finals

i can't believe finals are almost here! this school year flew by. i feel like i learned so much more the second semester of this year; i definitely worked harder. I am fortunate enough to not have two finals that land on the same day this year. Two of my finals are "take-home" finals, so I have adequate time to prepare my work carefully. These last few weeks may be stressful, but it will all pay off when the summer starts!

fitness testing

The past three days i have done fitness testing in all of my physical education classes. For technology, we had to wear heart rate monitors and calculate if we were above our targeted heart rate while working out on four different machines and walking on the track. For fitness education we did an end of the year assessment of our fitness by doing the twelve minute mile/walk, push ups, sit ups and height and weight to name a few. For assessment strategies today, we performed tasks used in the President's Challenge and the Fitnessgram. Participating in and assessing these kills and events has helped me better understand the criterion required for physical education teachers to teach in the future.

pens

i remember back in 1991 and 1992 when the pittsburgh penguins won two stanley cups. i was only four or five years old but i was kind of obsessed with them. I am not too into them these days, even with all of their superstars. It's great to see Pittsburgh hockey come out of the shadows after almost being relocated to Kansas City only a year or so ago. I hope they keep all their young talent and win another cup!

nice weather

This nice weather is well deserved. It's nice to see bands playing in the quad and the new gazeebo that is being built. It is nice to lay out in the sun between classes or play frisbee. Watching the baseball games is now enjoyable because it is not so chilly. I hope this nice weather keeps up, I can't handle another cold front anytime soon.

weight lifting

Our postseason basketball started last week, which includes weight lifting. I haven't lifted in six months and I am so sore! We don't lift to build muscle or bulk; moreso to stay toned. We stretch before and after every lifting session, but when we start at 6 am three days a week, I tend to be exhausted by the weekend. I hope this soreness goes away and I can gain SOME muscular endurance by the end of school and the end of summer.

convention

i signed up for the physcial education convention that slippery rock is holding later this month yesterday. although i only have a minor job with setting up and preparing, it will be intresting to see the turnout. i didn't attend or help with the conference last year, so this is my first experience. it sounds like it is a really organized and well run exposition for physical education teachers and speakers of all levels. i hope to learn some interesting stuff!

homework!

it seems like the middle to the end of the semester is kicking in. i feel like every day i am piled up with more and more homework! between tests and projects, or digital videos or group projects, i am betcoming quite stressed. i know college teaches time management for sure, and having basketball every day doesn't help. i know i'm complaining, but i hope i have good grades to attest for by may.

pitt women's basketball

pitt women's basketball is on their way to the sweet 16! this is the farthest the panthers have ever advanced in the NCAA tournament. they beat baylor, who won the national championship three years ago, on sunday. its nice to see a local team gain national recognition. i'm glad they have brought in a good head coach who has recruited talent. all of their players graduate on time and bring a positive attitude to the newly revived program.

SPARQ

Three summers ago, my AAU team attended the Nike Nationals basketball camp. while there, we underwent some of the first testing for the newly advertised Nike SPARQ training that has been on commercials recently. We did drills that involved speed, like the fourty yard dash, we threw medicine balls to measure strength, and did the shuttle run to calculate agility. Along with about three other tests, researchers calculated and gave out reports for every individual player, and the team overall. They did this for over thirty teams in a matter of three days. Your individual SPARQ number is an estimate on your athleticism, which i found cool to compare to other world known atheltes who had also been tested.

facebook

i heard today that some members of the track team got suspended for an upcoming meet for some pictures they had on facebook. apparently they had to do with drinking or something of the sort and were found by a coach or administration. being an athlete here, i find this a two way street. i think that in some respects coaches and administration do have the right to make sure their players are healthy and safe. at the same time, student athletes should have their own privacy and enough respect to judge what is right and wrong to put on the internet for people to look at or read. its a double edged sword, just a matter of whose view you are taking it from.

march madness

i'm so excited for the run pitt made in the big east tournament. i hope it carries over into the NCAA tournament! they won their first game against oral roberts in convincing fashion. bob knight says that pitt plays as hard as any team in the field of 64, and with levance fields healthy, i hope they can go far. my favorite team is probably the north carolina tar heels. i like tyler hansborough and how hard he plays to make his team play bettter.

