There Will Always Be a Bryn Mawr......

Well... Yikes... I have been here officially for 6 days. Probably the slowest 6 days of my life. Thanks to my Rooms, I successfully flew alone for the first time in my life! It really was not so bad at all. With in 10 minute of getting off the plane in NJ, I had my bag in hand, and within another 5 min, I had rode the airtrain over the the other side of the airport, and found my group. I could not have asked for a more easy trip.
My week as consisted of about 323,462,346 icebreakers and 23946236 meetings. Okay, so I exaggerate, but that is what it feels like. The other counselors are really great people. There is every kind of individual working here this summer. Overall... we seem to all be getting along. Everyone who works in the gym with me is just great! My boss is kind of intimidating, but a wonderful man who loves children and making them feel special. No matter how good or bad of a gymnast a camper is, he makes them feel as if they could compete in the Olympics. So far, I have learned to spot standing back-handsprings, round-off backhandsprings, and squat ons on bars. I am still pretty nervous when I am spotting. (We have been working with the girls that are here a few days early because their moms are camp nurses.) My boss likes me because I am a teacher, however he notices that spotting puts me out of my comfort zone, and its totally true! When I teach, I am not really allowed to touch my students, so when spotting I feel like I am commiting a crime or something! haha.... not really. But, it does make me very nervous.
I found out that I will be living in a cabin with 2 other couselors, and seven 10 year olds. I have heard that these 7 particualr 10 year olds have a hard time making friends at camp. One of the division heads told us that it is our job to find them friends. They get here on Saturday, and I cant wait!!!! One of them is already here and has already complained about the fact that she has a bottom bunk and "hates" the girl that sleeps above her. (Oh boy, its going to be a long summer ... haha)
Today, we spent the day unpacking the girls belongings and making their beds. It is crazy how their stuff gets here. They pack these two giant duffles they call trunks, put them on their front porch, a truck comes and picks the bags up, and brings them to camp! I have never heard of anything like that! Kind of cool. The girls little clothes are so cute and colorful! Unpacking sounds like no fun... however, I would rather unpack than sit in another meeting! The other counselors in my cabin and I had fun today, trying to learn things about our girls by what they brought to camp with them.
I am getting used to wearing only white and navy. Its not too bad I suppose. The cabins are not as nice as I suspected. I figured these rich little girls would get to live in these super nice cabins. But for the most part, they are all pretty old, and kind of gross. I have definately seen worse, but I am glad they are roughing it at least a little bit. It is a different feel here than at a YoungLife camp. Hair dryers, straighteners, and make up do not get used. The bugle can blow at 8am, and 360 girls and all their counselors can be at the flag pole by 8:25. It is pretty impressive. This place has lots of guidelines, and lots of traditions (dating back to the 1920s) and it is kind of neat to experience the "old-school" type of summer camping.
Right now, I am completely content with where I am. I miss home(ALOT ALOT ALOT) but I feel that I am in the right place. We will see what happens on Saturday, when in an hour time span, 360 girls from ages 5 to 15 flood, and take over camp.



This is a picture of some of the cabins from my porch.


The male staff barricaded our door with the bags while we were at breakfast. (They think they are funny.) But seriously, look how huge those bags are!!

