Learning to leap, jump and slide in style at St. Mary's

A new week, new observations and thoughts. This week also saw different motor tasks to assess and evaluate. The locomotor skills that we observed this week at St. Mary's were the leap, the horizontal jump, and the slide.

Here are some observations of the students as they participate in the activities:
The young boy that we observed wasn’t really interested in doing the leaping, jumping and sliding as much as he was doing it as fast as he could. The young girl that we worked with allowed the teachers to help her and listened much better to the instruction as well.

The best way to get your points across are to develop good teaching strategies. Here are some that i used this week and how successful they were:
I found that the younger kids really want you to get right down there with them. They respond to you much better if you do the things that they are doing with them, instead of standing aside watching. The older kids kind of looked at me and had the look on their face like “what are you doing…get away from me,” if you tried to do the same with them. The old kids really didn’t want to be bothered with us college kids as much.

The single most important thing in working with kids is KEEPING THEIR ATTENTION! Here are some sure fire ways (i hope!) to keep their attention long enough to get your points across:
Being into what you’re teaching. The kids (no matter what age) know when you don’t care. The more energy you show and the happier you are and the more you get into it, the more of them will participate and the better they will do the game.