Year End Final Report

I have actively participated in our class's activities all year long and put my best efforts into the class activities. For all the classes I have showed up on time with my strip, and without any unexcused absences. During both game days and fitness days I work hard to participate in the class activities; this gives me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and when I actively participate I can have fun too. Usually by the end of class I would have worked up a sweat from the activities and out of breath, because I push myself to participate as well as I could - for example, I keep running up and down the field to participate in Speedball, even though I could just choose to stay on one side and play simply offense or defense. I'm pretty skilled in most of the games we play; this is a combination of my eye-hand coordination, understanding of the game rules and method of play, and my efforts, which many of the times can make up for the skill level. On choice days I choose activities that interest me, and try my best to participate and do well in them. I would encourage my friends to participate in the same activities as me, but will not join or quit an activity just to follow my friends. I have collected evidence of my participation below, and for the participation section of the course I deserve the full 25%.

http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/06/june-9th-capture-flag.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/february-13th-weight-room_15.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/february-11th-insanity.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/february-4th-fitness-test.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/01/january-31st-community-run.html


I have tried throughout the year to make active contributions to the class and participate with a positive energy, and I believe I have done well in this area. During classes I have often taken leadership by figuring out an activity to do for our class and organizing everyone into teams and setting the rules; I have helped to organize ultimate games in the upper field several times. Through organizing the games, I have learned many leadership and people skills, such as how to get a large group's attention, and deciding quickly on a game and taking in everyone's opinion at the same time. I feel I have improved my leadership abilities by a great deal through doing these things. As well, I have actively looked to be initiative and help out with setting up games and getting equipments, not only for our P.E. classes but also things like helping loading the ping pong tables for Dry Grad and helping Tony put the chairs away in the hub. I also constantly reminded myself to encourage others in fitness and games, and not to get frustrated and blame my teammates; I still have room to improve on in this area, but I feel I have made big progresses since the beginning of the year and developed some good teamworking skills. I had been honesty in competitions and fitness scores, doing my best but not lying about the results, because I know the goal is not to beat everyone else but to learn and improve my fitness and knowledge. Outside of school I have connected to the community through extracurricular activities and such, but didn't really do any volunteer work; this is something I look to improve on this summer and next year. Overall, I believe I deserve a 23% for the leadership and social responsibility part of the class.

http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/february-19th-ultimate.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/05/may-30th-fitness-choice.html


My fitness level, as my results in the fitness tests show, have dropped from last year at the beginning of the year, the beep test going from 13 all the way down to 11. However, I have improved my beep test results back to 12, and the push-ups and body bridge times also improved by some. The drop was because of my lack of activity and exercise during the last summer vacation, and the difference of the results showed me the importance of regular exerting regularly to maintain and improve my fitness and health level. The main reason for my lack of exertion was my unwillingness to take time and go exercising; I have looked to improve this by joining the school badminton team and going with my family on the weekends to the recreation centers, having fun and at the same time exerting and improving my overall fitness. I can now do over 50 push-ups without stoping, which is a great improvement from last year's 25; other than that, I have a better endurance now than before and tires much less quickly in activities. I have learned in the course of this year - both in and out of school - some important knowledge about my body and fitness level. For example, I now know that my body can work at it's maximum capacity for about 45 seconds before "shutting down", and it is important to stretch before and after exercising to prevent injury. Through the constant activities, I also got to know my body's capabilities and limitations better, so that I have better control over when I get tired and when I might get injured. For diet choices my family and I try to have a balanced diet of the four food groups, drinking a cup of milk everyday and making sure we eat different colours of fruits and vegetables as well as meats. Also, we do our best to eat the three meals at a fixed time and avoid skipping meals. Getting enough sleep every night is also something I pay careful attention to. Because of these things, I have a health body that has no significant problems such as lack of nutrients. For the summer I aim to have at least 1 hour of exertion everyday, and work to improve my muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility. I will start with the upper body workout I found on Youtube for the weight room, and then go from there. I believe I have made good connections from the P.E. class to my regular health, and deserve 25% for healthy living.

