Lab 1: Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn

The official start of my career in physical education began this week with a teaching experience that left me wanting more. The students of St. Mary’s school are filled with happiness, creativity and ambition. I had an opportunity to create and modify a game of my own while associating the subject of nutrition to help the students of St. Mary’s school become more knowledgeable about healthy eating habits. The activity was performed by the K-1 grades. The activity was instructed by myself which was truly scary because not only was it my idea but my instructions. I was in unfamiliar territory. The confidence of what I had created and how I was going to present it just kicked in. The activity itself and the way I instructed it was a success. The body language of the students told me they enjoyed the time they spent with our group. That to me made me realize I am right where I want to be. The most productive lesson and I learned from the students as well as myself is I should not be afraid to fail, people learn from their mistakes, it will only make me stronger.

Lab 1

Enhancing Activities with Modifications to Help Nutrient Knowledge

The new guidelines that are being established into the modern physical education programs concerning health plans for our younger generations are of the upmost important. Personal experience involving lack of nutrient in my physical education in the past gives me a great opportunity to express new ideas. Enhancing games and locomotor skills by modifying them with cognitive excercise skills to help develop the knowledge for nutrient. An example of this would be:  Red Fruits, Green Fruits, 1-2-3 - The materials needed for this game are (4) 8 foot long jump ropes. There could be more or less depending on the size of the class and the area or space needed. Place the jump ropes on the floor on opposite sides of the gymnasium. Join the jump ropes together to form a big box so that there is a big box on both sides of the gymnasium. One box will be the donut penalty box, which is where the students will start. The box at the far end on the opposite side will be the fruit bowl. There will be a student chosen as the fruit police officer. His/her job is to stand on the fruit bowl side, turned around facing away from the students. The fruit police officer is not able to turn around or see them until saying out loud red fruits, green fruits, 1-2-3. If a student is caught moving toward the fruit bowl for safety, he/she will be asked a question on a specific color that is a fruit. If they get the question wrong they must go back to the donut penalty box and start over. If they get the question right they are safe. The objective is to have all the students reach the fruit bowl safely without getting caught by the fruit police officer.
Modifications - Variety of locomotor skills including running, hopping, skipping, sliding, and walking from one end to the other. Game can change as well. Instead of just asking a student right after being caught a question, you can have other fruit police officers chosen to try and tag the person who was caught moving. That person who was caught has the opportunity to run to the fruit bowl for safety before being tagged. If tagged though then he/she must answer the question given by the instructor.

Chapter 1

Fundamental skill development and assessment is extremely important to our professional career as well as the health of our students. Although, the most obvious answer an individual would come up with would be, without these things we wouldn’t have jobs. There is more to it than that. The fundamental skill development for a child helps them learn how to move and learn through moving. Motor development, cognitive learning (concept learning), and affective growth are all key aspects of what is involved in fundamental skill development. The goal is to have progressive enhancement physically by motor tasks and mentally by activities and games. This will become a snowball effect as the child grows into an adult and environmental obstacles although differ will be associated with what is learned at developing stages. The health of our students will also be more successful. This is important because of problems like obesity and early puberty, which could lead to health issues and bullying. These are problems that could end up affecting children in their development of becoming an adult cognitively as well. Assessment is important for the skill development of a child in measuring the progression of their motor skills, cognitive learning, and affective growth.

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