WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE! :)

To wrap things up! I am so grateful for this class and this experience that I had. This class was a time to try new things and to hang out with our cohort for the very last quarter when we are all together. I cannot think of any other class since kindergarten that I had this much fun, experienced so much, and grew as a person and educator. I know at first there were people in the class that questioned why are we doing all of this and what is the point. I learned from this class that the point is so much more personal then educational. For once in a class, I did not have to worry about tests and knowing all the material. All we had to do was try these activities, work hard toward a common goal, and step out of my comfort zone. Looking back on the class now, I realized I learned the most and had the best time. This class taught me that if I focus more on letting physical education be fun and self-rewarding, the learning will come. After this class I now want to get more into rock climbing a wake boarding, where if I did not take this class, I would have never been able to have those experiences.

When I become a teacher I want my students to be educated and know how to like a healthy. But I want them to feel the connection when they do learn, to feel the self-reward when they accomplish something they never thought possible, and to remember the difference that abnormal physical education can have on one’s life and attitude. I just hope that when I become an educator my class will experience half of what I experienced in Movement 3.

Time to Test Skills

So during this week we have our skills testing. Yesterday I tested out on Frisbee and Diablo. At the start of class I was worried about Frisbee because I did not think I was very good at and I was worried about not even getting an intermediate score. Then with the help of some classmate and practice I was able to pass it with an advanced score. Tomorrow all I have to do left is inline skating and I am not too worried about that.

At the beginning of the quarter there were quite a few people that were upset about having to get tested on skills that we have never done before. Although, I believe that it was a good idea and I think people are realizing it too. If we did not have skill testing marks and goals that we had to achieve, I would have never had the motivation to accomplish the things I did.

Best Week Ever

So, pretty much I had my best week ever. Here is what I did, on Monday I did my triathlon, Tuesday went mountain biking for class, Thursday went rock climbing for class, and Friday our teacher set up where if we wanted to we could go wake boarding. This past week was phenomenal, I did things and accomplished things that I never thought possible. It was a week of stepping out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and changing my attitude about so much stuff.

Tuesday when we went mountain biking, I was able to just have fun and experience something out doors. I have gone mountain biking before, but never in nature that was as gorgeous as that. It was different and it was nice seeing people in class that were being leaders that normally were not the main leaders.

Thursday just made the week so much better. Not just myself but my peers were accomplishing things that they did not believe possible. We all had a blast and the helpers were amazing and just totally willing to volunteer their time all day for us. It was a hot day, but nothing could bring our class down. It was awesome, best way to describe it.

Lastly, on Friday, we had to option to go wake board and learn how to. I have never gone before and Leanne was such a great help and having her teach me how to wake board just made things so easy. When I went I never thought that I would actually be able to full on ride, but I did. When I got up for the first time, I was so happy and surprised. I was not even nervous or scared any more I was just so happy of what I have accomplished.

P.S. BEST WEEK EVER!!

Climbing out of my Comfort Zone

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."

-Roger Bannister

The Thursday after we went mountain biking we got the wonderful experience to go rock climbing at Peshastin Pinnacle State Park. This was a day of me stepping out of my comfort zone completely. I did not have any struggle with climbing the rocks or with the height, but when I had to let my belayer lower me I had a huge fear of. Just like on the team building day, I had a fear of trusting my belayer lowering me back to the ground. On the first climbing, the lower part was pretty tough for me, I kind of had a small panic attack, but once I conquered my fear my belayer got me back to the ground. After that, each time I was lowered it got easier and easier for me to trust my belayer.

By the end the day I was having so much fun and I was doing really well, so I decided to attempt to climb Vertigo, which was the hardest rock to climb at the park. Off the bat I told my belayer do not let me give up because I really wanted to accomplish this. So, the first 8 feet of the climb was the most challenging thing I have ever done mentally and physically. I wanted to give up so bad but my belayer and others watching were very helpful and supportive. It took me about 25 minutes to climb the first 12 feet of the 60 foot climb, but I got past the hardest climb. I ended up making it to the top and it was one of the happiest times for me. I could not believe that I accomplished that hard climb and I can even express the joy I had after that climb.

The climbing day overall was amazing. I saw so many of my classmate accomplish more then what they thought they could. And I was so grateful for my instructors and the volunteers that helped us with the climbing. Amazing day!!

Biking on the Mountain

The group that I went hiking with also went mountain biking together. This adventure was the day after I did my first triathlon and I was a tad bit sore, and the ride was a little difficult for me. Although, I love mountain biking and had so much fun riding through the trees on a beautiful. The course that we were supposed to ride on was closed so we had to take a different route. The trail was slightly beat up on due to the weather and the rough winter they had. There was one funny part where the trail was slightly down hill and with big divots in the trails. It was our first real downhill part on the ride and the divots made it lots of fun. So, when I was riding over it I was having tons of fun, but then I noticed I was going fairly fast and I forgot to break a little bit. Luckily, I made it through because if I would have crashed it probably would have hurt a great deal. I had so much fun that day and it was just the start of a great week.

I hope that one day I will be provide my class with bikes, because biking is such a different type of exercise and endurance, and the students need to see other styles of working out and biking is great because it can be such a fun habit.

Can you cash?

