D-Lab

This semester was the beginning of my journey into what i thought was a cake walk major. At my previous school the Phys. Ed was very book related and not so hands on. Here at Cortland I have been introduced into a whole new realm of education that i really never even thought it existed. I have come so far from the beginning of the semester until now. I joined the class late and missed the first class where everyone taught so on my first day I walked into class and Professor Yang came up to me shook my hand and said your teaching. WHAT? I was like a deer in headlights I had no lesson plan no equipment it was horrible. This activity though made me a better teacher right off the bat. From the first day when I showed up to class in jeans and boots until the day I taught my D-lab I feel I have transformed into a brand new educator. Not saying I’m anywhere near perfect but I have come leaps and bounds passed what I was a couple of months ago.
EDU 255 has brought me to a teaching plateau that I am extremely happy with. I feel so much more confident in my teaching abilities and have learned a little piece of my own teaching style. In three out of my four labs I used teaching by invitation at some point in my lesson. I really enjoy being able to have two or three productive activities planned and allowing the kids to choose which activity they would rather play. I feel this technique would engage my students and have them gain somewhat of a liking for my classes and will participate and come more.
Teaching Step Aerobics was a lot of fun to work with and develop a lesson plan for. Though not my first choice on activity I need to be able to teach Step Aerobics at some point in my career and I really feel as though I prepared myself well for what I was in store for. Watching my lesson made me see some really good things and some not so good thing. I still say alright a lot which is bugging me to no end. Its amazing I never, ever, say alright but as soon as I get in front of a class I say it fifty times. My time coding form is still not up to where I would like it to be, there was way too much instruction going on in my Step Aerobics lesson. If I were to teach again I would not have done the stations for the simple fact that I had to explain all of them. The stations were fun and allowed me to move around to give more feedback, but took way too long to get started. I really liked how much feedback I gave, there were only a few students who didn’t receive any feedback from me. Overall I would say that this was a successful lesson and a great example of how far I have came. C-9