Day 5 3/9/15

Day 5

3/9/15

 

            Today I had planned to keep exploring Finny’s interest and capabilities.  I waited for him for about 15 minutes but he still didn't show. Dr. MacDonald, Lesley and Maddie told me to act as a T.A. and rotate from group to group and observe.  Since I am a T.A. in Dr. Crafts Friday afternoon 356 lab I knew what was expected from me. 

            I started out working with Zoey.  Today she was working on basketball. The component I observed worked on shooting the ball. Her teacher was practicing against the wall.  I thought this was a good strategy because often when children practice shooting at the basket they do not use proper form. This may be because they are worried about the product of getting he ball into the basket and not the process of correct form.  The teacher had two visuals taped up to the wall.  When Zoey was working on her shooting the teacher reminded her of the cues. She also asked various checking for understanding questions about the cues. One example of this is when she asked, “what about your elbow?”  The student responded, “it's supposed to be touching my side.”  I took a picture of the visual aids the teacher used, see the photos below.

 

            The next student I observed name was Brianna.  She was working on locomotor skills such as jumping, hopping, running, and even balancing.  She could jump holding a teachers hand 10 times in a row. She was a little uneasy about jumping without holding the teachers hand but could do this around 5 times.  She could balance and hop holding the teachers hand but was not comfortable doing this alone.  We also worked on throwing various objects. We used beanbags and balls.  The student could throw the objects against the wall and to a teacher. From what I observed she was still in the initial stage of throwing. I would consider her throw to be in the chop stage. She would throw the ball and chop her hand down on the same side of her body. She did not take any steps with the throw.  One activity I thought of that could help her throw would be putting footprints on the ground and have her move from the “T” position to a sideways position.

 

            Although I was disappointed that Finny was not able to make it tonight I was glad I got to observe other students. I learned a lot from watching these other groups and enjoyed seeing the kids do their best.  The teachers I observed did a great job as well!