Final Post :)!

Last week, I set a goal to increase some network opportunities and to begin to develop my professional letters that which will help me obtain my position. This past week I have been able to network out for more opportunities and have about three opportunities that I will be introduced to. It is amazing to me that I am finalizing these documents and am ready to begin my professional career. This week, I do have an opportunity to get formally evaluated and have a mock interview with my school. This opportunity will help me grow in my professional development especially with the population I serve currently.

As I complete this week, I want to stay focused on how lucky I have been to have had two wonderful placements that have taught me as much as I have learned throughout these sixteen weeks. I wanted to make sure that I have fun and focus on opportunities to reach out to students that I have not had before or interact to make sure my students understand that I am here for them. Today I can not thank God for giving me what I have and the excitement that it brings to my heart for these opportunities. I pray that God will find me a permanent placement in the future and continue to guide me as I teach to students.

 

This past week and over my teaching career, I have had many opportunities where I have had to enforce school policies. This past week out of all my weeks was a difficult one with behavioral situations that occurred in my gymnasium. I had four students who needed some extra support and it became such an issue that the principals have come down to remind me that these things happen and not to get discouraged for these students actions. When situations occur at our school it is my goal to make sure all my students are safe. A situation occurred when another student needed to reset, a place for them to relax and gather their thoughts. The student was eventually removed from class and it is part of the school policy that we must make sure that the student has an opportunity to relax before he is represented back into the classroom. I learned that some students need to actually remove themselves from the class completely and others just need a minute to gather their thoughts.

Another situation occurred where a student struck another student. It was here that I called for extra support and the student and I was able to follow up and continued with some disciplinary actions so that this particular situation would not occur again.

Throughout my time at Mill Street, I have contributed a lot to teaching and learning. I have been able to implement my own personal strategies that I feel are effective as a teacher and learn to make learning motivational for students and fun. I always try to think of new ways to present the information to the students to learn what works best for each class. it is interesting to find that I probably never teach the same way to each class that I see. The content is the same, but how I present it is always changing. I find that certain groups of students respond a lot better to the way I present the information to them.

 

One important thing I have learned this semester about choosing education is that I love what I do. I do it for the students and I love being a role model for the students. I feel that I have a gift and I need to passionally fill my dream to make sure others have opportunities and that able to inspire each individual in their own way. Over the past four years of my life, I have been searching for a reason, and throughout the sixteen weeks I found my reason in life and I hope to pursue this career with this level of motivation for a long time.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Week 15

Last week I feel that I was able to achieve my goals. I was able to incorporate more technology, although it didn't always work, but I was able to utilize a wireless music components that my students loved. I found myself enjoying more of the day because I was able to be motivated and my students loved listening to the music as well. I found that the day went quicker and it minimized the loudness of noise in the gym which for some student is beneficial. 

Additionally, I was able to visit another school last week in which I had fun watching other points of view and then thinking how my actions are similar or different from the other teacher. When I was observing I found many good points and saw that how I teach was similar and felt confident in my work. I was pleased with what I saw and obtain some other good ideas for my future. This week I will be doing to another school and observing some other classes. 

This week my goals are to finish up my projects and begin to make some more network opportunities. I am hoping to obtain some more resources that will be beneficial for my future as well. I hope to adjust my resume, develop my teaching video, and to adjust my cover letter as opportunities will soon be posted.

 

Write one word that best describes your teaching experience this week. Resourceful

Reflection is vital throughout my time when teaching. I find that when teaching you are constantly reflect and if you are not then you are too comfortable in what you are doing. On a daily  basis and within each class, I am always trying to think of new ways to motivate students. Whether it taking a time out to begin a relay race or adjusting and having the student meet in the middle to re-explain some materials, we are always reflection. Without reflection, your classroom is at a standstill and there is no room for adjustment and if things decide to topple you need to reevaluate before chaos erupts.

