Ben's Game

Ben's Game Snap Shots

Here are some snapshots of me playing Ben's game. In some of the pictures you can see the monster trying to protect the shield. I thought it was really cool how they included red blood cells, and how Ben was on a skateboard.

Winning a Battle

“ I wish to create a cancer-fighting video game.” Ben , age 9
The objective of Ben's game is to destroy all mutated cells and to collect the seven shields that provide protection from common side effects of chemotherapy. Each shield is also guarded by a monster who generated mutated cells.
• Colds - Iceman Monster
• Barf – Robarf Monster
• Chicken Pox –Big Chicken Monster
• Fever - Firemonster
• Bleeding – Vamp Monster
• Hair Loss – Qball Monster
• Rash – Tornado Monster
Three health levels serve as ammunition in the game:
• Health you get from the hospital
• Ammo you get from the pharmacy
• Attitude you get from home

When first playing this game I was really confused and had no idea how to get started. I kept on escaping the game and going back and reading the directions. After I got a basic understanding on how to play the game, and all I wanted to do was kill the monsters and get the shields. I made my cousin come play the game, and she kept screaming in anger that she couldn't kill the monsters. We both found it astonishing, how such a young kid like Ben could create a game about cancer and the effects it has on your body into one animated game. Ben was able to create a video game to help other kids endure their cancer treatments.By creating this computer game, it helped Ben think about something positive to help others kids as well as himself battle their illnesses. Ben's game has helped thousands of children across the world, and has been translated into nine different languages. When doing some research on Ben's game I came across a really intriguing article about the effects of video games on children in the Washington Post.

Brain Gain

The web site is from Canada, which is located in North America. If I was asked to locate Canada on a map I could be able to locate it because it is located right above the United States. The video and articles are about Brain Gain, a research done by teacher Allison Cameron with her 8th grade class at City Park Collegiate in Saskatoon. I found this new piece to be very interesting because it talked about how exercise can affect the brain. In health class I was also taught that exercise when your tired can always boost your energy, and make you less fatigue, but I was never informed that it can also improve your thinking skills. In today’s society most kids are moving less and less, and are standing still in of Physical Education classes. The City Park Collegiate School is mostly a school with students who have behavioral issues and have never succeed in the classroom. Teacher Allison Cameron wanted to find a way to help her students succeed and she did it by moving exercise equipment into the classroom. By having her students perform 20 minutes of exercise once a week in the classroom she noticed that her students began to concentrate more, work harder, and there were no behavioral issues. Research has proven that exercise challenges different parts of the brain and increases concentration and mental ability. The class was first tested in February, and later at the end of school in June. Results show that due to the 20 minutes of exercise students test grades tremendously increased in math, reading and writing, comprehension, and word sitting. Physical Education teachers at this school were not involved during this experiment, and it was done in the classroom to improve the grades of students who were unable to succeed in the classroom. I think that the outcomes are similar to our New York State PE Standard 3, which is, participates regularly in physical activity. They want every student to stay active, but they do not look at the skill level of their students like we do in Physical Education. As a future teacher this article taught me that physical education is not only beneficial for ones health, but also my students academic achievements.

Part C:
In New York State I strongly believe that Physical Education teachers are still teaching some bad P.E and need to re-evaulate their programs and move towards good P.E. Currently, all Physical Educators are trying to create “ Physically Educated People” and by learing the New York State standards it will help guide them and organize the process of creating more physically educated people. My goal as a teacher is to make sure all my students come to class and enjoy taking part in physical activity, and they carry out that physical activity for a lifetime. Also as of right now Physical Education is not on the school report card, and by moving forward towards good P.E we need to make improvements, and make more people aware of the importance of Physical Education on their children. I think it is a really good idea to create regents exams in New York State for Physical Education to test students on their knowledge on physical fitness. 

Sites:
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/leishman-brain090422.wmv
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/city_park_school_results.html
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/recess_on_behaviour.html
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/deskercise.html  


Lab D:
Lesson Plan
Progression Sheet

Giving Back

This semester I became an active member of APEM and volunteered over 10 hours. My volunteer hours included taking part in two Teen Night’s at the YMCA, and the Girl’s Day in Program, and being an active member of APEM and supporting events such as hoops for hearts. This semester I have truly grown as an individual and really enjoyed being an active member of APEM. The times spent at the YMCA I was able to play with children around the Cortland area, and I learned what activities kids their age like to take part in. The kid’s really enjoyed playing Dance, Dance Revolution and half of them have never played it before. At first they were a little hesitant to try, but when they saw how much fun it was they jumped right onto the pad

