Week #1 Blog Post

Week 1 Blog Post 

Wow! What an exciting week. This past week was my first week of student teaching at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, IL. I wanted to make certain my nerves didn't get the best of me and that I could demonstrate I deserve to be the students' student teacher. I had hopes that they will respect me just as they do their other teachers. This week has been a week of acclimation, and not just for me but for my students as well.  As it is the start of the new semester, my cooperating teacher and I handed out syllabuses to all of our classes (Sophmore P.E., Junior/Senior boys p.e., sports medicine II, and medical terminology). We informed our students over the course of the week about the expectations for the semester such as grading, attendance, uniform, and the units we would be covering over the semester. On the second day of class, the students were assigned their physical education lockers and were introduced to their senior leaders. Day 3 was another day to tie up any loose ends and an opportunity for students who did get their lockers taken care of were able to do so. In my sports medicine class, the students were given a review sheet to test their knowledge of information learned in the previous class. The majority of the class remember the information and were excited to start the new sport's med class. On Friday, all of my students attended the curriculum fair where they were able to learn about the various electives they could take over the course of their high school career. Additionally, Friday was another day to tie up any loose ends in regards to syllabus and class expectations.

Monday will be the first day that my students will be dressing out for PE. The junior and senior boys were instructed to meet at the pool as they will be starting water polo. I will be taking attendance before the start of class and assist the water safety instructor with monitoring behavior during the lesson. In the sophomore PE classes, we will be starting Tchoukball and team games. Before we are going to start our lessons with the sophomores my cooperating teacher and I are going to run the students through a series of locomotor movements to determine the abilities levels of each individual thus assisting me when it comes time to develop lesson plans for the students. The learning standard 19.A.1b - "Participate daily in moderate to vigorous physical activity while performing basic movement pattern" will be applied in the activities that the students are going to be doing. Additionally, for Monday, I instructed the students to look at their Canvas page to review the syllabus to better understand how they will receive their PAR grade for the semester. In the sports medicine II class, the students are going to be introduced to the first unit which is athletic wellness. My other cooperating teacher and I will be co-teaching for this first week so that I can gain a better understanding of my students' learning levels and how their sports medicine I class was run. We also will be instructing and testing the students on their abilities to tape an ankle.

I learned some new strategies this week from both my cooperating teachers. I noticed it is best to have a calm demeanor both in and outside of class. They wait patiently for all the students to pay attention and they continue on with the lesson. All of the other physical education teachers are staff were very welcoming to me this past week and I can not wait to get to know them more. I piece of advice that I found helpful this week, was not to sweat the small stuff. Many of the PE teachers say they still make mistakes but that is how we learn; this helped calm my nerves.

My goals for this week were to start to get a feel for each of my classes. I noticed that each of my classes are so different in regards to their personalities and grade levels. Additionally, I wanted to start to learn the names of my students and form a positive relationship with them. I have found this to be somewhat of a challenge as I see many of the kids not just one class in PE. Another goal was to choose a class that I would be using for my EdTPA. After observing and interacting with each class, I have determined that I will work with my fourth-hour sophomore PE class as they listened very well and respected me as their teacher. My goals for next week are to start teaching a little bit in each class, so the students can become accustomed to me leading the class on a daily basis. This can be accomplished by taking attendance and leading the students in their warm-up.

Week 1 - Schmidt Chapter 1

In Chapter 1, Schmidt focuses on multiple intelligences. The physical education classroom allows for many great opportunities to include the intelligences mentioned in Chapter 1. Physical education allows students to develop their linguistic, logical, spatial and kinesthetic intelligence. I would include the word smart verbal/linguistic intelligence into my PE classes. I chose to include the word smart intelligence into my classes as it assists in introducing basic vocabulary to the students. The use of vocabulary can be reinforced during game and activity play throughout each unit. Additionally, I would include the body smart- kinesthetic intelligence into my classes. I believe this is very important in physical education because the students are constantly on the move and must learn how to control their bodies. The development of kinesthetic awareness allows for students to understand not only their bodies' limits but how to use the full physical education space to the best of their abilities. Lastly, I would include personal intelligence into my classes because it teaches them how to work as a team and conflict resolution. I will focus on conflict resolution and logical communication between the students and myself as well as the student with each other.

Additionally, in chapter one Schmidt focuses on "full brain learning. I will implement this concept in my own teaching by exploring my students'  cognition. This can be achieved by recommending multiple ways of performing skills or activities. Not every student learns the same way so it is important to present the students with various approaches to complete a skill. I hope to provide my students with all the opportunities for success. Additionally, I will encourage my students to try new things. Encouraging students to go outside of their comfort zone that allows them to experience a sense of accomplishment when they discover a new activity they enjoy. I can also give my older students opportunities to become leaders within the class by having them lead the warm-up. I can challenge my students by asking them questions that promote higher thinking and discussion.