Who’s on first is a classic American comedy, originally done in the mid-1930s by Abbott and Costello, this is a funny story as well as a play on words that to this day is considered one of the greatest bits ever done. I believe that this story translates well to young readers because it is entertaining, short concise dialog, a lot of site word practice, and it also presents a bit of a challenge to understand the complex structures of the English language. Also baseball (in my opinion sports in general) can cross culture/socioeconomic boarders. The story breaks down to this there is a baseball team on which the names and positions of the players are as follows, Who- is the first baseman’s actual name, What- is the second baseman’s actual name, I don’t know- is the third baseman’s actual name, Tomorrow- is the pitchers actual name, Why- is the actual left fielder’s name, Because- is the actual center fielder’s name, and I don’t give a Hoot- is the actual shortstop’s name. One can see how there may be some funny and confusing dialog with that’s being the names of the players. This book I have found is a popular choice for young readers.
   Illustration by John Martz. This illustration in this book is fantastic, however it also allows the storyteller to explain the story without actually explaining it. The illustrator actually maps out for us the positions and the players’ names so the students can follow along with minimal effort. John Martz is a cartoonist and a comic book artist from Toronto. He has an extensive work catalog with many children’s books as well as comic’s.
   The reason I picked this book is my little cousin who is in second grade said this was his favorite book. So I checked it out and quickly understood why. As a child I remember seeing this sketch done on TV and thinking how clever and funny it was. I also feel like it creates a great example of how our language can be challenging. However with the illustration I personally feel that it provides enough assistance/ contexts to get early readers through the story successfully. Sources:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/9148377/abbott-costello-first-routine-celebrates-75-years-baseball-comedy

http://johnmartz.com/

P E

I've been away from the blog since I graduated Cortland University. Now I am a permenent sub at a high school on Long Island. These are scary times for education in new york especially electives like Music and P. E. I optomistically move forward even though jobs are imposible to get and hope to start my masters in adapted or special education. Any sugestions?

UCLA Coach John Wooden is one the greatest coaches in the history of sports. Over his most impressive career he has put together this pyramid for success in sport as well as life. As a student of physical education as well as a future educator I feel this pyramid would be a great corner stone for any program. I personally plan on incorporating it in my philosophy as well as my programs.

Lab 2
1. Observe the St. Mary’s student(s) as they participate in the activities. Describe the variability of the movement patterns you observed in your students. Be sure to note with whom you worked , what grade they were in, and any differences in age, gender, or ability.

From what I observed during the lesson both Megan and Nicholas are six years old and both are in first grade. From what I had seen their movement ability was fairly similar. Nicholas was slightly stronger on some of the Hop criteria. It is interesting to observe the children because you can kind of see that they are in transitional phases. They with little instruction they will sometimes do the motions properly while other times revert back to initial phases. Both students demonstrated this behavior in the activities with the gallop.



2. Describe the effective “teaching strategies” that you observed. What were they and on whom did you use them? How were they used? What was the effect? Were there any strategies that were more effective than others? If so, why?

I noticed that Russ was very affective when it came to bringing the students back to focus. When the children got distracted and started to talk and kind of move away from the activity Russ would calmly put his hand up and count to five. All of the children knew what they were doing and stopped and regained focus. He would also bring them in close and talk a little lower to make them listen up more closely. These methods that he used are text book. I feel that he controlled his group professionally and extremely affectively.

Lab 3

1. Observe the St. Mary’s student(s) as they participate in the activities. Describe the variability of the movement patterns you observed. Be sure to note with whom you worked, what grade they were in, and any differences in age, gender, or ability.

In my observations I noticed that in the obstacle course Ethan and Molly where about the same level of motor ability. I saw that both of the students had a difficult time getting the correct motor movements down. Both students on the horizontal jump used one foot at a time to take off and also to land. They did not use that arm swing either and they just did not look too fluid while participating in these activities. They were able to leap well and Ethan did the slide better than Molly even though he is younger. Molly is 6 and Ethan is 5 Molly in first grade and Ethan in kindergarten.


2. Describe “teaching strategies” that YOU used today towards connecting with the children. What were they? How did YOU use them? What was the effect? Were there any strategies that were more effective than others? If so, why?

I observed that when Russ when he was demonstrating he did exactly what he wanted the children to do in real time or ha had somebody else in his grope do the activity so that the students could all see exactly what he wanted them to do. This is a very good thing for a teacher to do because children at this age want to do what you want them to and if you show them the proper way to do things they will imitate that to the best of their abilities. I feel like Russ did a good job of using that.


3. After being at St. Mary’s for these past weeks and observing and working with the students, can you briefly describe an effective strategy (or strategies) that you used to capture the children’s attention and keep them on task for your activity.

I like to bring the children in, like a huddle, and then talk a little goofy when I describe the games to them to try and get their attention. If they are acting out I will use my voice as a signal for attention and count or tell them to sit down. I feel that both of these strategies that I use to get and keep attention are fairly affective and are not in any way negative to the class so I feel that they are good.

Lab 4

1.Reflecting on your experience so far at St Mary’s, what do you think have been some difficulties or challenges you have faced? Consider all areas – environment, children, etc.

Some of the challenges that I have come across are equipment management as well as child participation. With the equipment we have not really run into any real serious snags but if we were alone teaching I feel like the need to control this element a lot better than we have been. Student involvement has not been too big of a problem but I noticed with the older children a group of girls who did not want to participate with the other groups during an open play session. I did manage to engage them into a different activity but in a classroom setting this may have been too much focus when I would have an entire class and just me.



2. What ideas/suggestions do you have to resolve the difficulties or challenges that you wrote about in #1?


I feel that in a real class room setting I feel that I would have more power and possible the ability of punishment. Now I know that this is not a positive thing to use but at the same time I feel that if the students know that you have the ability to penalize them they tend to do what you ask of them more easily even if you do not threaten them. Also possibly get the students involved with clean up and have more organized lessons.

Lab 5

1. Consider the activities/games that you have utilized so far during the past four labs. Were they appropriate for the students at St. Mary’s? Why or why not?

I feel that all of the games that my group has used and all of the games the other groups have used where all appropriate for St. Mary’s. Every game we used was age appropriate first off. The activities we were doing where pick because they fit the age range and skill level. Also all of the game that was picked is all simply fun and appropriate games. There were no bad songs used, no names of games or use of games that could be considered in appropriate, and all of the instructors to my vision acted, spoke, and dressed appropriately.

2. What might be some limitations to games or activities when using them in the process of assessing motor skills?

Limitations that I observed where we couldn’t really just allow the students free range in the activities. They needed to be strictly on the guidelines of our observations. This kind of limits the fun and creativity that the students could normally have in these activities. That being said our short amount of time did not help our cause much. If we had our own class for an entire unite I feel like advancement in motor skill would have occurred regularly. All in all this experience is still extremely positive and very helpful for teacher growth.

Some fun motor development activity

Motor Development

It is amazing to me how these young children are able to progress so quickly. Working with the young students is such a great opportunity to really learn the core values and skills of physical education. With the younger children one needs to break skills down to simple movements. Everything is simplified and moderated with almost certain progressions later on down the road. I personally love the energy and the attitudes of the younger children. Almost all of the kids are happy to learn and play and all they want to do is participate. We as Physical educators need to make this experience fun and educational. They may not understand the concept of life long fitness but we need to keep bringing it up because one day they will get it and if we are lucky they will remember some of the things we taught them.