"We do not stop exercising because we grow old - we grow old because we stop exercising."- Dr. Kenneth Cooper

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Robots Can Influence Nutrition and Physical Activity

At 7 min 45 sec Cynthia Breazeal begins to talk about obesity and overweight children in America. The proto type robot helps to maintain a diet and exercise program. The robot also encourages healthy habits for the participant trying to stay on fitness program and gives pre-programmed advice from trainers and professionals that help the participant to stay true to their program. How many years will it be until this is as common as a cell phone? 


http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/13/breazeal.social.robots/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_latest+(RSS:+Most+Recent)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Letter to Superintendent

Mr. Superintendent,
I am writing to you on the behalf of myself and my students to request funds for a video gaming system. As you know it is important to keep variety in the classroom and hold the interest of students, I feel this would be very beneficial to that statement. I just finished a yoga unit that my students enjoyed very much. They asked me if I had ever used the Nintendo Wii video game system to practice my yoga before. I had played a couple times and thought this would be a  great tool for class, but I don't currently own that system. The Nintendo Wii is a system controlled by wireless movements that causes the player to be physically active while playing. In an article from the Huffington Post, a survey was taken of how many children played video games. The survey came back at 97 percent played. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/survey-97-percent-of-chil_n_126948.html To keep the class more stimulated a video game system incorporated into a physically active lesson could be a great teaching tool for the class. Since many people do enjoy video games and the students enjoyed the yoga unit, putting those two things together would be a great experience for many students. A student has offered to let us borrow the Wii to show the school board an example of yoga on the Wii and an opportunity to try the game for themselves. I would like to invite you to come to this presentation to get a better idea what I would like to accomplish for the students. The presentation will be may 29th at 7pm in the main gym. If you have any questions or need to contact me my email is gino.bisceglia@gmail.com


Sincerely

Gino Bisceglia

Gino Part 1C

What do your impressions of using Daily Burn;Do you currently use another form of online exercise and nutrition tracker? If so what is it and which features do you like better? If not, why not and will you consider staying apart of our Rockstar Group? Be sure to include your screen shots (at least 3) that you took and cropped.



This is a great website. I use to use another website that just track what I ate, but not my exercises. There is a lot more applications to use and there is a lot of food choices to pick from if you eat a lot of brand name foods. A cool thing was that you could use your Ipod phone to scan a food and it would transfer it to your log. I will definitely stay apart of the RockStar group and continue to use this website.



How would you use this website to accomplish our Recommended Regent’s Level for LS #1B? What modifications would you use to establish a group or individual’s goals?
I would tell my students to set a weight goal if they wanted to too, but I really want my students to be mindful of what they eat and if they are active. I know when I don’t see any exercise on my log I just want o do some push-ups just so I feel better about doing something that day. I would want my students to be able to make their own fitness plan and have some knowledge of how to stay healthy. I would make walking goals for each week for everyone in the class to collectively hit a certain number of miles and to have at least everyone contribute to the group so one person isn’t doing all the walking.

What electronic tool could you see as being useful for capturing data and reporting for the Recommended Regent’s Level for LS #1A?  Describe how this tool might work in a High School Setting.  If you plan to use Excel, or Google Forms, be sure to include a sample that can tried out online.



I love the heart rate monitors, especially the Activio software. I think it is a great idea to have the students be able to see their heart rate and see if they are really being active in class. Also I can keep records of how everyone’s heart rate was in the class. I could show students, parents, and administrators graphs and examples of how much activity my students exert in my class.

Gino Part 1A

Where is the web-site from?  Where in the world?  Which country?  What city and state/province is the story from? This is a Canadian website/Canadian broadcasting channel. It is located North America in Canada. The city is Saskatoon in Saskatchewan.

What do you think about this news piece....interesting...why or why not? I think this a very great news piece, but it was disappointed to hear that there wasn’t a PE teacher being mentioned.There have been many studies that say that exercise stimulates the mind and it’s about time that it is more broadcasted. Many people do not realize how important physical activity is and this news piece was a great example of that. It is amazing how everyone’s skills improved over the course of four months.

