Entry 58

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/21/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Today is Grandparents day, which means an early dismissal = woohoo!!

We met with our normal Friday classes but for a shorter period today. Most of my students did not show up to school and I only had 2 grandparents actually attend my classes. (Grandparents are more involved with the younger children, so the lower and middle school are really active on this day, as opposed to the upper school which usually wastes a half day of instruction). However, I showed a short E:60 film in my Sports Medicine class and had my students relate it to the material we have been covering (strength training and conditioning). In AP Stats, I worked a FRAPPY with the students and gave them student responses for them to score. Seriously, that is all I accomplished today in the classroom; although, I posted assignments for all of my classes to be completed over break on edline (so that made up for my lost instructional time ;) ). 

Reflections of Today's Activities

Very grateful for a half day and a little time to get caught up on some work! This is my last post until Dec 1st! 

Entry 57

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/20/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal planning period.
PE (5th, long) - Well I knew it was too good to be true - the senior schedule to lead today leaves right before class and doesn't even check out. Once the school got in contact with his dad, the dad gave an excuse that he left because he had "blisters on his toes". See below my reflection in regards to this matter. I quickly had to step in and makes plans for my class, yay. The warm-up consisted of our new-revised routine - with timed exercises. After exercises, we began our basketball lesson with lay-up lines. And since I wasn't prepared to introduce anything new, I just went with whatever they already knew well. The other drills that the class participated in was 3v2 and 2v1 and then they finished up with a 4v4v4 activity (winner travels down the court to the other team of 4 in attempt to score more points).
Middle School Study Hall - drives me nuts every Tuesday and Thursday; feels like punishment.
Middle PE (7th) Monday/Thursday class. Special day - last class before Thanksgiving so I waived the normal 20 minute warm-up routine. I allowed them to just "be active" for 10 minutes to be sufficient as a warm-up. Then I introduced a new dodgeball game called "ghost ball". Ghostball is a normal game of dodgeball with a set number of balls (start off with 1 or 2 and increase by 1 ball per every game played). However, the team is allowed to select a "ghost" to go to the other teams side but only allowed to travel on the outside perimeter of the court. Each team is allowed to use their ghost by throwing them a ball so the ghost can throw a ball at the other team - so balls will be thrown at you from all angles of the court. Once you get hit, you become a ghost on the other side of the court, so you are still technically in the game. The game is played until 1 side has all became ghosts. We played 3 rounds of this before I let them have 10 minutes of free play before we left for the day!

Reflections of Today's Activities

It has become an epidemic of parents sticking up for their children by supplying them with excuses once they violate school rules. It is almost more important for the child to seem "golden" for the parents, rather than teaching them that breaking the rules has consequences. It is troubling that parents value appearances over being responsible - but what can a school do about what? I'm so tired of hearing excuses rather than being held accountable for actions. What is the appropriate action a teacher should take in this situation? 

Planning the same lesson plan for Sports Medicine doesn't always mean that each class will react the same to it. My 2nd period class is comprised mostly of freshman who are too scared to get in trouble so they tend to follow all directions given. My 4th period is a mixture of all types of students within the grades with various athletic abilities - but certainly a variety of personalities. My 4th period did not respond as well to the lesson as my 2nd period today. Instead of following directions and performing the workouts, I got a few students trying to dip out and then smarted off to me - I WAS NOT HAVING IT!! I had to stop during the warm-up and put the desks back together so they could do written work instead. It was to my understanding that they couldn't handle the "hands on" experience, but they still needed to know the material - so they were given a paper to write about the science behind progressive-resistive training. Hopefully, this will change a few behaviors in class - a few can ruin the entire experience for everyone. I'm not sure how politically correct this method is, but I tend to take my coaching habits to the classroom to make all students learn accountability and how to act in a group of people. Go to the main content

