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!

Driving The Crowd Wild!

Autistic water boy Jason McElwain in his first game sinking 6 3-pointers in a row!! Watch the crowd go insane when he sinks the buzzer beater!!

Annoying Sibling!

Today in class I taught a quick, exciting Ultimate Frisbee lesson on throwing to a defended catcher. Peers before me had taught other skills leading up to my lesson and on Friday, October 2nd it was my turn! We started out with an introduction to the activity that was similar to a familiar monkey in the middle. Although, we played as if we were all little, annoying siblings! The students focused on the opponent without the Frisbee and were forced to complete passes to defended catchers. In order to successfully complete passes, students had to cut to the Frisbee, use a variety of passes and find their open teammate. Mid way through this activity, I noticed defenders were getting tired and the offense had caught on to quick throws. The rules were then switched to only using their non-dominant hand. This made it more difficult for the passers and the defense's success rate improved.

After reviewing my lesson and receiving feedback from the lab assistants I recognized things I did well along with things I still have to work on. Unlike my previous teaching experiences my voice projection was lacking and I was unable to understand myself. This time around, my audio proved that I had improved in these areas. My voice was easy to understand, full of excitement and engaged my students much more effectively. My transcript was much easier to do and I was able to evaluate myself much better. During the students lesson, I walked around and gave feedback to the students and evaluated their performance. I feared that if I had not restricted the students from using only their dominant hand the defense would have became exhausted and overwhelmed.

I also noticed things I need to work on such as my time management. Although I did score well on the management, waiting and activity time, I had used 44% of my time to instruction. This time could have been used for more activity or even time for a new activity. Another major thing was I had my back to parts of the class a majority of the time while giving feedback. I learned this the hard way when students started joking around and rough housing with each other. I need to remember to keep my back to the wall rather than to the students. While listening to my audio I also noticed I talked extremely fast while giving the initial instructions. I even notived I sounded slightly out of breath and my sentences began running together.

Every teaching experience gives me an opportunity to learn and grow as a teacher. I plan to keep using self, peer and teacher feedback to better myself and make my teaching as effective as possible. This experience helped me gain confidence, knowledge and gain an idea of how to be the best teacher I can be!

Spirals all around

I think I did a decent job in my short lesson on throwing a football. After reviewing my transcript I thought I explained the task clearly and there wasn't any misunderstanding by the students. Another positive was I noticed that my cues were easy to remember, short and to the point. Although, I strained to hear myself throughout the video and the camera was not very far away. If the camera can not hear me from a close distance, students in the back cannot hear or understand what is being said. After my lesson I thought I gave good feedback to students but was disappointed when I filled out my feedback analysis chart. The chart showed I only got around to four students and my feedback was not entirely congruent to my cues. However, I did use intratask variation with students who excelled immediately with throwing a football to challenge their skill more. I think I did use many of the tools effectively, such as intratask variation, which is extremely important to maintaining order and safety in the classroom. One of my main concerns was my time management. My time coding sheet revealed only 1/3 of my lesson was spent with students engaged in activity while the other 2/3 was management. I also did not maximize on my full four minutes and ended almost an entire minute early. I hope to use this knowledge to better my teaching in the future and provide an efficient, fun classroom for my students.

Welcome Back - Day one of 255!

X-Factor

Danyl Johnson auditioned on X-Factor and essentially took over the audience. Personally, I was so memorized by it, I watched it three times. It was clear Danyl was passionate, relaxed and excited to be performing. Watching my initial micro teaching episode, I was dissapointed to see my lack of all three of these elements. I saw little enjoyment and even less excitement in my teaching. I plan on conveying my interests in helping my students learn by showing students my love for sports or games and skills being taught. I need to put more excitement in my voice and body language, and demonstrate more hands on teaching. To make my students want to come back to my class I will make the class fun and exciting to come to. If I am not fun and exciting myself, then the class will not be. I plan on using the "floor" better, much like Danyl who was all over the stage and using all of the space he was given. Danyl's performance was everything teaching should be, interesting, exciting and passionate...no wonder he's a teacher!