Quote to Sum Up My Quarter

Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own
record from day to day, and you are a success.


This is what I had to do in order to push myself through and accomplish the tasks and skills on my own!!

It's All Over Baby!!!!!!!

On Tuesday and Today I finished completing my skills testing that we needed to complete Movement 3! After all the whining we did at the beginning of the quarter I am so proud to say that everybody in our cohort passed and is on their way into the future!! From Circus Arts, to Rock Climbing to Mountain Biking we did it all and it feels like a huge weight as been lifted off our backs! I want to thank Leanne and Doc for pushing us the extra mile and being there for us to test with. Today was definitely a happy day but at the same time it was also a bit bittersweet as we realized this would be our final Physical Education class together! I am proud to say that I am a member of THE Cohort and wouldn't have wanted to spend the last two years with a better group of people. I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.diabolotricks.com/

The Epic Rock Climbing Adventure!!!!!!

Today I did something I thought I would never be part of in my life, due to me never really having a real desire to outdoor real rock climb. We arrived at Peshastin Pinnacles State Park and when we got up there me and my friend Allison teamed up together and we took on the day together. We had similar feelings about the situation and the challenge and worked our way though our climbs. I think what made it so challenging is that it is so hard to simulate rock climbing at Ellensburg High School with their rock wall where you have many many grips up the wall where as in Peshastin there was just a big rock with little holes and grooves that you had to work with. Also I had no idea how to repel until I got to the top and Fred Stanley taught me on the rock and just lowering overall was completely different then at EHS. I actually enjoyed repelling more than the climb! Overall we challenged our selves with everything we did that day and got to feel proud for what we did and we completed 5 climbs and repelling and got advanced in both categories for our skill testing! We got dinner afterwards with the volunteer climbers and professors at Gustav's in Leavenworth. All in all I would say that it will be a day that I will never forget and I'm glad that I got to participate in it.
http://www.washingtonclimbers.org/Climbing/peshastin.htm

Hiking the Ridge!!!

On May 26th, half of the class went to the Manastash Ridge and for me it was my first time going there. It actually was my first time doing hiking of any kind before! The walk got steeper and steeper and higher and higher as we went which meant the more exhausted I got! It got to a point where you kept thinking the top has to be right around the corner and just would never come and because I had never hiked before it had me a little worried. Luckily I had a bunch of my friends to keep me company and we were chatting all the way up and all the way down! Needless to say the down part took a little less time to complete then the uphill climb but all in all it was a lot of fun and it was a great way to take in the view at the top which was breathtaking!!!!!!!!
http://nwjeepn.com/ManastashRidgeRoad.html

Climbing the Wall at EHS

May 21st was a prep climbing day for the rock climbing we will be doing in Peshastin next Thursday. A man from up there by the name of Fred Stanley came down to help us out and prepare us for our trip next week. We practiced climbing, tying knots and belaying today all which is crucial when climbing and which we will need to do on our trip next week! I had a lot of fun and it was a new experience for me because I have never rockclimbed like that before and it made me get a little pumped for the Peshastin climb!

Pirates of Lake Wenatchee: The Quest for the Chest

So the camp was a huge success! I feel like Shane, Mary and I did a great job with the kids and that they enjoyed our session. The Quest for the Chest worked out great and most of our students said that it was their favorite of all the activities! We did have to make adjustments since we had never been there and didn’t know exactly where we were going along our stops along our treasure map. With our session we got to learn about the student’s and connect with them for the amount of time that we had with them. Each group was definitely different, but they were all unique in their own certain ways!! But for the most part we accomplished what we planned for and it worked out.We got to participate in the camps skits and the one I got to participate in was the amazing disappearing act! Shane and Aaron made me dissappear! Im not kidding! The trick to the disappearing act was to create a distraction. Shane had Limwell and Jason get into a “fight” behind the audience to draw all of their attention by them fighting and having the girls scream and pull them off of each other. Meanwhile I ran off stage from behind our sheet that was supposedly "covering" me. Once we gained the audiences attention again Shane and Aaron dropped the sheet to show that I was gone! It fooled many students and worked out very well!The Cabins were that great. They were freezing cold at night and the bugs seemed to really enjoy their stay with us! I did end up being grouped with the same group of guys I roomed with in our hotels in Tampa for the AAHPERD conference so it was no problem. The meals were okay pretty much what I expected. The 80’s dance was a fun way to be able to dress up in ways that we never do, dance and listen to some 80’s music with the 8th graders and have a great time!
Overall it was a great weekend spent with friends while also being able to work with students in a different atmosphere then a classroom(the scenery was gorgeous!) while going though the whole camp experience with skits, campfire, cabins, trip to the Lake Wenatchee beach, and the dance to create a great weekend and experience that I will remember.

Geocaching

On May 12th, we we got to learn about the world of Geocaching! (http://www.geocaching.com/ ) Geocaching is a HUGE scavenger hunt which spans the globe where there is nearly 800,000 Cache's out there which are are all placed by coordinates and the information about the cache is posted online including the GPS coordinates. We got to take our own item bag in groups of 3 and travel across the campus and place it where we want marking the coordinates then we meet up with the group again to share our info, talk to the recreation students, and have some lunch. After that we dispersed around campus again to look for our classmates caches which we had much success. I was paired with Mary and Limwell and we hid our cache in a tree in the Donald L. Garrity Japanese Garden. From what I was told it was one of the hardest ones to find. Overall we learned a lot about the world of geocaching and got to get out in the sun and of course the strong winds of Ellensburg and try it out a little.