http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/05/may-18th-badminton-at-guildford-rec.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/05/may-17th-badminton-at-newton-rec-center.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/march-10th-badminton-team-practice.html
http://richardliupe10blog.blogspot.ca/2013/11/november-16th-onion-eggs.html


For my blog (or digital portfolio) I have included over 30 posts, covering all aspects of the course and my healthy living outside of school. In these posts I have provided both video and picture evidence of my fitness experiences, and made reflections in most of the blogs about what I have done well and needs to improve on. I am missing a video of me working out in the weightroom, and I feel I could have including a bit more picture evidence of my participation in class; other than that, my blog is well constructed and reflects my learning and experiences in this course. I have also successfully summarizing all my learnings and reflections in this final post, and deserve a 22% for the blog.

Overall, I have done well in this course and deserve a 95%.

June 9th, Capture the Flag

Today all of the period 3 P.E. classes combined to play capture the flag. We played the actual version of capture the flag, where each team hides one flag in their side, and the other team attempts to find the flag and carry it back to their own side. The game took place around the entire school, from the lower field all the way to the upper field.

My team hid the flag in the dumper at the back of the school in the beginning, so the other team's players weren't able to find our flag and capture it, whereas my team scored twice right after the game started.

For my part, I first tried to rush past the other team's defense line to the upper field, but got caught several times instead. Later in the game I went to the upper field from the front of the school, and tried to find the flag in the forest. In the end, I didn't even get a glimpse of the flag until the game ended, and got a few scratches on my shin from the branches in the forest.

May 31th, Badminton at Newton Rec Center

I invited Nicolas to come to the Newton Rec for the Family Badminton session today, and he actually brought his younger brothers and dad along too. It was fun playing with them because they were pretty good. Only that I wish the Newton Rec had more courts for the session; we had to share the two courts between about 15 people, and I never got the chance to play single against Nicolas, which was the main reason why I invited him over. Still, it was a good morning, getting to exercise and enjoying a sport at the same time.

May 30th, Fitness & Choice

Today all the grade 9's were at the HACE presentation, so we (all the grade 10's) were allowed to choose to be in Band or P.E. Except for Carmen (good for her), we all stayed in the band room, not wanting to do fitness. =)

Mr. Williams got us to help out with getting the ping pong equipment loaded for the dry grad. We lifted two ping pong tables onto the truck and tied them down, then went down to the P.E office to get the paddles, balls, and nets. It was actually sort of fun loading the tables together with all the other guys.

Then we found out that P.E class was half fitness and half choice, so all of us went down to the gym again. I tried to play handball with the grade 8's, but they had too many people and it was hard to get involved. So Nicolas, Carter, Kris, Caleb Diamond, Caleb Brown, Will and I went to the upper field and played a game of Ultimate. We made the field of play about half the actual size, and divided into teams of 3 and 4. Caleb Brown and Kris were on my team, and we dominated Will's team 4:0.

Today was fun, and I'm especially happy because we didn't have to do fitness. =)

May 27th, Community Run

I ran with Nicolas in the community run today, and we already left everyone else behind after running 2 blocks, since most people didn't actually run but just jogged along. There wasn't much enthusiam of working out after the teachers said we can walk, to say the least.

But the two of us ran past the point where we were supposed to turn to Goldstone Park and got lost. We ended up running down to the YMCA, then went back to 146th street from Highway 10 and jogged back down to the school. Mr. Neuf asked me where I went when he saw me during lunch, and really rubbed it in after I told him I was lost: "Richard, you are an A student and you got lost?!?" It was sooooo embarassing... =(

May 18th, Badminton at Guildford Rec Center

This morning my family got up early, and we drove to the Guildford Recreation Center for the Family Badminton session there from 9 to 12.

The Guildford Rec Center has a much bigger gym than the Newton center - with 8 courts - and so allowed a lot more people to play, and I was able to find many opponents who were just as good or even better than myself. Playing against them was fun, and I was able to learn new techniques and strategies from different opponents.

