PE mini conference

I attended the Fall Physical Education Mini Conference on October 10th at SUNY Cortland. I thought the keynote speach by John Passarini was excellent. John is a very special individual. Throughout his career, he had a tremendous impact on many students lives. Mr. Passarini's speech was very humbling. He taught me to not take things in life for granted. I especially liked his attitude on how every individual is differently abled, not disabled in any way. He appreciates individuals unique characteristics and capabilities. I really enjoyed watching his short video clips.
I really enjoyed D.J. Bevivino's presentation on Sepak Takraw. This would be a great activity to intergrate into a Physical Education cirriculum because there are not many games that incorporate foot eye coordination. This sport can have many different modifications, so it could be played at all age and skill levels. Sepak Takraw is a team sport which is very fun to play.
I also attended Dr. Yang's presentation on high tech and low tech PE. I learned about a toy called Animal scramble. This toy is very simple to use. It is voice activated electronic that tells you which animal to press. This activity would be really exciting to present to a younger elementary physical education class. Students perform different locomotor activities, while they listen to instructions from the Animal scramble game.
Also, during this session, another activity was taking place. A power stepper and stationary bike pedals were hooked up to video game system. This is a great tool to integrating video games with a twist into a PE cirriculum. Students must continue pedaling or stepping for the game to continue. If either player decides to stop, the game freezes. A students heartrate will also increase as they play a game they enjoy. I think this idea is great, and would go over very well with a Junior High or High School class. I really liked how some students wore heart monitors during the activities. The heart rates were tracked on a program and shown on a projector. During a PE class, students could monitor and assess their own heart rate to see if they are in their target heart rate zone, while they are participating in a PE class.