Hockey a Dying Sport?

A friend owns a sports store in Saskatoon and a few months ago I went to get myself a new hockey stick. I was shocked to hear him say that hockey is a dying sport. I grew up around hockey and have been playing for many years so for me this was hard to hear. He gave a few reasons as to why this was happening: the violence (hitting), interests in other sports and overall just a new generation coming through. I did some research and tried to find more information on this topic, I didn't have much luck. Most of the information that I found was based on the United States. 

Does anyone have any thoughts? I know there are a few hockey players in our section! I found this very shocking!

Last class

Our last class really got me thinking about the teacher that I want to be. This is hard as there are so many traits I know I want to uphold as well as strategies that I want to use and beliefs that I hold and will bring into my future classrooms. Going out into the schools has made me realize some major do's and dont's! I now know what teacher I do not want to be from many past experiences, so now it is overcoming teaching the way we were taught! Is anyone else in my same situation, trying to figure out the teacher they want to be?

Inspiration!

Tonight as I was looking blankly at my agenda and all of the assignments that I have to accomplish in the next little while I decided I needed to find some inspiration. I went for a walk around the neighbourhood (which is new to me as I am house sitting and am used to walking at the farm) I tried to forget everything that was on my mind and focus on my foot steps, the smell, the sounds around me and the way I felt... relaxed! It was a beautiful night and I highly recommend all of you take a break from homework and either go for a walk or simply just be outside! It's a relief and makes concentrating a whole lot easier.

Fresh air and being outside is crucial for children to learn and grow! So let's learn with our children and teach them outside!

Priorities

Last Wednesday there was an interview on CTV with the middle years section on whether they thought teachers are over worked, if they are given more work than they can handle. It really got me thinking and questioning what kind of teacher I want to be for my students. After our class last Thursday I came to the realization that prioritizing my life and getting organized is the best thing I can do for my sanity and career. As a society we are always go, go, go, always in a rush. We don't take the time to appreciate the small things (being mindful), sometimes the most important things. As a future educator I am going to make sure that I do not loose site of things, appreciate the small things, get organized and prioritize my life.

 
I tried to find the link for the CTV news but couldn't so I hope you all had the chance to watch it!

Overwhelmed

I am not to sure what I feel like blogging about. I feel there is so much going on my head is spinning... I am sure many of you are feeling the same way. I just want to mention how happy I am that we are able to end our week with such a great class. I love being able to move around and interact with everyone, the four hours fly by! I particularly liked the volleyball type game that we played last class. Volleyball has never been a strong area for me and it was something I used to dread doing in phys.ed in school. That game took away the pressure of making sure the ball went over the net, (along with many other things) which is something I struggle with. I am loving all of the activities we are learning and I am planning on teaching a phys.ed lesson in pre-internship!

Reflection .. finally starting to understand this whole blog thing !

Now that I am slowly starting to figure out this blog thing, I can now enjoy it a little more. I had another great night in class last night! The part I found most interesting was when we looked deeper into those 26 skills. I know realize why some of my physical education teachers made me do some of the things we did in phys.ed. Like Brooke and Bailey mentioned they remembered tossing the basketball against the wall and that instantly brought me back to the gym in grade seven. I did the exact same thing. The scariest part for me is teaching something I do not understand or cannot do myself... the backwards roll. I don't feel confident enough yet to teach that to a student when I can not even teach myself. Especially a movement like that as there are definant safety risks. In other subjects you can find all of the information on line but I feel phys.ed you need to be able to practice the movement skill to better teach your students. I hope to learn in this class how to successfully do a backwards roll !

Reflection

My favourite part of this class is actually getting to participate in the activities. This is how I learn best and I feel many students are the same. There were two activities that stuck out to me.

The first was when we were doing the tag/ warm up (with the foam fingers) activity and were spread all around the gym; we had to do push ups, sit ups, running, etc. The greatest part and something I didn't realize until after was that you didn't have the pressure of someone watching you. Everyone was busy doing their own thing that it really did not matter that I couldn't do a push up. This is an excellent idea for kids as many struggle with self-esteem and don't feel comfortable being physically active in front of their peers. I will defiantly be using this strategy in my future classroom.

Second, when our class was split into two and one team was in the "out field" and three players from the other team threw Frisbees at the opposing team. I liked this because it would be a great way for the teacher to assess who understands and could complete the task as three students went at a time. You could use a ball, Frisbee, etc. to have the students practice different movement skills.

So far in this class I have learnt so many useful activities to help my students learn and improve on their movement skills. I plan on using these activities in my future classrooms and look forward to learning more!