lovelovelovealways

High School Never Ends

Elizabeth Martinez makes the statement that whiteness could not exist without blackness and I completely agree. Everybody is envious of everyone else, and has to find a way to make themselves look better by putting somebody else down. I find racism to be somewhat parallel to caddy, high school girls.
Naturally, we do not understand why other people live or act the way they do. We all have our own way of living and doing things that we believe is right. Due to this fact, we find other people to be weird or different which throws up a defensive wall that makes us think we are better than everyone else. When we throw up this wall it makes us think irrationally, and start making up stories in our heads to reassure ourselves that our way of living is the way things are supposed to be. When high school girls fight over a boy, they become obsessed with cutting their opponent down to make themselves seem worthy to the boy of choice. The girls spend all of their time thinking of ways to belittle their competition, and not really focusing on the subject at hand, the guy. I think racism is the same way. People become obsessed with putting down their competition, just to build themselves up.
Name calling is probably where it all starts. The high school girls tell their friends that their competition is a “slut” and everything escalates from there. As the stories get passed from one person to the next the names become worse and worse until the competition seems like the scum of the earth. With racism, the escalation starts the exact same way. Someone comes up with a name for the group they are opposing, and before they know it they have convinced themselves that the group of people is worthless and disgusting. As the opposition continues, the names turn into cat fights, and cat fights turn into groups of friends battling other groups of friends. People do not like to be alone. We like others to have the same opinions we do because it gives us security in our thoughts. Racist individuals find others to share their thoughts with, and in no time the world is in one big cat fight. The funny thing is, many people in the groups do not even know how the argument started in the first place. When the high school cliques decide they hate each other and the other group is not worth associating with, I wonder how many people in the cliques know that they hate each other just because months ago, two girls liked the same boy. We live our lives convinced that we are the “right” group, and become brainwashed that we are better than people in other groups.
People say that all the drama is just caddy high school girls. However, I believe that high school never ends. We will always talk behind each others’ backs, we will compete for jobs like we competed for spots of the basketball team, and we will always compare ourselves to the geeks, weirdoes, Goths, blacks, and jocks. Maybe we all just need to grow up.

Getting Alittle Heated

I find myself getting very defensive when I am reading the passage about Language and Silence. Getting defensive is something that is almost foreign to me because I am one of those people who avoids discussions or arguments about “the tough stuff” at all costs. I was reading along, agreeing with some of the things the author stated, then the next thing I know, I want to throw my book down and give up. All those times of quietly dodging the bullet of these subjects is back to bite me in the butt.
I am very traditional in my beliefs about gender roles. The article talks about a gendered world where we cannot have a conversation about an individual without knowing his or her gender. I personally do not see a problem with this. It is an obvious fact that man and woman were created differently, so what is the problem with distinguishing them? Reading this reminded me of the second article that talked about a woman’s dependency on man. The writings made it seems like it was such a horrible thing to be a woman and have generalizations made about us that we are so dependent on man. I cannot figure out why this is portrayed as being so horrible. I realize that women can function without men in our lives and be just as successful; however we still have feelings and emotions. As I was reading the article I began to feel guilty for enjoying being dependant on a man. I do not find that being dependent makes me deprived of my own life, but I find it to be something that is fulfilling on the inside. The article continues and discusses the gender power system. It seemed to talk down to the titles given to male and female that label them unequal. The book used the examples; king and queen, and man and wife. The book says that no matter what the male has the power head. I like to think of it not as an inequality between male and female, but that the two genders complement each other.
As I continued reading, I found myself being confused by the use term privilege. It seemed the author used it in a negative term that just allows certain people to look down on others. She did say that there really are no privileged or unprivileged people, because everybody is privileged in some ways and not in others. If this is the case, then why can we not look past the who is better than who, and just be appreciative of the blessings that have been bestowed upon our own lives?
Like I said, I usually avoid the topics of race, sex, and inequality. I believe this is mainly because I have never been submerged in a situation to get comfortable with these things. Just because I have grown up in a predominantly “white” lifestyle, does not mean that I do not have friends of different races. I have never felt so “white” in my entire life until I read the last few paragraphs of Wildman’s writings. She made me feel guilty for who I am, when on a regular basis I do not cognitively separate myself from others as she does in the passage. Yes, some of the things she said are true about our “pretty white lives”. I believe I function in this world because I do not dwell on those ideas daily. Naturally, sometimes I notice the separation, however if we all dwelled on the head count of white and colored in every moment of our lives, the world would be more dysfunctional than it already seems to be.
I contribute my defensive feelings to the sheltered life I have had thus far. Disagreeing with people (or authors) is something I am just not comfortable with. I am a people pleaser; therefore this is really hard for me. I would say it is probably about time I start standing up for myself.

