that is from that country. That way they are combining other aspects of their social learning into their workout.

4.)    The students that participated in this experiment initially benefitted greatly from it. The main focus of this program was to get them to focus more and learn more as well as comprehend things they were learning better and that is definitely what happened. The results showed that most of the students improved a full grade which is a huge progress seeing as when they started school they were at a grade 4 level.  I also noticed that not only were the students becoming “smarter” but they were also becoming better people. One of the boys that had a troubled life began looking at what he wanted to do in the future for himself and wanted to get himself on the better path of life. These students were overall happier and looked forward to coming to school and getting on the treadmills everyday. Standard 1a and 1b were used in this program because the students were using their basic motor and manipulative skills to become more physically active. Now in the video they only showed the students on the treadmills but im sure that they had other means of physical activity as well. Since this experiment was a program this fulfills standard 1b. I believe I remember the video saying that the students participated in physical activity for 20 minutes straight before their classes stared 3 times a week. Standard 2 was definielty covered in this program because these kids were actually becoming focused and behaving better in the classroom. The students looked forward to coming to class and getting on the treadmills and their relationships with their teachers improved as well. I feel that standard 3 was half way covered in this program. The video said that the equipment was donated to the school and they were put into the classrooms not in a open gym room so that is the only place that the students have where they can get physical activity. They didn’t give us any information on whether the students knew of gyms in town that they could go to if they wanted to but at the end interview with their teacher she said that students did convince some of their parents to go on walks with them throughout the neighborhood so they did take information that they learned and brought it home with them.

5.)    BDNF stands for Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor. Vigorous exercise causes the release of these nerve growth factors which acts like a fertilizer to the brain. Its basically miracle growth for the brain. Its helps preserve the brain cells, make them stronger, helps them resist stress and makes them more pliable.  Aerobic activity such as running, walking, swimming, or jumping rope can help develop an overall effective brain but a key part to that is the heart rate must be elevated for atleast 20 minutes. There are two books mentioned throughout the video. The first is called Spark by John Ratey. In addition the second book is The Kinesthetic Classroom by Traci Lengel and Mike Kuczala

1c

I feel that there are enough activities on the B-9 form the students to be able to be competent in 6 activities, proficient in 3 across 3 different categories. Some of these categories include, team passing net/wall, target, striking fielding, aquatics, dance and aesthetic, outdoor, personal Performance and fitness activities and under these categories there are dozens of activities. It shouldn’t be too difficult for students to achieve this but for some reason it is. I believe that  as 12^th graders, who should be pretty physically capable of achieving this, 90% is a fair percentage. If this doesn’t happen then we as physical educators aren’t doing our jobs very well. Sure there are those kids that physically cant do a sport that were doing but with practice and determination anything is possible. Thanks to our EDU255 class we have been given the opportunity to experience various types of activities that I never thought I would get to experience, cup stacking for instance. I had never done it before but because of the lesson I became interested in it and wanted to try it more.

I believe that the percentage of the senior class that should reach competency in their personal fitness plan should also be at 90%. Sometimes students that participate in a sport are exempt from phys ed or are treated “special”.  This should not be happening and goes against standards 1a and 1b completely. Students need to be able to create a fitness plan that suits them. Obviously some students are going to be in better shape than other students so its important for them to figure out what right for them. As obesity becomes more and more of an issue in school these days we as physical educators need to take that step into improving the lives of these children. Out with the old phys ed were you get to choose if you want to participate or your waiting for your turn. In with the new PE, fun and exciting activities where students want to participate and thus will be successful in their personal fitness plan.

The video these questions were based from.

Lab D- Bowling

For my Lad D i was assigned to teach Bowling at a local bowling alley. I am not a very good bowler so when i found i that was what i was teaching i was a little nervous!! After researching some sthings about bowling i decided that i wanted to focus on the 4 step approach, something that is essentail to get down i you want to succeed in bowling. Once i knew what i wanted to focus on it was alot easier to plan my lesson.

I needed to incorporate technology somehow into my lesson so i decided to make a powerpoint to introduce some safety procautions and then the cues for the 4 step approach. I incorporated a short video of a very skilled bowler breaking down the four step approach so that the students could see a great example of what an almost perfect 4 step approach looks like.

