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