SUNY Cortland Mini-Conference

I was at attendance for the 2008 mini-conference fall sememster, October 10 and enjoyed a few different inside looks on what the new Physical Educator is all about. The keynote speaker John Passarini opened up with a touching in-sight on what Adaptive PE was to him and how he has stayed commited to trying to get his message to everyone who wants to learn. Dr. Passarini gave me a new out look on how there are no disabilities its just people are differently able. Dr. Passarini talked throughout his presentation about a girl Katie Lynch. Katie thought of herself as a great athlete. Its not about what records you have broken or how fast you are at something, it depends on the abilities you were born with and what you choose to do with them. It's about pushing yourself to the next level and climbing to new heights. Thats what Katie did, she persevered and did things no one ever gave her shot to do. Of course a lot of the credit goes to Katie for believing herself but most of the credit goes to John Passarini. Dr. Passarini helped to adapt activities to Katie in order for her to get stronger and to become the person she was.
Another presentation that I attended was the presentation on Polar Technology. The component to this presentation was the usage of technology included within schools PE programs. The idea of using heart rate monitors in a PE class in order to measure a students effort in PE class was something new to me. It was a type of technology that I was not familiar with until this year. We use this same type of technology in our Statistics and Assessments class. It shows some sort of accountability for the students to actually move around in class and remain active. If there are questions from parents on why is there childs grade not where they thought it should be then you have data in which you have on file to show them. It's a huge step in a new way students can and should be graded. Or at least the "effort" component can be factored into the grading system. There was a lot of technology that I saw in which I wish we had more time to learn more on it during the conference because some of it was confusing. It all seemed very beneficial to what were trying to do. My one question is how do we get funded for equipment like this? I know one thing for sure, technology these days can be quite the penny!!!