Tuesday, October 14, 2008

2008 Suny Cortland P.E. Mini Conference

I just recently participated in one of the workshops at the Suny Cortland P.E. mini conference. This conference is held every year and I think its cool. Of course at first I only thought it was cool because all of my classes were canceled for the day, but that was until I actually took part in it and really understood what it was all about. My day began by marching into one of the gymnasiums while stomping and claping and singing to a parody of Queen's we will rock you. Probably again, another very emberassing moment to add to the list. But after that was done and we got the audience involved in the ice-breakers that we chose, I sat through a speech by a man that I thought would put me to sleep, emberassingly enough I cant even remember this man's name . However, little did I know that he was the pennicle of physical educators and everything i hope to be some day. He is a recipient of the Walt Disney teacher of the year award. A prostegious award that thousands upon thousands of teachers are nominated for each year. He shared with us his story of a girl that even though she is not alive anymore, and even though I have never met her, I still will never forget her. Katie Lynch, a girl who was born with connective tissue disorder which left her only about a foot tall, if that. Even still, this man showed here that there wasnt anything she couldnt do. She was an athlete, she was a high school and college graduate, she participated in the boston marathon where she raised thousands of dollars by exceeding her goal of walking 26.2 feet. This man was able to show me in a matter of 40 minutes why I am in this major and why i chose this profession and why it is so important to meand why I want to train and train the hardest I can to be the teacher that this man is. In my eyes this man has everything that I want and I have the strongest respect for everything that he has accomplished, the lives hes touched, the people he made realize that there is no such thing as a disability, there are just different abilities, and the students who have had the honor of having him as their teacher. To some it may not seem like much of anything special, but to me, this man has everything in the world.

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