Blindsight

I thought that this movie was very informative. I thought that it was amazing and awesome that people with visual impairments were able to go rock climbing, let alone go climb Mount Everest. I thought that the movie was very entertaining and I learned many new things about visual impairments and how people work with them and through their blindness to do what they really want to do. I was really shocked that how the people in Tibet really looked down upon people who were blind and would ridicule them. Overall I thought it was a great movie.

Total hours: 2

Adapted Physical Education Video

Myself and my fellow colleague Richie Ferrer created a video about Cortland's Adapted PE Program and Adapted PE in general in the public school setting. At first Richie and I were creating this video for a video competition for youtube but we quickly realized that the video we were creating was much bigger than just an entry in a competition. The more and more we filmed this video i realized that this video could really be used to help raise awareness about Adapted Physical Education. This video could be used in SUNY Cortland's program as early as PED 201 Motor Development so the students can become aware of the program and concentration in Adapted PE at SUNY Cortland. The video could also spread much more awareness about APE by being on youtube so it will have a lot more exposure to people. I really hope that our video will be used through the program at SUNY Cortland and I also hope that the video spreads awareness to many people in the near future about Adapted Physical Education. Richie and I interviewed three professors within the APE program at SUNY Cortland including Dr. Foley, Dr. Craft, and Dr. Davis. We also interviewed a graduate assistant in the APE Master's Program, Ryan Edson, along with ourselves being interviewed. We had a lot of editing to go through as we were picking the best answers to fit within our video. I feel that this video will get a lot of attention and I really hope it helps the young students get started within Adapted Physical Education.

Total hours: 8-10

Special Olympics Polar Plunge

On Saturday November 20th I attended the Special Olympics Polar Plunge at Ceder Beach in Mount Sinai, New York. The amount of people that showed up to this event was staggering, I couldn't believe it. I was so amazed that so many people were there to help raise and spread awareness about Special Olympics. I felt so proud to be apart of the New York Torch run that had started all the way up in Buffalo and worked it's way down to Ceder Beach, Long Island. There were thousands of people there that raised a lot of money in support for the athletes of the Special Olympics. Seeing that many people run and take the plunge into the freezing water in order to promote and support awareness for the athletes was very special to witness. I was very proud to witness this event and help raise money for the awareness of Special Olympics in New York.

Total Hours: 6

The Visitor

I have just watched the movie The Visitor which was very interesting. This movie has shown me a different view about the lives of immigrants within the United States. Even though one of the main characters didn't have his green card and according to the law should have been deported, he still was mistreated and did nothing wrong. Two New York police officers stopped him on suspicion that he was an immigrant because of the way he looked and his accent. They then proceeded to arrest him because he didn't possess a green card and he was put into a detention facility. At the end of the movie he was deported. I just feel that it's wrong to discriminate against people by the way they look or sound. Everyone should be treated and viewed equally. I hold this philosophy as I am in the Adapted PE program at SUNY Cortland and I will be perusing a career in Adapted PE and Special Education. No one should be discriminated against do to the way they look or act. Even though the man didn't have a green card he was still apprehended by the police for doing no harm. This movie let me see a different side of immigration and immigrants' lives. I am glad to have taken the to watch this movie.

Total Hours: 2

St. Mary's Lab 6

I’ve learned that all younger children are different. Whether they’re at a different level of a motor skill, social aspect, or growth point they all have their own personal level in which they are at. Each child is and individual and should be treated as an individual. There were many activities that were appropriate for the children. One of these activities was four goal soccer. Four goal soccer got everyone in the class involved and all of the children were playing. The directions to the game were given very clearly and thoroughly in which none of the children had any problems or had any questions. The children knew who was on whose team and which goals to shoot at. Another activity that was appropriate was capture the flag. In capture the flag, we had the children capture the Easter baskets, that had eggs in them, and bring them back to their home base. The game went very well and the students really enjoyed it. A game that was inappropriate was food freeze tag, in which the students had to say their favorite food before getting the ball thrown to them to get unfrozen. The game didn’t go very well because the students weren’t using the right throwing motion by throwing overhand. The students also didn’t get the concept that they needed to be tagged first in order to get the ball. I feel that we really didn’t have the students’ full attention when we were explaining the rules and giving an adequate demonstration of the game.