Entry 56

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/19/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th, long) - Another special lesson planned for today - Circuit Training. When the students came to class, I allowed them to go change into workout clothes. After they returned, I projected an Insanity Workout Video on the board - and we proceeded with the 10 minute warm-up. The video was an hour long all together, but since I had other work they needed to start I shortened our workout time to 30 minutes. When we finished up our workout, I held a class discussion about how this video related to cardiorespiratory conditioning and what defined circuit training. I was pleased to hear the very scientific answers as they related it to their physical condition while performing the exercises. The last part of class - assigned to different assignments so they could start work on it today and finish it up friday for grandparents day.
AP Statistics (6th, long) - As the students walked in - I handed them their "warm-up" to work on for about 15 minutes: FRAPPY #3. It was essentially a previous free response question used on an AP exam. While they were working on the FRAPPY - I used that time to check homework and meet with students individually who have been absent lately to catch them up. The next part of class, I allowed the students to meet with a partner to collaborate on their homework assignment from the night before (chapter review). Once they discussed their answers with each other, I projected the problem on the board and gave the solution sets. I also went over the FRAPPY answer before I did the chapter review-forgot to mention that before. I believe we are all ready for the summative assessment on Ch. 3 now!
No 7th PE today - Wednesdays tend to be my double-booked days. Another teacher covered my PE class while I met with my upper school Advisory group. Today was Grim Reaper day that CHILL sponsors to bring awareness to texting and driving. Within my advisory group, I held a discussion about the dangers and really tried to stress that it doesn't make it any safer just because you see your parents do it either - and backed myself up with research :)

Reflections of Today's Activities

Planning the same lesson plan for Sports Medicine doesn't always mean that each class will react the same to it. My 2nd period class is comprised mostly of freshman who are too scared to get in trouble so they tend to follow all directions given. My 4th period is a mixture of all types of students within the grades with various athletic abilities - but certainly a variety of personalities. My 4th period did not respond as well to the lesson as my 2nd period today. Instead of following directions and performing the workouts, I got a few students trying to dip out and then smarted off to me - I WAS NOT HAVING IT!! I had to stop during the warm-up and put the desks back together so they could do written work instead. It was to my understanding that they couldn't handle the "hands on" experience, but they still needed to know the material - so they were given a paper to write about the science behind progressive-resistive training. Hopefully, this will change a few behaviors in class - a few can ruin the entire experience for everyone. I'm not sure how politically correct this method is, but I tend to take my coaching habits to the classroom to make all students learn accountability and how to act in a group of people. 

Entry 55

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/18/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal planning period.
Tuesday (5th, long period) - Before class started, I met with the student who had prepared to teach class today. He went over his lesson plan with me, but I wasn't too worried about him since he is my senior that always has it together. He planned a different variation to the normal warm-up but it was still effective and everyone still followed his lead. After warm-ups he directed the group to different teams to compete in different drills he designed specifically for this class. The class was well managed and the lesson supplied great variation for all different skill levels. Overall, I was very happy with the results - but I do know results can vary greatly depending on the "teacher" of the class.
Middle Division Study Hall.
Middle PE (7th) - Grandparents day is on Friday so most of the middle school students were pulled from PE to work on a special presentation in preparation for the grandparents. The few students that we did have helped us set up the gym for the upcoming basketball game. When everything was set up we took them through a few basketball drills and let them play a game of knock-out before we left.

Reflections of Today's Activities

The PE student lead lesson plan was very successful today - almost too good to be true. I'm hoping by having the responsible seniors be the first guinea pigs that they rest of the class will follow in line. However, one lurking variable that has lead to the success thus far- the responsible seniors have also been the captains on our Varsity basketball team (our realllllllly good basketball team). They have the experience to lead and set up appropriate drills due to their 12+ years in the sport - so I'm interested to see how the people who have less experience plan for the class. 

Entry 54

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/17/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal Monday Schedule (Meet with every class for 45 min)
Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th, short) - The warm-up incorporated the use of our key words from the chapter and relating it to yoga (the lesson from Friday). Before we started with the lesson, I wanted the kids to gear in and lose all other outside distractions - so we started with a 1 minute "stay active" activity. Once time was up, I called on a few kids to talk about what they were feeling physically within their body (in plain terminology). This lead into our lesson of the day - Cardiorespiratory Conditioning, more specifically the benefits and physiological response in the body. The students took notes from a prepared Powerpoint and I also linked a few videos to help with reinforcement. My main goal was to show the students how creative you can be creating an exercise routine - gear it towards your interests and think outside of the box. I concluded class by preparing them for Wednesday's class - Circuit training!
PE (5th, short) - I decided that I was going to run all Monday's classes so I could still manage the class and keep them on track with the purpose of the unit. I'm trying to use my Monday as a source of modeling for the students who are trying to prepare their lesson. I started with the warm-up routine and immediately split them up by skill level in basketball for their first activity. Since today's lesson in basketball is focused on shooting - I had the group(s) participate in a few shooting competitions. We ended up doing this the whole class period, but with a small variation between each competition.
AP Statistics (6th, short) - I collected the homework I assigned over the weekend and began with a chapter review. Chapter 3 (Examining Relationships) was split up into 3 sections - so with 1 bivariate data collection, I was able to review the entire chapter using the different concepts we learned. We reviewed calculator functions along with interpretations of those numbers - it took us the entire short period to do the review. At the end of class, I assigned a homework problem for reinforcement of Chapter 3 before the summative assessment sneaks up on us and bites us in the rears!
Middle PE (7th) - Monday/Thursday class. Dress Out/Daily Exercises. The numbers were really down in this particular class for some reason - but over lunch one my upper school students from PE (a 9th grader) asked if he could practice leading the class with my middle school class. I admired the proactive approach, so I agreed to it but under strict guidelines concerning the safety of my middle school students. He ran a basketball lesson that he verbally communicated with me before the start of class. Overall, things ran smoothly and he demonstrated great class management (the part he was nervous about). However, 1 kid did get involved with an accident that required an e-mail to the parent (see discussion below).

