Here we have a link to the prezi I made regarding my best and worst moments in sports! I hope you enjoy it!

http://prezi.com/hfd0n1-h7qbq/best-and-worst-moments-in-sports/

E-Portfolio

Here is a link to my work in progress portfolio that will continue to be worked on for the remainder of my college career.


https://sites.google.com/site/jordanbaripe/home

Bittersweet symphany

When I first came to Cortland, I was positive what I wanted to do with my life was teach Physical Education classes. I didn't necessarily know what age group I wanted to teach and I definitely didn't know how good or bad I was going to be at it. However, at the beginning of this semester, when we began to go to Saint Mary's school I truly began to second guess my thoughts on what I wanted to do. The first day there are no questions asked that I was beyond intimidated and it probably was very obvious in my body language. As time went on in the semester however, I really noticed how I was simply just nervous and this is exactly what I want to do with my life. I am happy I noticed this too because I was very close to changing my major and trying something new. I would have seriously regretted it if I was to make that mistake. I belong in the major I am doing now. 

With the last and final lab we had at St. Mary's, I have a very bittersweet feeling about leaving. I am happy because that means the semester is coming to an end for obvious reasons, but the truth of the matter is that I very much will be missing the children and the group of peers I was working with throughout the entire semester. 

I definitely plan on volunteering at St. Mary's in the future because the people there are amazing and so are the students. I want to send a special thank you to everyone in our PED 201 class and to Dr. Yang as well for making this entire experience one to remember and a very special one indeed. 

Kicking and screaming!

At this point in the semester, we have played several games with the students in which I feel to have been very effective and appropriate for the children at St. Mary's. I strongly feel this way because although we are not there every week, I do notice improvement in each of the students on all of the skills our games incorporate. Every time we are there the kids har a good time and keep wanting to play more and more of what ever game we have then play. This is a good feeling and it makes me happy an also makes me realize that the games we play with the students are definitely appropriate for them. There are definitely some limitations to games an activities we can play when we are assessing the students. This is because either (a) the students skill level is not up to par to perform he game or skill and (b) there are many students in the gym participating and it can be distracting and get in tr way of what you are tryin to achieve. The movements we evaluated this past lab were the stationary bounce and kicking. We had evaluated 2 students, one male and one female ate age of about 5. The girls skill level in dribbling a ball at first was not very high. She was slapping the ball with her palm and wa by making good contact with the ball. She also had no control over the ball because of how she was attempting to bounce it. After Dr. Yang personally showed her the correct way to do it, she immediately improved and began to use her finger pads and had control over the ball. It really wa amazing to watch!! This same student was actually pretty decent at kickin a ball. Aside from being skittle choppy in her approach towards the ball, she had decent form. Her opposite arm swung forward and tr trunk also inclined backwards upon impact with the ball. Her biggest flaw I thought was her finish. She didn't ever leave her opposite foot even though your supposed to hop in the finish of a kicking motion. The boy we evaluated had a very low skill level when bouncin the ball. His contact was at about knee when it should har been at about hip level. Also, the way he made contact with the ball was more of a slap than anything. The one thing I must say he was good at was keeping the ball infront I him. Although his form and skill was low, he still managed to keep control of the ball, at least most of the time. This same student had a very nice kicking motion. He had a very continuous approach to the ball an had a very nice follow through in which he hopped and lande on his opposite foot than the kicking foot. Overall, both students were very good at some stuff and need work on other movements. Nothig of which us "rockstars" can't take care of! ;)

Exergame intro

This past week was by first experience with exergameing! It was honesty one of the cooler parts of phys Ed that I have been aquatinted to thus far. I think it's a genius way to engage the interest of younger, less physically active students! Being able to play Idance an games such as that are fun to play and they also require you to think and move all at once. Very similar to the brain bike. I like this idea because it forces the student to move in order to play the games. While using the bike, the computer begins to work and the games can be played as long as the bike pedals don't stop moving! I think this is great because kids love video games and now you can encorporate things the children are interested in within a classroom setting. This is something have to achieve as a phys ed teacher due to the fact that more and more kids would rather play video games than exercise or be outside having fun! Exergameing is a great way to arouse the interest of the class!!!!

A game for the youngins

It'a important for the children's phys-Ed classes to not only be about bein active and physical but also for concepts that open their mind and get them learning other things as well. The game I have come up with with it's variations will increase the students ability to think on the move, with partners or without. The materials needed would be foam animals with removable letters an also foam numbers. What I would have the students do at first would be to simply find the numbers I tell them to. Thy of course would be using locomotor skills to move aroun while looking for these numbers. Then I would have the students do some simple math while looking for the answers in the foam numbers. With the animal/letter foam pieces, I would expect the students to work in groups to formulate words and eventually short sentences together in groups. This can be words they are learning in class an/or simple words that I feel are important to be learning. All in all, the students will not only be learning their physical, psychomotor skills in my phys-Ed classes but also will be learning cognitively every day!

LAB 3 - TAKIN IT OUTDOORS

For the first time sense we have been to St Mary's, my group finally got to change up the scene. While for the past 2 labs we were gym group and special projects, we now were the cafeteria group. This is the older kids and we could have them do more skilled tasks than the younger kids. This was great. However, before we got to do this, we analyzed the younger students in games that involved throwing and catching. I had 2 students to observe which I will label as Student 1 and Student 2.

Student 1, was a male at the age of 5 and he definitely was lacking skills in both throwing and catching. The one thing he did very well was he had a good downward arc with his throwing arm which indicated that he was winding up to throw. However, he did not rotate his hips and shoulders, and his weight did not transfer feet. He stood square to his target and did not follow through beyond the ball release towards the side opposite his throwing arm. It was not the same for his catching abilities though. He did a great job preparing him self for the catch by flexing his elbows with his hands in front of his body. His arms extended awaiting ball contact and although he did not catch the ball every time, he did catch the ball a few times with great form when his elbows bent to absorb the force of the ball. I was actually impressed in his catching ability and thought his throwing needed a lot of work.

Student 2, was a female also at the age of 5. She did a great job in both throwing in catching demonstrating that she knew the skills but still needed to work on them.  Her wind up was evident with here downward arc of her throwing arm and she also rotated her hips and shoulders after stepping with her non throwing hand side foot. Her follow through was the one thing I thought needed the most work. She did not come across diagonally, she came straight down and it just did not look smooth at all. Her throwing was seemed very refined. She prepared with her elbows flexed and her hands out in front of her. She extended her arms to catch the ball. She caught the ball almost every time it was thrown to her with her hands only and her elbows bent every time to absorb the force of the ball. All in all, the students I observed did a great job in both throwing and catching. 

The highlight of this lab for me was when the children thoroughly enjoyed the game we introduced (European Handball). They engaged in it and took pride in succeeding. It became very competitive and they didn't want to stop when we told them time was up. This made me very confident because we were nervous that they either wouldn't like the game or that they wouldn't be skilled enough to play. We were foolishly mistaken because they not only enjoyed it but they excelled and played very well.  I'm looking forward to next week because we have the same group and I plan on introducing a new variation to the game.