At the beginning of my placement, we had planned on teaching team handball which for some students was simple and to others it was more difficult. In the past, Mr. Quaid taught that once you get tagged you stop in place and then you pass the ball to a teammate. In the game of handball, you are only to hold the ball for 3-5 seconds and only take 3 steps. When I was going to teach this I wanted my other students to play more according to the rules rather than them playing to a lower standard of waiting until they got tagged. I also noticed with this way of teaching the same students were handling the ball and other students were not having a chance to touch the ball by itself. I added in some rules like a girl just catch and pass it before their team can score or that they have to use 4 passes before they can score this way more students are involved with playing. What I realized is that these students were having such a difficult time with counting their steps and forgetting what they needed to do because I added so many rules that I decided to take out the amount of steps out of the rules and have the students concentrate more on the passing skills rather than how many steps they were taking because in essence everyone was moving. The students were happy with this result because the game increased more movement, more than what I thought it would and the students were able to incorporate more teamwork because they knew they needed to pass to their teammates and include others. It diminished the one person team player who always had the ball and because he was quick scored.

           For me working with kids with disabilities is something I have done for over 3 years. I feel that I understand Autism a lot and continue to make sure these students are able to follow directions and get their necessary breaks their body needs in addition to adding sensory options for my students. I continue to seek assistance from aids, find alternative options online, and to talk with the adaptive PE teacher for alternative options for my students to succeed. Overall, when talking with the adaptive PE teacher is has been pleased with my changes and aids are comfortable with the changes I make for my students with disabilities.

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed my prior PE teachers and told them where I am at in my teaching. I asked them that I was in need of some games that can be played indoors, in smaller spaces, and outside. I wanted these ideas because at the elementary level, we are constantly having to move. When asking for these resources I found a lot of useful information and was able to feel more confident if things were adjusted quickly.  

Week 14 Reflection

Last week, I did the wrong reflection online so this week I am talking about technology versus parent collaboration in which was suppose to be discussed last week. ENJOY!

This past week was a short week in which I finally realized that this placement is coming to an end as well as my schooling experience. What a joy it brings, but also with some hesitation as I realized am I truly ready for this new lifestyle. With eagerness I began to discuss with my cooperating teacher about games, lead-up games, and units that he prefers within his curriculum. After discussing this with him, he provided me with a ton of materials that I can use in my future. He gave me books in which he already has games imprinted in his curriculum, learning-readiness information, and other essential information for me. I was very appreciative and I hope during this week as well I can obtain some more helpful information. This week and at the beginning of next week, I will be visiting a couple other schools to help expand my knowledge of PE information! This past week, although it was short, I had a lot of fun. I created a game called “Stuff that Turkey.” This game was an alteration of a game I played with the high school students. I had 2 decks of cards that were placed in the center circle with various exercises on each card. The students had a turkey basket. They were also placed in groups from 4-6 individuals. One student from the group ran to the middle, grabbed a card, and ran it back to their group to do the exercise. Each group after completing the exercise, another individual went. This continued until all the cards in the middle were finished. The point being, that each card they received was a pound of turkey. The goal was to see who had the heaviest turkey by the end of the day. We completed 2 rounds of this and then came together as a group and the students did math to see who had the heaviest turkey. This game was fantastic and made me met my goal that learning can be fun if you present it in the right way. I was very pleased with my game and is something I would love to share with others.

This week, I hope to achieve more goals as usual. I hope to continue to obtain resources that can be beneficial not only at the elementary level, but also adaptable resources for middle school and beyond. To meet a technology goal, I hope to incorporate using the projector to have my students be self-directed while looking at the stopwatch projected on the way to continue to move to another station after seeing that the stopwatch changed. This type of self-directed learning is extremely beneficial as the students learn to become more responsible as they grow in our society today.

Write one word that best describes your teaching experience this week. Exciting

Over the past several weeks, I have learned that technology is a motivator to achieve success. Technology engages students and keeps their attention while constantly changing to so that the students are exposed to the most recent information. Because Physical Education is different from most disciplines, I try to incorporate technology as best as I can. With some unit I put up a stopwatch that is kept online and students can see this on a projected screen. The students then move after those minutes are finished. This type of technology integration increases self-learning and responsibility. I have tried to incorporate the heart monitors, but to be honest they are a logistics nightmare in which I rather not incorporate because it takes away from obtaining fitness throughout the class periods. Pedometers, although I have not incorporated during my student teaching is something I plan on incorporating someday when I have a classroom. I feel that incorporating these will help me assess activities that increase most activity so that I can alter the course so that my students are obtaining the most steps throughout the day as they can.

