My Blog

This week I made my first unit transition from Basketball into Dance. I was very timid about the idea of teaching dance. Of all the schools in the district, including three other elementary schools, an intermediate school, and a junior high, my placement is the only PE program that incorporates dance. According to my cooperating teacher, dance should be incorporated into elementary PE because it teaches student from a young age the ability to interact properly in social events outside of the classroom along with promoting an understanding of a lesser renown style of physical fitness. Being told ahead of time the students are not necessarily big fans of the unit, I was not sure how to initiate the unit as I never expected to include music in a curriculum and never thought of the concept of incorporating it before. When talking to my teacher, her recommendation is to tackle the dances with positive, enthusiastic interest. As she put it, “If the students see you excited, they are goi...

Let the fun begin! I can tell the students getting comfortable with me leading the classroom, as they are beginning to let their true personalities come out. While I am loving the opportunity to get to know the students on a more personal basis, I am also beginning to notice the cracks in my teaching style when it comes to attitude management. My cooperating teacher has said multiple times that I am fantastic with my first and second-grade classes. I know when to get them excited and let them be fun and silly, and I know how to get them to relax and calm them down when necessary. For example, on Thursday we held a Summative Assessment of basketball. However, doe differentiated instruction, as mentioned in Standard 3, the cooperating teacher and I collaborated together to create an assessment more compatible for 1 st and 2 nd graders than the older groups. This resulted in an assessment with fewer questions and less needed class time to complete. As a result, I accidentally ended cla...

My First week of student teaching has been an exciting yet exhausting experience. I am placed at an elementary school with my cooperating teacher being the only Physical Education teacher in the school. This week we began a two-week basketball unit. Tuesday, we began developing dribbling and ball handling skills. On Wednesday we continued to improve upon said skills through physical activity by the name of “Dribbling for Treasure.” On Thursday we began developing the students’ cognitive and psychomotor knowledge of the chest, bounce, and overhead passes. Friday was a “Fun Friday” lesson for the students, which we allowed the students to participate in a shooting activity, “Around the World.” During the lesson, I used this time to pre-assess my students on their psychomotor ability to perform the jump shot, set shot, and layup, which will be implemented into next week’s lesson plans.             Having prior knowledge of the coope...