I think I will be going there regularly on weekends - to have fun, exercise, and improve my skills.

Here are some pictures and video I took in the Rec Center:

 

May 17th, Badminton at Newton Rec Center

This morning I went with my mom and brother to the Newton Recreation Center, and played badminton there from 9 to 11:30. I met some people there who are pretty good, and played several games of singles and doubles with them.

I have been going to the Saturday morning badminton sessions there for over a month, and I really enjoy playing against worthy opponents. I'm also trying to help my brother practice and better his badminton skills.

 

May 12th, Speedball

I was exhausted today in Speedball, and the all the running under the sun made me feel really hot and sweaty.

What happened during the game today showed me how our class can break down when there is no supervision. Near the end of the class when we still had about 10 minutes for the game, people started leaving the game to take a break, and didn't go back in after they stopped. I also went in the shade for a minute to cool down, and that may have set a bad model for other classmate; when I joined back in the game, I tried to get everyone else back in too, but it didn't work.

I believe after this class, next time we would all know to set a good example and keep the game going. Being a leader is not just about doing the right thing myself, but also encouraging and helping others to do the right thing also.

April 23rd, P.E Games

Today we played several games with Mr. Vaughn's class in the Large Gym; the games were mostly fun and creative, and I had a really good time playing them.

When we were playing dodgeball with the pins - where we try to knock down other people's pins with dodgeballs and keep ourselves in the game - I noticed a few things that made the game less fun than it might have been. There were a lot of pins put in play in the basketball court - about 20 of them - and they weren't evenly spaced out, so along the sidelines the pins were only about 2 meters from each other. Because the pins were so close, no one want to leave their spot since their pin would get knock over for sure. Everyone ended up standing beside their pins and not really doing anything, and so the game wasn't rotating as fast as it's meant to. Also, it makes it hard for the people waiting to go on to see which pins are emptied. In the end, everyone only got to play in the game about twice.

A good way to improve this game when there are two classes playing it would be to have two smaller fields playing at once. This way it would be easier to space the pins out, and the smaller space gives more chance for the pins to get knocked over and the rotations going. It would also make the knocked over pins easier to be seen. To make things even easier, we can have the people who are out go to the front of the lineup first, so they can tell the people that are waiting to go on before they go to lineup again. If we do these things, I'm confident the game will get a lot more intense and fun for everyone.

April 17th, Ping Pong (And Helping Out Tony)

Today's choices for P.E were soccer, volleyball, and hockey, none of which was interesting to me; so I tried to get a game of basketball going in the Small Gym, but not a lot of people were interested. Then me, Caleb (Brown), and Will went to set up for Ping Pong; when we were getting the equipments Mr. Neuf asked us to help Tony put away the chairs in the cafeteria, and we said that we would help.

Putting the chairs away took a lot of work. I was amazed at how many chairs were left over from lunch; there were probably 150 of them scattered around the cafeteria - more reason for me to stack the chairs and put them away after luch from now on. After we were done, me, Caleb, Will, and Seth played Ping Pong until class was ending. I was surprised at how good Caleb was; I didn't even know he played Ping Pong.

It wasn't a very exciting day, but I felt good about helping Tony put that gigantic pile of chairs away. I guess that's what they mean by satisfaction from helping others. :)

April 15th, Community Run

Today in the community run I really tried to pace myself to run at an even pace. I felt that I managed to keep myself exerting at a maximum level where I can still sustain myself; I can maintain that pace for at least an hour - not without effort - and if I were to run faster I would exhaust myself much more quickly.

I feel good about the fact that I manage to find and maintain my level of exertion at that balancing point. However, it was not the greatest effort I could have put into the run, so this time my community run ended up over 20 minutes.

 

April 9th, Speedball

Today our class got organized much faster and better than yesterday, because Mr. Neuf talked to us about being attentive and paying attention when the class is trying to get organized, and lead the game himself. I really agree with what Mr. Neuf said about not fooling around or hanging around outside the class circle; it's just impossible to get everyone's attention and agree on a set of rule and set up for the game when our classmates are all over the place.