To make sure I am consistent with technology, I hope to stay with organizations that have incorporated fitness. I hope to learn how to incorporate more technology within Physical Education by reading, researching, and collaborating with other expert teachers.

Week 13

Write one word that best describes your teaching experience this week. Fun!


Last week on my goals I did not do as good as I thought and did not find a lot of other assessments that I wanted during the week. However, I was able to do a lot of skill based assessments through climbing on my rock wall. I think that once I get more experience I will be able to find more applicable assessments that will help in assessments. As we come to the end of student teaching, my goal is to gain as many activities as I can from my cooperating teacher. I want to find quick and fun activities that I can teach that can be on the spot and useful for when I need to be flexible. Another goal I would like to achieve before I am done is to learn to always show that learning is fun. Throughout my time student teaching, I feel that I'm always worried about whether I am doing everything correct and I forget that I must remember that learning is fun. In some things I feel really comfortable and have a lot of fun and in some other cases I am not. My goal is to demonstrate to my students that learning can be fun and to have more fun with my students!

At times teaching can seem to take the role of a parent in ways that the students want to respond. It is my goal for the students to learn that being respectful is essential whether it is to their own parents/guardians or to their teachers. I have realized that some parents may not always be involved in ways that they should and it is essential that I help guide and structure the student appropriately. This past week we have parent volunteers that would come and help us with rock climbing. We are able to give a demonstration on repelling the students and the parents are there to help guide the students as they participate in this high-risk activity. I find that working with the parents and communicating with them is extremely vital. Parents are always looking for the best in their student and when communicating with the student and parent it is vital to have both of them understand what is needed in order to be respectful.

In last weeks blog I had discussed how to develop the well-being for student's learning.

Also, and to be completely honest, I have not collaborated with parents with students who have disabilities. However, at this point I feel that I don't because these students are not all my responsibility. I feel that in the future I would collaborate with them to increase movement in their lives as many students with disabilities struggle with movement. I would try to give students and their parents some helpful options to increase physical activity not only at home but to also collaborate to see what their student may prefer and to also set goals for their student as well.

Since I have my classroom website this is something that I will continually update to help with the communication of my students. I also used to create a healthy newsletter, from my previous employer, and sent it home with my students. This newsletter included healthy food options, healthy lifestyle habits, and activities the students were going to be involved in over the next few weeks. I like doing this type of letter because it emphasizes healthy choices not only in school, but also at the home.

Week 12 Reflection

Last week, my goals were to assess safety and to increase the ability for students to remain honest within the games. Due to some scheduling changes, the hearing and vision testing, assembly practice, assembly, and equipment cleaning, the safety video did not occur. I learned A  LOT about flexibility with the elementary PE this week J! However, honesty is something and safety is always something that can be achieved even if we were not in the gym for the most part of the week. On Monday morning, ten minutes before class started the principal told me that we cannot use the gym that day. So, I gathered my equipment up and was going to have PE outside on the blacktop. About 10 minutes into the class it started to rain just a little where it was tolerable, but the blacktop became slippery, so we moved the games to the grass where it was less slippery. Luckily the rain stopped after, but then returned later in the day. So to keep my students safe we basically had silent PE which for the most part is extremely difficult for the majority of my students, but who wouldn’t! Through all the situations that occurred this week, students responded well and I felt that I made right choices to keeping my students safe for their well-being. I find that students who usually have a more difficult time in class worked harder on being safe throughout all these types of conditions.

