Helping with field day @ St. Ben's

On Friday, May 1st, I helped out with a Field Day at St. Ben's school in Decorah. Jess Tangen asked if I could help out with setting up all of the activities as well as helping with running the day. I really enjoyed being able to help out. Jess Tangen is a physical education and health teacher at this K-8 school. She attended Luther College and is just an amazing teacher. I learned a lot from her in the day that will help me for future teaching. Jess taught me different teaching techniques for a physical education teacher that will help me be a lot more organized for the future.

After setting up all of the activities, the whole school proceeded to come outside to get ready for the big event. They did a dance that the whole school had learned and then they separated off into different groups for the different activities. I learned that you must set boundaries and rules for all the games, or else the students will attempt to set new rules and new boundaries! I also learned how excited all of the students get when they are told they get to play outside and doing activities! Some of the students I worked with explained to me how they'd been excited for weeks for this Field Day!

Jess used an incentive for the students to work out and be active. They all logged their minutes for a certain period team and it was a small competition between grade levels. They all presented how many min they had per grade, as well as an average activity time per student! At the end of the day the students got lanyards for participating. They were all so excited and it motivated them to be more and more active. It really helped the students think about what they were doing in their spare time, because they could do something for their friends and peers by being active.

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. It helped me learn different ideas for the future and different techniques for teaching. I love to work with kids and I love to promote being active among younger kids. The early they start... the longer they will continue. I think this will help with obesity rates and what not. This day made me think of the book I read as well, Last Child in the Woods, because it is about being active at a young age.