One of the main things i've learned about teaching a lesson is that you NEED to keep your students MOTIVATED and focused on you. You are the physical educator, you are the standard to what great teachers should be and it has to show through your performance.
As the top photo shows Greg and Tyler were into my lesson and you can see that in their faces as well as their body language. The 2nd photo down shows from left to right Rob and Matt and how thye reacted while i was explaining my lesson. As you can tell the smiles say it all and that's what we need to focus on. Not only the fine motor skills but the affective domain. Are your students having fun? Are they engaged in your activity? Are they focused on you and nothing else? Does your presense keep the kids physically active? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.
Lets get back to the basics shall we. As you can from this photo i brought the students to a corner or a wall where there are NO DISTRACTIONS. How important is this concept? If you want your voice to project to your students and if you want them to focus on you and only you than this concept is for you. That's one of the first things i've learned during my time here at SUNY Cortland, you need to stand out.
Let's be honest your not going to have a perfect lesson. Teachers make mistakes and while i was standing up there i knew i made some but i went with it anyway. As future educators we need to understand that our focus are the kids. We need to do everything in our power to press on with a lesson no matter how many mistakes or pauses we endure. The beginning of my lesson i thought went pretty well. I brought students to a corner so they would keep their focus on me and not get distracted. Before i even said a word, i had them do diffferent things to be motivated such as stomping your feet and clapping your hands. My focus was to keep attention and not to let go. My hook was ice cream. Realistic i don't know any student who doesn't love ice cream so why not right? I go from motivation, to ice cream, to learning how to throw ice cream. I'll admit i don't think that was the best approach especially if the students end up going home and have ice cream for dessert. They get to tell their parents that they learned how to throw ice cream during physical education. What ind of program am i running and who's gonna clean that ice cream off the wall later? Demonstrating the "T" for overhand throws was the best way i saw for the kids to learn. Last semester i observed my classmates at St. Mary's working on the "T" at St. Mary's and saw how easily the students picked it up. I guess you can say i stole it but i think it was just a brilliant idea. I gave the students an option indirectly. If you can throw from a "T" then you get more ice cream because my activity involved getting ice cream into the truck so we can make more. I wouldn't say perfect by any means but everyone was involved. I saw a lot of smiles to and what more could i have asked for? Overall i think my performance speaks for itself. Literally because i could actually hear myself this time. I would change some things like introducing myself before we start the activity so that the class knows my name! I think that was a critical point i misjudged. Also i didn't give the students feedback about throwing because i was to involved with being the ice cream truck and if i were to assess my students i wouldn't be able to give them pointers on what they are doing wrong or right. Also time i didn't use it productively. I spent more time instructing than i did with my activity and that is a no no. You want to keep kids active and involved and not lecture them for the entire period. The only good part about my time management was not having the students wait long at all. I was up there, motivated, and got their attention right away. As a future educator my focus will be mainly on the affective because without it there is no way your students will engage in motor movement or even think about it. We all play a role in the fate of the future lets decide how we want to be remembered. I want my students to be motivated everytime i walk through those gym doors.
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