Students also did a fantastic job on being honest. I feel that throughout my time here I am really working hard on students to be honest to their peers and to themselves while participating in games. This past week, I had 6 teams divided for 2 games. Students were asked to play fairly and when one team scored a goal they were to switch out the non-scoring team with the team that was on a break. I also told the students that if you played 2 games already in a row that the other team needed to take your place. I did this so that the same team wasn’t winning all the time and for the students to be encouraged to play. With that I reminded them that I am only one person and I need their help to be honest and play fairly. For team handball, I separated the girls and the boys into playing at their own skill level. I feel that this worked out for the better and all the games were self-directed which was fantastic. I think that out of my 10 classes I had to re-group the students to remind them of the rules and being honest once with the others playing for 20+ minutes fairly! I was so impressed with all of them and honesty was shown throughout! I encouraged the students to remember how they played and they saw how much more time they were able to play in PE this week because of their ability to play fairly.  

This week regarding assessment, I hope to learn more ways to assess my student rather just through questioning. I hope I can learn how to give them more of a skill-base assessment, which will be great during our rock wall week. Secondly, I want to improve my ability to stagger my assessment and learn to be more basic for the younger and improve my questioning for the older students. This week, I have asked to go during some of my lunch/planning time to sit in other academic area classes to learn more ways to interact with the elementary students and learn a variety of ways to assess my students for understanding.

What I have learned about assessment is that it is continual. I am always assessing my students for understanding. Whether I am teaching them the rules of the game, how to do a skill in a sport, I am still always assessing them even during game play. Students are also great assessors. Students love helping out each other at the elementary level and pairing them up while teaching them the skills, students are able to help one another while they are assessing whatever they may be doing. As usual, if I feel that my students are not understanding I always gather them in the center circle where I break the information down enough for them to understand the game. Students are usually my demonstrators or I will write something on the board to help them understand whatever it may be. I find that the results that I get I alter my plan of how I am teaching it or the words that I am using. Sometimes for the younger students, I give too many directions at one time. I have found that giving them a few, demonstrating the skill, and them practicing that skills followed by more directions is helpful because then they can group the information and process it better. This type of assessment increases the student’s ability to learn and understand.

While monitoring students with disabilities, I have learned to see how much time on task they are on when the students are participating in the games. Students with disabilities, who come from different backgrounds, and whose primary language may not be English is to watch them participate in the games. For physical education, I feel that monitoring students with these conditions are seen when they are practicing the skills and participating in the game itself. I find that students with these conditions need extra assistance and so I find students who are skilled to help them and for their aides to take part in their duties to help the student progress as quickly and accurately as possible.  

Time affects student learning in a variety of ways. Time gives students the ability to understand and process the information. Students need time to work and process the information. Teachers, I feel need to utilize this time for the students through a variety of ways whether it is a movement activity, academic activity and any other type of activities. Time for students is essential in their learning and cognitively develop from the activity that is presented from the teacher.

Write one word that best describes your teaching experience this week. Flexibility

Week 11 Reflection

Last week, I worked on incorporating more students to utilize critical thinking. I felt that I was able to do so through Socratic questioning through a variety of ways. At the end of the week, we started playing capture the flag with four teams in which each team had a hula hoop with 5 bean bags in it. They had one guard and they were only able to protect their area. With that being said, we had three rounds in which they needed to count their bean bags and then tell me how much they had, exchange the guard, and then begin play again. At the end of the session, I had the students do some math in which they then needed to add up how many bean bags they had at the end of their session. Students were able to do this quickly and for the older classes I had them multiply, it was a quick way to incorporate some interdisciplinary subjects. Students were quick to understand the game and have a lot of fun. I was able to ask them also how they strategized when playing with their team. Most of them utilized each other, using teamwork, some of them sacrificed for each other. This concept through a catch and running game, students were able to incorporate some critical thinking strategies.

            As I discuss my ideas with my cooperating teacher, we continually work together to try to incorporate more interdisciplinary work, as well as teamwork. Students here at Mill are rough with one another and it is our goal to give them a positive setting to which they can cooperatively play with one another with some type of self-directed learning. In these games, where students tend to cheat at times, the other student calls them out. If they have a disagreement then they do rock, paper, scissors to see the results. For the most part, the students will own up to what they did incorrectly and continue the game. This type of honesty works well and students can monitor themselves which helps with cooperative learning.

