"Let the love of learning rule humanity."

Early this morning I was inducted into a National Honor Society here at Cortland called Phi Kappa Phi. This is an honor society for both seniors and juniors who are in the top 7.5% of their class. It was a very nice ceremony and the key note address was done by one of the early childhood professors here at Cortland. She specializes in the area of environmental studies and with earth day coming up tomorrow, she decided to focus her address on the huge issue of global warming. It was definitely not the typical key note address that I am used to hearing at various physical education conferences and mini-conferences, but it was very interesting to hear some of the facts about how our global climate is currently changing. 
The motto of the organization in Greek is "Philosophìa Krateìto Photôn" which translates to "Let the love of learning rule humanity." I personally really like the quote and found deep meaning in it. I am a firm believer that one should never stop learning and that it is extremely important to always continue with professional development. I think that it is also extremely important that humanity is included in the motto of the organization. To me, the word humanity means that one is able to treat others with kindness and compassion. Every well-educated person can be no one in life unless they show these crucial humanity skills. 

Personal Body Guards to Stop Bullying?

I recently wrote a research paper on the differences between cyber-bullying  and in-school bullying. I was able to find out some really interesting facts about which types of students are usually the bullies and which types of students are generally the ones who are the victims of bullying. In EDU 470 class on Monday Professor Yang showed our class an article about a student in the New Brunswick, Canada who is the victim of many bullying and hate crimes because he is gay and overweight. Because nothing has worked in the past to protect the student from bullying, his parents have gone to extreme measures. They have hired a personal body guard for their son. In my opinion, this probably was not a good idea. I believe that the student having a personal body guard will probably only make the situation worse. He very well may be bullied even more by his peers for having someone there to "protect" him. It really saddens me that the students parents needed to hire the body guard in the first place. I hope that they will find a solution that works to protect the student in the very near future.
To read the full article, click here: 

Horace Mann- "the father of the public school"

So what exactly was a “common school”? Back in the 1800’s a man by the name of Horace Mann advocated for this. A common school would be the modern day equivalent of an elementary school. He was a strong supporter of everyone having the access to an education, no matter how rich or poor they really were. Thus Horace Mann is often known as the “father of the public school”. One of the main reasons for his push towards public education for all was that he felt that the economy would become more productive if there were more skilled workers. His hope was to find and nurture the talents of all children and he sought to close the gap between the rich and the poor. One of the most important things that Horace Mann is known for is for light the spark about the role of religion in school. 

We would not think twice about having the right to a free and public education today. But a public education was not a reality like it is now back in the 1800’s. The major groups who fought against the public school movement were powerful business men and many taxpayers also opposed the public school movement. The private religious schools also opposed the idea of public schools.

                Not only did Horace Mann advocate for public schools, he also advocated for schools that were better built and teachers who were more prepared and trained. As a result of these efforts by Horace Mann, several “normal schools” were founded. The purpose of these schools was to train teachers in pedagogy and show that positive ways to motivate students rather than using punishment. Mann was a true pioneer for better education systems in the United States, and who knows if our educational system would be where it is right now if it wasn’t for all of his efforts. 

Relay for Life!

Last night was the Relay for Life here on the SUNY Cortland campus. I had participated in the relay back at home when I was in high school but this was my first year attending the relay here at cortland. We organized a team made up APEM members and we all got matching Pinnies to wear to show our unity. The point of the relay for life is to raise money for cancer and this is done all through donation. There were a ton of different groups from cortland including many different clubs and sororities. It was really neat to see so many people from the cortland community come together for this cause. As a club, apem decided to get together and run some games from the popular tv show minute to win it. These games turned out to be a lot of fun! When we were playing these games, we were walking laps to show support for cancer.  Every single person has been affected by cancer in some way or another. I think that showing our support is a great way to bring the community together. I'm looking forward to attending Relay for Life again next year!

PED 201 Infant Skits!

It seems like almost an eternity ago that I was in PED 201 here at SUNY Cortland with Professor Yang. I remember being so excited to finally get out in to the schools and going to St. Mary's was a great experience! One of the biggest parts of Professor Yang's PED 201 class is students must turn the information from one of the chapters in the book into a song or skit. I was in the class in the fall of 2010 and my partners and I were assigned a chapter on infant reflexes. I can honestly say that I remember every little detail from the chapter because of the skit we did on it. My partners and I made a skit up about a pretend new item called a "flexlet" that gives an infant the incredible power of having all the reflexes. It was a really neat experience to make this skit and I had a lot of fun also watching all of the videos that my classmates made.

Today I went to watch Professor Yang's current PED 201 class perform their infant skits live in Poolside. I think that although many of the students seemed extremely nervous, each group did a great job. It takes a lot of courage to sing in front of others, especially in Poolside during busy lunch hours!! This performance was a great way to get the students more comfortable in front of their peers and I really enjoyed watching!

Start of my Paper on Bullying

There are many things that come to mind when one hears the word “bully”. According to recent statistics, every day many kids in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools are experiencing acts of bullying. These aggressive behaviors often cause social rejection to others, as well as a plethora of different personal effects. The word bully can be defined as a person who is cruel to another, and the act of bullying may take many forms. In more recent years, a term know as “cyber-bullying” has also become more common. While traditional bullying requires face-to face contact between the bully and the person being attacked, cyber- bullying uses technology rather than direct contact.

Although we see the phenomenon of bullying across all ages, there are differences in bullying between elementary school aged students and high school age students. In one study done across three elementary schools in Spain, researchers took a closer look at what types of children were the bullies and what types of children were the victims of bullying. They studied various different factors including gender, race and age as well as other factors such as disability, level of intelligence and impulsivity.

The way that the research was done was quite interesting. Three grade levels were looked at including 4^th grade, 5^th grade and 6^th grade. Students were given the following scale: 0 = not involved in bullying, 1 = bullies (named by at least 25% as an aggressor), 2 = victims (named by at least 25% as a victim) and 3 = bully-victim (named by at least 25% as an aggressor and as a victim). Students had to give each one of their classmates a 0-3. Several complicated formulas were used including the Chi Squared formula to determine the relevance of the findings. 

The Sprint to the Finish

I have recently been having a little trouble keeping up with my blogging every day. This is the end of the race to the semester and I can see the finish line in the near future. Taking 21 credits this semester was a big under-taking and the work load has really been piling up these past few weeks. But there is something else besides this semesters workload that is occupying my thoughts lately. After this semester, I will be taking one more semester of classes in the fall and then I will be student next spring. I am on track to be getting my masters in health education in one year through the collaborative physical education and health program here at Cortland. As an undergraduate student I have already taken some health classes including personal and community health, human sexuality education, and nutrition. I have enjoyed all of these classes and I can honestly say that I would like to teach health education even though my true passion lies in physical education. At last Novembers NYS AHPERD Conference I talked to many different teachers and asked them what they thought about getting a master’s degree in health education. I think that every single teacher said it was a great idea, especially in today’s job market. Some open positions may require me to teach both health education and physical education. Right now my plan is to apply for jobs as soon as I finish my degree in physical education. If I cannot find I job, then I will go right into the master’s program in health education.