Recreating Our World Through Wellness: NYS AHPERD 2009

From Thursday November 19, 2009 - Saturday November 21, 2009, I attended the 2009 New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AHPERD) Annual Conference at the Turning Stone Resort and Convention Center in Verona, NY. This was my first time attending an AHPERD conference other than the SUNY Cortland Mini-Conference. I wasn't quite sure what it would be like but I had a decent idea of what to expect. After leaving Cortland and hitting the road, we arrived and Turning Stone ready for the conference...

Upon arriving at the event center, we parked the car and walked to the registration table. From there, we received our conference materials and were off to explore what there was being offered. We first stopped at the SUNY Cortland booth to say hello to our fellow Physical Education majors and see what other booths were available. We noticed that there was a game with the booths that if you got a stamp from most of them you were eligible to win a prize. So we got all the stamps but needless to say, we didn't win! From here, we were ready to explore the different presentations.

There was a vast amount of variety in the presentations available. Our first stop was 'Enjoyable and Innovative Fitness Routines for All Students' presented by a crew of one instructor and several students from SUNY Brockport. They presented several activities that incorporated fitness activities into the games. Many of them were fun to participate in while others were a bit too complicated. It was fun to spark up a rivalry between us and the Brockport students about whose school is better. This was in good spirits and carried on throughout the conference. Following this session, we attended 'THRILLER... Dance with a Modern Inter City Twist' in the exotic Lava Room. This was a fun session as it was interactive and allowed a lot of participation. Andrew Steinberg, the presenter, was very lively and loved what he was doing. Although he made a few mistakes throughout, it was still a worthwhile presentation. Our last session for the afternoon was 'Professional Growth: What's Your Game Plan?' presented by SUNY Cortland Professor Jeff Walkuski. This was a very interesting lecture as Dr. Walkuski made us aware of the fact that we should have a game plan for our future and set goals to achieve. It was very inspirational and interesting. Following the presentation, an administrator from a school district was in attendance and praised Dr. Walkuski for his information and presentation and told us what to expect when we looked for a job. After all the presentations, it was time to relax and take it easy. We wandered through the casino and socialized with many others. With all the excitement from today, we hoped the next day would be just as good.

On Friday morning, we decided to attend the first general session of the day. This presentation entitled, 'Essential Keys to Wellness: Recreating Life's Vitality' was presented by keynote speaker Brian Luke Seaward. This was truly an inspirational keynote. Mr. Seaward spoke of personal stories and how it related to living life the way you want and how wellness will keep life fresh and interesting. One of the most interesting phrases was "to know and not to do, is not to know." If you do not apply what you know and thus do not use it, then there is no use in having that knowledge and it is truly being wasted. He then spoke of a woman from China and the life she lived. He quoted her as saying, "Humans are like tea bags, you do not know their strength until they are put in hot water." This is one of the most true statements I have ever heard. For if you do not test yourself or fight in difficult situations, you do not know your own strength. This was truly a great seminar and I am glad to have attended. Following this presentation, we went off to attend SUNY Cortland Professor JoEllen Bailey's presentation, 'Affective Assessment: Why and How.' However, unfortunately she was sick and could not attend the conference. We hope that she will present this at the college!We instead went to the 'Future Professionals Section Business Meeting and Luncheon' to see fellow SUNY Cortland student Ryan Ingalls officially be swore in as President of the club. This was a great sight to see and I also won a whistle! We then moved down to 'Great Games and Activities for Elementary Physical Education Classes' presented by the 2009 Elementary Teacher of the Year Laura Petersen-Shaw. This was a great presentation where we played various activities and learned them from a great instructor. All of the games were very elementary approriate and it was fun to act like a little kid while doing so. Cortland students were the only ones participating and it showed the dedication we all had. The final presentation of the day I attended was 'Wii Sports and Fit for Adapted Physical Education' presented by Michelle Sicurella. This was quite interesting as she showed ways to adapt the Wii for adapted students. These methods were very effective and very fun and everyone had a great time. Later that evening, we attended the Jay B. Nash Awards Dinner. This was a great experience as many teachers were recognized for their outstanding performance as well as fellow students for their achievements. The food was great and so was the atmosphere! After this, it was time yet again to relax and take it easy. We once again wandered the casino and attended the social for all conference attendees. This was another great day and we were ready for tomorrow.