Be Careful Little Eyes What You Read

Sometimes I feel as if people try too hard to find themselves. Worried too much about what others think of us; we develop this warped picture of ourselves that is not really who we were meant to be. I feel that we are pressured too early to figure out what the rest of our lives must turn out to be. Through adolescence people are experimenting with lifestyles, rebelling their pasts, and changing thought processes daily. With all the emotions that go along with being an adolescent, honestly finding ourselves is almost a joke. Think of the number of people who change their majors more than once throughout their college career. If changing our majors was not an option, there would be a lot of unhappy people in the world. So, if we are gradually allowed to figure out what we want to be, then what is the rush in finding out whom? Personally, if I continued the with the life I chose for myself in high school, my future would be as follows: married to a man who thinks I am worthless, and working long hours as a sports trainer, and be gone most nights of the week and weekend. Needless to say, I would be missing out of love, and an occupation I am excited and passionate about.
I believe that life changes as we live it, and personally I find it usually changes for the better. So why do our choices as adolescents have to be what we live with for the rest of our lives? I think we need to grow into ourselves instead of growing into a lifestyle that we think is best for us. I think growing into ourselves would make people more comfortable and confident in their own skin. Is that not what we are all striving for anyway? Logically, I know that it is not that easy. When the world fights back and tries to tell us who we should be, it spins us in a whirl wind. The stereotypes and generalities that are predetermined by society make it hard for us to “just be ourselves”. The noticeably dominant and subordinate groups want to classify some people as better than others. Now, do not get me wrong, I believe that we were all created equally, however if the domination of some groups is so great, I begin to wonder if maybe thats the way things were meant to be. On page twelve of the text, the authors suggest that dominate grounds do not really know what the subordinate groups experience. I agree with the authors in some cases, but what is the percentage of people who are dominant in every aspect of their lives? I feel that even if it is not noticeable to the passer by, everyone knows what it is like to feel inferior to someone else. I feel as if some things that are deemed dominate to society, can put people in subordinate situations. The more and more I think about it, the stereotypes cannot be the deciding factor of who we are. I believe that how we live out our lives within those generalized categories is who we are; the stereotype itself does not determine that for us.
I am a Caucasian, twenty-something, upper middle class, protestant individual. According to the stereotypes, my dominance is high and life should be good. So if that is what the world sees me as whom I am. Who am I? As a college student who has never been drunk, loves Jesus, and have excessively traditional values about every aspect of life, I feel pretty subordinate.

