Gong Hey Fat Choy!

            We got right into an instant activity as usual today for EDU 255 working with Frisbees. Then Professor Yang brought us back together as a group and informed all of us that today is the Chinese New Year and it’s the year of the Dragon. He taught us how to say “Happy New Year” in Chinese, which is “Gong Hey Fat Choy”. In the celebration of the New Year they hand out little red “lucky envelops” to children and fireworks are used to ward off bad spirits. This is what led us to our first activity! He called it the “firecracker” to relate it back to the theme of the Chinese New Year. This drill is usually called tabata training, which consist of 20 seconds of movement then 10 seconds of rest for 4 minutes. Everyone was in groups of four with 2 offenders and 2 defenders with the Frisbee. We were asked to see how many passes we could get in the 20 seconds. This really got everyone moving. I’d like to think I’m in pretty good shape from being on the Track Team but I was sweating from this! It was a fun short activity that gets everyone moving! After this we did another drill/game for ultimate Frisbee skills. This focused on getting 4 to 5 passes then scoring with and without someone defending the goal. We ended today with some light stretching/yoga. I always enjoy this part of class because it’s different then just the normal static stretching way of “cooling down”.

            After watching Professor Yang teach two classes and looking over the evaluation form we got in class today, looking back on the first day of class I realized that I had missed some of the elements of a good physical education lesson. I’m happy there is plenty of time to learn and improve!! Professor Yang usually starts with an instant activity then pulls everyone back together for his introduction, signal for attention, hook, safety, visual aids. Then he demonstrates and explains the tasks. Before he sends everyone off the practice he checks for understanding by asking some of the details of the task. Then while everyone practices the task he walks around and gives positive and constructive feedback. Then while we were playing he lessoned the amount of passes need to score. He always ends the lesson by recapping about the skill and reconnects the theme back to the lesson.  For my first teaching lesson I didn’t start with an instant activity and just went right into the introduction, safety, demonstration and explanation. I didn’t have a visual aid obviously because it was a “surprise lesson” so I didn’t have much time to prepare. Also that had an impact on my ability to create a hook or theme for the lesson. I did forget to apply a sign for attention and the check for understanding. While they were practicing the soccer passing I walked around and gave a little feedback. I should have interacting a little more now looking back. After they passed with both feet I asked them to move farther apart for more of a “challenge” for passing accuracy. I unfortunately ran out of time for a closing. I feel that my lesson was ok but I should have had more movement and not so much of just standing and passing back and forth because that gets pretty boring and doesn’t require much activity. So for next time I now know some things that I can work on and add into the lesson to make more interesting and more movement!