Saturday morning was the last day of the conference. And this was going to be a special day for me as I was a presenter in the 'Spice Up Your Warm-Up!' presentation. The idea for the workshop is to introduce new warm up ideas for physical education classes that are more creative and more fun than just doing traditional laps. I presented alongside fellow SUNY Cortland Physical Education majors Brandon Herwick, James Thompson, Steven Jacob Colwell, Kate Bartholomew, and Dustin Pritzert. My presentation was the same as it was at the SUNY Cortland Mini-Conference. After PED 288: Rhythms and Dance, I learned to appreicate dance in physical education so much I became a teacher's assistant for the class and felt it would be appropriate to use dance in my warm up. The first part of my warm up include the locomotor skills of gallop, hop, jump, and run around each side of a square to the song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. Following this brief introduction, I opened the signs I made to reveal different tasks such as leap frog, wheelbarrow run, piggy back run, and slidding around the square to "Celebrate" by Kool & the Gang. This was the last component of that warm up and I moved to my next one. It was a circle dance to "Shout!" by the Temptations. We would run and jump to music and strut like cool cats when appropriate! It turned out to be a huge hit and everyone had a great time! Following our presentation, the conference was over and it was time to head back to Cortland. After an exciting weekend, I was ready to go back home.


The 2009 New York State AHPERD Conference was my first time attending a professional conference. And I have to say, it was an unbelievable experience. There was so much to learn and so little time to do it in. I found myself scrambling between workshops and having to decide which ones to go to when I wanted to attend all of them! It is amazing to see how many people from all over the state come to this conference. I happened to run into my former high school health teacher at one point in the weekend. I initially didn't recognize her until it was too late but luckily I got called back up and got to chat for a bit. There are so many people to meet and they all love to strike up a conversation if you have the time. You realize how passionate these people truly are about what they do and the desire they have to better themselves and help others by attending these conferences.


Having been able to present at this conference was an unreal experience. Halfway through my warm-up, I thought to myself, "wow, I'm really presenting at the state conference... this is awesome." It continued to confirm my decision in becoming a physical educator and has made me hungry for more. I have now presented at the SUNY Cortland Mini-Conference and the NYS AHPERD Conference. I will present at these again next year but I now want to go further and hpefully present at the EDA Conference and perhaps the national conference. These events truly help your professional growth but more importantly help you answer why you're doing this in the first place.

Flip Me the Ball!!

On Friday October 23, 2009, after two weeks of planning and numerous meetings with Dr. Columna, it was time to teach a pre-assessment in PED 434: Statisitics and Assessment in Physical Education. For this lab we were to develop a pre-assessment for a softball unit being taught to eigth graders. Not having done something like this before, I wasn't sure what to expect...

In order to have a successful pre-assessment, one needs a proper assessment for which to follow and assess the students. For lab, we needed to focus on the cognitive and psychomotor domains of an assessment. Therefore, we had to develop a lesson plan, a checklist/rubric, a cognitive assessment, as well as a teacher's assessment. Myself and Jennifer 'The Doc' Thorpe brought our initial drafts to Dr. Columna for our first meeting for which he provided suggestions and alterations for feedback. As we kept making more meetings and adjusting what we had, we saw the quality of our work go up and thus had a better assessment. On that Friday, with our equipment and visual aides in hand, we were ready to see if this assessment would work.

We began the class with a simple tag game that mixed the pop fly and ground ball into it. If someone were tagged, the only way to be untagged would be to get a grounder or a pop up tossed to you. This proved successful and we moved to our next portion of the lesson. In order to quickly divide the class, we had 20 hats; 10 red and 10 white each with one of five different teams on the brim. For one part of the activity, we could split them in half easily and for the next make an easy transition into groups. This was great for transition and everyone got a nice hat to keep! For the groundball assessment, we had the students follow a zig zag pattern and a similar pattern was used for the fly ball assessment. This was the portion where were would do the teacher assessment using a spreadsheet. Following this activity, we had them in groups of three-four doing a peer assessment using a rubric we developed. Two would perform the skills while the other would assess one of both of them. We then moved to the cognitive assessment; a quiz based on what we had learned today. We then closed the activity and debriefed with Dr. Columna, the lab assistants, and our classmates.


