FIELD EXPERIENCE 10

REFLECTION ON LESSON

Friday March 23rd, destination: Elementary School 8:05am. In this reflection, I will be concentrating on the lesson that was taught. The lesson that was being taught this day was gymnastics. I actually taught the majority of this lesson, so in this reflection, I am going to focus on reflecting on my teaching. Being a reflective teacher is a great way to professionally develop into a great P.E. teacher. 
            The students have had gymnastics for about 4 classes. So I decided to start the lesson off by going over all the tumbles in gymnastics. I thought this was a great review of the skills for the students and also a great warm up. After we went over all the skills, I divided the class up into groups and told the students to create their own gymnastics routine. The students loved this idea/concept. The groups ended up having 4 or 5 students in them. After about 20-25 minutes of having the students come up with a routine, I asked each group to present their routine infront of the entire class. The group that was presenting did their 1-2 minute routine and then was judged by the other students observing. The observers judged by showing a number 1-10 on there fingers and also plenty of applause. I personally thought that this lesson went great on my part. All students were engaged willing to come up with a "sweet" gymnastics routine. I can relate my style of teaching from class today in the fact that the style I was teaching was cooperative learning. Students had to design a routine with complex sequences involved. 

Field Experience 9

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION
As I said in my last post, my host phys ed. teacher picked out a great classroom teacher for me to observe. Here are a few points about his teaching inside the classroom.
1. How is the classroom arranged?
The classroom was arranged with 4 big tables, with 4 students seated at them each. This set up was exactly how my 4th grade classroom was back in the day.
2. How does the classroom differ from the gymnasium as an educational setting?
As we all know, the gymnasium differs a lot compared to the classroom setting. One of the main obvious differences between the two is that, inside the classroom, students are sitting, while in the gymnasium, students are mainly moving around. Also, the classroom setting is much more quiet compared to a gym full of students learning a new physical skill. The classroom was obviously much more smaller than the gym at the school also.
3. How would you describe the classroom atmosphere?

The classroom atmosphere was actually quiet inviting. I forgot how eye catching the classroom can be with posters all around the room, stating certain topics, also there was one of the "old school" projectors in the classroom that was being used. In the lesson that I observed, all the lights were off due to the use of the projector. This here greatly effected the students in which all their focus was on the topic being projected on the screen.
4. What was the topic and structure of the portion of the lesson you observed?
The topic that I observed was adding and subtracting fractions. Examples: (6/6) - (4/6) = (2/6). The teacher first started out with adding/subtracting fractions with a common denominator. (easier) and then progressed into different denominators.
5. How would you describe the language and literacy levels of the students?
For the 4th grade students, I thought that their language and literacy levels were more advanced than when I was in 4th grade. I didn't start learning about fractions until 6th grade I believe. Some of the terms that were being used were; mean, median, mode, max, min, range, meter, centimeter, decimeter.
6. How did the teacher engage the students in the lesson segment you observed?
I thought this teacher was great with getting the students involved in the lesson. During the lesson I observed, the teacher put on a "magic show" about fractions. About how certain parts of a whole disappear. He also had students come up to the projector and make certain parts of the whole shape disappear. While this was going on, he played "magic show" music. He even had me engaged in his lesson! He used different shapes to show that they can be broken into smaller pieces that make up the whole shape. It was a great lesson to have observed.
7. How would you describe the social behaviors of the students in this age group?
The social behaviors of the students were your typical 4th graders. Many of the students were willing to answers the teachers questions by raising their hand. All students were respectful and I could observe that there was learning taking place throughout the lesson because students began grasping the concept of adding and subtracting fractions.
8. What did you learn from this observation that will help you teach this age group more effectively?
The classroom teacher that I observed was no doubt a great teacher. Some ideas that I can take from this observation and then add to my own teaching would have to be the concept of having a dynamic voice while teaching. This in return engages your students more in the current lesson being taught. Also, having a lot of student involvement is also great for learning. This usually happens for the majority of physical education students. Especially when students are practicing a certain skill as a whole.
9. What other insights did you gain from this observation?
One other insight I gained from this observation is that, I thought that the teachers idea of having a reward system for answering hard questions is a good idea for students to grasp the content being learned more effectively. When the teacher said that there would be a reward for the student to answer the question correctly, all of the students hands went flying into the air willing to answer the question.

