Intramural Sports

This semester, I was the captain of my intramural soccer team here at Cortland. When taking up the role I had no idea how much work went into it or the leadership it included. As captain the preparation (even for intramurals) went far beyond what I expected. My first task was discussing the availability of games for the season, and when everyone was free. At the beginning of the season I also had to help prepare my team by scheduling a meeting to coordinate uniforms, numbers, and names. After this I went to order the uniforms, pay for them after collecting everyone's money, and finally pick-up and distribute them. Making sure everyone was prepared was important because if we were ill-prepared we were not allowed to play. Before the first game, I realized I had to find a way to communicate with all the players to let them know we had a game. In previous years, previous captains had utilized a facebook group to notify of upcoming games. As an infrequent facebooker, I found it hard to keep up with checking and usually found out hours before the game from others on the team. As a result I decided that since everyone had a phone I would text message to make sure everyone could be there and decide whether or not we needed to cancel. The text message method worked out great and I knew every game how many people and who exactly would be attending the game.

Throughout the season we played 10 fifty games and competed in the championship final game. The games themselves were an absolute blast and every game I found myself providing teammates with feedback and providing motivation whenever it was needed. Making sure everyone played and participated was also important to the game, and as much as we all wanted to play the entire game, there came a time to sub out. After every game, we brought the younger girls home who did not have their car with them. Although we wound up losing the final game the season was great and it taught me a lot about preparation and motivation.

Yoga Unit and NASPE Standards

The yoga unit was a very rewarding and informative process, as I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. So how does the yoga unit match up to the NASPE Standards and information to be placed in my professional portfolio? Lets find out...

Standard 1: Scientific and Theoretical knowledge

This standard states that the teacher will not only know the knowledge pertaining to the course, but will also be able to apply the concepts to the development of the student's physical education. For this standard, a task card was used displaying the cues to the cat pose. Upon reading the cues and looking at the picture students were to perform the pose and assess their peers. In the end of the lesson we all worked together to do the poses as one group.

Standard 2: Skill and Fitness Based Competence

Demonstrations are an important part of being a physical educator and having the skills and knowledge to competently move and enhance the fitness of others is vital. In the yoga unit, it was common that certain poses needed to be demonstrated for students. Here is a photo of the students getting into the mountain posture during the Sun Salutation A sequence.

Standard 3: Planning and Implementation

As a physical educator it is important to plan lessons based upon local, state, and national standards in addition to having the needs of students in mind. This lesson plan was in preparation for the yoga unit and follows the NYS and NASPE standards while keeping the safety and interests of students in mind.

Standard 4: Instructional Delivery and Management

It is important as a teacher to have effective communication skills in a varity of settings. This can include demos, explanations, cues and prompts for the lesson. For the yoga unit, the use of procedures and guidelines for the students to follow and keep in mind througout the lesson.

Standard 5: Impact on Student Learning

This standard discusses the need for teachers to have effective assessments for students to improve upon their learning. The assessments used in the yoga unit were in the form of a cooperation rubric for the group work and an effort rubric for the Sun Salutation A.

Standard 6: Professionalism

As a student, it is important that I show my readiness to become an effective teacher through my choice of activities, extra-curricular activities, my ethics, respect, and my belief that all students can become physically educated individuals. In the yoga unit, I utilized the group work so that students could work with one another to guide eachother through the process. By doing this no one was left behind and all students could readily participate in the activity and learn the various yoga poses.

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Just practicing using the hyperlink option!