I was only able to experience the Pre-K at St. Mary’s for one lab. When I first walked into the room one of the boys in the class immediately greeted me, taking my hand and bringing me over to where he was playing. I ended up helping him build towers with the blocks that he was playing with. I then played with a group of other children who were having a tea party in the playhouse and also were playing with the toy cash register. The children were very talkative and energetic. My group had a game for the Pre-K children when we took them into the gym, which had them performing various motor skills such as leaping, hopping, sliding, and jumping. The game was also associated with spiderman, in which the children threw balls at the villain Dr. Octopus. Working with the Pre-K children was different from working with the older children because the Pre-K students weren’t as developed with their motor skills and their social skills as the older children. I did really enjoy working with the Pre-K children because they were very playful and talkative and were very excited to play any game we had for them.

While I was at St. Mary’s I was in the cafeteria a few times and I noticed the fine motor activities that the children were playing. Some of these fine motor activities were drawing, doing puzzles, and building with small legos. I feel that if you can find a way to incorporate the fine motor activities into the activities that you have in your curriculum, you should definitely execute it because it is another way to build the children’s character.

I have learned a lot of valuable lessons and tricks that can help me with my teaching style while spending my time at St. Mary’s. I have learned to really project my voice loud enough in which everyone in the room would be able to hear it. I have also learned to always give an adequate demonstration of the activity, game, or skill that I am teaching so the students know what I am expecting from them. I have also learned to name all of the objectives to the game/activity while I am introducing the instruction and rules to the game/activity. With all of the labs, I have learned to always have alternate variations to games/activities, in which I can continue the interest of the children and look at different aspects such as different motor skills. I feel like my teaching style has not yet fully emerged, but was really developed during my experience with St. Mary’s labs. I feel that I will be learning many more new aspects to teaching with the rest of my experiences that I have ahead of me within the classes I have yet to take. I will constantly be learning as I go through my teaching experience, constantly fine adjusting my teaching style.

St. Mary's Lab 5

Almost all of the games that my group has utilized with the St. Mary students have been appropriate. Most of the games have had the right range of activities and motor skills for the age group of students to accomplish. The students have shown their progressions and where they stood in the area of the certain motor skill that we were accessing. During week four, the game that we had our students play was food freeze tag, in which the students had to say their favorite food before getting the ball thrown to them to get unfrozen. The game didn’t go very well because the students weren’t using the right throwing motion by throwing overhand. The students also didn’t get the concept that they needed to be tagged first in order to get the ball. I feel that we really didn’t have the students’ full attention when we were explaining the rules and giving an adequate demonstration of the game.

There are some limitations that you can run into during the process of accessing motor skills. There will be students that aren’t able to perform the certain task that you need them to perform in order to access them in a specific motor skill. Every student is different and many of them develop at different times throughout their childhood. Another limitation that could be possible during a game could be a lack of resources. You can end up not having the right materials that you need or not enough material to perform a game or activity that you want to play.

St. Mary's Lab 4

Since I have been at St. Mary’s there have been difficulties and challenges that I have faced during the labs. One of the difficulties was projecting my voice. Another difficulty was to keep the students on track during the activity that my group was running. One other difficulty/challenge that I have faced is to get the students that were sitting out of the activities to participate in the activity.

I have learned a lot from being at St. Mary’s and teaching the students there. When I had trouble with projecting my voice, I made sure that at the following lab I was projecting it so all of the students would hear it. Also, I made my voice loud enough to grab and keep the students attention. Keeping the students on track during an activity can be very difficult considering some of them don’t want to be participating in the activity at all. In order to keep them on track I feel that the directions and rules to the game have to be given out very thoroughly before the game starts, so there is a better chance that the students are doing the allotted task. Also, I feel that the game has to have a variation so the students don’t get bored with playing the same game. There have been difficulties where I haven’t really been able to get students that were sitting out to participate in the activity. I feel that I should ask them why they’re sitting out, try to convince them to play, and then ask them what game they want to play and tell them that they’ll play it after the activity in progress.