This pre-assessment was difficult! It was nothing like we had expected. Our teacher assessment was very difficult because it was hard to not only provide feedback to the students but also assess all the components we were looking for. The activity we used was a fast moving one and that made it hard to assess. Our rubric for the peer assessment was a little difficult for everyone to understand and the peer assessment was a disaster in itself with everyone not knowing who was supposed to do what. Other than the assessments, I myself had some problems to work on. At times I spoke too fast which could have made the directions unclear. And also I didn't look as if I was enjoying myself nor was I enthusiastic about the lesson. On the brightside, my hook was a hit and the hats were a great idea for transitions and made the class fun!

Being that this was the first time I used an assessment, there were naturally going to be problems. But it could have been a lot worse. Many of the problems are small fixable ones. In the future, the whole lesson can be fixed by wearing a smile!

Working with Underprivileged Children: A Unique Experience

On Saturday October 17, 2009, I participated in a workshop for migrant and underprivileged children in the Van Hoesen building on the SUNY Cortland campus. Not fully sure of what this workshop entailed, I decided to participate in it in order to gain an understanding of the different types of children I will encounter when I become a teacher. With all the possibilities of what it would be like flowing through my head, Saturday morning arrived and I was ready to go...

Early last week, Dr. Luis Columna mentioned that if anyone were staying in Cortland over the upcoming 'October Break' weekend, there was a workshop Saturday morning that they could participate in if they chose to. Thinking I was going to go home that weekend, I brushed it off. At the end of the week, the person I was going to go home with decided to leave early. I couldn't go any earlier than we had stated so I was stuck in Cortland that weekend. I approached Dr. Columna and offered my help for the workshop. He explained what it was all about and I agreed and would meet him bright and early Saturday morning.


When Saturday morning arrived, I walked down to Park Center ready to start the day. I met Dr. Columna and the two others who were helping out. It was nice to see that Dr. Stephen Yang was also running the program as well. Here I found out that we were using 'exergames' in the workshop. Once we loaded up Columna's Jeep with dance dance revolution pads and other equipment, we were ready to head up to Van Hoesen.

Once up the hill, we unloaded all the equipment and set up in two classrooms. It was here I found out that many of these children did not speak English and only Spanish. This would be interesting as I can only speak English and nothing else! Then 10am rolled around and the children arrived. The first to come were very small; about ages 2 to 5. I began with a game that uses an electronic giraffe to help find other animals 'lost' around the hallway. When I began to explain the directions and activity, I had to have Dr. Columna there to translate so the children would understand what was going on. It was a relatively simple game so not much language was needed. The giraffe made other animal sounds and said the animal names and most children understood this rather easy. But they sure did love it! We played this game for almost half an hour moving the anmals around and having them 'run' from being captured. It was quite an experience!

Next, some older children came in a were semi-reluctant to participate. But once we demonstrated how fun it all was, they were quick to join! DDR was very popular as well as the Jackie Chan running game. But nothing was more popular than the 'eyetoy' for Playstation 2. In this interactive game, the kids could see themselves on tv and moving around interacting with the digital environment. Once these kids left, the workshop was completed and ready to be broken down.


This was quite a unique learning experience for me. Not having ever worked with children who do not speak English or who are underprivileged, I did not know what to expect. But these kids are just like any other kids out there. They love to play and get involved in activities assuming you are there to help them and make sure they have a good time. The language barrier never really seemed to be an issue. There are many universal words and body language that are readable in any language making this just a little bit less difficult. I learned that all the kids you encounter in schools will not be the same. It's not like you're going to get the great kids at St. Mary's all the time. There are children whose families are poor and struggling to get new clothes and keep food on the table all the while making sure their children get a quality education. But underneathe this surface, they're just like any other child. It takes a dedicated teacher and a patient individual to work with them and ensure they receive attention equal to all the other children out there. "Give them the skills, and they will be active."

