Did you know the longest table tennis game was 101 hours long?!

It's been a busy couple weeks in 255 class learning games from across the world! So far we have visited England and learned the dance of clogging, then traveled forward in time to explore technology with Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR). Then time it was time to head to Poland for some kielbasa and handball! Dr. Xavier Waddles then took us on to the artic to learn a little bit about Kubb and broomball. By this time, it was time for Jed and I to take the class to England for some wiff-waff!

We started the lesson out by getting the class warmed up and ready to play wiff-waff like a regular upper class Victorian after dinner with some task cards! These cards included everything from jumping jacks to wiff-waff juggling to introducing themselves to a TA with an English accent (although some students seemed to have traveled and picked up an Australian accent)! After we were warmed up we switched gears to a quick history lesson on the game that is more commonly known as table tennis. Table tennis began by a stack of books serving as the next and a book serving as the paddle. For the lesson, a table was set up like it would be in this era that was available for students to play on. The game then advanced to being played with a rubber ball to increase the speed of the game which was substituted as a racquetball during the lesson!

To start the lesson off, we worked on the most basic hit in wiff-waff : the forehand. Students were taught the cues and Frank helped me out with a top notch demonstration! Students practiced their forehand hit through a few progressions to work them up to game play, starting with hitting the ball out of their hand, progressing to hitting the ball from a throw from their partner and ending on volleying back and forth. After the students successfully mastered the skill of the forehand, it was time to move on to the backhand. Students worked on progressions much like the backhand and finished with a little game play with their two newly mastered skills!



The lesson was then handed over to Jed to teach the chop and smash to the students! This means it was time for me to reflect and analyze my own teaching! I can already feel myself getting more confident within the class and with much preparation the nerves were slim to none this time around! Although I did not score a perfect five on my time coding sheet, I greatly improved and missed that last point by a tiny percentage which may have been made up without the history lesson! Due to the high activity and lack of space, it was difficult to fill out my feedback form as effectively as before. Although, with out without the feedback analysis form I was much more aware during my lesson of ensuring my feedback was congruent and appropriate. I am confident in saying my feedback has improved tremendously.


Growing more and more confident within each teaching lesson has me looking forward to Lab-D which I will be taking it to the ice and hopefully getting in contact with Dr. Xavier Waddles for some new ideas and games!