About Me

My photo
My name is Justin Nassivera and I am currently in my Junior year at SUNY Cortland studying Physical Education. I'm a huge sports fan and love my Boston Celtics and Red Sox. Basketball, Baseball, and Golf are huge passions of mine and would love to coach them someday in the school setting. I have always loved teaching and coaching kids and have always wanted to become a PE teacher because it was always my favorite class in school. Many people have strong opinions against physical education and I believe that myself and other physical educators need to spread the word of what exactly we are doing in the PE world. Also check out my professional portfolio at www.jnassiveraportfolio.weebly.com

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Broom-ball in PE? ABSOLUTELY!!

Last night, I played in a broom-ball game here at school. I never knew what broom-ball was until I was approached to play on a co-ed intramural team here at SUNY Cortland and let me tell you, I wish I knew about it sooner! This is an awesome and fun game, yet challenging because you're playing on the ice with just your sneakers. It's not a very fast paced game either because many of the people are falling down or having difficulty controlling the ball with the stick and keeping you're head up to see your teammates. We won our game 2-0 to improve our record to 1 win-1 lose-1 tie.
 After playing I did a little research to see if broom-ball was being taught in any PE classes and I wanted to find some reasoning as to why the teacher had it in his/her curriculum. I found this great article from the Winston-Salem Journal out of North Carolina. Instead of playing it on ice, the teacher has his students play it on the gym floor. I believe that this is a great activity because it can help improve students in multiple ways. Spatial awareness, reaction time, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, and motor-skill development are just some of the psychomotor attributes that can be improved through broom-ball. Students also learn communication and teamwork by playing the game and when they are old enough to understand, they can learn the tactical aspects of the game, showing that broom-ball is definitely an activity that I would want to teach to my students because itcovers all three of the physical education domains: Psychomotor, Affective, and Cognitive. For more information on Broom-ball you can visit http://www.internationalbroomball.com/
Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, January 30, 2012

Jump Around!

I knew as soon as I walked into class today that it would be a very active day as soon as I saw the box of jump-ropes on the floor. We started by just getting warmed up by staying stationary when we were jumping then we had to try moving around and jumping different ways. It got challenging when Professor Yang told us to get as low as we could to the ground to try and jump-rope. The best part was when we got into groups of 4 or 5 and had 5 minutes to make a routine to Beyonce's "Move Your Body." Our group did a great job and perfected our routine on the first try.
Jump-roping is definitely an activity I would have in my Physical Education curriculum. It works many different aspects of physical fitness. Cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, and flexibility are all key physical aspects. It also incorporates skill fitness such as balance, coordination, and reaction time. Watch this video below, and it would be hard for you to argue that jump-roping doesn't require physical fitness!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Lab A-1 and A-2 Comparison

On Friday, I taught for the second time of the semester. I wasn't as nervous as I was on day one when we had to teach. Below I have my videos from both the first day, and from Friday. I also have added my comments to each and what I think I need to improve on, and what I think I did well.


LAB A-1




In Lab A-1, I thought that I had a couple positives. I started by stating four cues for dribbling and demonstrating every one of the cues adequately so the students understood exactly what I meant when I explained it. When they were participating in dribbling I held my fingers up to get them to tell me how many I was holding up so they could focus on keeping their eyes up while they are dribbling. Some of the things that I could have improved on was my volume because it was tough to hear on the video. Time management was tough too because I ran out of time in the end and couldn't close the lesson or check for understanding. I also did not use a hook to capture them at the beginning of the lesson and when i gave feedback it was very simple such as "good job" and I didn't use their names either.


LAB A-2


In Lab A-2, I felt much more comfortable because I had more time to plan out what I was going to say and how I was going to do it. My appearance was definitely better because I was dressed professionally. I used the Harlem Globetrotters as my hook to try and interest them in doing some fancy dribbling skills. I think that revisiting the cues from the first time was definitely a good way to check to see if they learned anything from the last class I taught. The volume of my voice I think was definitely better because it was easier for me to hear myself over both the other lesson going on and music in the background. What I think i need to improve on is giving feedback. Most of my feedback was just "good job" just like the first time. I believe that if I can improve on my feedback then I can be more relevant as a teacher to my students who will be looking to me for guidance when they need help or if they don't know if they are doing the activity right or wrong. 


I have included a typed transcript of what I said word for word in the LAB A-2 video here.


I think that I definitely can improve on my first two teaching assignments. I think that as I improve, I can make myself much better at giving feedback and  learn how to help students improve on all aspects of the activities that I will be teaching.  

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Working With the TA's

Today's 255 class I found very helpful. We got into small groups with our TA's and discussed our second teaching assignment for Friday. Danielle was very helpful when telling us what to improve upon. We are re-teaching lab A and we discussed different hooks and methods to keep the students interested in the class. We also went over different demonstration styles that we could use to make it easier for the students to understand what is asked of them. I believe that I will do much better this time around because I will have more time to prepare so I use all of the four minutes. Stay tuned for my next post Friday, I will have the videos from both teaching assignments so all of you can compare and comment on the differences and hopefully any improvements i made!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Firecracker!

Today in my 255 class, I had the one of the most intense four minutes I've had in any PE class. We were divided into groups of four and played 2v2 keep away with the frisbee. Twenty seconds of all out instant activity, followed by ten seconds of break. It was very fun and tiring. I thought communication was key to success when participating in the activity. We also participated as a group to try and score on our opponents goal by passing the disk four times before scoring. After all this we discussed on how we would be graded for the semester. I am looking forward to the teaching assignments because I want to become a better teacher and live up to the expectation of being a Rockstar PE Teacher.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

2nd 255 Class

Friday's class was very fun and I was very active. We were divided into four teams and did some ultimate frisbee drills. We started by passing back and forth to our partners then switched it so a different style of throw was used. Next we had to practice moving up and down the area of play and try and complete ten passes with a defender in between the two of us in order to score a goal. After we did some yoga which cooled down the body and definitely helped relax me after running around. In conclusion we played a name game which required us to form a circle and go around remembering everyone's name and what skill they taught in the previous class. 



Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

First Day of EDU 255

Today was my first day of EDU 255. I was a little surprised in the beginning when we were told that we would be teaching a four minute segment and being video-taped today. We were given volleyballs, soccer balls, footballs, and basketballs and we had to pick a skill from one of the 4 sports and teach and introduce the skill to the group we were put in to. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't know what I was going to teach at the time, however I was the last one to go which gave me about thirty minutes to think about a few things. First what sport would I do? Then I chose a skill and thought about in my head what I wanted to say to the class. I'm looking forward to learning a lot in this class along with the blogging that I will be participating in also. Teaching in the physical education field may be challenging today due to budget cuts in schools and the way people look at physical education as kind of a joke, but by blogging and letting people know what we are doing in our classes, hopefully we can change peoples' minds about physical education.