Highland Middle School Experience (day four)

After playing castle crashers with all the physical education groups, I wanted to play another new game with the students.  They were use to playing basketball, volleyball or dodge ball. I wanted them to understand that physical education is not only about sports. We can play other games that will increase overall skill level and be a lot more fun then the old scrimmages.  Since castle crashers worked on throwing and more upper body, I wanted to do another game focusing on lower body.  I implemented a game we called world cup soccer.  Once again there were four teams which had to choose a country name, different than last time.  Each team had their own goal in the four corners of the gym.  Similar to castle crasher, the team had to defend their goal but also score on other teams goals.  I allowed them to choose who played goalie, defense and offense. Each team had three bowling pins behind their goal, these were the trophies.  When another team scored on another team’s goal they take a trophy and put it behind their goal.  If a team looses all trophies, they do not sit out. The goalie and defense become offense and help their team score; once they score they take a trophy and go back to regular formation. I started the game out with one ball then threw in another one to make it more interesting.  This game was a lot of fun, in order to keep it safe we implemented some rules.  The ball can not be off the ground, if someone scores and it’s off the ground it doesn’t count.  This makes them work on passing and moving to open space, instead of just kicking the ball.  We also lined the field with cones, if the ball went out of the cones. The closest team, other than the team who kicked it out properly throws the ball in.  This game worked well and the students really enjoyed them selves.  While explaining this game, I learned asking for understand is key.  Throughout the explanation asking the students a question about the game is important.  This makes sure they are listening and understand how to play.  Tomorrow is my last day and I am going to come to school with a brand new game.  My host teacher loved both of my games and said she is going to use them in the future.  She also took my email down so I can send her more of my ideas. I felt great because a teacher who already has a job likes my ideas and wants to know more.  Once again I am eager to start student teaching so I can make new games up for a whole half of a year. 

-Albert A. Mercado