Week 2 at Onondaga Nation School

This past week was my second week with Onondaga Nation School. On Monday I did not do as much as I thought. Mackenzie, the after-school program direction told me that she was implementing many new rules so again this week she would just like me to observe and act as any other teacher in their after-school program. She did not want to push too much at one time. The students did not have much time in the gymnasium either day that I was there because the days was shorter than normal. All students from grades 4-8 were in the gymnasium at the same time, and filled in as they finished their homework in the cafeteria.

At first, when it was just the older students (grade 7-8) I noticed that not many of the students wanted to participate. The other teachers and I spoke with the students and let them pick the game that they wanted to play so we would hopefully see more participation. The students picked to play dodgeball again. However, many of the boys did begin to participate, but the girls seemed to hide to the side of the gym. Once the younger students came in everyone began to participate. I did not agree that it was safe to have 4th graders and 8th graders playing dodgeball together, but as I brought it up to the other teachers they did not seem to care as much. All they said they would do was tell the older students not to throw as hard as they can at the younger students. I was extremely surprised by this reaction because even though this is an after-school program, it is still at school, and if they do not care for the students, they should at least want to make it a safe environment so that when one of those students gets injured, they can save themselves from a lawsuit.

I spoke with a few of the students, and they asked me if next week I can come up with games like dodgeball that they can all play together that would not involve the boys pegging the girls with the dodgeballs. I told them I would look up a few different games for them and see how they work. I expressed if I cannot find a dodgeball-like game, I would find something else that they can all ply together, or in smaller groups.

This experience so far as been extremely different than any other experience I have had this far. I am happy to see some of the students beginning to warm up to me, as the first week they seemed to look at me as an outsider because I do not live in Onondaga territory. I am going to introduce a few new games this week, and hope that all students including the older boys with accept them so I can help decrease the amount of dodgeball played in their after-school program.

Onondaga Nation School's First Experience!

During week one at Onondaga Nation School I observed the students. One day one the students seemed to be a bit resistant towards me because they knew I was not apart of their culture and they thought that meant I knew nothing about them. Upon arriving, I spoke with the after-school program director, and she made me feel extremely comfortable right away. We prepared snack for the students and spoke about she expects from me and asked me what I expected from the program. I explained that I wanted to expand my knowledge of the culture of these students and wanted to invite them to learn more about mine. After we prepared snack we went down to the gymnasium where the first group of students came and introduced themselves to me. Two of the boys looked at me and immediately said, "Just so you just because we have long hair doesn't mean we are girls. We are boys, so please do not mistake us." I assume that this can be a common mistake for people who are not of their culture, however I was a bit surprised because I knew before they had said anything that they were boys, or at least assumed so because of the clothing they were wearing.

Besides the one interaction with the two boys no other students seemed to pass judgement on me because I was someone new and was not of their culture. However, many of the teachers that worked the after-school program were very quick to pass judgement. A few did not want anything to do with speaking with me. I spoke with a few of the teachers, and one explained to me that it is because I did not grow up in their culture, they assume I am here just for a few weeks, and would never want anything to do with it again. Although my experience may only last a few weeks, I most certainly am not their to treat them any different than any other teachers that I work with in any observations.

The experience from week one was eye opening so far. I was very happy with the students as they were very active, and by choice. In this after-school program the students have a choice to participate in physical activity or sit with their teachers on the side. Only one student sat in the two days I was there and this was because she was injured. One thing I would like to do with the after-school program is shy them away from dodgeball games. The teachers seem to give this to the students because it is a simple game that they can just throw the balls out, then sit on the side and watch rather than play an active role in student engagement. I would like to introduce other games that the students will enjoy that does not involved them to peg each other. One girl got hit in the face with a kickball, and the next day expressed to me that she did not want to participate in the dodgeball game because she did not want to get hit again, and that she did not like playing with the boys because they throw too hard. I ended up playing different games with her on the side to keep her active, but get her away from the general dodgeball game going on.

I am excited to continue my experience with Onondaga Nation School. On Mondays in the after-school program I told the students I would like to be engaged in games that they enjoy playing and on Tuesdays each week I will prepare a different game to introduce to them. I only get each group for up to 20 minutes each day, so it is a short period of time, but I hope to introduce some fun games that they will continue to play even after my experience is over.

Cortland Dance Company Recital

This past weekend was the Cortland Dance Company Recitals, and I must admit that they both went absolutely amazing. All of the dancers did a great job with their dances and I could not be more proud to be part of a company! We had all types of dances from hip hop, jazz, lyrical, step, irish step, tap, and so much more! I want to thank everyone who came out to support us! We had two awesome crowds who really cheered us on! Below will be some pictures from some of the dances!


