Genius Hour Week #2

This week for my Genius hour I continued my workout for strengthening arms and core. Additionally, I received tips from one of my friends, Margaret, who plays baseball at a competitive level. So the question is what have I learned this week?

My theory that building arm and core muscles will improve my swings was a good initial thought. According to Callaway (2013), "A regular routine of sit-ups, push-ups, hanging leg raises and forearm planks will help you develop strong core muscles, which are crucial to transferring power into your swing" (p.2). I now understand that strengthening my arms and core will enable me to hit the ball with more power. As for my progress in my workouts, I have almost doubled where I was last week in the number of reps; as of this moment my arm and core workout has increased to the following:

Core: 20 sit-ups, 20 reverse crunches, 40 bicycle crunches, 40 Russian twists, and 40 second plank.

Arms: 15 push-ups, 20 dips, 40 arm curls, 45 seconds punching. I have also added the addition of 10 wrist curls.

I have added wrist curls into my workout, because according to Margaret, you roll your wrists to enable yourself to follow through with your swing. In order to feel more comfortable doing so, I was encouraged to build wrist strength.

When it comes to my technique I received a numerous amount of tips to help me improve.

Grip: When it comes to my grip Margaret told me to hold the bat by making a fist near the base of the bat with my left hand. My right hand should only be considered a push on the bat. Her advice was to practice holding the bat with my left hand, and in my swing push the bat out with my right hand. Once I get use to following through, she said a way to work on rolling my wrists to get that extra push of power, is to align my knuckles when gripping the bat. Additionally, I was told that I should not have too tight of a grip on the bat, because your grip is too tight it prevents you from rolling your wrists, and takes the whip out of the bat.

Arms: When standing in the batter’s box, Margaret told me not to lift the bat too much off my shoulders, because this will just tire out my arms while waiting for the pitch. She said to rest my bat on my shoulder, while I set myself in the box and when I’m ready to lift my bat slightly off my shoulders, and only move when I start my swing. This will save energy in my arms, and therefore provide more strength in my swing.

Legs: When standing in the batter’s box there are many different things to consider. First of all, you need to stand at an appropriate distance from the plate, according to the individual batter's stride. By this mean, I have to stand somewhere that I can open enough to hit inside pitches without getting jammed, and the same time, I need to be able to step towards the plate to hit outside pitches. Additionally, I need to work on transferring my weight, from my back leg to my front leg. By bending my back leg by 45 degrees, this will force my weight forward, and therefore add more power into my swing.

Contact: Contact is about timing. Margaret watched my video from last week’s post, and told me that I am swinging late, which is why I foul a lot of my balls back towards the catcher. When making contact on an inside pitch, I have step open and hit the ball early in order to extend my arms fully, and have full power, this will result in me pulling the ball. For pitches down the middle, I have to step towards the pitcher, and attack the ball in front on the plate. Finally, for outside pitches, I have to step towards the plate extend my arms, which can allow me to push the ball opposite field.  

This is a lot to consider when moving into my next step of taking dry swings (swings without a pitch). Over the next week I will work on all these different tips by doing 30-40 dry swings a night to build my muscle memory of these changes.  I hope that by next weekend I will be able to get outside and do some practice swings, or find a place to practice inside, and record my progress.

Reference

Callaway, C. (2013). How to Hit a Softball With Power. Livestrong.com. Retrieved from: http://www.livestrong.com/article/496255-how-to-hit-a-softball-with-power/

Genius Hour Week 1

This past week I began working on my Genius Hour Project. The first step was to develop a workout plan to increase arm and core strength as well as record my current baseball swing. I appologzie for the quality, enjoy!

Current Swing

Song: Off the Beaten Path by Justin Moore

Workout Plan 

My workout plan is pretty simple.  My goal over the next few days is to slowly increase the reps or length of time for each activity. I began last night with my first workout which consisted of the following.

core: 10 crunches, 10 reverse crunches, 20 bicycle crunches, 20 Russian twist and 20 second plank.  

arm: 5 push ups, 10 arm punches, 10 bicep curls, and 5 chair dips 

I can say that I am a little sore in my arms, but my core feels fine. I think for tonight I am going to increase my core reps by a fair amount, and my arms by a few reps. 

What I have learned so far

I had one of my friends help me after I did my first swing recordings. His tip to me was to open my hips up more to the pitcher, wait for the ball to come in, then in one fluid movement step forward, swing, and fully follow through with one arm. 

Here is my first attempt that this change. 

Virtual Field Trips and Genius Hour

What is a Virtual Field Trip? 

I remember as a student loving going on field trips. There are plenty of field trip opportunities all over the world! However, most students would not be able to afford to travel to, let's say New York to go to The Metropolitan Museum. The 21st century however, lets us experience different field trips from the comfort of our classrooms. Virtual Field Trips are just that, a field trip, experienced virtually through the World Wide Web. In my Teaching with Technology class at Brock University, we looked at Virtual field trips. According to video we watched there are 4 main reasons to use these virtual trips. 

1. Review a class trip already taken
2. Prepare students for an upcoming trip 
3. Provide information about areas unable to be visited
4. provide information about areas visited by a teacher 

This activity reminded me of when I took art, and we looked at how museums provide many online resources to view virtual tours of the museum. I personally looked at The Met Museum, and how they created a student friendly site that allows them to explore different pieces of art. I think virtual field trips are a great idea, since it opens the doors to possibilities for both student and teacher learning. 