Why don’t we hear anything about the PE teacher being involved with City Park Collegiate experiment? How will ensure that your PE program will be a benefit to the students and faculty of your school. The school probably didn’t have a strong program or the teacher in the classroom wouldn’t have had to take the initiative and put equipment in her classroom. I will teach the way we are taught to each and not throw out a couple balls and say have fun. I will keep my class active while making it fun and interesting. I will have a variety of activities that my students can participate in long after high school.

What are were the main outcomes/benefits of the program? Were you surprised from their findings? Are these outcomes similar to our New York State PE Standards?  Explain your answer by giving details and examples, while comparing and contrasting. Every student in the classroom improved. Especially Bernie who improved by 400% in comprehension. Many of the students were skeptical, but eventually many of the students couldn’t wait to exercise again. The teacher kept them active and that fulfilled standard one and the students had a couple options to pick from so they had the beginnings of a fitness plan which fulfills standard two. Standard three wasn’t fulfilled, but the classroom is not a physical education setting. I’m sure if a student asked the teacher where other places they could got to exercise she would have some answers.


What is BDNF and what does it have to do with PE and learning? How do you get BDNF or other associated goodies? What are the names of two of the “key” books and their authors that currently outline the benefits of exercise and learning/academics? At least one is mentioned in the news piece. BDNF is a protein that allows the brain to retain more information. BDNF is vital to learning, memory, and higher thinking. BDNF is released after extended periods of acitivty. The two books were Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” by John J. Ratey and “Natures Ritalin for the Marathon Mind” by Stephen C. Putnam.

Yoga

Yoga
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Sunday, May 2, 2010

Lab D Refelction


I was very excited to teach my lab D. The reason why was because the lesson was t be on yoga. I enjoy doing yoga and I like to get others hooked on the exercise. It is not only relaxing, but a workout as well and that was want I wanted to convey in my lesson. The lesson started off with a bang and I had everyone try some new yoga poses by having poly spots spread all over the studio for everyone to try. The instant activity was a great introduction on what I was going to teach that day. Some of the poses on the poly spots were poses we were going to go over that day. I kept the lesson upbeat with some techno music and hip hop to keep everyone engaged. The yoga poses were broken down into steps and everyone seemed to enjoy the slow progressions and amount of practice time. I adapted most poses for people that had trouble balancing their body weight or had an injury. Everyone enjoyed the all the feedback I gave them and  I promised I would get to everyone and I did. After everyone go the hang of all the poses we put everything to together and that’s where everyone started to realize why yoga is also a workout. I had everyone hold the poses for eight seconds. By the end of the whole vinyasa students were really feeling the burn. After a couple vinyasas I gave students the opportunity to try yoga on the Wii fit



The differences between lab c and d were that in lab c I didn’t give as much feedback and this time I gave feed back to everyone. Some people I gave feedback multiple times. My approach was a little more personal than command. In lab C I did a lot of ordering around and the class didn’t seem as fun. The positives were I broke down all the poses step by step, gave a lot of feedback and adaptations. I also had good visual aids and demonstrated poses in different angles. Had upbeat music and the Wii Fit. The negatives were I should have brought the speaker next to me so I didn’t have to run over to it every time I wanted to start or stop something. I forgot it was wireless. Also the Wii Fit’s batteries were dead so I should have brought some extra. All in all I thought it was a good lesson.

Also I only had 11 minutes out of my lesson on video tape so I didn't get to fully complete my assignments because it wasn't recorded.





Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lab C Review

This lesson had the good and the bad. The good was that I spoke a lot more clearly and kept my umms and ahs to a minimum. I kept the class organized and together and for the most part everyone understood the tasks. The bad was I didn't get to finish my lesson. I had a game at the end and I was going to give most of the feedback then and pin point. Since I didn't get that far in my lesson it stunk. I also had brought two lap tops for the class to watch a video of how to cross over on the turn if they needed additional help. I would have like to have had got to that part of my lesson. I was a little commanding, but that was because I wanted to get to the game at the end and get through the drills as quickly as possible.
Time Coding
Transcript
Feedback
Video