Sirens:

Step In Time (from Mary Poppins)

 Fake ID (from Footloose):

Rolling in the Deep:

 Thank you Cortland Dance Company for an amazing semester at Cortland. Congratulations to all of the seniors! You girls are going to do great with all that you do after graduation!

What To Expect Now?

As April 23rd was my last PED 201 lab at Saint Marys, I had a lot of fun, and learned more than I ever thought I would about the students. This semester has made me grow a lot as a teacher candidate! I cannot wait to continue on in my journey next semester with EDU 255 and doing middle and high school observations over the winter for EDU 256! I would like to thank all of my peers, Professor Yang, our lab assistents, and everyone at Saint Mary's for making this semester such a success for me! Below are few of the most important things that I have learned throughout this semester. I enjoyed each and every lab, but some moments for course stood out more than others. 

Young children are extremely interesting in so many ways. They are the most creative at everything they do. They can make walking across the gym into a wild adventure through a rainforest where you are being chased by lions! I love being around younger children because it lets me be creative as well. Elementary students love when you make scenarios for them to act out. Middle school and high school students are not as fun to do things like this with! They do not get into it. Games that are appropriate are games that allow students to be creative. For example, today in lab we were doing parachute games and Steve had the students tell him what they wanted to add to our soup (being balls thrown into the parachute). One of the little boys next to me tugged on my shirt and I leaned down to hear that he wanted to add Macaroni and Cheese to our soup! Who else would think of macaroni and cheese in soup besides a elementary aged student! Games that are not appropriate are the ones that again they will not understand. Any game that will take more than two minutes to explain is probably a game that they will not understand. Games with little rules are perfect. The more rules the less understanding. 

All of the students favorite games are with the parachute. Bringing the parachute to the last lab was the best idea I think from the entire semester. The participation we had was incredible. We could play simple games with them, but they would have so much fun with them. Games were as simple as saying if you were holding blue run under the parachute and grab a new color on the outside! The students had a blast with the giant parachute. They could have stayed there for hours just lifting it up and down making waves.

I love the Pre K program at Saint Mary’s. It is perfect for the age group. They have time where they can run around and get their energy out, but at the same time have time to relax, and settle down. For the most part they were the most well behaved students. They listened to every word you were saying and always tried to follow the rules. When they were not following the rules it was because they did not understand them. When older children do not follow the rules it is normally because they are bored and are going to cause trouble. I did enjoy working with this age group on the day I was assigned to them however I do not know if I could do it all of the time because sometimes I do not have the patience to explain myself a hundred times, and you do that every day with the Pre K room.

I am eager to move on to observe older students, and actually get into a teaching environment rather than a after school program. I again have enjoyed this semester more than any other and I know this is just the beginning of a great journey to becoming a physical educator! I am not sure what to expect from the middle and high school students because my experiences with children of these ages are at a sleep away camp.  A school and camp setting are two very different things for children. I do not want to go into these observations with the expectations that I do with my campers because naturally when children are at camp they act much different than they would in school. 

Again I want to thank all of my peers, Professor Yang, our lab assistants and the staff and students of Saint Mary's Elementary School. 

This is a highlight reel from my experiences throughout the past semester in PED 201! Hope you enjoy!

Beautiful Day For Building

It was a wonderful lab where every single person, students and my fellow college students were more than excited and ready to play! The enthusiasm was showing through everyones actions the second we walked into Saint Marys on April 16th. 


Last Monday the Physette's were the gym group! We were very excited to finally have this section and were even more happy that it is the last place we will teach! I was very happy with our performance in lab because the students seemed to be extremely into our games. Some got a little bored in the games where they were just standing around or dribbling back and forth down the court. I liked my game a lot because it was a mix of sports I knew students would enjoy. "Socketball" was a combination of soccer and basketball where students can dribble the all with either their hands or feet and score either a basketball hoop or soccer goal. Putting certain restrictions of the game are a good idea as well to help control the amount everyone plays. 




Once we were done in the gymnasium we went down to the cafeteria with the students and were playing with the legos! I had a challenge with one boy who did not think I could build a five foot tall tower of blocks. Although he was correct, I took the challenge, and worked long and hard on my tower that ended up being a crazy one foot tall. It was interesting to see all of the students creativity at work because we do not get to see it as much when in the gymnasium having them play our games. We really get it when we give them some free space to come up with their own ideas. Some of the girls were making pageant stages out of the legos while some of the guys were creating crazy looking cars, boats, and airplanes. 