Genius Hour!

Genius Hour was the main focus in my tech class this week. Our teacher got us engaged by looking at the following video

Genius hour is an idea that students should explore their own passions which fosters creativity. Caine is very creative, and shows that by developing a whole arcade from predominately cardboard. I think all teachers should incorporate genius hour into their classrooms, because it give students worth in learning. In many cases students ask "why are we learning this?" and most of the time the underlying reason is, that it's in the curriculum. Genius hour allows students to learn something they want to know, and show them the benefit and outcomes of learning, and applying what they learned to real-life. I think this will in turn help students focus in regular classroom activities. 

Is Genius hour something you promote in your classroom?

Welcome

Good Morning readers and welcome to my blog! My name is Sabrina Skubic, and I am in my final year of concurrent education at Brock University. I would consider myself as an athletic person. I enjoy playing softball, basketball and volleyball. My love of softball started because I was raised as a die hard Toronto Blue Jays fan.  I also enjoy traveling, reading and baking. However, my biggest passion is teaching, especially mathematics. I never understood as a student why my peer hated mathematics, until one of my friends, Rachel, said she hated math because it was confusing and she was not good at it. I hope to reinvent the math classroom, and make math a topic that students want to be part of. Hudaser Nizam had a similar goal, and achieved creating a grade 12 calculus class that engaged students in content, through relevant activities. If you want to get to know me a little bit better, feel free to check out my Pinterest page.

If you need a pick me up on this crisp January Monday morning, here is a motivational video from Kid President.

What you might not know about copyrights

Teaching in the 21st Century can be an amazing thing, however, there are many concerns that students should be aware of. During my first teaching Block of Teacher's College, I noticed that many students fail to understand the significance of citing work. There were two major incidents where students were caught plagiarizing. In both situations, when being confronted about the originality of their work, openly said they used information from online that they copied. I was surprised that by grade 7 students were unaware of what it means to cite, and how important it is to give credit to the authors. This make me wonder what else students do not know about copyrights and citing.

During my elementary and secondary education, I was under the influence that everything online can be used as long as it was properly cited. However, in my Post-secondary education, it has come to my attention, that not everything online can be used freely, even if cited correctly. Looking at images as an example, how could I determine what images are appropriate to use. The image below can be used as an anchor chart for students to use to help determine if their image should be used or not.

Lee, J. (January 21, 2015). How to determine if it is ok to use a photo. Retrieved https://www.flickr.com/photos/csdewittphotography/16336121161/in/photolist-9muk18-6TMurZ-dSNE8Q-ngNnmg-nc6aRG-cRfdjQ-arkWHe-5Hxjg4-9N6JeX-qTyTFp-fpXBic-nN6Vf9-nZXAWp-nRwTyK-73Pkv4-7QSzfy-dKH81A-dBf33T-6K4xd7-7Y1FXB-9wXPQM-dyN8UE-a5K9eE-mnVZJa-dxeh9k-nd1vPW-fwgRn7-mBUFem-bkVZoV-9CiccP-dyWzKc-bqbjQd-9wHaMy-dMpbcK-7QMu3D-9Ke6md-haoQDn-5hZKxZ-ae8EQo-bqdLw8-dDvnFq-aEUdNP-dKGZCG-dKBVnv-hyPDNY-7QSnoj-haUVLz-ayjx6W-5xJ9sz-72V3sv

Additionally, I think it is appropriate to teach students how to find appropriate images. I was recently introduced to Flickr (https://search.creativecommons.org/), which allows users to search pictures that have credible sources, who have appropriate copyrights that allow for personal use. Within seconds I was able to find the following image. 

Inkles, P. (September 25, 2011). Business Baby Pointing. Retrieved https://www.flickr.com/photos/dumfstar/8553474140/in/photolist-e2QMS5-abfPT5-28rtGN-fvT5PN-5b495D-bqVQtj-6WtbrL-e2QMHQ-8vBVTe-8vEXjo-4m5ojv-8vEXd9-8vBWaH-6Wp8Nk-8vEXtU-8vEXmG-5r6ss8-8Jzfg7-8Vy1nk-3oxYh-pyrM81-bFrCvg-9iEkhF-8GmvbX-68mS5h-CH3be-6wnx18-8vEXbY-5bwe6M-8vEXpw-8vBVYn-sjCDK-62Y6XP-8vBVWt-eenL8S-62Yv2h-7DAUZj-8uVTTM-8vEXvJ-8uVpXv-5k2wrs-7Cj5Uu-A8zQK-6T2Wt9-hccN5T-7M6JDi-fefJT-nfSTMX-8XHKbe-8vBVPR/

When looking through Google, I found many images, which were subjected to copyrights. After several minutes of sifting through images that all were not appropriate to use, I thought of a better idea. I then used Google's advanced search to filter pictures to find an image that is free to use, share or modify or even for commercial use. I was hen able to find the following image.

Toniolo De Carvalho, A. ( 2017). Child With Laptop. Retrieved http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=6884&

From my own quick experience with using different search engines, I can see the importance of teaching students how to perform appropriate searches, how to determine if the information is usable or not, and finally how to properly credit the authors. In conclusion, it is important to teach students how to research, and cite prior to beginning a research based assignment. Additionally, teachers should not wait until post-secondary to teach students about proper copyright laws, and the importance of citation.