Please post your feedback on this and the two prompts below, one for each group. You can comment on their ideas, activities and rationales as well as ask questions and offer suggestions. For the presenters, you can respond to feedback in your reflections which will be due the week after the presentations. Please comment on all the groups except your own. We will do the same thing for every group over the next three weeks.
We also had a look at two articles on the ideas of Ivan Illich and Medical Nemesis. I've found a great website that hosts educational documentaries, and if you would still like to see Food Matters, it is under "Health" at Top Documentaries This site is an amazing resource for educators!
Have a great week.
Great job on the presentations today! Here are some of my thoughts on them:
ReplyDeletePresentation #1 (Kids Yoga): I really liked the idea of bringing yoga into the class; I’m a huge fan of yoga myself. One thing I thought of is that, if you had a small classroom full of desks, do you think your exercises may lose some power if they all need to be done sitting? I think yoga can definitely be done in seats, but if you are teaching it for the first time to young children, it might be difficult to really show what yoga is if they are unable to stand or lie down. Aside from that thought, and you’d already touched upon it a bit, I thought the adaptability of the lesson plan was great- it really makes it useful across curriculum and age groups! I also thought that yoga is an appropriate thing to teach because yoga is growing in popular media, so having knowledge of that practice is likely going to be very useful for students as they grow up.
Presentation #2 (Food Groups): I thought you came up with a really great set of activities that spanned many types of learning, but I thought maybe they were a bit too hard for the age group you selected. I would imagine that teaching words like ‘zinc, calcium, etc’ as well as their benefits would be quite a challenge for grades 1 and 2. In addition, I would wonder how you would adapt these difficult concepts (as well as some more difficult to recognize foods) for ESL students? Also, having worked with kids, I know they can be cruel to one another at times, often unintentionally. When evaluating what foods they normally eat or bring to school for lunch, it may be important to be sensitive to comments students are making to one another or to any potential upset if children think they are always eating ‘unhealthy’ foods.
Presentation #3 (First Aid): I thought it was a great idea to bring First Aid training into the classroom, but, same as a few others, I wonder how the cost of certification or having a proper trainer to come in would factor into your plan. Would you only want to implement your lesson plan in a PE class where they would have a fee anyways? Or would you wish to reach all students, not just the ones choosing PE, by including it in a CAPP class or something like that? Similar to my comment for group #2 (maybe influenced by my tutoring with ESL students), I wonder how you adapt the course so that it is understandable for students that are not native English speakers. Perhaps simply including more diagrams and pictures would be enough, so that they could connect words like ‘circulation’ to the heart.
Awesome job though- really great to watch!
First of all, I thought you all did a great job presenting today on the topic of yoga. As Paige stated, yoga has become very popular over the years and to target young children, I think it was a really good idea. I also loved the activity you had chosen for the groups to do because, seeing it through the young child’s eyes, it was easy to understand and do and also, very fun. My only concern is how would you keep a child’s attention for that time period? Young children like to be active and running around and to ask them to stand on a spot or sitting down, you might lose their attention or a couple of minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the interactive story with the sea animals would be a great activity of these kids but, you might get the one or two children that might have ADHA or just be very jumpy and active. Overall, a great job presenting about topic that is rising in popularity and, a great lesson plan intended for a younger audience. Great work guys.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this lesson! I thought children’s yoga was very unique and a great way to get kids active and enjoying different kinds of exercise. I thought that using ocean animals, or something that children can easily relate to, was a great way to engage young children and let them express themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also that the story telling exercise through using different yoga poses was incredibly smart and would work extremely well in a classroom. If it could be fun and informative for a bunch of university students, then I’m sure there would be no problems in an elementary or middle school setting!
The first group did their lesson plan on child yoga. Let me first say, congratulations to the group! They did a fantastic job!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would have wanted to discuss more is how child yoga will effect the child? By this I mean physiologically. Are there any negatives to it? Are children meant to be stretched in that fashion? Can it potentally have long term (negative) side effects? How old should children be in order to begin the program? Who is certified to teach child yoga (adult yoga instructors need to go through rigorous testing to gain their licences).
This group's lesson plan was great! It was fun, engaging and simple! Good job!
I really liked the idea of children’s yoga. I think it’s very important to get kids to learn effective breathing and stretching techniques at a young age. I liked how you made the yoga child-friendly by incorporating a story into it. I also liked your suggestion of doing this activity at a number of times throughout the day to get kids to re-focus. The only limitation I found is that many classrooms may lack the space necessary to engage in this activity. While you did mention that some stretches could be done at the desk, I’m not sure the full benefits of yoga would be achieved without adequate floor space. Despite this, I think you guys did a great job! You had my attention the whole way through!
ReplyDeleteGoing into teaching, this presentation is not only educational for the rest of us but I also get to learn fun and creative ways of teaching topics dealing with health education. This week’s group did a good job of keeping us all on our feet and having very hands on interactive lessons. That’s how I learn best!
