Surviving Lab D

Wednesday November 11th, marked the completion of all the teaching labs for me in EDU 255. What a journey it has been, and it has flown by. For my last lab, we had to teach in an environment that we were not used to. I was assigned to teach in the pool, so I decided to teach the class a survival stroke. That stroke was the elementary backstroke. Since this is a complicated stroke, I thought it would be best to break the stroke down into parts and teach all the parts individually. My content development form also shows exactly how I broke the lesson down. I think that this way of teaching worked out well. I broke the stroke down into 3 parts for the class. The first part was just getting the students used to being on their back, so I had the class do the back float for 30 seconds. Then, using four simple cues, I taught the arm action then the leg action of the stroke. I was also able to use pull buoys in my lesson to help isolate the arm action of the stroke, which will make it easier for the students that are first learning this stroke. After that, I got in the pool and demonstated what the full stroke should look like, and then had the class practice the whole stroke. To finish off the class, I had the class do a "survival stroke" relay race.

I think that overall, this lesson went well. Comparing the first day teaching to this lab, I can tell that I have grown greatly as a teacher over the course of this semester. I try to use all the tools and techniques of teaching that I have accumulated throughout this semester and implement as much of them as possible into my lessons. My time coding form shows that I kept the class active for the majority of my lesson plan, and had minimal wait and management time. Even though I have greatly improved since the first day, there are still some things I need to work on. One of those things is providing feedback to more people. That is evident when looking at my feedback anaylsis form. Also, when looking at my C-9 evaluation, I missed another couple key teaching techniques like providing a safety statement and checking for understanding. A safety statement is especially important when working in the pool because theres so many different things that can happen that can result in someone getting injured if your not careful.



It's crazy that this semester is just about over already. I feel that I have learned a great deal this semester. All the videos of our teaching labs, and these blog posts will show how much I have learned and improved throughout this semester. EDU 255 was a great epxerience and I'm looking forward to continuing learning and growing as a teacher during my time left here at SUNY Cortland.