Reflections of Today's Activities

It never seems to fail, every time I'm double-booked and have responsibilities outside of the gym or allow a student to practice "teaching" a class - a student gets injured! The smallest 6th grade boy received a pass from the biggest 7th grade girls which actually took him to the ground from the momentum of the pass. When he got up from the accident, he seemed visibly shaken but nothing alarming right away. As a few minutes passed, he was in a full on asthma attack. I took him to the secretary's office to calm him down with a few deep breathing activities. He stayed there the rest of the class period, but at the end of the day I had to speak with the middle division director about the incident. The next step was to e-mail the mom about what happened - which I did right after school. My 9th grade student was devastated about the event and was actually trying to take all responsibility (my same 9th grade student who was being really disrespectful at the beginning of the year). I had forgot about the incident until Tuesday morning when I checked my e-mail gaining reassurance from the mother that everything was fine and she appreciated the communication. The next thing that happened blew my mind - that same 9th grader came to my office first thing this morning to tell me he checked on the 6th grader this morning because he was concerned about his well-being.  This 9th grade student has had a complete change of character in the past 2 months that almost brought a tear to my eye. His concern for that student was evidence to me that kids really can learn and be responsible citizens even though I don't always see it on the day-to-day stuff! 

Entry 53

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/14/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th. long periods) - Today was a special day for my sports medicine class - we finally got to put all of our days of note taking aside and do something with our learned knowledge! Because of the importance of stretching and warming up your body, I made my class do Yoga for the whole class period. I wanted them to associate the information on paper with what is actually happening in their bodies so they can have a better understanding. In order for my class to partake in this lesson plan, I had to turn my classroom into a yoga studio by stacking chairs and clearing the floor. The yoga video that we performed - P90X Yoga. I believe this was a beneficial lesson for everyone involved, at the end I made the students make the connection of isometric vs dynamic exercises and the physiological response to a "warm-up". Mission Accomplished!
AP Statistics (5th, long) - It seriously took me the entire class period to go over 3 problems (2 Homework, 1 classwork). However, it was necessary because I taught all calculator functions today for all of chapter 3 (Examining Relationships). The functions included: scatterplots, least square regression line, and residual plots. We also reviewed the interpretations for scatterplots, y hat = a + bx, correlation, residuals, and r-squared. At the end of class I gave them a worksheet that included all of the previously mentioned material.
Lunch Duty - Blah
Middle PE (7th) - Tuesday/Friday class: Dress Out/ Daily Exercises . Today has been such a good day and the rest of the day follows suit :) Mr. Craighead set up the game pindodge and we split up and played with the kids as well. "Cheating" was down since we played with them and the overall morale was up! Overall, very good day :)

Reflections of Today's Activities:

I had a very good day professionally - breaking up the content with hands on practice in sports medicine really helped the information to sink in. I also enjoyed the quite and calmness of the room - everyone left energized but relaxed at the same. Great day and looking forward to a great weekend - club volleyball tryouts Saturday and going to a Panthers game in Charlotte on Sunday! 

Entry 52

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/13/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Finally back to a normal schedule and planning period!
PE (5th, long) - 2nd attempt of student led class - A different senior was assigned the basketball lesson today which focused on ball handling. Instead of running the routine exercises- he performed his own; but they were not up to my standards so I'm going to have to make some adjustments there in the future. He also tried to use the same activities as the previous day with very little variation - but this is partly on me because he was just told about the "lesson plans" that need to be submitted for approval. Even though I wasn't totally satisfied with his efforts, the class still responded well which means there is hope for this new platform!
Middle Division Study Hall - I spent the entire time tutoring a student from my AP Stats class that has had quite a few absences.
Middle PE (7th) - Monday/Thursday class. Dress Out/Daily Exercises. I haven't had this particular class since Monday and they certainly cleaned up their act today as well! I had absolutely no issues during exercises or the activity today. They performed all exercises to standard and with correct technique - my heart was so happy today! Activity - indoor soccer. I split up the group into 3 teams and allowed them to play 5 minutes each, not depending on the score. Everyone was happy, happy, happy today!