Lab D- Bowling Lesson

When preparing for my lab D I was really excited to be able to teach bowling because I love to bowl and something I have been doing for a long time. Planning for Lab D took more time and preparation, and I soon realized it was difficult to come up with twenty different progressions, but as my research on bowling continued I soon learned that there are tons more progressions. For this lesson is also required that I completed my first lesson plan on my own. Starting off on a bad foot the day I needed to teach I went into the bathroom and got myself together. Overall, I feel that I have improved greatly and have taken all the tools I have learned throughout the semester and put them all into this lesson. When going over my transcript I still caught myself saying “ All right” way to many times and something I still need to work on. I also think from the first lab to the last lab you can really notice my change in tone and that I sound more confident in what I am saying. Also another area I have improved on is giving feedback. In my Lab C I only gave feedback to nine kids in the class. In Lab D I gave feedback to the entire class, and more then once. One change I could have made to my lesson was the waiting around. I had to many students sitting around, which can often times lead to behavioral issues. To fix this problem I can get more lanes and have two students to each lane to decrease the waiting time. At the conference in Tampa I learned that students stop listening after 90 seconds of instructions and as a student I can relate to that. During my lesson I tried to speak as less as possible and got the students into activity right away. As a student I hated sitting around and waiting, I always wanted to get right into the activity, and as a future teacher I try to keep that thought in my. I believe I have greatly improved my teaching skills this semester, and will carry on all the information for the rest of my teaching career.

Bowling Lesson

APEM IN TAMPA- AAHPERD CONFERENCE

Lat week I was given the opportunity to attend an AAHPERD national conference in Tampa, Florida. While being in Tampa is was an eye opener to me but an experience I will never forget. I first went on the trip knowing two people, now I can walk away and say I know twenty people and we have all bonded together and shared the whole experience together. I also realized that I should wear my Cortland Red Dragon logo proudly. I remember walking around the convention center and being stopped by everyone and them saying you go to Cortland what a great program. I didn’t realize how well known Cortland was, and makes me want to work that much harder to keep Cortland standards high.
Being only a junior and a shy and easily intimated person I didn’t have the courage to go up to other people in the exhibition lounge and talk to them but I watched my fellow peers, and the actions they took to continue on with their education. I learned a lot from my older peers and to be more confident in myself and networking is important in this line of business. My father always told me to become a teacher it wasn’t until I actually got into the classroom where I learned that I am doing something that I really loved. At the conference I was complete interested in all the sessions I attended and I knew from that moment I was going to be happy waking up every morning going into a classroom of students and teach them something I love. While at the conference I tried to attend session dealing with female athletes. It has always been a dream of mine to be the next Pat Summit, and know I need to start taking strides to get there. I want to share my love for the game with other athletes and keep them physical active for life.
At the convention I was also able to take part in Professor Yang’s presentation of exergames. It was a complete honor to be apart of his presentation. I was able to talk to professional and show them how technology can be used in the classroom. One of my favorite exergames is stepping while playing a video game. Once you stop stepping the video game stops playing, and quite a work out that is from experience. Overall, I learned a tremendous amount on this trip and has given me a whole new perspective on my future. I highly recommend all Physical Education Majors to attend a AAHPERD conference and they can walk away learning more then what they came with.

Shinny - Round Two

Being my second time teaching I was more confident in what I was doing and really wanted to get into a game like situation of “ shinny” which I thought went very well. Professor Yang threw a curve ball at me and when I had my back turned two of the girls in the class got into a fight. I learned during this lesson that I need to keep my back to the wall and not my students with two games going on I should have had my back to the bleachers and been aware of everything going on around me and I would have caught the fight a lot sooner then what I did. When filling out my time coding form I realized this time I had my peers waiting around for 30 seconds for me to give them the ball. I should have had the ball already prepared in the court so they weren’t just standing around waiting for me to give them the ball. I feel like I do a good job on giving instructions and getting them right involved in an activity. Most of the time spent was doing activity.

Words of Wisdom

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that
whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.
-Vince Lombardi

Giving Feedback

Personally, I was very shocked on how much feedback I gave to my peers during my lesson because when I was doing the lesson I felt that I wasn’t giving any. I gave both skill related feedback and behavior feedback. For example when Nick and Jason where both lined up the way I wanted them to be I demonstrated them to the class and told them good job. I also used negative feedback to Melissa when she was dribbling. She really didn’t have that much control of the ball and I told her to get more into her ready position then standing straight up. I think I when giving feedback I should also watch and give it to more girls, I tended to give a lot of feedback to the guys.