Which way are we going?

On May 7th, the 2009 PE cohort got to participate in an orienteering challenge. We started off in the field house learning how to orient maps and learning about the different parts of a compass and what they are used for. To culminate this activity we were given a little slip of paper with coordinates on it and we had to navigate through the course and write down the code that it spelled out. Once we all completed this we acheived advanced status for our skills assessment. After lunch we were given a scavenger hunt of sorts. We were given a sheet with clues on it that would lead us to different locations around campus. On the back of the sheet was the numbers corresponding to the different clues on the front. We each had different sheets and our goal was to find the location as part of the clue and answer the question. This was by far one of the most enjoyable activities that I have participated in yet so far this quarter.

3 Down, 8 to go!

On Tuesday May 5th, we canceled our recreational bike ride and stayed in Nicholson Pavilion to work on our circus arts. Doc Mathias said that we could even begin testing out on some of the skills if we felt that we were ready for them. I knew that juggling wasn't my thing but I got an intermediate routine down with the scarves and went and tested and passed. That was my first thing down. I then practiced my flowersticks for a good 40 minutes before taking my skills test with them. I got five skills done in 30 seconds which was good enough for the advanced level! For the last part of class I figured I would practice my unicycling skills since I wasn't very good at it. I could not have guessed what would happen next......with my spotters Drew and Shane, I successfully made it the whole length of the gym without falling off to get an intermediate mark in unicycling! I was so happy I couldn't stand it and now had 3 of the skills test completed and have 8 more left to do.

How does this go again?

The class following our Honor's Camp presentations, we were in the field house to work on our inline skating. The first time I practiced was out on the tennis court where it is a little tougher with the speed and the uneven ground. This time it was a little easier because the field house has a smooth surface and it is easier to pace yourself and not get out of control when going too fast. It was also easier to skate backwards which was my problem out on the tennis courts. I heard that the skills testing for inline skating will be done in the fieldhouse so there is a good chance that I will get advanced. This is what I am hoping for anyways.

Pressed and Dressed

On Tuesday April 28th, the 2009 PE cohort traveled to Black hall to present their Honors Camp Presentations. Everyone looked amazing all dressed up in their finest attire. We are so used to coming to class wearing our kit that we forgot how it is possible to look good wearing different clothes. Everyone presented on the activities that they were going to teach at honor's camp for about 5 minutes. My group presented our activity titled Pirates of Lake Wenatchee: Quest for the Chest. Me, Shane, and Mary are going to dress like pirates and take our students through a variety of activities with the end result being that they find the treasure chest with goodies inside.

Something New!!

On Friday April 24th the day before PEAK, we got to take part in a special demonstration of how to use Indoboards. These boards are kind of like a mixture between a skateboard and a surfboard. They are placed on a round beam type thing and you balance on it. They are fairly new on the school scene and help students with creating balance. We got to try them out for ourselves and all I can say is wow! They are pretty difficult initially but once you get the hang of it they can be a lot of fun! The trick is to keep a low center of gravity and not to hunch over. Keep your back straight and look forward and you will be able to stay balanced. Once I got that down I was able to roll back and forth and get it moving. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself for doing that!

It's All in the Wrists!

On Thursday April 23rd my group stayed on campus for class to practice our frisbee skills. We worked on our backhand and our forehand throws. I'm good at throwing it backhand but my forehand looks like a knuckleball thrown by a baseball pitcher! It was evident that this was my weakness and is something that I am going to have to practice in the upcoming weeks. Other techniques that we practiced included throwing for distance, throwing for accuracy, (which included a bowling game where you had to knock down all the pins with the frisbee), and throwing to a moving target. Then for the second part of class we went outside and played frisbee golf using targets that we came up with as the holes. We had to use different throwing technques for each whole and try to get the lowest score possible. This was probably the most fun part of the class even though it was a little windy outside which made the frisbees fly around a little bit! http://www.upa.org/

I am REALLY not in bike shape........

For class on Tuesday April 21st, my group had class at Dr. Mathias house. We all brought our bikes and got them ready for a day full of fun. Well it was fun to bike again since I haven't done so since I was 9 or 10 years old.....but I did not realize how bad of shape I was in when we got started on the trail that goes through his property. A lot of the trail goes uphill and since I wasn't used to the bike I was using I was having troubles with the gears. Combine that with my legs burning and it was an intense experience. But I think if I practice biking enough that I might be able to do the advanced course that we have to go through. After we got done with biking and our lunch break we began archery. This was actually more fun than I thought it would be, and after the initial embarrassment of shooting the arrows over the target, I got the hang of it and now I can consistently hit the target!!!!

Opening Day of Movement 3

For the first day of Movement 3 class I was attending the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance held in Tampa, Florida. While some of my fellow classmates were suffering playing golf in the freezing cold, I was walking the downtown Tampa streets in 80 degree weather. A couple weeks before that when we attended a meeting and received our syllabus, I was a little overwhelmed at some of the activities that we would be doing this quarter. I have never done many of these before activities before and can only hope that I get enough practice opportunities so that I can become decent enough at each one. Here is a link to the AAHPERD website: http://www.aahperd.org/