A more modern version of orienteering is Geocashing. It is where you use a GPS to find certain cashes that are placed out in hiding spots. To find out where the cashes are you just visit Geocashing.com and enter in the zip code. This type of activity has been around for some time but has just become popular in the past few years. Here in Ellensburg alone there are dozens of cashes. I think this is a great idea because phones even now- a-days have GPS on them so it can be fairly simple to do this activity individually. I think that a class would like doing this because it is fun and it’s a type of a scavenger hunt and I have yet to meet anyone who does not enjoy scavenger hunts. Also, it someone was to put on a pedometer while Geocashing, they would get surprisingly a lot of steps in. The only down fall of Geocashing in a classroom is that GPS’s can get expensive and the school might not have the budget for providing a class with a set of them. Although, if possible I would enjoy having this activity in my classroom and being able to do something different.

Manastash Ridge

Hiking was one day where I totally felt like I knew what I was doing. We hike the Manastash Ridge and it was a great workout and so much fun. We had a group of 11 of us and we had a tone of fun together. I lead the group up the ridge because I have done the hike before. It was fun being able to hang out with people outside of the classroom and got a work out at the same time. I hope that one day I could do something like this with my class, because I think that it is always important to get out of the school setting and have some fun. Hiking is perfect for that, our class walked the whole time and our professors had a heart rate monitor on and she said that her heart rate got up into zone. Therefore, we got a great work out while being able to see some nature and have fun.

Used a Compass for my first time ever!

Another part of our assessment is orienteering, working with compasses. This was the first time that I ever learned how to use a compass, and it was not what I thought it would be. I learned a lot about them and I never realized how simple it was. I was able to complete all of the activities that we had to do, but they might not have been perfect. I learned that it you are off by just a little bit, it messes up the course completely. A few times I could not get the compass flat, so I had to set it on the ground so I could get correct placements for the compass. This was a fun activity that I enjoyed and compasses are a lot cheaper than GPS’s, so they are more realistic for the classroom.

Pirates of Lake Wenatchee

“Welcome to the Pirates of Lake Wenatchee, my name is Krystal Marie.” That was my alter ego at the eighth grade honors camp. I would like to say that we pretty much had one of the best activities. I had so much fun planning for honors camp and then all the work paying off when we had the students and them loving it. What we did that weekend was take each group on a treasure hunt of this chest, and yes we had a gold chest. Each group got clues to a certain part of the camp, and then when they got there, they had to succeed at a challenge in order to get the next clue. It was challenging at first because we planned the hunt on never seeing the camp. At the end, the students found the chest and they each got a gold chocolate coin and a gold mini Reese’s. So, we had to do a lot of last minute preparation and it all paid off.

Frustrations Start to Settle In

So we are around half way through the quarter and I am beginning to become frustrated at some of the skill assessments. I have tried to practice the skills, but it is starting to become hopeless. I am having some frustrations with unicycling, I can get up using the wall but then I do not go anywhere. I am struggling with keeping my balance and pedaling at a good pace to stay balanced. Also, the diablo is being to give me some worries. I have used a Diablo once before at a conference and I had fun with it and got the hang of it fairly quick. Although, now I am upset because I can only get so many tricks and I feel like I hit a wall. I am going to try to keep my head up and stay focus, but I tend to find myself throwing the diablo sticks down to the ground.

Back to the Ol' Days- Inline Skating

Inline skating was also a part of our assessment. I was excited about this assessment because I used to skate a lot when I was little and I have not done it in a long time. At first it took me a couple tries to get the hang of it because it has been so long. Then I started to get the swing of it and I had a tone of fun. Even when we were on our lunch break, a group of us kept our skates on and went down to the nearby market and got some lunch. I hope that when I become a teacher I can find a way to include inline skating to the curriculum because I believe that it is fun and still can give the students a decent workout.

Wow, I am doing Circus Arts

Part of our assessment is being able to do certain circus arts such as, Diablo, flower sticks, juggling, and unicycling. I was a little nervous about having to perform these skills. I have never done anything like it before and I was extremely nervous about having to do unicycling. I have never ever tried unicycling before and I was apprehensive on if I was even going to survive it. I have horrible balance and all around I am awfully clumsy. The first time we practiced unicycling our professors did a great job on taking the lesson slow. We got a crash course on how to get up on the bike using the wall, and how to start moving with spotters.

Another circus art that was particularly challenging for me was juggling. I had to work the hardest on this skill because I have never done anything like it before. The most challenging part of juggling for me was getting my tosses consist and the right height in the air. Surprisingly, the partner that came easiest to me was the reverse cascade. The majority of the students were found of the normal cascade, tossing the object across your body, but that pattern did not work from me as much and it was hard for me to switch patterns from cascade. Therefore, when I tried the reverse cascade it came much easier for me and I was proud that I learned how to juggle.

All in all, having to perform circus arts led me to think of other activities to do in class other than the typical activities.

First Impression of Movement 3

At the beginning of this class I was excited to this course. From what I heard from previous students, was that this class was fun, we got to hang out with our peers and do a lot of different activities. I was a little nervous because there are a lot of different things that we are getting graded and assessed on. There were a few things that I have never done before. Although, I was super excited when I found out we get to go mountain biking and rock climbing. Overall, I think this class will be fun but still challenging.