Week 10 Reflection

Last week I decided to work on another way to incorporate student’s ability to transition quickly when doing activities. I had a difficult time finding something that would work quickly. I did find though that students at Mill Street at trained that when they hear the whistle to come in the middle. I find that putting my hand up and with a silent countdown works the best after having the students come in the middle to listen to directions rather than me “shhh” the students, which I always disliked when I was in school. I was trying to attempt to find music and have students play when the music is playing and listening when it stopped however, I find it very difficult to find music that is appropriate for the students at all age levels as well as them not being to childish for the older students. I have been talking with my cooperating teacher to find out is the KidzBop series is appropriate for them to listen to.

                This week as I begin parachute games with the primary students and capture the flag, I hope to help students develop strategies to help their teams achieve a successful completion of the game. In doing so, I will be asking groups of students how they hope to get the flags. Since we are utilizing pedometers within this series, I will be asking students how they hope to achieve more steps in a25 minute class along with being able to incorporate more steps on a daily basis. My goals are to bring attention to students on how many steps they take within day and how they can achieve more within that week alone. 

       

           This past week my students participated in a team-building circuit. This circuit was the first time I ever did and to me I found it to be quite successful. For the first time, I had students begin a teambuilding exercise right away by having them line up by their month of their birthday in order without talking. At first, I did not think that the students would be confused on how they should accomplish this, but I had a lot of students come up to me asking for help right away. It was here that I realized how dependent students are on just asking for the answers versus working with each other to figure out the task. I had some students who did a great job and figured out how they can tell others their birthday without being told any answers. I think encouraging students to think outside the box is extremely necessary and with these team-building exercises, I found that a lot of them were trying to take over, but did not want to listen. Students worked throughout the week on items like critical thinking, problem solving, and questioning. I asked my students this past week to work on a five finger contract. This contract was to use the hands that we have to help others, because together we can make a difference. Students remembered this information when asked the alternative day they had PE. I think for the most part, teambuilding should be taught more during the school year because students at this age consistently want to do better than others, putting others down, and are egoistic. I feel that it is a part of their age, but I also feel that they need to learn why it is essential to work within groups they may not normally do.  Students were challenged throughout the week and I feel that they were gaining a lot of information not only on themselves, but also with how hard it can be to be a leader within a group.

                Besides this week, I feel that I question my students properly, ask to participate on their performance skills, encourage critical thinking, and help scaffold information from the lesson itself. On a daily basis my students are thinking about game strategy or strategies that help make their skill better. I usually begin each day with a brief reminder on how to participate as a group or what we learned from the day prior and utilize that information and I teach a new skill. I feel that PE is a great place to scaffold information as students are progressing in their skills. What I love about it is that students may advance quickly if they can or can continually work on a skill when doing a variety of activities. Students I feel, as excited about doing their best in PE as they want to prove to their peers that they can be a good teammate.

                This past week, I developed a team-building circuit as I described above. I began the week with a five finger contract in which each finger meant something positive. However I did have to change it to a star because students were to busy with their middle finger so I made the adjustments to help students remember to be a star. I found that this engaged students quickly and gave reason why team-building is necessary not only in PE, but also in the outside and within their classrooms. I drew out each station in which the students. The students for the first day I did take approximately ten minutes to take the students around to each station to describe and to demonstrate what the rules were for each station. This I felt was a clearer and accurate presentation of the concepts I wanted to the students to understand. I also gave students a hard copy to the leaders of the group for a written description to help aid them in their understanding of the task they were going to understand.

                At times I only had about 4 groups of about 5 or 6 students in which I found much easier to work together as a group and monitor all of the stations. I had the students spread out at alternative stations so that they had enough room to participate in the activities. While I was teaching, I individually monitored each group and asked if they enjoyed the activities. Students were able to tell me if they understood and I was able to monitor their progress based on their behavior. Students who were off task I found that they didn’t understand the activity. Therefore, I went around and assessed how they were going to accomplish the task. After participating in the second day of team-building I took about two minutes to sit the students down and ask how they liked participating in these activities. For the most part, students were happy with doing activities like these, but they also providing me with some great input which was that they didn’t like the “pick up the garbage” because when they had to put the jerseys into the bag it was the same texture as the jerseys so they were not sure if that was the bag or not. I found this to be a great point. The students also didn’t like the “blind shapes” because the jump rope was flimsy and they were became easily frustrated with this, so the student suggested either straws or some type of toothpick. I loved having two minutes of feedback especially when I told them this was the first time I did this and I find it important to get kids feedback as they are the ones participating in the activities.