I've never played speedball before, but the rules were pretty easy to understand. You play soccer until you catch the ball in midair before it hits the ground, and now you play football; when the ball drops to the ground or you get tagged, you go back to soccer. A "touchdown" is one point, scoring a goal two points, bouncing the ball up from the ground and kicking it over the football poles three points.

I figured out pretty quickly that the game needs a lot of teamwork. It's called speedball for a reason: the ball can get down from one end of the soccer field (which is about a whole minute of hard running, if not sprinting) to the other end in a minute. Having two balls in play at the same time made the game even faster. There's also no breaks; no outs, no foul (hopefully people won't start tackling each other for no reason), and after a team scores the ball goes right back to play. With all that in mind, if someone tried to run back and forth and cover every part of play, they'd be killing themselves.

Our team didn't figure out a good teamwork strategy at first and struggled to keep up with the other team's fast attacks. After a break we started to focus on passing more to each other and form a line of defense to keep the other team from breaking in; I helped our team play better by organizing the ball movement and passing to the people that are open. When we played as a team we finally started to score, and I didn't even need to run out of breath like before.

Speedball is fun, and it definitely helps to improve our sense of teamwork and communication. I hope we can play it again.

April 7th, Capture the Flag

Today in capture the flag the pride of us boys was seriously damaged, because we lost really badly to the girls. And to think that most of us were excited to go boys against girls... (sigh)

When the game started, the girls got on the defensive side right away, and pretty much made human walls on their side. That didn't stop a bunch of us from rushing over to go for the footballs right away. Well, THAT ended really badly, and half of our team landed in jail in less than a minute. I got myself caught too, when I tried to sneak to save a person and help out with the team. It didn't help things that the girls had Jazzy on their side; he pretty much shuted off all the help we might get from the team by himself. So we were stranded in jail for the better half of the game; I got so bored that I played chopsticks with Abishek. Naturally, we lost the game with only a few footballs left, even though our team did better after half of us were captured.

Mr. Neuf said it was a case of brain winning over muscles; I will sort of agree with that :(. The strategy wasn't that complicated - just stay put and take out as much of the other team as possible, then go back on the offense. We lost because we weren't careful enough (I'm inclined to think it's because we don't want the game to get too boring), and I'm sure next time our boys team would do better. On the other hand, it is just a game, and I felt pretty good about trying to get our players back (the getting stranded and doing nothing for 20 minutes wasn't really fun though).

Anyway, it was a fun class. :)

March 10th, Badminton Team Practice

Today I had a practice for the Junior Badminton team. The practice was an hour long, and we played against each other in pairs for most of the time, and spend 10 minutes practicing serving and smashing. I was partners with Nicolas in doubles.

February 28th, Relay Run (In The Back Parking Lot)

Today's fitness activity is some thing we haven't done in a long time: group relay run around the back parking lot (it used to be around the pond).

I made a team with Abhishek and Rajan, with Abhishek running first, Rajan second, and me last. Me and Abhishek ran at a good speed of about 1 min 15 to 20 s per lap consistently, but Rajan's fitness level isn't as high and ran more slowly and had periods of walking to catch his breath. We tried to encourage him to keep running, even if it's not very fast, and it seemed to help Rajan to keep pushing himself.

On the last lap I was running, I gave it my best because it was going to be the last lap before we all went in. In the last 15 to 20 seconds of the lap my lungs and legs started burning, but I pushed myself and managed to finish with a good speed and almost ran the lap in 1 minute.

I used my phone to record my lap times. I've accidentally press the "lap" button 2 extra times, so ignore the two laps with less than 1 second. Every other lap time is about 5 to 10 s off from my actual running time, because I had to stop after finishing a lap and then stop the stopwatch.

February 19th, Ultimate

Today I chose to do Ultimate again for choice. This time, because a baseball game was also going on on the upper field, we took the game to the farther end of the upper field and set it up along the width of the field, with the portables and the walls on the other end as the end zones.