Reflections of Today's Activities:

I do see a lot of potential in the student-led PE classes, but it's going to need some more attention on my end. This weekend I'm going to develop a rubric for how they will be assessed and make a list of certain guidelines/expectations that I will be looking for. The first lesson was fantastic, but the second was not so great - but it helped me to see the flaws and where I should do some tweaking. I will be teaching the class on Monday and will hand out the rubric and make assignments for the lessons the following class periods. 

Entry 51

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/12/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

We are on an altered schedule today due to the visiting accreditation teams.
Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th) Due to the altered schedule - we aren't meeting at our normal times but we are still meeting; shortened class periods at different times. Today's lesson still focused on strength training exercises but the topics include: isokinetic exercises, circuit training, and various forms of stretching and warming up. At the beginning of class I gave each pod a dry erase marker and had different column headers on the board. Throughout the class period I asked a question and had 1 member from each group come write an answer on the board. After each question, the students passed the marker to his/her left until everyone had a chance to participate. I scattered this form of formative assessment during the lesson - the students were also taking notes from the power point and watched a few short videos to reinforce the new content.
AP Statistics (5th): First thing as soon as the students walked in - they were given a short, 10 minute quiz on correlation and scatterplots. After I collected the quizzes, I checked and reviewed the homework that was assigned from Monday. However, the topic - Least Squared Regression Line that I quickly introduced on Monday needed a little more time to really sink in today. By thoroughly reviewing the homework and performing a few more problems - I think our skills are starting to improve! The lesson intended for today - regression and regression plots didn't pose too many problems, so I assigned 2 homework problems and a reading guide section.
No 7th period PE today for me - even through there was still class. I was actually double-booked for this time period. Mr. Craighead took over for both of our classes so I could be with my 4th period Sports Medicine class. 

Reflections of Today's Activities:

I have found success in more student involvement activities and retention in the material in my sports medicine class. Sometimes, the hardest thing for me is to realize that I'm not teaching college level kids and they need more visual references and activities as opposed to lectures. Just because I'm super excited about the content in my class doesn't necessarily mean that my students are too - so I need to involve them in their learning process as opposed to me just delivering the material. Today, the incorporation of letting them write on the board was a huge hit and I was pleasantly surprised about how much they are learning in my class. Teaching toolbox: Poll Everywhere and Dry Erase Markers!! 

Entry 50

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/11/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Today is my birthday!! :) (but I have to work and one of my busiest days : / )
No normal planning period today - instead I had a physical therapy appointment in Greensboro at 9:00 am. I'm currently trying to avoid another surgery and hoping physical therapy will be a sufficient treatment. I arrived at school just in time for my 5th period PE class.
PE (5th, long) - Today I'm letting one of my seniors run the class (manage the class) as promised from yesterday. First - he started with the warm-ups (same routine we are currently using) and the whole class followed his lead. Then he got 2 basketballs from the equipment closet and started the class on lay-up lines - half court. After about 10 minutes of a combination or lay-ups and jump shots, he transitioned the drill into 3v2 and 2v1 activity, using the full court. This drill lasted about 10 minutes as well. The last activity - 4v4v4 where 2 teams were located on both sides of the court. The 1 team of 4 not positioned on the court takes on another team of 4 where they battle it out - offense vs defense. If the offensive team shoots and gets the rebound, they shoot again. But it the defensive team gets the rebound they outlet the ball and transition to the other side of the court to play the other team of 4. If the offensive team shoots and makes the shot, then they keep the ball and travel down the court to the play other team of 4. This drill continues until 1 team scores 5 points. Today's lesson went so well - I assigned another senior to run the class on Thursday.
No 7th period today - 2 accreditation teams (VAIS & SAIS) are here to observe our school; so we had to hold a special assembly to welcome them and basically put on a show for their presence. 