                This week, I had to adapt my teambuilding activities for students with disabilities. I had one student who was extremely afraid of trusting others and being blindfolded. I told her aide that if she could keep her eyes closed while a teacher and student guided her through the course that would be successful. In fact, she also was able to choose a student in her group that she trusted. I felt that by doing this she was able to trust other students more and learn that they are also here to help her. On the second day, she worked closely with another student and when I talked to the group they were extremely supportive while working with her to make her feel apart of the group and helped her do some of the activities. In addition to this on the second day, she was able to be blindfolded and was able to trust some peers. I found this to be a great success!

         The anticipatory set always makes the primary students much more engaged in the activities. I often time like to make them laugh to engage them in their activities. This past week when I had them playing a team game called happy clams, I hooked them with asking who knows what a clam looks like and then I told them how we are going to act like clams. They thought it was funny and were completely engaged in the activity. I find that quotes work well with the students too to help incorporate how they can work as a team. This past week I used a star to represent the points to which their characteristics should be when they are working as a team. Students were very responsive and they were able to carry over the information to their following PE period.

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

Week 9

           This past week, I have been able to obtain a signal in which the students know to stop in play and listen to directions. This is a whistle blow which is loud and for the most part the students stop on the whistle and listen to directions. However, after I do blow the whistle I tell the students that mouths are closed and eyes are on me for the directions. I feel that doing this helps them remember what they need to do. In the next week or so, I am looking to try another signal to see if it works better or not. This idea is that when the music is being played, then the students participate in their activities, but when the music turns off the the students should listen to my directions. I feel that this may be better and it also provides a positive atmosphere with the students and can increase their physical activity just from having music playing. I am in hopes that something like this will work.

            During the week, I also worked on calling out students who are doing the correct thing. For the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders this worked out well because they wanted to show the teacher how well they can behave. I am thinking about obtaining some stickers and then when the students are doing something that I want them to do I give them a sticker telling them how good they are doing. I am not sure how exactly I’ll approach it, but for right now I like the verbal praise to get the student’s attention after I start calling out students and the task they are doing correctly. It seems to have a positive impact where I am not calling on students who are not participating poorly. It gives these students an opportunity to behave appropriately. 

        

Collaboration as with any organization is extremely essential. For most of my experience, I find that collaboration is vital a lot more for me in elementary than in high school. When I began thinking about teaching, I thought that I would love elementary PE a lot more than high school. I’ve come to a realization that I am not sure if that is correct. I have a lot more to learn in elementary PE than I did when I was teaching high school students. I’ve collaborated a lot with my cooperating teacher in the sense that I must remember the cues and remember how much I have to make sure all students are on task with everything I say. At times I have said things that students interpret differently on things that I didn’t think they would not understand. I find that teaching 1^st and 2^nd grade I must keep them busy otherwise I loose them. It is more challenging than I was expecting, but I consider it growing pains and that as I grow with experience here I can develop a better rapport with the students.

      I recently sat in a meeting this past week that had to do with collaboration from the district to the schools. Currently, the schools are trying to incorporate more 1:1 computers with our students. Some teachers find it vital to be continually working on the computer as it brings a lot of differentiation and sources to the classroom. This is not only the only reason, but having these computers also meets the needs of our technology students today. In essence, this trial and error run is being performed in the school currently. Naperville is working with some school where the technology devices are readily available compared to here at Mill Street where checking out laptop carts are difficult to find. In essence, this meeting brought to my attention how much the school is in need of more laptops because teachers  are wanting students to write more frequently and meet their needs. Additionally, the district is apprehensive because of the expense. It was interesting to think of this process on how to budget for materials that are not available currently but something they are looking for in the future. Collaboration on this aspect was operated through a written assessment of how the classroom would utilize the equipment to its fullest extent.  