Click here to read my Lab 5 assessment!

Math, Reading, and Physical Education?

In lab on April 9th we were in the Exergame room. This was a whole new world introduced to me. I am extremely impressed with the amount of activities there were and how much you could do with them. Each game gives you multiple options to keep the entire room moving rather than 4 or 5 students. Technology never seizes to amaze me in physical education. There are activities for students of all ages that will hold their interest for an entire physical education class. The dance game was one of these games that could keep students moving for hours on end. I really liked how it let everyone pick their own level of difficulty rather than a general level for everyone. This lets students challenge themselves as they want rather than forcing them to either play a less or more advanced version of the game for their personal ability. Each person can set the level based on their ability without affecting anyone else's game. 


The Exergame Lab is filled with a bunch of fun games for students of all ages and abilities. The kick boxing game being one of the best! I would use this game in middle schools and high schools especially with all students of all abilities. This game gives students no excuses at all to not be participating in any way that they want. For example, if a student has a broken leg, give them a padded pole to hit the targets on the punching bag. Students who are not up to the punching bag can use the dance mats in the background or even punch anad kick as if they had a bag in front of them. There are many ways of using the different games in the Exergame lab. Meeting the CEO of Exergaming was really nice too because he could answer any questions that we had! I like that we can use our own music for the games because everyone exercises to different music. In a class you can have each student pick on song and make a play list to go through in each class. Also, it gives you a bigger variety of songs to use rather than the slim selection Dance Dance Revolution gives us. 

The biking game is interesting as well. There are two different versions aimed for students of different ages. I played the one aimed towards elementary students, and still had a great time! We played it where one person was using their arms to spin the peddles of the bike while the other person was steering. Again this brought education into the classroom because instead of just riding a bike around a track, there were different problems, letters, or numbers that we had to collect. The level we played was aimed more for kindergarten and younger. We did letter and number identification. This game again gets students to work on other subjects while being physically active. It can work the same way as the dance or kick boxing games do where you can set up other bikes in the background and have students biking as well. If there are not enough bikes for every student to have their own, then pair them up and have one peddle and one steer!


There are other great games that would perfect for elementary aged students. One in particular is hyper dash. Pre-schoolers can use this game to practice their colors and numbers. First and second graders can use it to practice their adding and subtracting. Third grade through fifth grade can use this game to practice multiplication and division. This game is great because it can incorporate physical education with other classes. Students will be more willing to learn if they are not just sitting there being told to do 5 math problems on their paper. This game allows of students to do some critical thinking while moving around. Some ways of using this game could be to set the answer "plates" around the room and students listen for the question and then run, gallop, skip, lead, etc. to the answer around the room. Using hyper dash is a great way to incorporate other subjects into physical education. 

Cortland Dance Company Activities!

First, on Friday April 13th Cortland Dance Company surprised everyone with a Flash Mob in Neubig Dining Hall. We performed to We Found Love by Rihanna. The surprise seemed to cause some excitement throughout the dining hall when two of the girls stood on top of their chairs dancing. Being apart of this Flash Mob was a great experience for me. I had a lot of fun with the girls I spend the most time with. It was a wonderful bonding experience for all as well! And I can happily say I can cross "Being apart of a Flash Mob" off my list of things to do before I die! 

Last night, Cortland Dance Company performed at Relay for Life in the ice arena of Poolside. All of the girls did an amazing job during the performance. However, that is not all we did! We took part in every event that we possibly could including three-legged races, pudding eating contests, and playing Just Dance. I am so proud of everyones enthusiasm during this event last night. We also taught our flash mob performance to all participants who were willing to learn a fun quick dance! At the end of the night our team even won an award for never giving up! It was nice to see all of our enthusiasm did not go unrecognized. We are an amazing group of girls who love to have fun. None of us care about embarrassing ourselves while having as much fun as we can together and that goes a long! I truly am more than glad to be part of Cortland Dance Company and love all of the great times we all have together!

Performing Rolling in the Deep!

Teaching the Flash Mob!

If you want to see some of the amazing dances that we do, come see us perform at Cortland High School Friday April 27th at 6:00pm or Saturday April 28th at 12pm. Doors open an hour before the performances start! These shows are worth taking the time out of the day to see! Tickets are $5 in advanced and $7 at the door! Hope to see you all there! If you have any questions about the recitals feel free to email me at lauren.garbarino.pe@gmail.com 

All who performed at Relay for Life! Great job to all!