ExerGame Lab

Last week, my classmates and I were able to do a little experimenting in the ExerGame Lab. It was the first time I had ever been in the lab and it was a pretty cool experience. I will say that I have never been a big believer in video games for the use of exercise. I went through a phase when I was absolutely addicted to video games when I was younger. I loved playing sports, but I also loved playing video games as well. I finally snapped out of that phase and realized that playing hours upon hours of video games was hurting my mental and physical state. Sitting in front of a screen provided no health benefits.

I will say that being in the ExerGame did change my opinion somewhat on video games for health benefits.  We are now in the age of technology and it is widely used. A lot of children love video games and a lot of children are not thrilled about sports; they have been turned off by it for some reason. If we can incorporate fitness into their video games than we are achieving something. For example, in the pictures shown, you can see us playing a dancing game. An hour of that and you will definitely work up a sweat and get your heart rate going. Your body is moving and thats what we want.

On an even better note, I played a racing game on a spin bike and my speed was controlled by how fast I biked. It was probably the best idea Ive seen yet of incorporating fitness into video games. I did one session, on easy, with medium resistance, and by the end my heart rate was really going and sweat was forming on the top of my head. An hour of that and you'll feel like you've biked the Tour de France.

At the end of the day, I love the ideas that are stemming from the ExerGame lab. People love video game so if we can incorporate fitness into them I'm all for it. I would still recommend getting outdoors and biking rather than sit in front of a screen, but if thats the only way people will get exercise than play on.

Ultimate "Pool" Frisbee

For my Lab D, I decided on going with an original game, but a different location with a new twist on it. I am in the pool for this lab and I wanted to choose a game that was going to be new and different. I decided on doing Ultimate Frisbee in the pool. It might sound like a safe pick, but I feel it is actually more of a risk. You can barely find any information on how Ultimate Frisbee works in the pool so I don't know how it is going to turn out. I am going to use soft foam frisbees and instead of players using their hands on defense, every player is going to have a pool noodle and will only be able to use that on defense. The players will have to carry their noodle with them at all times.

{http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/07/27/effective-traffic-calming-device-the-frisbee/}

I am a little nervous on how it is going to turn out in the pool but I think it will be a positive experience and something new. I just want to try something new and I am also going to be using Swinxs, a really cool device that I will use for my instant activity. Lab D is my chance to show everything I have learned thus far in 255 and I am ready to prove that.

Lab D First Day

Today was the first day of teaching for Lab D and it started with a bang. Trish kicked off the teaching with an awesome lesson on yoga. She looked professional, had awesome visual aids, and a great lesson. You can tell how much people have grown since the start of the year and she has definitely improved considerably. I actually enjoyed being in her class today and it really felt like she was the actual teacher. Well done for her.

We started the lesson with a background lesson on yoga and than moved into stations. She had every student pair up with another student and move around to each station, staying for about 2 minutes. After each student went to each station, we moved into an actual yoga session. She dimmed the lights, and we all set up mats and followed a 10 minute video that she actually made herself. It definitely looked like she practiced this repeatedly because in the video she looked like she could pull off being a yoga instructor.

Trish definitely raised the bar for Lab D but I think that winds up being a good thing for everyone. That way, everyone has to do their very best and step outside of the box.

Volunteering for St. Mary's

On a drizzly saturday morning, spirits were high as always at St. Mary's as young and old were ready to participate in the annual St. Mary's 5K Run! Waking up at 7 a.m. was tough but when you saw the energy from the kids, that energy wore off on everyone. It was cool to volunteer and help out for both races as it is something I have never done before. This was part of my 10 volunteer hours for my 255 class and this experience gave me 3 hours.

{Getting ready before the races}

The first race was designated to the younger children, although everyone could participate for the 5K. The race track for the children was a run around the streets that surrounded St. Mary's. Me and my fellow colleagues acted as flaggers in the race so that we could keep the children safe and making sure they stayed on the sidewalks. It was nice to be at the race and see the kids smiling and running furiously around the street corners. The winner was actually the same kid who won it last year and I even asked him for his autograph after the race which put a big smile on his face.

{The kids getting ready}

For the 5K race, things got serious as me and my colleagues were put at various street corners. At around 9 a.m. the race started and I stood at the street corner, waiting for the first glimpse of a runner. Before I knew it, a runner came flying up and blew by me. I looked beyond him and no one was even on the street corner. He went on to win with a fantastic time. Although he finished first, everyone that came out that day was a winner. It was cold and rainy and still people were giving their best efforts and participating in something that was bigger than everyone. It was great time for everyone to get outside, get some exercise, and to meet new people!

Raquette Lake

Today I actually dropped a course that had me going to Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks for two weeks in August. Instead, I am going to the split session which should free up my summer schedule more and give me a winter experience as well. The split session has us go for about 5 days at the very end of August and than we go for a week in January. It should be really cool to go in winter time as that is my favorite time of the year to be in the mountains. There is more solitude and more of a risk reward factor. The mountains look gorgeous when they are snow capped and you are working through a forest and the trees are covered with snow. I like that Cortland offers a split session because it gives people a chance to experience this. A lot of people head indoors when winter hits but this will give them an opportunity to see the mountains and lakes in winter and also to learn important winter skills as well.

{Adirondack High Peaks in Winter - Taken from Giant Mountain}

Lab D Thoughts

In the upcoming weeks, I will have to do my final teaching for 255. This will be my lab D, the longest and most thorough of all the teachings yet. My teacher has put me in the pool and I am really unsure of what activity I am going to do in the pool. I want to branch out and do something different; I don't want to do swim strokes. If I do that I know the class is going to fall asleep. My teacher mentioned to me that I do something such as water polo which would be a really fun idea. I still want to present a game that is going to surprise everyone and have everyone active the entire time.

{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WaterPolo.JPG}

My teacher gave me this game called swinxs. Click on the link to check it out. I have a few ideas brewing in my head on what to use it for so I don't want to give anything away. I feel this device would be really cool for an instant activity. Time is running out for Lab D and I know I have gotten stronger with my teaching each lab so I definitely want to finish strong!

Motor Behavior Lab

In my motor behavior lab, we are learning a lot of really cool things and doing a lot of fun experiments. One of the cool things we did on thursday was working with goal setting and how it is shown to beneficial for performing and learning motor skills. We learned that research has shown that the most effective goals are those which are high, yet attainable. The task we were working with for the goal setting lab was speed stacking. I was excited to try that because it was a game I have never done.

For the lab, our teacher had us do a pre-test and it was timed so we would know what time we got. From there, he passed out slips of paper and told us what type of goal we had. There were 3 different goals: Hard , Medium, and Do Your Best. For hard, you took your pre-test time and multiplied it by .3 and that was your goal time you wanted to get. For medium, you multiplied it by .5, and for do your best, and did exactly that. We then had 10 minutes to practice cup stacking and after that we had our post test. The results were very surprising. The hard goal group improved by 42%, the do your best group improved by 45$, and most notably, the medium group increased by 55%.

This lab is very relevant in a physical education setting because we want all of our students to set goals but we also want them to achieve those goals. We don't want our students getting burned out or losing motivation chasing an unattainable goal. This lab is a benefit to all physical educators and coaches too because goal setting is extremely important.

Check out this awesome video on speed stacking!