ReplyDeleteWho knew Yoga could be so much fun. I’ve been to a few classes myself but it’s definitely something that I’m not motivated to carry on. Unlike Paige, I am not a huge fan of it. I have to say though, as an elementary teaching, kids’ yoga is for sure something I would want to do with my class. Especially for younger kids in Kindergarten or Grade 1, the days they have not had much physical activity it would be a great way to get them let lose, release energy, relax and have some fun. Paige brought up a good point regarding not having enough room in a classroom. I agree that Yoga on desk would not have the same impact as it would having kids lie down with enough room around them. It would be more enjoyable for the kids if desks were moved to the side or stacked up. Depending on the classroom layout, you may have to make minor adjustments to ensure kids experience with yoga is enjoyable. Overall, although I was watching from the side, I definitely felt like a kindergarten student. Good job!
I really enjoyed the kids yoga presentation. I think it is a very valuable activity for children to do, both for their physical and mental health. It was good that you explained how it can be related to other subjects and how it can be adapted for students. I also think kids yoga would be a great activity to do outdoors with children to help build appreciation for nature.
ReplyDeleteSince I do practice yoga, the one thing there was one aspect that I felt you should have mentioned. A big part of the mentality of yoga is respecting where your body is at. This means that it is not a competition to push your body to do what you think it should be able to do, nor is it a competition with others around you to see who can do what. I think this is a really important aspect of yoga that should be taught in kids yoga if it is done in school. It should be taught because it will help foster a good relationship with your body (which later could encourage good body image) and it will prevent injuries from students pushing their bodies to do things it is not ready to do.
Overall, well done. Great topic. You covered all the points required in the presentation outline. You gave something that could be taken away from the class and applied.
This presentation was informative and creative at the same time. You guys started off explaining a little bit about Yoga's history and went on to differentiate between adult yoga and kids yoga. You were able to implement different subject with yoga such as math, science or even social studies. I am sure many future educators in our course really appreciated your method of teaching and allowed them to get new and innovative ideas when thinking of the ways they will be using to implement health education in their future classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe only critique I have regarding the presentation would be to provide children with more detailed information regarding classroom rules when it comes to yoga. You guys presented saying that it was important for the teach to maintain the situation because it can get chaotic but i don't believe there was an explained process of how educators can go about doing so.
Overall great presentation :) good job team kids yoga!
I really enjoyed this activity and did not know that yoga could be so multifaceted and catered to kids. It was well done, and I agree with the health benefits, as well as the other benefits that were outlined. I thought that the stories were a great way to teach physical activity to children and to get them to also learn educational material. Such as the sea animals and learning how to construct stories in a sequential manner.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could also inform children why yoga is good for them at some point, or that breathing, stretching, moving not only benefits their bodies but their minds as well. That way they will be able to reiterate and remember later in their lives, the significance of the activity so they can educate their peers. Maybe even instigating an after-school yoga program would be fun and beneficial!
Overall, I had a ton of fun and learned a lot about yoga. Thanks!
I did yoga this summer when I got a 3 month pass for my birthday and it was very good at relaxing me this summer and I like the way that you explained that while adult yoga is more like "Do this pose. Now hold it. Okay next pose" and onwards, kids yoga is more about teaching the kids the poses but in a fun way. I loved the way you guys incorporated a story into the yoga practice and we had a lot of fun making up our stories so I'm sure kids will have fun too. Good job!
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the yoga lesson! I loved the idea of incorporating a story such as sea creatures to create different positions. I think it was important how you did mention that there needs to be guidelines, perhaps listing defined guidelines for a teacher to use in instruction would be helpful. The teacher could list yoga rules beside pictures of positions to remind students of expected behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was very important how you mentioned yoga is a great way to build peer work, as the students can do poses together or create a story. I think this is a unique way to get students to think creatively. You could even incorporate what students are learning in class into yoga poses.
I volunteer at an elementary school and they practice yoga in the classroom. I find that it truly helps center student and calm them down. At the end of the session the teacher plays music (such as jungle sounds, ocean, etc.) and asks the students to close their eyes and visualize where they are. The students share what they imagined, which is a great story telling activity.
Overall, great job, I love the idea of yoga for kids!
Congrats to the first group! You guys did an amazing job. I thought it was a great idea to teach children yoga. The methods you used to engage the children in the activity would have been extremely efficient had you been teaching kids yoga in a real classroom. It’s such a great way for children to maintain their mental and physical healthy. You guys were creative and informative at the same time. The storytelling as you demonstrated different ways to do yoga was extremely imaginative. In terms of kids’ yoga itself, I didn’t know that there was such a thing. It’s the first time I’ve heard of incorporating yoga in the classroom. Great job, guys! You did an awesome job!
ReplyDeleteI really like the flow of the presentation and the way you present it. It’s nice to have a little background of yoga before you start to introduce how to implement yoga as part of the curriculum. However, I wonder whether teachers should get a yoga certificate before teaching yoga? I did yoga before, and because of yoga I injured my back. Even though yoga is a very good exercise to calm down a children state of mind and restore energy, however, as a teacher I think it is very important to consider the safety for the children. Lastly, I find the last activity is very enjoyable. It gives everyone an opportunity to give it a try how yoga feels like and how to incorporate in daily teaching. Overall, it's a good presentation!
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