Letter to the "Super"

To Mr. Superintendent,
I am writing this letter to you to ask for funds for a new gaming system that can be very beneficial to the students of this district. I am a physical educator in this school district, and my goal is to get as much activity in our student’s daily routines as possible! It is a stressful job, especially in our society today, where video gaming took over vigorous physical play. However, there has recently been a large wave of exercise gaming systems that have created new gaming ways that have a large physical demand to them. This is now more appealing to students and attracts more interest to our younger generations. I feel that this is the savior for our younger generations well being. It is something that should be embraced.
Studies have shown that video gaming system has increased the level of physical activity in our children’s daily lives. This daily routine of exercise will increase the health of our students as well as give them a social activity that they can carry for the rest of their lives. not only that other countries, such as Norway, are using this for reasons beyond just physical activity! They are using this system for students to build their mental health. They also use it to help their students build their stress management and lower depression rates! There are some sites that i would like you to take a look at like positivegaming.com. I went to an expo with exergame systems and the feedback from the students was unbelievable. the excitement and enthusiasm from the students was incredible!
http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddrnfc3h_15c69hr2df
Having said that, the I Dance gaming system is going to be visiting our school in a couple of weeks. I have been keeping in contact with them for a while now and they decided to come visit our school to show the system. It has been approved by the school already. I would like for you to join our session as the creators of the game will show us how to play the game and show us different ways to play the game!
I have put together fundraising plans to raise the money to purchase this game. I have also talked to our neighboring districts and they are interested in buying this system as well. We might be able to work out a sharing plan with the system. Well, I am getting ahead of myself. After you see how the gaming system works, and the student’s response to the game, we can then talk further on the considerations of purchasing this system. You can contact me at martino.sottile@gmail.com.

Thank you,
Martino Sottile

Lab C

This was my second to last teaching experience in EDU 255. In this lesson, I taught European Handball. My taching partner for this unit was Stephen Perez, and we tried not to overlapp the other lessons that were taught by the other students in class. I focused my lesson on the skills of goalkeeping. My cues for this was stay on your toes, keep good balance and hands up. I worked through different levels of warm up for the students and than progressively moved forward to more gamelike play and speed.
I started the lesson with an instant activity, than I introduced myself and the purpose for the class. I than demonstrated the skill and pinpointed the cues, that i wanted the students to focus on. I had them get a partner and lin4e up 10 to 15 yards away from one another and practice their hand-eye coordination by practicind shooting at one another within arms length at 50 percent. Than I had them do 2 drills that incorporated the students throwing skill and goalkeeping with a constant rotation. Adding the throwing skill was a plus, considering I scaffolded the skill from the previous lesson. I then closed out my lesson and told them what to look forward to in our next lesson.

lesson plan

Lab D

I was privileged enough to teach I Dance for its first appearance at Suny Cortland. It was a successful, and I feel my best lesson yet! I tried to add creativity and a lot of activity and tasks to best fulfill the success that was targeted for this lesson. With just learning how to play the game within teaching the lesson, Bas (the I Dance creator) helped me learn and master the skill enough to teach the lesson with decent knowledge. It is a fun and activity system that attracts the students attention and gives them joy, while getting a workout!
I first introduced myself and told them the classes goals and purpose for the lesson. I than told them the cues I wanted to focus on and had a student demonstrate as I pinpointed the cues to give the students a visual. I than I had them practice a begginers pattern without going to the game yet. I than had them go over the patterns I gave them on while a metronome played in the background. I lastly had them play to games on the easiest levels possible. This gave way for Rachel to take over phase two of the I Dance activity. I closed the class, by giving all my students a star studded dancing shirt! I mean it did go with the theme of the lesson which was to qualify for the dance competition "Thriller @ Disney"!

lesson plan

transcript

lesson plan 2

Feedback analysis

time coding

I Dance study

I went to a I Dance exergame study this monday and wednesday and was taught from one of the actual creators of the game. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to learn from Bas (the creator). This gave me a lot of practice and experience with the I Dance video game in itself. I improved my skills and knowledge of the game greatly. I feel that this game could be an affective and fun tool to have for schools across the country. Now that I made connections with Bas, I will definitely keep in contact and try to have future experience with this game when i'm eventually working in a school district.

Kid Wrestling

From time to time, I go back to my hometown high school, and I help coach and teach some of the high school wrestlers, and I sometimes help run kid wrestling practices. It is a rewarding feeling to coach and help kids progress in their wrestling abilities. Recently over thanksgiving break I went home and helped my coach run a takedown tournament. This years tournament had over 87 wrestlers, ranging from 1st grade to 12th grade competing in an interdistrict competition. I helped set up the gym and organized weight class brackets. The gym was filled with wrestlers and parent and I ran a mat and was responsible for over 30 wrestlers. The tournament was a success on all fronts. At the conclusion of the tournament, I helped give feedback to all of the wrestlers that I coach when i'm back home and gave them all things to focus on improving. It was a long and crazy but successful two days. It was to great to help out and give back to the younger, future wrestlers of Brentwood.

Gaming is the future wave of Physical education

This video exemplifies the creative new wave of thinking that physical educators are now showing. This country right now has a increasingly high rate of obesity... traditional video games play a large role in this crisis we are experiencing right now. Now as physical educators we are entering the video game world and we are starting to incorporate exercise to the cyber world. This is going to provide an opportunity to our future generations. Exer-games is the future! This will help save the credibility of our profession for the future. We will adapt, and this is one form.