China Lab C- Transcription

When first being told about the China lab I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect out of the games we had to choose from. Like the Chinese games they are very similar to the American games that we play. I was also more nervous for this lesson because I was going to have to teach for seven minutes, which felt like the longest seven minutes of my life. Before the lesson I had the perfect introduction in my head that when I got up there I forgot everything I was going to say. I noticed that I tend to say “all right” too many times and I tend to say so if everyone can a lot too. I think hearing myself on the mp3 players makes me want to work harder on the way I project myself to the class. When listening to myself I found that my directions were not very clear at all and my peers were confused with my directions, and I switched from saying hockey to field hockey when talking about shinney. One postive to my lab was my feedback. I feel that I give good feedback even though its just a simple good job. I hope in the next attempt at lab c I really concentrate on not saying “ all right” and “ so if you can” to many times.

LAB B TRANSCRIPTION

My voice tone dramatically changed from the first lab to the second. You can notice in my voice that I become much more confident in what I was saying and I had total confidence over all. When doing my transcription I noticed that I repeated myself way to much, and I said the same thing over and over again. Also I said "you guys" a lot instead of referring to the student's by their actually name. I said alright three or four times, but I didn't say umm this time and I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. I was impressed in my tone of voice change, and how over all I felt more confident in myself and it showed it my voice.

LAB 2A

Time Coding

When reviewing my video I noticed that I had my students engaged in activity for the majority of the three minutes. I think I could have done a better job at giving instructions and explaining the different types of dribbling skills we were going to work on. When I changed each dribbling task,  I took around 10 seconds to explain what the new task was going to be. When figuring out my percents my management time was under 15%, activity time was more then 50%, and my instruction time was less then 30%. I fell into all of those percents, but I still feel that I was not that clear on my instructions and I could have done a better job teaching and explaining. 

" Coaching is Teaching"

Tonight I attended Paul Alexander's lecture " Coaching Is Teaching" and he taught me very valuable lessons for when I become I coach. I huge decision on me becoming a Physical Education was because I was going to have the opportunity to coach. My high school field hockey coach is my role model, and I want to make the impact on people that she has made on me. Paul Alexander’s talked about his childhood and where he started off in a small town in Rochester and how he made it to the NFL. One part of the lecture I enjoyed was how he shared the best advice he was ever given. When Alexander graduated Cortland he had all intentions of going back home to his high school and teach physical education and become a football coach, much like the rest of us. His mother told him no, and how there was a whole world out there. Alexander attended Penn State graduate school and became involved with the football program. Also throughout the lecture he talked about all the things that Cortland taught him, and all his professors that made an everlasting impact on his life. I strongly believe that coaching is teaching, and your teaching your athletes more beyond just drills and plays but life lessons./Users/Heather/Desktop/football-bengals-extended.jpg

Feedback

In my lesson I did not give any form of feedback to any of the student's on their dribbling. In class on Friday I learned how important it is to give feedback, not only to some but to all students of your students. I also learned that there are three different types of feedback positive, neutral and negative and should be given on the level on which each student is performing. Feedback is important so your student's know where they stand and they feel good after their teachers tells them they are doing a good job. All the pieces are coming together to make me a better students and to improve after my first lesson. 

Verbal Transcription of Lab

When talking to the class I felt like I have no confidence in what I was saying. On the first day of class I really wasn't expecting to have to teach a lesson, and I was not at all prepared for it. When talking to a class I need to be more energetic and show interest in what I am talking about. I personally love basketball and in my voice you can tell I was really nervous and was not energetic at all. Also, I noticed that I repeated what I said two times and I was not very clear when teaching how to dribble. For example when I was talking about keeping the ball closer to your side its for protection so the defenders can't knock it away instead of what I said. When my peers were dribbling around I could have told them what they were doing wrong and told them they were doing a good job. From listening to myself talk I feel that I really need to get my energy level up and be confident in what I am saying because it showed. I was shocked that I only said umm once in my head I felt I was saying it a lot more.

Video Response

At first when watching myself I was really nervous to see the way I presented myself and taught the lesson. You can tell in my body language that I was very nervous and wasn't very confident in myself and what I was teaching. I also feel that I need to work on my voice and the way I project myself to my students. I need to become more louder and talk clearer when talking to the class. I also feel I need to become more confident. I think the video taping is a key tool to help myself improve for when I am in the classroom. I have a lot of things I need to improve on, and I am really excited for this class and everything it is going to teach me in order to become a better teacher in the future.