Bothwell Cross Country Home Meet

I am helping Coach the Bothwell Cross Country team which is 5th-8th grade and has nearly 70 students! Our first home meet was today. Superior Timing offered their services for using electronic chip timing for the meet. Most of the students had never ran a race which used this fancy new technology. The students received their own number bib which had their name and school listed on the front. The course was a 1.5 mile loop around the school and through some single track trails in the woods. Everyone at the meet ran their hardest and were grateful to get official race results from Superior Timing. Our next meet is next Wednesday and will be hosted by Father Marquette.

4th Hour Alternative Exercises

For the next two weeks I will be conducting an Alternative exercise lesson with Mrs. Mckinley's class. I have given up my prep hour to work with her students on different exercises. On Tuesday I taught the students how to use a jump rope and to increase their cardiovascular health by performing different skills with the rope. At the end of the lesson I had the students jump rope for 1 minute, then they took their pulse for 30 seconds. When they got back to their classroom they wrote down their number on a piece of paper and multiplied it by 2 to get their heart rate. The students were wonderful for me and they enjoyed the more challenging jump rope activities that I introduced to them. My next day working with them will be this friday. I am undecided on what activity I will do with them. Any suggestions? :)

Half-Marathon/5k Bothwell students

On Saturday I competed in my 2nd Half-Marathon. The Lake Superior Shore Run was a 13.1 mile course over some technical terrain with some steep climbs on rock. I finished 3rd in my age group and 10th overall with a time of 2:02 :) I won a jar of Keewenaw Raspberry Jam. There was also a 5k race that a number of Bothwell students ran. It was a wonderful fall morning and it was great to see some of my students braving the brisk fall air with huge smiles on their faces. I was very happy with my performance and look forward to beating my time next year :)

Dribbling/Passing/shooting

With the remainder of the week I worked with the students on their dribbling, passing and shooting skills. I instructed them on the proper way to make contact with the soccer ball while they were passing and shooting. Once the students were comfortable dribbling the soccer ball around the gym using both the inside and outside of both feet I taught them some more advanced moves to get away from defenders. I showed them the rollover, scissors, step over, toe stop and the spin move. The students responded really well to the advanced moves. I was happy to see some of the students using the moves when we played at the end of the hour.

Soccer

For the next 2 weeks we will be working on soccer skills with the 5-8th graders. For our first day we focused on dribbling skills and some juggling. I look forward to teaching the students some of my knowledge of the game.

Friday On My Own

On friday Dave L'Hullier had a football game down in Cheboygen so he was not at school. I took the helm and lead all 6 periods of PE by myself. The students were for the most part well behaved until the last two hours of the day with the 8th graders. I felt extremely comfortable and truly enjoyed my first "real" day of teaching :)

My first week of Student teaching at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette MI has been fun, exhausting, and thus far a wonderful experience :)