Goodbye Meigs High School

The last ten weeks at Meigs High School have helped to shape myself as a future educator. I have continued to notice my strengths in the physical education classroom as well as the items I still need to work on. Spending time in the typical school atmosphere has brought on excitement as well as nerves for what is to come.
I believe that overall my professionalism is sufficient. I attended every day that I told my corresponding teacher that I would be there. I had no trouble getting to school on time, despite the thirty minute drive out to Meigs. Even though some days jumping in the car for a half an hour in the morning would just make me tired, by the time the first class would start I would be awake and ready to go. Mr. Dunn did not require much responsibility on my part. In a physical education class there no papers to grade, or grades to enter, so I honestly just watched. If he would go ask me to grab a piece of equipment from the closet, I would do so without hesitation.
Throughout the quarter I was able to build relationships with students in a few of the physical education classes. These students ranged from Caucasian, freshman girls, to African American, senior boys. I had different types of relationships with the students, but I believe that each of those students respected me and enjoyed my presence in the classroom. There was one particular girl who I spent a lot of time talking with while she was exercising on the treadmill. I learned that her passion is animals. She loves to ride horses and she wants to be a marine biologist one day. She was curious about college and how it differs from high school. Over the weeks of talking with her, I began to notice that she wanted my advice on what to do in certain situations. Wither it was petty high school drama or what her future brings, I could tell she trusted me, and respected I had to say. Obviously, my relationships with the boys were different. For the longest time the senior boys were giving me a hard time about being and college and all that it entails. It was hard for me at first to defend myself. Even though I do not participate in the typical college lifestyle, I became very embarrassed. I wanted these students to know that I am not a typical college student, but did not want to continue on in an inappropriate conversation. I began to realize that these senior boys just wanted my attention. These boys are not technically enrolled in the physical education class, but are in there to help add bodies to a very small class. Some of the days when I would observe, the entire class except these particular boys would be exercising on the equipment. They did not get much attention from Mr. Dunn because he was focused on his real students. The boys would beg me week after week to play basketball with them. I always denied the offer and told them that I was there to watch and that was all. Finally, the last week of class the boys were playing Knock Out and coaxed me into playing a game. The first game I played I beat them, and from that point on I had a different feeling from them. I think in those moments that I showed those boys that I do have athletic ability, they began to respect me as someone who could be a teacher. The relationships I had with the students we all very different, but they we all good relationships that shared respect from both parties.
As the quarter progressed and relationships developed I began to become more comfortable in the classroom. During class, instead of standing over by the bleachers to watch, I would stand right on the court. Being up close to the action I was able to hear more conversations and be slightly more engaged in the classroom atmosphere. When the students were playing volleyball, I would stand about mid court and run after stray volleyballs and return them to the teams. I became must more comfortable talking to Mr. Dunn. Once I finally started to get comfortable with the cooperating teacher, I became more comfortable in general. The conversations ranged from high school sports, or sizes of schools in the state of Ohio. In his class I felt comfortable being out on the floor with the students as they were doing their activities. I would stand under the basketball hoops to get rebounds, or stand beside a girl on the exercise bike and let her tell me all about her dreams to play collegiate athletics. Being accepted by the athletic director made become comfortable, because I felt as if the school was comfortable with me.
My strengths in the classroom are continuing to develop. I believe that one of my main strengths is holding conversations with the students. I think I am good at holding quality conversations that both myself and the students enjoy. I really enjoy speaking to students of all ages, and I think that is really important for an educator. I do not want to be a teacher who only talks to her students when she is lecturing. I would like my students to feel comfortable coming to me with issues that they need resolved. I hope that this strength will help me become a warm and inviting teacher, not a cold and distant one. Not only are my conversations with the students developing, but also my conversations with fellow educators. At the midterm, I was struggling being able to carry on a conversation with my cooperating teacher. I love listening to what wise people have to say, but then always feel as if I do not have anything to say back. As the quarter progressed and I started to feel more comfortable in the class in general, I started to feel more comfortable talking with the teacher. I started to ask him about the things I was noticing about the class, or ask him about something I learned here in lecture at Ohio University, and ask him how it applied to his class. I had to interview Mr. Dunn for my tri-fold project and he and I had a good conversation about the importance of adapted physical education. I would like to think that we equally participated in the conversation and both learned something from each other’s ideas.
Mr. Dunn was overall pleased with my presence in the classroom. He gave me all fives on my final evaluation, and said that there was nothing wrong that he could report. From our conversations, I think he could begin to see that I have the qualities of a quality physical educator. He said he enjoyed my time spent in the classroom and that if I ever needed a reference or anything that he would be more than willing to help me out. He also invited me to come back and spend time in the classroom whenever I wanted.
As the quarter concludes, I absolutely still want to be a teacher. I love every minute of being out in the school and interacting with the students. My flame of passion is fanned every day I spend out in the schools, watching and developing my own teaching philosophy. I have always wanted to teach high school physical education. I know that I do not want to be a typical classroom teacher and that physical education is right for me. I originally wanted to teach high school, which I still do. Through the Young Life organization I lead in, I have fallen in love with high school students, and enjoy spending my time with them. However, in my methods courses I have noticed that I really enjoy the elementary school students and their excitement and energy they provide me with. Luckily, I will get certified kindergarten through twelfth grade and may get the chance to teach at both grade levels.
I cannot wait to just be out there on my own, teaching my lessons, and sharing my passion with the future generation. I know that I still have plenty to learn and will grow in my strengths as I continue on in my journey to becoming a physical educator. I still have lots to learn and plenty of work to do before I will be ready to be out in the field on my own. I am anxious to what the next year will bring, and how I will develop as an educator.

All That Teacher Talk... is True?