Getting everything set up for my lesson was very stressful. Getting all the equipment to the bowling alley and getting it set up made me alittle nervous that i wouldnt be able to get it done. Also, because it was a very rainy day, there were alot of extra people at the bowling alley that the owner didnd think were going to be there. All of the lanes were filled wheni got there which freaked me out a little bit but thankfully he said that hal of the people were leaving within 10 minutes of us being there. My partner and i were able to get 7 lanes which was perfect for the amount of people in our class. Almost everyone lane had 2 people in it which was a perfect number for each student to get optimal amount of practice and playing time.

For my instant activity i had the students look at the powerpoint on the projector which had their lane assignments and partners and then had them find a ball and put their names in the scoring system. They then came back to the power point and i began my lesson. I thought for a long time about a good hook and i think the one i chose worked really well. I asked the students if they knew that there was a tounrament here in  a couple of weeks and that i took the liberty in signing them up for it which meant that we needed to practice alot. I then showed my powerpoint which had a little fun fact, safety precautions, the 4 step approach cues, the video of the four step approach and what we had planned for the class. Once the powerpoint was done i had them go to their lanes and practice the four step approach with the bowling ball and then hd them start bowling frames while practicing a perfect 4 step approach. I walked around and gave as many people feedback as i could. Many students werent keeping their arms straight which was causing them to bowl the ball into gutter. I told them to try and keep their arm straighter and have a larger pendulum swing.

Once i thought the students had practiced enough i had them come back to the projector and told them their next task. They were going to play Bingo Bowling and while they were playing their partner was going to peer assess their 4 step approach. Bingo Bowling is fun game where you get a sheet that is set up like a bingo card and their are numbers and shots that you have to make on it and once you do you can cross it off. For example if you get a strike then you cross off the strike on the card.

The assessment sheet had the four cues on it that i used for the 4 step approach. The student would have 3 trials to get their assessments done. For each trial they would be assesed on their form for each step that they take uin the four step approach. If they did the cue correctly then their partner would check off the box. As they were assessing and playing the game i walked around and tried to give as much feedback as i could. I also change challenges for some people. If i noticed that a student was doing really well, when they finished their four step approach right in front of the foul line i had them spin around once and then shot.

Once i was done with the lesson i had them meet me back at the projector again and concluded everything. I asked tthem if they had fun and if they thought they were a little bit more ready for the tournament. I also gave them a slip of paper with 3 bowling alleys, their numbers and addresses so that if they wanted to practice or just go and have fun they knew a place to go.

Overall, my lab d was definitely my best lab that i have taught so far. I was well prepared and knew exactly what i wanted to do and say. I feel that all of the lesson that weve taught up to this point has prepared was very well and i am confident that i will be able to teach great lessons in the future because of it.

Some things i could work on for the next time though is expaling the tasks alittle more. I think when i was expaling the game it was a little confusing because when i was walking around during the game some kids had questions about what to do. Also, i was having alot of fun teacahing this lesson but i didnt smile alot. I didnt show that i was having a great time. If i smile more, so will the students and they will enjoy themselves even more!!!

Assesment
Feedback Analysis
Time Coding
Block Plan
Lesson Plan
Powerpoint

Time Code Sheet

Time Coding Sheet Lab B1

Lab B1

Here we go again!! More teaching : ) The more we teach the more i feel like were getting comfortable infront of our classmates. The more experience we have the easier its going to come to us and this is definietly the case for me. I see a tremendous difference in my lesson from the first day of class, even from my last lesson. I was more confident and was well prepared for what i was going to teach. I knew where i wanted to stand, where the students were going to do the activity and had the frisbees prepared for them so that it wouldnt waste time getting them themselves. Take a look at my lesson, throwing a backhand throw from different levels!!!

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Of course it wasnt perfect but i think i did pretty good!! i was preally orud of myself. There were a few things that i had planned to say but forgot like a safety statement and i didnt demonstrate the wrong way to do the activity but thats all things that can be fixed!! I was also chewing gum. I didnt even realize it but im definitely not going to do that again next time. It wasnt very professional of me.

I worked hard on my visual aid and i think it helped alot with giving the cues. They were easy to see if the students forgot one of the cues.

Im excited for the next class where ill be watching my other classmates teach their lesson. It will be interesting to see other people teaching methods and their take on certain task!!!

Till next time Rockstars!

Laura

picture from lab 2