Going back to my roots!

Yesterday November 24, 2008 I taught my peers merengue, heres the lesson. A dance I grew up on, so it came naturally to me. I did not know if I could teach it in 15 minutes,but I thought giving it a try wouldn't hurt. I incorporated some spanish to give the lesson a cultural focus. My visual aids included flags and key instruments that revolve around this form of music. Even though the music and dance go back to I don't even know probably when I came out the womb I still did not know how merengue originated. Preparing for this lesson plan and doing research I found out. So not only did I have the opportunity to teach a dance that is important to my culture, but I also learned along the way. So back to the teaching I taught step by step basics of merengue, the great part was I felt like the class was interested and engaged any word I spoke they listened. I let them have fun and add their own spice to the dance, this was the opportunity to get creative. It did not stop there they got to hear the music and learned to count to eight in spanish and to finish up the lesson, I let them view a video of men playing merengue on the side of the street in the Dominican Republic. Doing all this made me feel good and proud of who I am that being Puerto Rican, and I'm glad everyone was engaged. This lesson allowed me to share my culture with my students. I believe the lesson was a lot of learning, but many of my peers told me afterwards that they enjoyed my lesson and learned a lot of interesting facts. They thought it was cool that I spoke spanish and that it look like I knew what I was talking about. The lesson to me was meant for the students to be enriched by the culture and just have fun, I gave a small assessment a 3 question quiz to see if they took something away from the lesson. This lesson will definitely be used later on during my teaching career due the reaction I received from yesterday's lesson, but next time i will be sure to include more feedback. Merengue is a part of my culture and I believe sharing it with others will make individuals appreciate the differences among each other.

In search of new land

We will conquer! Last Friday October 7, 2008 we began a new journey conquering lands and preaching to others how important physical education and fitness is. We set out on a voyage across the land and seas in search of the buried treasure but we were not alone. We were told we would be going on a scavenger hunt in groups of four. We were to wear heart rate monitors and watches that recorded are heart rate. the hunt was timed and not only that but we incorporated technology(cellphone)- to send pictures and video. We began are class by creating flags for our group and after displaying them to others. We then were given a sheet and set free. No one wanted to lose so we ran to the hints and locations. the whole time we were determined, we laughed, caught cramps, and sweat till our shirts were drenched. It was a race to the finish line. The heart rate monitors beeped like crazy when we ran at top speed. I was tired but not ready to give up. Throughout the scavenger hunt we were asked to complete a number of task my favorite had to be singing to the pool side staff "twinkle twinkle little star" and painting a unique flag. The lesson forced students to stay active will still having fun. we practiced teamwork one person would read the clue and the others would take turns figuring it out. Students enjoy lessons when they work in groups and have freedom for exploration and experimentation. We were given little direction and the the rest was up to us. students benefit through discovery learning and tend to hold the material longer. Not only can i benefit from such a lesson but incorporating other subjects such as they did can also help. The lesson incorporated history, language, art, thinking and communicating. So not only are the students learning things in their major subjects but it is also being incorporated into phys. ed for the student to learn and enjoy. And because the students are having fun they maintain the knowledge and benefit in their classes later. This lesson definetly kept me active and moving, I was tired but i did not want to give up on my team or myself. To prove how active I was my heart rate was charted and if the graph above is unclear then click here. For the majority of the time I stood in the healthy zone with little breaks in between. i thought this lesson was worth while, competitive and fun. but remember competitiveness is not always good to encourage in class, some kids may feel left out and inferior. But overall I think I burned some calories while being a kid all over again!

Round 2...Ding, Ding, Ding

So october 29th comes around and me and my partner are assigned to teach are second lesson for Fistball. This time I am less nervous and know what task need to be completed. I even went over time because I felt so comfortable, take a look at my time coding form. My peers seemed to be enjoying themselves. We spoke about were Fistball originated and identified the color of Germany's flag and reviewed specific cues. But here's the catch I was once again linked up to a mic which recorded every word I said. I hate hearing myself speak. I did though give more feedback then the first lesson but, I did not do as well as I wanted to; I forgot some of the objectives I had planned to cover! And I understood that some of my instructions were not clear. I was surprised when two of my students began to be disruptive due to professors Yang's instruction, he wanted to see my reaction and if I would have a form of punishment. I simply called them out and told them to hold the ball, but it took me a while to catch on to the prank. These are things I must prepare for, besides that I enjoyed teaching the lesson and felt as though my peers/students had fun too. Heres everything i said during this lesson-->Transcript.What's next?