Every teacher has his or her own idea of how a lesson should be taught, and the theories behind that teaching. This week I carefully watched the instruction of a lesson in physical education and Meigs High School. I realized how the different aspects of the lesson would reflect the theories by which I believe Mr. Dunn teaches. Reflecting on the different aspects of the lesson, I made obvious connections to certain theories.
All of the class periods I observe are basically the same. When the students are finished getting dressed, Mr. Dunn tells them to shoot around with the basketballs to get warmed up. They shoot around for approximately five to seven minutes, the whistle blows, and they put the balls up. This followed by some down time because the students take their time putting their equipment away, and Mr. Dunn proceeds to just wait for them without any form of hustle command. Half the class was then sent to the exercise equipment, while the other half was told to go shoot around, throw a football, or play ping pong. These activities use the student’s prior knowledge because they know what they are supposed to be doing. Mr. Dunn walked around to make sure the student on the bikes were using the appropriate program, then went and sat down on the bleachers to scan the class. Ormrod says giving the students control like this builds a good classroom psychological climate, because it shows that he teacher respects his students. After a short period of time, he noticed that the students who were on the stage playing ping pong had all magically disappeared. He left to address their off task behavior, and to find out where the students had gone. They ended up just being behind the curtain looking for the ball. He then proceeded to walk back thought the gym to sit down beside me. He asked a few of the students what they were doing because they were just stranding around. A few more moments passed and he told the students to put away the equipment and get dressed. According to our EDTE 200 lecture, Mr. Dunn’s teacher management style is permissive. The students in his classes also demonstrate the qualities expressed in the lecture of student with permissive teachers. The students have autonomy, but little support of discipline. Due to the fact there are very few consequences, the students are mostly unmotivated and disobedient. Even though the students do not necessarily act up, they are disobedient by just standing around and not doing anything. Throughout the class periods, the students participated in cooperative and individual activities. Over all Mr. Dunn’s teaching intrusion is mostly laid back with very little discipline involved.
Teachers teach different ways depending on how he or she thinks their students learn. I can draw some conclusions about some of Mr. Dunn’s theories according to the way he teaches. I believe that Mr. Dunn believes in Vygotsky’s social constructivism. The students who are not riding the exercise equipment were all engaged in cooperative learning activities. There was no real lesson being taught so the students were working in groups and learning from each other. According to Ormrod, social constructivism is just that; working together and learning from those around an individual. Mr. Dunn also exhibits characteristics of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In a lecture in ETDE 200 we discussed the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Mr. Dunn’s students are engaging in the level of application. They are using their skills they learned in physical education class and are applying them in a game type situation. These game type activities are known as authentic activities. Ormrod states that authentic activities are learning activities that are similar to activities a student will encounter in the outside world. The students are learning to appropriately participate and behave in a physical activity setting. Sometimes as students are participating in the authentic activities, they either misbehave or participate in off task behavior. Mr. Dunn corrects these behaviors by using negative reinforcement. Ormord says that negative reinforcement is when the cause of the misbehavior is removed. Mr. Dunn demonstrated the use of this when he would ask the students; what they were doing when they were just standing still. He did not want them to be standing still, so when he acknowledged the students, they would start participating again. These theories support the instruction methods used in these classes.
I am not going to lie. I was bored with what I observed this week. Every week it has been the same thing over and over. I was not surprised when Mr. Dunn told me what the student should be doing in class. It is obvious that the students are bored and really not enjoying themselves. I know that not everyone is going to like physical education class. However, the reason why I decided to become a physical education teacher is because I believe every student should get the opportunity to learn ways to keep themselves healthy over a life time. I would like to show students how to do that which they are still having fun. If students dread physical education class, they are going to dread physical activities for the rest of their lives. I am inspired to take my time writing quality lesson plans for my classes in the future. Wither I think this teaching style is quality or not, I still benefit from every moment of being in that classroom. Even if I was bored, everything can be made into a mental note for the future.
This week I really came to realize the importance of everything I learned in the 200 block. I learned that the theories teachers believe in; really influence the style of their instruction. Theories and instruction are so closely connected, that I learned how much they affect each other. I think I am beginning to formulate my own opinions of theories and instruction.