spring break

Spring break starts on tuesday- hard to believe it will be mid-march when we return. I'm excited to finally go home and relax with my family, and maybe try and make a little bit of money. I also plan on looking for a summer job over break, whether it be lifeguarding or working at a day camp for kids. It will be nice to get a rest from basketball, which is over on saturday. I might even go to florida to my teammate's house for a few days to enjoy the warm weather!

pitt basketball

i hope to see pitt panthers basketball team make it to the ncaa march madness tournament this spring. they have lost three consecutive games and are struggling. they have been playing without an injured levance fields, who is now returning from a broken foot. they also lost experienced guard mike cook for the year with an acl injury. it would be a shame to see the panthers not advance into march, as so many panther fans have been accustomed to.

white out night

last night's white out night against IUP was definitely a successful marketing campaign by slippery rock's public relation's team. the first 250 students in attendace recieved free "white out" t shirts,which was definitely a big reason for such a turnout. the women's team cut a 15 point deficit to 6 with under 3 minutes to go against the tenth ranked team in the nation, but lost by 7. the boys won and moved one game away from the playoffs. overall, about three quarters of the feildhouse was filled with fans, which was a nice turnout.

sru vs edinboro

last night, sru women's basketball team lost to edinboro by 4 in a heartbreaker. the rock and the fighting scotties battled back and forth until the final 8 seconds when sru commited an errant turnover with the possesion down 2 points. it was my first game back since i broke my hand and i played alot more than i expected! we have a bye game this saturday before hosting white out night vs iup next wednesday. hope to see everyone there!

touch i pod

i saw the new touch i pod last week and i found it very intresting. its almost as big, if not bigger than a regular phone. it has no buttons, and clearly everything is touch activated. the new touch i pod has wireless internet capabilities, so you can go on youtube or facebook. these websites are vital for every college student. this ipod holds thousands of songs and can store pictures that you can put onto your computer also, which is very convenient.

intramural sports

the start of intramural basketball at the arc has begun! i think it is awesome that there are numberous divisons based on the talent of your team, for both girls and boys. Intramural basketball is a good way to keep everyday college students active. hopefully this will occur more than one or two days a week. intramurals encourages teamwork and promotes fun for college students and thier peers no matter what their skill level.

Sru vs Cal women's basketball

If you missed out on the Slippery Rock women's basketball team taking on the number one team in the region, California University, you didn't miss much. The Rock came out the gate sluggish, which led to a 14 -4 Vulcan lead six minutes into the half. A surge led by Amanda Nero kept the Rock within 7 at the half. But the second half belong to the powerhouse Cal. After consecutive driving layups off steals, Slippery Rock had to call a time out to stop the bleeding. Cal pushed its lead out to ten, and the Rock couldn't recover. Kellyann Staudinger was a bright spot for the Rock, leading scorers with 17.

music in the classroom

today in class, we learned about how music helps influnce and improve learning. it can be efficent in aiding the visually impaired in the class also. I plan on teaching in the elementary school setting, and i want to incorporate music into my stretching routines. for every stretch, an upbeat song will be played, and when the music changes to another song, it will signal to class to change to another exercise. while observing the seneca valley school district last year, i saw that this structure kept the children active and eager to learn.

coolest technology

the coolest technology i have seen to date is the new iair computer. this is made by apple computers, who also manufactures the ipod, iphone, and countless diferent kinds of laptops an desktop computers. from the commercial, it looks like it is thin enough to slide into a manilla envelope. its hard to believe that a year ago, it was unheard of to see even a phone that thin. this computer has the same capacity and memory of an up to date laptop. on the downside, it looks very fragile and easy to damage, so it would definitely need to be handled with extreme caution.

introduction

Hi, my name is Nikki Presto and I hail from Thomas Jefferson High School, about twenty minutes south of Pittsburgh. I am a 19 year old sophomore at Slippery Rock University with a major in Health and Physical Education. I play point guard for the women's basketball team, but i broke my hand two weeks ago and I will be inactive for two more weeks. I love running and reading, mainly biographies on sports figures. My favorite athlete is Pete Maravich, who was the star shooting guard for LSU who still holds the NCAA career record for points.