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.