Here at Mill Street talking to parents is not performed often, but are working with colleagues were are trying to develop a curriculum in which exposes students to a variety of activities. Students and parents in the upcoming weeks are participating in a rock climbing unit. The students and some of their parents are able to join during these activities which I feel develop good relationships with parents and also that they are exposed to an activity that can be fun for the entire family. Developing an effective climate begins at the time students enter the gymnasium. Students participate in their own warm-ups independently which creates an atmosphere of self-directed learning and responsibility. In the past and while working with students at Naperville Central, I collaborated a lot with counselors which helped me understand my student’s lives outside of school. I was able to communicate with parents on what their child may need and emailed them frequently to make sure what I was doing was effective and if there needed to be any adjustments that were necessary beforehand so that I was taking on a preventative approach. The parents respected that and overall went well. For the most part, I enjoy talking with parents and if they have a problem or are being defensive I feel that I can help them understand why I am doing what I am doing to make sure their child succeeds or reason for their safety.

            While collaboration is vital, I have also been exposed to the co-teaching model. At the high school level my leadership class that I was in was all co-teaching. We planned together the activities we wanted to present, but also was able to co-teach just about ever lesson. For the most part I would begin the activity, she would present the meat of the lesson, while finishing I was able to debrief the students while helping them understand what they needed to understand from the material presented. I find that co-teaching is more necessary than anything. I think teachers who have the same knowledge can reach out to more students and may be able to present the material in a different way. I feel that students then, if they don’t care of one teacher, can continue to learn from the other to make their classroom experience more positive. Co-teaching allows for more students to ask questions, more small group activities with the teacher involved, and raises more awareness of self-directed learning. Students, I feel, benefit more from co-teaching than any other teaching because they are listening to different voices keeping their attention longer while teachers are able to collaborate to find the best practice for the material to teach based on two experiences.

            I feel that co-planning and co-teaching is something I enjoy as students are continual learning a variety of material. My ability to co-teach mainly has come from my high school experience and my first day here at Mill Street. I find that co-teaching helps me develop certain professional skills and helps me create new ways to teach based on the reaction from the students from another teacher, which is something we may not see when we are teaching.

            Personally, I have developed collaboration and rapport with other is a variety of ways. At the high school level, I always made sure I followed up with students when they went down to the nurse’s office, came back from the counselors office, and when they need information regarding absences or their grades. Collaborating is something that I feel is necessary and something I feel I do naturally. I love figuring out ways to present material in a new way and figuring out how I can make my students more successful. I like being able to develop positive relationships by stating the positives in the days rather than the negatives. Teachers know about the poor students, but they also want to hear about how the students are performing on a positive level. Each day when the class leaves or comes into the class I like to ask the teacher how they are doing today so that I have a heads up for the day, but I also like to the their classroom teacher how great of a job they did especially when we are able to complete our tasks and more. Collaboration, whether positive or negative, must be done constantly and consistently so that there is an effective learning environment. 

      Overall, this week has been exhausting....

Week 8 Reflection - Elementary has begun!

One goal that I had this week was to begin to co-teach and maybe take over a class. However, on day one I was able to teach at least 4 classes and since then I have been teaching all the classes for the day. I was surprised how different elementary PE was from high school, but not necessarily in a negative way. I was happy that I was able to get involved right away with the students, but find that it is going to be harder to obtain my authority only because it is already 8 weeks into the class, where I’d be able to obtain that authority more easily at the beginning of the year. However, I’m confident that they will learn quicker the more I see them. My second goal was to have cues to help my students learn. However, my teaching style for my teaching for the student to learn is on target I feel with some alterations that can be used from class to class. However, my cues for having the students stop their activity and begin an activity is something that I need to work on. When teaching the students my cues work for what I want them to practice, but when they need to stop is more difficult. At this age, they are so eager to begin the activity and play that when they have to stop they don’t want to and I’ll need to give them a cue to learn. This is one of my questions you will see below.

1. One of my goal this week is to obtain a signal so that students know to stop the activity they are participating and listen for further directions. I feel that I will have better opportunities for more students to be engaged in physical fitness for a longer duration of a time.
2. It is call out students who are properly participating in class appropriately and call them out so that others can look at how appropriate behavior should be seen within the gym.