Motivation Schmotivation

I was able to observe many cases of motivation this week at Meigs High School. In physical education the students are extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. The teacher plays a key role in their motivation. It seems as though motivation is a big part of physical education.
Throughout the day the students are both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. In my opinion, high school students are not easily motivated in physical education. The students are extrinsically motivated because as they seek approval from their teacher. They know that Mr. Dunn is watching, which keeps them motivated to work hard. According to Ormrod, students are extrinsically motivated by factors that are external to themselves. For example, on Tuesday and Thursdays half of the class spends their class period working out on exercise equipment. The student who was on the treadmill today did not want to do anything. It took her a long period of time to start her workout, but once she did, she knew she had to keep going because Mr. Dunn was watching. The student did not want to get caught not doing her exercises. Not only were the students motivated by the need to please their teacher, but they are also motivated to please each other. The students are also extrinsically motivated in which activity they participate in. One group of friends played basketball, while another group of friends hung out on the exercise equipment. It did not matter which activity each individual person want to do, the students were motivated in their choice so they would be accepted by their peers. In this particular high school gym class, there are many students who seem that they cannot be motivated, no matter the circumstance. However there are a few students are intrinsically motivated just because they want to learn or achieve. Ormrod states that students are intrinsically motivated by factors within themselves because it gives them pleasure or help them develop. In the second period class, there are a few students who love physical education and sport and are intrinsically motivated because they want to improve on their skills. Three boys and a girl were playing two on two basketball. This game was testing the student’ skills they learned in class in a game-like situation. In class, they are given the option to just shoot around or do whatever they want. Due to the fact these students are intrinsically motivated, there were more interested in improving their basketball skills rather than just hanging out with their friends. Throughout the day I observed students extrinsically and intrinsically motivating themselves.
I believe an important aspect of physical education is motivation by the teacher. Mr. Dunn has his ways of using both types of motivation in order to get his classes to participate and learn. At the beginning of the class period, there were about four students who claimed they were not going to change for class. Mr. Dunn extrinsically motivated these students by telling them that if they did not change they would eventually fail, and just have to retake the class over again. Ormrod discusses this topic when he shares that extrinsically motivated students are often prodded at. Mr. Dunn experiences exactly this on a regular basis. Day after day he must prod his students, threatening to fail them in order to convince them to participate in the planned activities. Intrinsic motivation is also used because it is a part of Mr. Dunn’s job description. In physical education class the students are to be learning about health and wellness. He intrinsically motivates the students to continue their exercise because it will make them healthier individuals and increase their longevity. When Mr. Dunn is harping on his students about not dressing for class, he encourages them that they should want to dress. Not only so they do not fail, but because they will become more educated individuals if they participate. I believe Mr. Dunn takes this approach because he knows that not every student likes physical education class. On the other hand, he has a passion for educating the students at Meigs High School, and wants to share his knowledge with them. Mr. Dunn Is not the most aggressive motivator, but he does what he feels is best for get his students motivated for class.
I am not thrilled with what I observed this week. As I experience many different classes and students in my methods courses, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Dunn might be a little too laid back. I get the feeling that he allows his student to get away with too much off task behavior. Today, the students were given a free period to do whatever they liked, as long as they kept working on something. Some of the students were across the gym, on the stage, playing ping pong. I noticed that one of the students had pulled a chair up to her table and was sitting down while attempting to play ping pong. I did not see how that student is going to get her daily, thirty, minutes of vigorous activity suggested by the surgeon general. She cannot accomplish this vigorous activity while she is sitting down. It took a long period of time for Mr. Dunn to go and make her stand up. Even when she did get up, he neglected to explain to her why she should not sit down. As I stated before, I know that it is hard to motive students who do not want to be motivated, but I hope that when I have own class I will be able to get my entire class intrinsically motivated to participate.
Obviously, motivation is prevalent in physical education. The students and teacher both have their ways of motivation, wither it be extrinsically, intrinsically, or both. I have learned a good deal about motivation and how important it is to the success of a physical education.