PE Students Recieve Teaching Awards

Jaime Atencio Named Australian Teaching Fellow

On June 7, Atencio, a 2009 SUNY Cortland graduate, who majored in physical education, will board a plane headed for Mountain Creek State Primary School in Queensland, Australia. He will spend the next 18 months in a fellowship program teaching physical education to kindergarten through seventh grade at the same school where he student taught last year.
Atencio is SUNY Cortland's third Australian Teaching Fellow, the result of a collaborative effort among the College, Education Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast. The fellowship has been offered to SUNY Cortland alumni who have a provisional or initial teaching certification in New York state.

Alway and Tesori Awards to PE Seniors for Student Teaching

The Alway Award honorees and the schools or school districts where they completed their teaching are as follows:

• Erin Brooks of Macedon, N.Y., at Fairport (N.Y.) Central School District and Newport (N.Y.) Central School District;
• Nicole Corcoran of Massena, N.Y., at Ithaca (N.Y.) City School District and Southern Cayuga (N.Y.) Central School District;
• Susan Dittrich of Cortland, N.Y., at Fabius-Pompey (N.Y.) Central School District and Cincinnatus (N.Y.) Senior High School;
• Lauren Friedlander of Cortland, N.Y., at Marathon (N.Y.) Central School District and Ithaca City School District; and,
• Katharine Spader of Larchmont, N.Y., at Mount Vernon (N.Y.) City School District and Rye Neck (N.Y.) Union Free School District.

The Tesori Award honorees and the schools or school districts where they completed their teaching are as follows:

• Keith Greene of Bay Shore, N.Y., at Connetquot (N.Y.) Central School District and Brentwood (N.Y.) Union Free School District;
• Shaun McGee of Pawling, N.Y., at Peekskill (N.Y.) City School District and Brewster (N.Y.) Central School District; and,
• Richard Miglietta of Port Washington, N.Y., at New York City Geographical District No. 28 and Glen Cove (N.Y.) City School District.

Another Fun Video

This video resembles Jacks, it shows the fun stuff we did during the great semester in 255.

SUNY Cortland PE Rockstars - EDU 255 Fall 2009

 

Here is a great representation of what we do in EDU 255 and especially what happened this semester of PE Rockstar Training at SUNY Cortland.  It was compiled by Jack Murphy.  Please take a look at his blog or his Professional Portfolio for some of his many accomplishments and also  follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

Tim Davis quoted in Education Week regarding access of students with disabilities to sports

Our very own Dr. Tim Davis, CAPE was featured in an Education Week piece regarding access of students with disabilities to sports. Click here to read more about the importance of focusing on student abilities and not their disabilities.

School staff members often lack training and experience in how to adapt physical education classes for students with disabilities—and the quality of services is reduced as a result, says Timothy Davis, an assistant professor of physical education at the State University of New York at Cortland and the chairman of the Adapted Physical Education National Standards, a project established by a professional group to create standards and a certification program for the profession.

Only 13 states suggest additional training for physical educators to teach adapted physical education, according to Mr. Davis. Most states do not require any additional certification.
Teachers in an undergraduate program for physical education are often required to take one three-credit course in adapted physical education in the last year of the program, he notes. “By the time they get interested in adapted physical education, they are done and they are out student-teaching,” Mr. Davis says. “Then because they have had the one course, they get a job in a district teaching adapted physical education.

“The lack of standards for hiring highly qualified teachers is a huge frustration,” he says, “that perpetuates the lack of service, the lack of quality, and ultimately has a tremendous impact on the quality of life of students with disabilities.”
About 1,700 teachers in the United States are nationally certified in adapted physical education through his group, Mr. Davis says.

A Level Playing Field from Education Week on Vimeo.

Because of a lack of training, physical education teachers often feel uncomfortable attending individualized-education-program, or IEP, meetings for students with disabilities—and the absence of those educators troubles him.

“Even if we are not invited to the meeting, we have to knock on the door. It’s your student, in your class,” Mr. Davis says. “If the physical education teacher is not at the meeting, somebody else makes the idea for placement. Somebody else is writing the goals and objectives for physical education. We need to be there; we need the representation.”
Sometimes an attitude shift can make a big difference, he says, in how to teach sports to students with disabilities.

“You focus on ability and not disability,” Mr. Davis says. “Focus on what a kid can do, and you can make it work. If you say, ‘He can’t run, he can’t throw,’ I cringe. Tell me what he can do, and now we can start teaching.”