As a professional, I anticipate the challenges I will meet in the classroom. I do not truly know what to expect but can gather a general idea. Workshops like these are crucial to the development of an individual as a teacher. You cannot learn this through courses taught at the college. It has to be experienced for one to truly learn. I thank Dr. Columna and Dr. Yang for allowing me to help and hope to participate in another workshop soon!

2009 SUNY Cortland Physical Education Mini-Conference!!

On Friday October 9, 2009, SUNY Cortland hosted its annual Physical Education Mini-Conference. This is a very special occassion as it similar in many aspects to the New York State APHERD Conference as well as the National AAPHERD Conference. Throughout the day, there were various presentations all centered around physical education, health, recreation, and dance. We were very honored to have Dr. Judy Rink, a Cortland alumna, come and give the keynote address to open the conference. Not only would this be a special conference for all involved, but for me it was a busy one as I presided over a couple of presentations and made a presentation of my own during a session. This looked to be an exciting day...

After weeks of preparation with the SUNY Cortland Physical Education Majors Club (APEM) and meeting on a weekly basis with Dr. Eric Malmberg, we were ready to begin the conference after setting up the previous night. Our keynote speaker, Judy Rink, addressed the full capacity crowd with her speech, 'Windows of Opportunity Don't Come Often." Being a SUNY Cortland graduate, as well as a world renowned and respected individual in the field, it was especially exciting to have her here to give a speech. She stressed the importance of what a teacher should do and the means to which acquire it for the benefit of the students. A few quotes especially stood out to me, "give them the skills, and they will be active" as well as using the line, "if you build it, they will come." These lines left me in awe as I listened to every word she had to say. Following her speech, Dr. Rink was given a hearty round of applause and warm thank you.


Now it was time for me to begin my duties for the afternoon. I was now to preside for Dr. Diane Craft in her presentation, 'Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young Children Pre-K & K.' This was an exceptionally good presentation as Dr. Craft detailed many different activities and games would could have younger children participate in. These games inspired me to recommend some to my motor development group for games to use at St. Mary's School Cortland. I look forward to taking her for EDU 355 in the spring! Following Dr. Craft's presentation, it was time for me to preside over the next workshop. This presentation, entitled 'Tag Games Unlimited,' was presented by Chris Wert, a Cortland graduate and current Elementary/Middle School Physical Education President of NYS APHERD. Mr. Wert was a great man to meet. His tag activities were very creative and very unique. Everyone who participated, throughly enjoyed the tag games and Chris offered the games to anyone who wanted them. This was a great session and I'm glad I was able to experience it!

As the 12:20 session came upon us, it was time for me to go and prepare to give my presentation. Started last year, "Spice Up Your Warm Ups" was created by the Cortland Majors Club APEM to provide new and creative ways to warm up your class rather than doing traditional laps. Our President, Brandon Herwick, stated a week ago that they were looking for an additional person to present a warm up at the Mini Conference. I felt that this would be an excellent experience and decided to volunteer. I decided that I wanted my warm up to include elements of dance and music in it. After PED 288: Rhythms and Dance, I learned to appreicate dance in physical education so much I became a teacher's assistant for the class and felt it would be appropriate to use dance in my warm up. The first part of my warm up include the locomotor skills of gallop, hop, jump, and run around each side of a square to the song, "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. Following this brief introduction, I opened the signs I made to reveal different tasks such as leap frog, wheelbarrow run, piggy back run, and slidding around the square to "Celebrate" by Kool & the Gang. This was the last component of that warm up and I moved to my next one. I was a circle dance to "Shout!" by the Temptations. We would run and jump to music and strut like cool cats when appropriate! It turned out to be a huge hit and everyone had a great time! Congratulations to Brandon, Kate, James, and Dustin on great presentations as well!

The SUNY Cortland Physical Education Mini-Conference was an amazing learning experience. I had such a great time attending the various workshops and meeting new people. I had a blast making my presentation and while I may have been nervous going into it, I'm glad that I volunteered to do it. I cannot wait until next year to present once again and to attend the NYS APHERD Conference in November!