I helped to line out the field with cones we took from the outside storage.

Today's game started off pretty much the same as last time, but since we had so much people playing Mr. Neufeld suggested we use another frisbee in the game. Things got much more interesting after that. We mostly ended up with one frisbee on one end and another frisbee on the other end, and both end had more attackers than defenders. For my part I mostly stay around our team's end zone and the mid-field part, defending and making long passes to the girls that were literally "fighting" at the other end =). Having another frisbee was definitely more fun and interesting, and I'm hoping we can add even more twists to the game next time.

February 17th, Ultimate

Today for choice I went with most of our class outside to play Ultimate. This time we played it more seriously than the time in September, because Caleb Brown is in the Ultimate team and had us playing by the rules. To sum it up, we can't take any step after receiving the frisbee - pivot is allowed - and one has to pass the frisbee inside 10 counts after catching it.

Our team's main attackers were the group of girls - Yulia, Gabby, etc. - Joel, and me. Joel really liked to do crazy long passes that most of the time ended up on the ground, but I prefer to make short and safer passes. The girls always scream when they are trying to pass or catch the frisbee, especially when either team's about score. It definitely made the game even more interesting =).

I think that like any team sports, communication and teamwork is really important in Ultimate. The best strategy is to have teammates spaced out a few metres apart down the field, and just make short passes to each other. It's also really important to get the attention of the people you are passing to, otherwise there's almost no chance anyone can catch the frisbee. Of course, the most important things is still to have fun.

February 13th, Weight Room

I chose the same workout routine as last time for weight room today. The video is here below:

Today I have completed 2 sets each of the following workouts:

Basic push-ups (12 reps)
Seated Cable row (60 pounds, 12 reps)
Standing shoulder press (10 pounds each hand, 12 reps)
Lat pull downs (70 pounds, 12 reps)
Abdominal crunches (12 reps)
Lying leg raises (12 reps)

I alternated between doing a set of arm workout - such as push-ups, seated cable row, etc. - and a set of core work out. This let me rest my arms while doing a set of core workout, and vice versa. This way I was able to better maintain a steady pace, pushing myself but not getting overly exhausted from the workouts.

I think right now I need to improve my upper body strength - especially my arm and core muscles - the most, and this is why I have chosen this workout routine. I will also be setting up a regular workout plan soon to help me better achieve my goal.

February 11th, Insanity

Here is the video of me during today's Insanity fitness:

Today's Insanity is very focused on working out the lower body and core muscles, and half way through the workout my legs were already trembling. They felt shaky and weak, as if the moment I bend my knees my legs will just give way and collapse. I was also feeling a bit sick from my lunch, but I tried my best to shake it off and keep working. I had to go for water twice to keep my stomach settled, but overall I believe I have put in a good effort.

Through today's workout I realized my lower body and core muscles can still use a lot of exercise, and I will be looking for ways to workout and strengthen these muscles in the future.

February 4th, Fitness Test

Because it's the beginning of second semester, today we did the fitness test again. My results for the tests are:

Beep test: 12.0
T-test: 12.00 secs
Push-ups: 27
Body bridge: 1 min 45 secs
Vertical jump: 50 cm
Sit-and-reach: level 5
Balancing board: 14 touches

 

 

 

 

Overall, my fitness test results are consistent with last time. My number of push-ups and body bridge time have improved a bit, but my T-test time is worse, and although my beep test has gone up to 12, it's still lower than the 13 I ran last year. This is partly because today I wasn't feeling the greatest, but the lack of exercise I had for the last two weeks definitely have more to do with it.

 

In the new semester I will try to make sure I exercise at least every other day, and participate in more extracurricular activities. I will be trying to join the badminton team this semester, and I aim to run 13 on the beep test again by the end of the year.



January 31st, Community Run

Today's fitness is community run. This time the route we took was different from last semester, going out the back parking lot and going in the opposite direction as before, running a loop to the left of the school.