            Next week, it is my goal to help with the well-being of our students. We have a safety assessment that we are assessing next week without first and second graders. This safety video will encompass how students are to work together, how to be safe with in the gymnasium, and how to utilize some of the equipment properly. Students are assessed based on their understanding and their cooperation during the video. I feel that this is one of the areas in which will help students in their well-being. Secondly, my goal is to again emphasize honesty. Throughout my time here at Mill, I continually work with students to be honest with one another. I hope to learn a new technique to help with their well-being of working together. This weekend my goal is to find an article that helps with honesty and cooperative play and perhaps learn a new strategy to aid the students in their well-being while participating in this positive-safe environment. 

    

For me respecting school boundaries are vital. For the most part, when we role model to the students on how to act, it demonstrates to them that they must follow the lead as well. Students continually look at their teachers to make sure their behavior is present and followed so much that they are watching to see if we make a mistake so that they can say well this teacher did this before. I have seen it with students here and at the high school level. If anything, I feel that I am extremely consistent with students and my expectations for them as well as the school’s expectations. When discussing things with students, I make sure that I come down to their level, but am away from them enough so make sure they have enough space which demonstrates my professionalism from them.

            While working with other colleagues, I tend to stay to myself especially when gossip is arising. I keep my distance and tend not to bring up extra information, but rather just discussing PE or some type of curriculum with others. I keep my professionalism when conversing with others, be willing to help them if they need additional help with students, and be a listening ear when they may feel the need to try to understand an alternative approach to their students.

            While talking with families, I always have my facts straight before talking with them and have any additional information they may need readily available in case they may ask for it. Students are my priority and I wanted to make sure the parents understand that I am here to make sure their student is safe and that they can talk to me with any concern they may have. When talking with parents, I am sure to present myself professionally, utilize terminology that is not PE jargon, and I always ask if there is anything else that I can do to help their student. For the most part, I feel that my professionalism is always displayed no matter where I am. I try to stay confident with what I am doing and be a professional role model for my students. 

      

       For the most part, PE is an area that if any negligence or any lawsuits stems from a lot are from physical education. My goal in PE is to keep my gymnasium safe for all students, which means I do a safety check almost daily making sure there is noting protruding out of the walls, doors are secured, not miscellaneous items on the floor, no chairs I the corners or anything else that can inhibit my students from being safe. As reminders I usually have students tie their shoes so that they don’t fall and we always remember to be safe while running with our eyes up and in front of us. I think that for PE that demonstrates professional conduct and knowing what legal directives I can prevent from occurring in my gymnasium. 

       Since we are a special, we do have an adaptive physical educator who does come in every once in a while. However, this is something I do need to discuss more with my cooperating teacher. With all my activities, I am always trying to adapt it to those particular students. However, I do have some wonderful aides who have been working with these students for a long time. These aides quickly adapt the activity to fit their needs, but I also suggest some ideas that can help the student. For example, with my team building activities as I discussed last week, I had the student who didn’t want to be blindfolded a chance to work with a peer she trusted. The activity was still complete and the concept was trusted that she still achieve a similar outcome as if she was doing the activity the way it was intended. This week with capture the flag or with the soccer unit I did, I found that pairing the student with another person made a big difference. Having a partner they worked together as a team which I feel not only help the student with their self-esteem, but also gave the other student the ability to make sure that they could achieve the highest quality of the activity. For next week, I am going to discuss with Mr. Quaid, what other options I have with these students and how he may also suggest altering the activity to make sure all students have the ability to achieve success. But thus far, I aim to make sure my activities can be adapted in some way so the students is progressively achieving more success.  

     

      Social injustice is seen a lot throughout elementary. I find that students are constantly thinking that things are unfair or that their peers have an advantage. For me teaching students cooperative play is my goal. I teach them that at times some people in life are not always going to follow the rules, but it is their role to continue to do so and teach the others to be like them as well. For some students, they do really try to help others and for some students they care, but others they don’t. I constantly encourage my students to be fair and when I have the opportunity to talk with them about it, then we present it in a positive way to work nicely with our peers. 

      

One word that describes this week: Inspiring