Am I in The Right Program?

I, and I am sure I'm not alone, from time to time ask myself "what I am doing with my life"? My experiences at St. Mary's have been reassuring me that I am in the right field. I love what I do and what PE has to offer. I love working with the kids, interacting, playing games, and/or figuring out puzzles with them.
The more I lead activities the more confident I become in my teaching skills. I believe that I am getting through to the kids and they have a full understanding of the activities I do with them, and of course having FUN along the way.
At lab we have been experiencing a lot of different behaviors from the kids. There are kids who love the activities you come up with. They listen well, participate, and are always ready to play another game. Some other kids want to play other games or don't want to play at all. All these different experiences have helped me grow as a future teacher, and are enabling me to be more diverse, and be on my toes ready to go all the time.

St. Marys Labs 1 and 2

Dodgeball is a game that everyone encounters sometime in their life. There are many different creative ways to play dodgeball that can be used in a physical education classroom setting. Dodgeball can be used to enhance a students running, throwing, catching, and awareness abilities. It can also be used to enhance students' strategy and planning skills. Although dodgeball has great aspects and benefits, it is banned from the physical education classroom.

Dodgeball can be seen as a violent game because at any given moment someone can throw the ball and hit another student in the head, face or other parts of the body that can cause pain. Dodgeball also gives students an opportunity to team up against another student who may not be as skilled as the others. This is very belittling to a student and can have a negative impact on a students view of physical education, exercise, and self esteem.

Fortunately as physical education teachers we have the opportunity to change the rules of games such as dodgeball and make it an appropriate game for physical education class. For example instead of the original rule of if you are hit or someone catches the ball you throw you are out, now you once you are "out" you are only out of the court (which is usually the size of a volley ball court) and now have the opportunity to walk around the sides of the court, but not behind the opposing team, and hit someone on the opposing side. Once you hit that person you are now back in the game and now they have to do the same in order to get back in.

This version of dodgeball allows for continuous play so there is no sitting around. There is also no bad feelings because now you have the chance to get back into the game and help your team no matter how many times you get knocked out of the court.



(please enjoy this funny clip on dodgeball in america)

Lab this week was a great experience for me. We played a lot of different variations of tag games with the kids. This experience gave each of us a chance to actually lead the class and have a teaching role. This required all of us to keep the attention of the kids and think on our feet. I was really reliefed when I was able to capture the attention of the kids and they actually listend to me!! What I felt was very interesting was how hard each kid played in every game because they wanted to win so bad. No matter what it was they were running at 100% giving it there all. This brought me back to when I was a little kid and all I wanted to do was win no matter what game it was.