Friday, February 11, 2011

The most anticipated first day.

                It has came, the first day that we would teach and the second time that SUNY Cortland has visited St. Mary"s for the Spring Semester. I was very excited and and had anticipation building up day by day especially after I injured my ankle the Thursday before our Lab.  I tried treating my ankle the very best I can so I wont miss any activity classes or especially not being able to participate on Mondays Lab. Monday comes and my ankle was still to swollen especially with my ankle brace which allows me to walk with minimal pain, to be able to fit in any of my sneaker unfortunately I had to wear my boots to class. I wanted to be able to jump around and be active like the kids, not just stand there and watch them as I give directions. So  the whole weekend before the Monday Lab I stood in my room with my ankle iced and elevated and didn't go any where with out my crutches. My group is the Special Projects group, and first we went in to the back to clean and organize their equipment room. By taking everything out leaving and almost empty room  to then organizing it in such a way that we were able to walk in and out, and we organized with a theme you may say like we had the balls on one side while the plastic toys on the other. Once we were done organizing we went to the gym and we played the game in which we made a circle and their was a noodle in the middle which represented the sword. A person holding the noodle or sword would tap anyone with the noodle and have to to run to the middle to drop of the noodle and run back to the open spot. As he is is getting chased by the person that was tapped, the person who got tapped would try to get the sword and taps him back before he gets to the spot on the circle. We played the game in till the children began to loose interest and Mr. Yang noticed and told us to play with the kids playing soccer and basketball. First I tried to play some soccer with a child named Louis, he was very talented especially for his age. I tried to play with him by  kicking with my healthy foot but it was hurting to balance with my bad ankle as I kick with my healthy foot. So I played basketball with a bunch girl which were also surprisingly talented especially for their age. One of the girl I remember had a sense of humor she told me her name was Fred and she with the rest of the girls played basketball for St. Mary's. She told me her Uncle"s name is Kanye, I made a face and she knew Kanye West the music artist came to my mind and then she said his full name is Kanye East.. I found that funny because she knew what I was thinking as soon as she said Kanye.  Then I saw my good friend Gianluca and showed him the child Louis because they're are both soccer players, and Gianluca would know much more about soccer and how talented he really is. And then they spoke about soccer as I went back to the girls who play basketball and began to shoot with them. First we played a little game in which who first would make 10 shots me with my left hand or all the girls from wherever they want. I won and then they wanted to play knockouts. It been a while since I have played knockout I forgot the game was called that. And surprisingly its like these girls and the boys started joining because they liked that game too. They kept beating me its like they were professional in the that game of basketball. I kept trying to win so we kept playing and they wanted to keep playing because they were winning. I wanted to play so I could finally win and I never did, I did have a bad ankle but still I played basketball for more than these children were alive I should of won at least a game. I was impressed how talented these children were in Sports and I'm sure they were just as if not more impressive academically. Then before we left, My group and I  played a tag game called wolf and sheep with all the children that were left. That once you get tagged by a wolf you become a wolf and tag others  as they run from baseline to baseline. Then we finished the day off we Wiggles shake song. We were  all walking in circles shaking our arms and legs even boobing our heads  in the middle of the circle and then one by one we joined the rest of the class in the outer circle. The first real teaching I would say is a success I tried to not let my injury affect the way I was playing with the kids. Overall I had fun and the children had fun therefore I was very happy with how our  Monday lab went!