Reflections of Today's Activities:

PE was very productive today - I've never seen the boys work harder! However, I do know basketball is their favorite sport and they do take it seriously. Instead of running the Sport Education Model for this basketball unit - I believe I'm going to assign a student to lead the class under my supervision and unit plan. My current plan - assign 1 student (seniors must be able to do it by themselves, underclassmen may work in pairs) per day to deliver the lesson. I will meet with the students a week before they are assigned to run the class to give them their topic and objectives. The student(s) will have to plan ahead and submit their "lesson plans" prior to teaching the class - this is to avoid unprepared lessons and wasted time in class. It feels a little bittersweet of how well the class went today - why can't my students act like responsible young adults for me?! Maybe they are ready for more responsibility and I was holding them back - most of my students are serious athletes. Well I'm going to give this a whirl and see where it goes!

Entry 49

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/10/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal Monday Schedule: meet with every class for 45 min. but preparing for the VAIS and SAIS accreditation visits (Tuesday-Thursday)

Sports Medicine (2nd & 4th) : First thing, I explained to the students that our school is up for re-accreditation and their involvement is crucial in that process. We reviewed our mission statement and how we should go about our business while we are being watched by these special visitors ;). After a quick review, we jumped into our lesson of the day - Strength Training. Today's topic focused on isometric and dynamic (isotonic) exercises. The students took notes from the prepared powerpoint and answered questions (with hands raised today, hooray!). No homework tonight :)
PE (5th): Daily, condensed exercises - but not every kid was participating to standards today. After  dealing with individual behaviors, we continued on with our final soccer period. I set up 2 quick soccer drills that focused on passing and give & gos. There wasn't that much time left, but for 10 minutes I let them play indoor soccer to finish out the unit.
AP Statistics (6th): I really hate short periods in this class, after I check for homework and then go over the homework problems, I have about 15-20 minutes  for a lesson. My reasoning for a long review time today - I haven't had my students in class since Wednesday and for some reason they didn't do AP Statistics all weekend long! I had very little time to explain Least Square Regression Lines, but I assigned a homework problem and hoping for the best (obviously I'll go over it again on Wednesday).
Middle PE (7th): Well we started out with our daily exercises today, but it proved to be too much for my darling students to listen and follow directions. My fun PE class quickly turned into exercises for 50 minutes (or until my class could get under control and follow instructions, which turned out to be 50 minutes). No activity today due to misbehaving children. 

Reflections of Today's Activities:

It must have been a full moon or something - all of my students were out of sorts today. So many of my students were acting out - especially in my physical education classes today. I was so frustrated today that I even appointed a student to run class tomorrow, just so he can see how difficult my job can be at times - but it was actually his idea and I agreed to it! I gave him the topic and objectives and it was his duty to run exercises and the lesson - I'm waiting to see how this is going to pan out! 

Entry 48

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/7/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Soccer & Field Hockey Teams are still playing at state.

STEM field trip that involved the other half of my students.

I averaged about 3 people per a class in each of my classes today.

Only having 1 major instructional day this week was not an ideal situation for me, but it is also out of my control. Today quickly became a movie/study hall day - but I'm not hating it! 

Reflections of Today's Activities:

Not a lot to reflect upon since there was no instructional time. Hopefully, next week we will return back to a normal schedule with students in class so we can move forward! But I did enjoy my "down day" :) aka my teacher vacay day! 

Entry 47

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/6/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal planning period.

PE (5th, long) - Both soccer and field hockey players have left for the state tournament; the numbers are really dwindling at the school today! However, I really want to finish up this soccer unit so I stayed with my original plans today. The students that were left, participated in the new warm-up routine (it still needs some work for proficiency). After the exercises, I set up a few drills to work on ball control and foot work. We ended the class period by playing indoor soccer - I'm contemplating letting them finish the unit on Monday so the soccer boys can participate. 

Middle PE (7th) - Monday/Thursday Class. Dress Out/ Daily Exercises. Since I've had the Monday/Thursday class 3 times this week and they never get to participate in a "Free Friday", I let them have about 20 minutes of free play for the first time this week! Again, no issues in class and everyone participated in an activity that they enjoyed. 

Reflections of Today's Activities:

I have noticed that "down time" or "free time" is almost an essential thing for middle schoolers. Structure is a good thing, but when it is forced on them all day long it almost becomes an impossible thing to contain by the end of the day. Middle school students have so much energy, that they just need an outlet to release - PE at the end of the day is sometimes that best outlet. I rarely let me kids partake in free time, but after observing their happiness of a specific time that they can make choices for themselves based on individual preferences - it was hard for me to ignore. I think I might designate special times through out the week for each class, a time to just release and be a kid!