Week 6 Reflection

Weekly Reflection and Self-Assessment Blog Week 6

Due Date: October 3, 2011 (due Monday at 7am)

This week’s blog is based on the following standards,

best practices and education program learning outcomes.

Illinois Professional Teaching Standard #7 – Communication

Teachers should be good communicators. They should be able to use effective written, verbal, nonverbal and visual communication to foster supportive interaction in the classroom.

Best Practice – Providing opportunity for peer feedback

Giving students planned time for feedback from other students concerning final projects, drafts of work, and every step in between.

Education Program Learning Outcome # 6 – Communication

Candidates will use effective written and oral communication and implement other appropriate media technologies to enhance instruction and to support positive interactions in the learning community. 

Goal Setting:  Last week you set two goals. Reflect on those goals and where you are in achieving them. Also describe your conversation with your cooperating teacher regarding your goals. Set 2 goals for yourself. Write one goal regarding communication for the rest of the semester. Consider: how is what you write, say, and do a model for your students? Share your goals with your cooperating teacher.

Last week, I worked on my communication with my cooperating teachers and worked on being able to discuss other situations with nurses, counselors, etc. I feel that I have achieved this goal in a variety of ways. Each time a student gets hurt and goes down to the nurse’s office, I go there after class to follow-up on the student. I also work alongside the nurses to ask questions regarding student’s health. This past week, I had a student come up to me stating that she had a genetic disorder of her heart in which she couldn’t get her heart within NCHS target heart rate zone. In this case, I have made arrangements to speak with the nurse’s office to see if this was noted in her health chart. This type of collaboration is continuous as I continue to make sure students are participating in good health and that they are following up with the NCHS support team.

Additionally, I had a student who refuses to dress for PE in another class and who struggles with being respectful in class. After writing a referral, in which he doesn’t care about, we went to his dean and spoke of this situation. He is now aware that if he refuses to dress he will be dropped from PE and become a 5^th year senior if he continues to not follow the rules within PE department. When collaborating within him and his dean it comes to find out that he does not have a locker and does not like to change around other students. By communicating with support staff, I feel that we have the underlying reason for his type of behavior. I have seen this trend a lot at this school and have learned a lot about behaviors that most students have when they just don’t feel comfortable changing in front of their peers.

This type of collaboration and communication is so effective especially going beyond your “call of duty” to make sure students are given equal opportunities and that they have their needs met. Most importantly, that we show students we care about them and provide them with a firm understanding of all expectations.  

My two goals for this week are:

1. When communicating with my students, I will assess their understanding on important concepts while asking rhetorical questions to make sure the students understand these concepts.
2. For my freshman fitness students, I will continually write on the board their target for the day in regards to the information I want them to understand. These students require a lot of repetition when it comes to fitness concepts; therefore, having me continually enforce this information will be beneficial for the students.  

Reflection/Analysis:  (Complete at the end of the week)

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

2. Summarize your experiences this past week based on the following:

a.      Knowledge: What have you learned about effective communication in the classroom?  What do you know about the importance of audience and purpose when selecting ways to communicate ideas?

Since my classroom is different in comparison to other academic areas, I find that communicating in the classroom begins with a review of the information from the day before by asking a variety of questions (Socratic questioning). The students benefit from this type of activity because it gets them ready for the day by remembering information from the day before in which scaffolding is taking place. The audience is extremely essential when knowing what to say in the classroom. I handle my freshman students a lot different than my upper classman. In previous posts, I’ve stated that I need to constantly repeat fitness components to my students so that the information can be stored correctly. The students respond well to written information in which I can leave the information up on the board while they are participating in class. For example, when introducing the weight room the students learned about the difference from muscular strength versus endurance. The students were to write out their personal goal along with adapting their program to meet that goal (i.e. repetitions that match their goal). By having that written information available to my students, they were able to adapt their weight training program to meet their needs. They did well and I found out how essential it is to have written information available for students when trying to communicate ways in which I want them to understand the differences between muscular strength and endurance.  

b.      Performance: How did you create varied opportunities for all students to use effective written, verbal, non-verbal, and visual communication at this placement thus far?

In my class, I have provided students with the opportunity to communicate in a varied of ways. Although this is something they do not do often, I do feel it is effective in goal setting. During my placement, I have had students write goals for their cardio room and weight room training goals. Additionally, I have had students record their resting heart rate and take their average rate and then explain when it is best to take their resting heart rate and why it is vital to do it then. Most of my communication with activities is visual communication. The students are often given a verbal direction of the tasks, followed by me demonstrating the task with a group of students, and then have them participate in the activities themselves. I really believe in the direct teaching model in which students are exposed to the information, given guided practice, and then can participate in the activities. I feel for PE this is the most effective way to teach and is most comfortable for myself. I find that my students succeed a lot from this model and I find that the students are more engaged in the activities as a result from me being to ask questions to assess their learning and their understanding for the task at that specific time.

c.       Performance: Describe an example of when you practiced effective listening, conflict resolution or group-facilitation skills this week.

Over the past eight weeks at NCHS, I  have had plenty of opportunities to be an effective listener and deal with a lot of conflict resolution. The students there are very successful, but in between them are a few students that really struggle with following the rules. For example, this past week I had a student who did not want to participate in any of the activities we were doing. When asked to follow directions and work with another student, he refused and was questioning me back so that he would be in control of the situation. I don’t usually like to get the dean immediately involved in the activity, but I felt it was vital since the student’s temper was on the rise and I was afraid of where else it would have gone since the student was that upset. After leaving him along for a while, I went back to the student to explain the purpose of the activity and why it was being done. He did understand after I had talked to him, but it he still was disrespectful and insubordinate to the task for that day. I asked him what he thought would be better for this class to do and what activities he wanted to see done within this class. He stated that the activities were fine, but that he just didn’t like being in this track and was looking forward to an easier unit in which he didn’t have to do much. Having this been done, we contacted his mother in which we explained the situation to make sure she knew what was going on and how we want him to succeed. His mom was on board with us and completely understood what we were trying to achieve for his success within PE. This type of effective listening took place when I had asked him what he’d rather be doing or activities in which he thought could be more vital. We dealt well with conflict resolution in which the student received a referral for his non-dress and since this incident has been respectful in class. There are many more situations in which I have dealt with over the past few weeks that the counselors know who I am along with the deans and nurses. I find this a positive situation in that I try to advocate for my students and truly try to help them succeed even if it provides some conflict in which they can then understand the importance of why we set the standards we do. 

Communication with your College Supervisor:

1. Describe anything in particular you want your supervisor to know or to help you with.
1. Please let me know if there are any useful elementary links that you have worked with in the past that you find are helpful for teaching el. PE.

2. How did you communicate with and challenge students in a supportive manner and provide students with constructive feedback this week?
1. I consistently challenge my students to work harder in the weight room while either increasing their repetitions or increasing their weight limit. Additionally, I give my students constructive feedback to which I find they should be working out with. The students have the ability to earn 20 points when they workout in their target heart rate zone for 20 minutes. This is their daily points in which they are challenged to achieve. The students also challenged in my leadership class when they need to achieve a task within a day. The students are given only certain amount of information and have the opportunity to earn their points based on their ability to communicate effectively with their peers. My students within this class are always challenged beyond what they normally are because of their ability to be natural leaders who sign up for the class themselves.