Throughout the semester I was asked to volunteer my time, and work on my teaching skill to help out the community. I was asked to do only ten hours but i accumulated a lot more than that. Every Sunday for an hour i would go to the pool with Melissa and we would work with the CAST program, this program is designed to teach children with disabilities how to swim. Melissa and I worked together with one girl who was bind, since i am allergic to the chlorine Melissa would get into the pool with her and it was easier for me to explain what to do while Melissa moved her arm in the motion i was explaining. Also this semester as being a member of APEM, we held numerous events that were for children. I participated in our Teen nights held at the YMCA in Cortland, it was a fun filled night for teens we played DDR, knockout, wii and many other games with the teens. All the teens enjoyed themselves and even us students had a lot of fun. I also was involved in a teacher workshop held at Cornell University, I was there to teach other teachers how you can involve technology into physical education. I was nervous to be teaching actual teachers but once i got talking about the games and how they work in the PE setting i felt confident because i know the topic well. It was nice to see other teachers so open to learning for a student.

How we have grown

ADHD Moving For A Reason

For my final project in class I was asked to look at children with ADHD and read about studies that have taken place with these children and how moving and multi-media games affect them. In the first article I read based on this topic talked about how children with ADHD move around and fidget when they are asked to concentrate or perform a mental task. The impulses in their brain are so strong that in order to retain or attempt to retain the information the brain send off impulses that cause the body to move. Children with ADHD have trouble retaining information especially when it comes to multi-step directions as well as remembering orders. If the student isn't being harmful or disruptive let them be. You can compare the students movements to that of an adult in a meeting that is being dragged on too long and they are moving to keep themselves from being bored or falling asleep, or to when an adult taps a pen or even their foot when trying to accomplish a task that is taking too long.

Everywhere we look now a days we see children playing video games. They are everywhere, we even see them in the classrooms today. A study was done with children who had ADHD to see if playing DDR would help with their ability to retain information and work on their short term memory. In the beginning of the study the children were given a Test and were given it again at the end of the study. During the study all background distraction were turned off and the back light was dimmed so that there were no outside distractions. The study found that the majority of students who came to the most sessions and worked with the DDR did better on the test. Their short term memory was increased since they had been working on watching the arrows and knowing where to put their feet on the board. Who would have through that a game would help increase short term memory. I know when participating in a lesson on DDR I was lost at times and had to look at my feet to see and then look quickly back at the screen to see what was next.

When it comes to children with ADHD I think that it is a good idea that everyone has a little bit of knowledge to deal with students who have ADHD so when in the classroom we are prepared to make adjustments for these students. Why should a student suffer because of something they cant control. Maybe now with the studies that have been done more things for will come out to help teachers and parents deal with and use to help children with ADHD learn to concentrate and help control the impulses that go on in their brain that cause the movements and not being able to focus.

Final part 1

PART B:
We were given a website and may links that followed and were asked questions based on what we read and saw in the videos that were up. The web sit is from Canada, it is located in North America. The country the website is from is also Canada. If I were asked to locate Canada on the map I would be able to do so. After watching the video i think that the topic is interesting, and how they have found correlations between physical activity and learning. Going into physical education its nice to see that people are stating to realize that having an active lifestyle is beneficial to everyone not only for heath reasons but for young children and even adolescent children to help develop their minds. The PE teacher was not involved in the experiment due to the fact that all the physical activity took place in the classroom, with the teacher. The children did twenty minutes of cardio, before they started their lesson. The outcomes of the study was that 15 min or more break from the classroom will better the students grades, due to that fact that they were stimulating their bran's and keeping the impulses continuous throughout the day which aloud they to say focuses when it came time to learning. The outcomes are similar to the NYS standards as well as different from them. They are similar in the fact that they want every student to be active and learn a healthy lifestyle but they don't look at the students skill levels, and if they are competent in a specific skill and base that on what activities are performed. The teachers do not look as much in to the cognitive and affective goal and objectives as PE teachers do.

PART C:



WEB 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

MY Lesson Plan and Activity Progression