1. In what ways can you change, develop, or maintain a positive culture and outlook for physical education at your school? What things will you do in your physical education units. How can you collaborate with administrators?
Creating a positive culture and outlook in PE begins on the first day of school. It is important to get the students’ input on activities or sports they would want to engage in throughout the year. Though I will have an organized template, it will still leave room for student input. This will also include paying homage to various cultures by teaching a sport or dance that is not native to the USA. If in the school’s budget, it would give us an opportunity to have a person from the community to come and speak or teach us a dance that is native to their culture.
Another way to create positivity in PE would be to have, at least once a semester, where we integrate the special needs students into the class for a unified sports day. The students would come in 1 time per week for a month to learn a sport related skill or play a sports game. By inviting the special needs students into the class can help them feel more a part of the school, as well as the other PE students can learn to respect and help those who are different from them. At the end of the month we would have a unified sports day during a lunch time activity.
Lunch time activities can incorporate the school and physical education classes while the administration can see what we are working on with the students. We would also need to maintain positive and thorough communication with student counsel or the group who is in charge of campus events and activities. The lunch time activity will be for students who either need to make up work or if students want extra credit. The PE lunch time activity will be held once a month for 30 minutes and will correspond to the PE unit being taught in class. For example, during the dance unit, we will teach a line dance for the lunch time activity that all students can learn and participate in. For the physical activity unit, we can have a physical competition where they will have to go through different physical challenges and exercise to win. (The PE students can participate or keep score). For the unified sports day, we would have a three 8-minute sports games. Students in the PE class or the school can sign up to participate.
2. In regards to your teaching skills, in what areas do you feel like you need to work on? Create 1-2 goals for these areas as an action plan on how you will accomplish your goal.
As an educator, there is always room for improvement, as this class highlighted a few areas where I can enhance my teaching skills. 2 of the areas are: creating an organized lesson plan and delivering clear and concise instructions.
Creating an organized lesson plan, I learned, takes time and creativity. It is important so the students stay engaged in the lesson and motivated to participate in PE. Here are 2 steps I can do in order to create an organized lesson plan.
-Getting ideas: Before each unit, I can gather student input on things they want to learn or do during the unit and I can incorporate a few of those ideas into the lesson plan. When creating instant activities, they do not have to be elaborate or something new; they can be a continuation of the previous day. The activities need to be purposeful to the greater lesson. -Accounting of my time: The lessons need to time specific so I can be aware of when we are to do certain things. This helps me stay organized while in class and holds me accountable if I am off task and we are falling behind in the lesson or unit. I will keep a timer/watch with me at all times to ensure I am on schedule.
Efficient lesson planning can assist me in delivering clearer and concise instructions. Through the weekly 5-minute lesson videos, I became aware of my tendency to over explain myself when describing directions or concepts. In doing so, the directions can become lost in the word jungle of the explanation. Here are 2 steps I can take in ensuring my instructions are clear and concise.
-Create and bring visuals: Whether that be pictures or diagrams to illustrate what is occurring. If students are learning formations for basketball, football, or volleyball unit, have a printed diagram can help them know where to go and where they should be. At times, students may need an active demonstration what they need to do. By them mimicking what is on the diagram, this can create muscle memory for them to be able to execute the skill. Demonstrations can be done in person or through a video, however, a video may be difficult because it is not as interactive as a live demonstration. It will also hold me accountable for knowing how to do the movement so the students can trust my teaching and be encouraged to participate in PE.
-What is most important?: As I explained earlier, I have a tendency to over explain a concept or information. The amount of unnecessary information can be overwhelming to process for some students, and they miss the necessary parts of the instructions. I will make sure I give bullet point explanations that tell the actions I am evaluating them on and the standards they will be held accountable for. The information should first be explained in 3-5 points without giving a detailed explanation. After the important points are stated, I will go back and explain them in detail. I can also write the main points on a poster for them to refer back to throughout the class period
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