Field Experience 8

COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS
Friday March 2nd, destination: Elementary School 8:05am. In this reflection, I will be concentrating on my host teachers communication with others around the district. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the gym before the class was that there were 3 workers/janitors working hinges on the door that leads to the outside. Now my guess is that my host teacher must have noticed something wrong with the door and then communicated with the janitors in order to get the problems fixed. I dont know all the details on the door situation but thats what I observed. Also, I noticed that my host teacher knows most of the teachers in the district quiet well. He told me a great teacher to observe their classroom teaching, and sure enough it was an awesome experience observing this classroom teacher which I will talk about in my next field experience post! 

Lab 25 - Experiencing the Health and Skill Related Components of Physical Fitness

Health Related Components of Fitness in pictures ... 

Cardiovascular Fitness:

Flexibility:

Strength:

Muscular Endurance:

Explosive Power:

Agility: 

Reaction Time:

Balance:

Coordination:

Lab 16 - The 4 Stages of Game Play

1. Utilized the four stages of game play to carefully determine what stage represents their level of play. Provide a brief written description of their skill level and stage of play. Write three to five recommendations for steps that could be taken to improve their level of play. 

2. Explain how you would use the four stages of game play by RInk (1985) as a rubric with students in your own physical education classes.
If I had to make a rubric for my students in my physical education class based on Rink's Four Stages of Gameplay, my rubric for Stage 1 would look something like this ...

The same type of idea/concept above will go for the other three Stages of Gameplay.

Lab 11 - Parachute Fitness

1. Find information on the history of the parachute and how the parachute works. 

If we want to follow the history of a parachute, we have to return about 1000 years in the past. The first nation which was using something similar to a parachute were the Chinese. The first known picture of a parachute was found in the block of Leonardo da Vinci in 1514. From this picture results the fact, that a man could jump with this parachute from a tower or a building which was on fire. But as far as we know, nothing more than a sketch was done. Nearly hundred years later a mathematician Fausto Veranzino published the idea of a parachute which he called “fall´s breaker”. He realised his ideas and jumped several times from a tower in Venice, this happened in 1595. But more often a French physicist, the contemporary of Montgolfieres brothers, Louis Sebastien Lenormand is connected with the history of a parachute. He constructed his own parachute, and also invented the name “Parachute."The word "parachute" comes from the French prefix paracete, originally from the Greek, meaning to protect against, and chute, the French word for "fall", and it was originally coined, as a hybrid word which meant literally "that which protects against a fall", by the French aeronaut François Blanchard (1753–1809) in 1785.


2. Create a parachute routine composed of various parachute activities learned in class. 

• Information about Parachute
• Igloo
• Jaws
• Pop Popcorn
• The Blackhole 
• Anaconda Roll Up

3. Practice the yoga routine for a week and keep a journal of how you feel. 
Journal will be updated next week.

4. Use pictures to diagram each pose in the Salute to the Sun yoga routine. 

Lab 15 - Improving Teaching Skills

1. Reflect upon your lab teaching experience. Describe your teaching strengths and weaknesses for teaching in this lab. 
Todays teaching was a great experience in which I was able to receive feedback from my peers about my teaching. Some of the strengths in my short lesson that I taught were; I had great eye attractive and simple props for my students to pass around and look at. This really helped them to become involved and actually physically see where and what the heart and lungs look like. Another strength that I personally thought I had in my lesson was the inclusion of not just physical activity but actual information and cognitive learning. The main weakness that I personally believe that I had in my lesson was the idea that I was not talking on an elementary level to my students. I was more straight forward with my teaching instead of being more "babyish" like, slowly presenting my lesson. I will definitely have to work on that. One other weakness that I noticed after my teaching was that I did not plan correctly on the time of my lesson. I probably could of added one more activity into my teaching. Otherwise I thought it was a great learning experience.

2. Identify one of your most effective teachers. What teaching behaviors did you admire most in the way he/she taught?
What is an effective teacher I ask myself. The answer is quite simple, an effective teaching is someone who never stops developing and refining their teaching skills. One of the most effective teachers I known in my life would have to be a teacher that I observed at a High School back home. She was able to tweak each lesson based on the students abilities in the class. She also has been teaching for 20+ years and she still tells me that she switches up her lessons plans based on the incoming students for the new year. Yet again, this teacher I observed helped write the P.E. Profile. So it was great seeing an effective teacher in action.

3. What goals will you set for yourself as you prepare to teach in the Education 300 Field Experience?
A few goals that I will set for myself as I prepare to teach in the Education 300 Field Experience would be:

• teach using elementary level language and tone to my students
• develop stories in my anticipatory set related to the lesson that grabs the students attention 
• research and see what is currently trending in young students lives and incorporate those ideas into my lessons.