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

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

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

a.      Knowledge: What are your strengths and weaknesses in the rules of English grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and syntax? What do you know about using diverse instructional strategies and assessments that include an appropriate balance of lecture, discussion, activity, and written and oral work?

                                                        i.      I think it is appropriate to say that within PE we often do not have students being taught about the English language, however, there is a point that I feel is necessary to properly model the English language so that students can utilize the correct language. Within the elementary school now, I have already corrected students when talking to utilize the correct word or pronounce the word as well. I think it is essential to teach these young individuals the correct way to speak not only to adults, but also to their classmates. Where PE exceeds others areas is in its instructional assessments and balance of lecture, discussion, activity, written and oral work. Students at this age need to have extreme structure and need an order of activity that they need to follow. Students, after their warm-up, sit down on the red line and/or black line and then listen to a little lecture of the material we are learning for that day. They are engaged in the conversation, learn that activities and understand their role for those specific activities. Students do participate in some oral work when they are answering questions in front of their peers. For the most part, I feel that students should be exposed to lecture, to a demonstration, to then individually practicing on their own and then expanding the students into some mini-games where they can apply their skills. This form of instructional strategy allows me to watch students at an individual level where I can assess them.  These students are exposed then to a variety of methods where teaching is achieved.

b.      Performance: Describe how well you express ideas orally with explanations, examples, and support in a clear, succinct style. Give an example of how you listened well.

                                                        i.      Typically how I present the information is minimal, quick, succinct, with a demonstration. For example, I will ask students how to do an activity, I will listen to what they say and emphasize the points in which they were correct. When teaching the students a skill I will break it down first in which all students are watching me. For example, if I am teaching them a pull back in soccer, I will stay first you start in a trap position, this is a trap position. Next, you pull back with your toes towards your back, like this, and then you turn your body around and change direction. This is called a what? Students will then say a pull back. I then reiterate the skill by having the students stay it, followed by them trying it by them while I give the cues. I then progress into them practicing when then I’ll whistle for them to trap, pull back, and change direction. Giving the students this model help put the information in long-term memory and helps the students motor development as they practice the skill. By breaking these skills down, students are aware of how to participate as well as progress into skills that maybe more challenging.  

c.       Performance: Give an example of how you assisted students whose communication skills may be impeded by learning, language, and/or cultural differences, especially those whose first language is not English.

                                                        i.      I feel that in PE students whose English is not their first language are able to participate better than if they are in the classroom. When teaching to an ESL learner I give cues which are minimal words that I try to use that are direct in what they are practicing. Students are also given a visual demonstration with the cues and then followed by them practicing. For the most part, I help group students together with someone who does understand English and for students to cooperatively work today to achieve the skill. In fact, I have a class currently who is their first ESL class in which all students in this class speak Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon. Some students never knew any Spanish and their parents have placed them in this class so they learn the Spanish language. I feel that for this class, I will need to be precise, use less PE jargon, and break down the skills so that all students can understand the skill. I feel that by doing so, the students are able to be assessed and if learning is being achieved they can progress in the skill and if not I can gather the students; teach them again followed by learning more. I think this is something that I will need to learn more about and how to make sure all students can understand what I am talking about.

Communication with your College Supervisor:

1. Describe anything in particular you want your supervisor to know or to help you with.
1. Do you have any suggestions as a good signal to give elementary students to stop in their activity to listen to further instruction?
2. How important do you think it is for teachers to be good models in effective reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills during their direct and indirect instructional activities?

a.     Obviously I find that participating in good language skills is vital. We are the models for which these students learn from. I find that students respect me more when I am able to demonstrate my personal skills and they know when teachers know what they are talking about as well as how to teach them. Whether I am talking to one student or talking to an entire group, telling each of them the cues they need to hear before they participate in an activity is vital. If even one student hears something different the activity can completely bomb or that they just don’t participate in the activity at all. I have to be extremely precise on the words that I use so that the activity can go smoothly and for students to remain safe in PE

Week 7 Reflection

           Last week I set two goals reflecting on the meeting some goals for my students those goals were to continually assess my students in regards to rhetorical questioning along with being able to continually repeat information and give my students a target to meet for each class period. I feel like I was able to meet these goals because when giving my freshman students information about their fitness project, I continually made sure that the students were able to understand what they needed to do in order to achieve success within the project. The students were able to succeed as I asked rhetorical questions. I was even able to go over information regarding cardiovascular system and information relating to fitness itself. In doing so, I had the students utilize this information in a variety of ways, whether it was through application or repetition of the information. I felt these goals were achieved because they students were able to repeat the information back to me in a variety of ways which is beneficial for long-term learning.