I ran with Will for the whole way; we maintained a quick jogging pace throughout the run.  My lungs started burning after about 4 minutes, and I was panting hard in the entire run. This shows that I was exercising vigorously; however I know I can improve my fitness to make the run with less effort.

I think it helps to do the community run with a partner with a similar fitness level, because you can encourage each other to keep running, both verbally and with your actions. Twice in the run I wanted to slow down and take a break, but because Will was running beside me I managed to fight through it.

 

It was a bit challenging trying to take a good video while running, because it's hard to keep the camera still when my body is rocking up and down while running, and the effort of running also makes it more difficult to control my hand to stay steady.

Here is our time from when we left the back parking lot and when we returned back to the parking lot.

Semester End Report

Throughout the course of this semester, I have done very well on my participation and involvement in class activities. I have showed up on time every class and changed into gym strip, which I changed back to my regular clothing after class. During both regular classes and fitness days I have put a lot of effort into the activities, and worked hard to raise my heart rate and make the class a good exercise experience. During fitness days such as the pond run, locomotion, etc. I always pushed myself to do the exercises at the limit of my abilities, and fought through the exhaustion to actually do the exercise for the full 40 minutes. In choice days I would choose an activity that I was really interested in, then participate in it with the best of my skills and efforts and have fun at the same time.

In this semester I have learned to work better with my peers, especially in organizing activities on our own, without a teacher to direct us. For example, when we were doing ultimate and football in September 25th, it was the first time we had to organize ourselves as a class, and it took a while for us to actually organize the game. However, we did get the experience that would allow us to do it better next time, knowing that we should get everyone's attention and have one idea that we can improve on. Other than that, I have tried to take the initiative when class activities are being organized, like helping set up games, clean up the equipment used afterwards, etc. I also try my best to play as a team in sports and on choice days, passing to my teammates and encouraging them to be more involved. I have found that doing this really helps to keep everyone interested and maintain a positive atmosphere, and most of the time our team also play better as a result. In terms of community service and volunteering I have not done much, but I am looking for opportunities in and out of school and hopefully I will be able to make more contributions next semester.

I pride myself in having a balanced diet, and try to eat foods from all four food groups for every meal; also I avoid missing meals and try to have a fixed time for each meal (breakfast at around 8 to 9, lunch around 12 to 1, and dinner around 6 to 7).

As for my fitness, my score on the beep test this semester had started lower compared to last year - 12, 11, and 12.3 for the most recent one. My fitness level had gone down over the summer due to lack of exercise, and did not improve much in the first two months of this semester also because I didn't do any extracurricular activities. However, I have started going to the YMCA on Fridays for basketball from December, and tried to do more exercises on my spare time, such as jogging, swimming, and just going outside for a walk or to run around. As a result, my fitness level have been improving by small margins, which is reflected by my fitness test results Friday compared to 2 months ago. Looking at my fitness scores, I would say my endurance level is the strongest, and I could really work to improve my balancing and core strength; I'm confident that with more exercise, my balance board, push-ups, and body bridge results can all improve by quite a bit.

For next semester, I plan to try and have a fixed exercise routine, doing at least 100 push-ups a day or jogging for half an hour to improve my fitness level. Other than that, I will attempt to participate in more sports activities, such as basketball during lunch and on Friday nights at YMCA. I will also be looking to join the badminton team in the spring. My goal is to reach 13 on the beep test and be able to do 35 push-ups without stopping by the end of this school year.

For my digital portfolio, I have not done very much this semester on blog posting and providing pictures and videos as evidence for my participation and learning. I will be looking to make more posts and really connect and relate my in and out of school activities to the blog, and provide more evidence to reflect my overall health and learning. Also I have not paid too much attention to my classmates' blogs, and I will be looking to comment on their blogs to help the whole class and myself further our understandings on all aspects of our healthy living.

In summary, I believe I have done well on my participation and contributions to the class, but can further improve my health living habits and put more efforts into the digital portfolio. For this semester, I will give myself a 80%.