As I begin my elementary placement, I feel that preparation is going to be much harder for me than in high school. In elementary my cues must be on target an they must to literal as these students will take every word that I say for the meaning of that word. Therefore, my first goal would be to identify the cues that I will be utilizing during my presentation of the lesson within each lesson plan. My second goal, is to identify lead up games that will allow for skill development for these students especially for the younger students as they begin cooperation play.

Reflection/Analysis:  (Complete at the end of the week) Write one word that best describes your teaching experience this week. My word for the week is accomplished. 

                                                                        Physical education is vital to meeting the needs of the students in other academic areas. Students who have disabilities or who struggle in some academic areas are placed in what is called LRPE, which is Learning-Readiness physical education. The purpose of this group is to prepare the brain for understanding of their other academic areas. These students are strategically placed in physical education class before they go into a class in which they may struggle with. While keeping medical terms to a minimum this concept is basically to prepare the individual to achieve a higher rate of success in their struggling academic area by placing them in physical education prior to their academic struggle. The purpose: to prepare the body to obtain a better understanding of concept area. This area is something I will research more as students should be placed in physical education to help their level of focus to achieve more success in their academic areas. In addition to this, the students are exposed to many levels of fitness through team sports in which we allow students to participate in physical education an expose them to a variety of activities so that they can be life-long fitness individuals.

                                                             The students are currently held accountable for their fitness levels which help influence their knowledge and influence their learning. The students twice a week are in the aerobic room where they wear heart rate monitors where they are asked to be in their target heart rate zone for 20 minutes in order to obtain their twenty points for that day. Ultimately, the students need to understand the importance of fitness and being held accountable for this they learn that their bodies are able to perform at this specific level where they learn that fitness is essential not only to maintain their health, but also for academic success. 

                                                              i.      This past week was an extremely short week. The students had only two days of class in which they participate in bus evacuation for the majority of the class with a late dismissal. With that being said, the students had fitness days in which they were asked to participate in games rather than lecture to get in their physical activity. However, some ways in which I utilizes a variety of explanations are through a video, then through a homework assignment to assess understanding, followed by a review of the other days. In addition, the students who are participating in my upper classman leadership class continually go through challenges tasks for the week. In doing so, they are debriefed on the task each day and we always apply the information they have learned about that day to how they can apply this to their life. For example, the students were broken up into two separate groups that were separated by a barrier so that each team had to work to achieve the task on their own. In doing so, the students were asked to cross over the obstacle course with their resources safely without being “washed to shore.” The students were challenged because they needed to use teamwork. At the conclusion of this activity only one group complete the task and the other did not. When debriefing the students, some were extremely happy while the other group was extremely disappointed. The students asked a variety of questions and applied this to their lives. The students provide great information and were able to learn that in life sometimes others will succeed and you may not, but the importance is not to be discouraged and never to give up but to persevere. 

                                                              i.      The students within my physical education class do not have any disabilities, because we have a separate adaptive program. 

                                                              i.      Currently, I have utilized some math in utilization of the Karvonen formula which utilizes math to figure out the target heart rate zone of an individual. However, I will also use spelling for my students at the elementary level or use history through a variety of kinesthetic movements. I have seen students participate in scrabble fitness in which students need to spell words while doing a locomotor skill while running down the court to obtain letters. This uses language arts which is extremely beneficial to students because they are not only able to cooperate with the other students, but they also apply words with their peers and are able to learn. I have also seen students at the elementary level learn history while playing around the world in basketball. The students are exposed to a variety of information while traveling around the world to understand the facts they are currently studying. My hope is to be able to utilize information from other academic areas in at least one of their fitness days a week, which means I’ll need to communicate a lot with other academic areas and be creative with my fitness days.

Communication with your College Supervisor: Describe anything in particular you want your supervisor to know or to help you with.

At this point, I don’t feel that I have any questions that I need to share with you, but am looking forward to beginning a new opportunity in elementary.