Getting My Toes Wet- Week 1

Week one at Gustafson Elementary was a time of getting familiar with the school's overall culture and routine. The students work off of a 4 day schedule, rotating each day between the specialty classes- art, music, wellness class, and PE. Thus, Mr. Park and I only see most classes once a week for 55 minutes. The school meets the Illinois time requirements for physical education by including the students recess periods. I am a proponent for elementary recess time to provide the students with social learning opportunities and creative, independent play. Still, I know many PE teachers in the district feel such limited class time is a waist of their resources as I participated in the Tuesday morning PLC conference call with the teachers.

Moving on, the students at AGS are wonderful. They arrive enthusiastic for class, filled with energy, and are very cooperative most of the time. Mr. Park had been telling the students I would be arriving since Wednesday of last week, and I felt warmly invited by them into their gym time. Starting on day three, I was able to lead the stretching portion of warm-ups. I also assisted Mr. Park in the instruction of proper push-up form for fitness testing and was able to provide feedback to individual students throughout activities.

This week Mr. Park focused on prepping the third, fourth, and fifth grade students for the push-up portion of their upcoming fitness testing. Since fitness testing begins at grade three, the younger grades worked on a refreshment of basic locomotor skills, following directions, and completing fitness tasks instead. Throughout the period, we would pull aside several students at a time to work on the push-up procedures while the rest played a game called “Moving on up”. This game incorporated both health enhancing fitness and mathematics. The students rolled dice with a partner and had to determine which of two numbers was greater than and less than the other. The person with the higher number moved to the next level while the student with the lower number completed an exercise and tried a new opponent. The activity was one that Mr. Park had taught the students before, and they greatly enjoyed playing it with kid-friendly pop music in the background. 

The classroom procedures were also successfully reinforced throughout this first full week. The students were a little slow in their response to the teacher’s stop/attention cues such as “give me five”, and Mr. Park had them redo their lines when exiting the gym if done poorly. I encountered one situation in particular with a student seeking to test my authority as a teacher and role in the classroom. The students name was Alex and was easily recognizable as one who enjoyed testing the rules. If I were to give explicit direction to Alex, he would acknowledge it, then perform an action in contrast to what I requested, smiling and laughing. This situation reminded me of the learning that took place in my ed psych class regarding boundaries. Young children naturally want to test the things around them out of curiosity and a natural inclination for discovery. When Alex's behavior clearly disregarded my authority and presented a distraction to the other students, I approached him saying 'Alex in this room you need to display appropriate behavior if you want to continue participating in our activity'. I said this in a even and firm tone, and Alex immediately changed his disposition toward me and complied to direction much more readily.

One of the biggest lessons I learned this week is that consistency is key with elementary students. Having the same procedures and routines each day in the gym keep things running smoothly in an environment that can easily allow for chaos. The students all have marked spots on the floor for attendance and post-exiting discussion. There is a white board at the entrance they read every day, telling them what to do for the start of warm-up. Mr. Park and I have very similar management styles. Most of his classroom procedures are ones that I would use in my own gym. In addition, Mr. Park aims to have the students moving as much as possible, at least 70% of gym time in moderate to vigorous activity, and keeps his instruction concise and age appropriate. He uses warm-up time to informally assess the locomotor skills of the younger grades to see where any needs are present. The start of their warm-up consists of running around the perimeters of the gym to upbeat music. Every so often Mr. Park will stop the music and have them change movement patterns to skipping, shuffling, etc. This time is perfect for getting the students excess energy out before instruction and allowing them a little extra social opportunity. 

One area of teaching I wrestled with this week was how to address student non-compliance. I often take an teaching approach aimed at aiding the students in taking ownership of their learning. Psychology and developmental studies are some of my favorite academic areas, and I try to use information from these fields to help in the classroom. According the IPTS 2A, "the competent teacher understands theories and philosophies of learning and human development as they relate to the range of students in the classroom". This week one of the students refused to participate and protested loudly that gym is boring and stupid. I first gave him liberty to take a moment to himself since he was highly emotional. When he had calmed down we talked about his feeling towards gym. I told him it was fine to have these feelings but they should not control our behavior. I tried giving him options to feel more in control of his learning environment, but nothing seemed to appease his desire to sit out from gym. Finally I resorted to telling him that his participation is required and sent him out onto the court. Mr. Park handled the student much differently, quickly defusing the emotional charge and firmly stating expectations. The student’s attitude did not change in either approach. I have always envisioned my role as a teacher to be one where I help foster student development not just in content knowledge but character, independence, and other important facets of the whole person. My perspective has begun to reshape as I face the realities of how to accomplish this task in my day to day environment.

In the weeks ahead I hope to discover how to truly make my teaching student centered (IPTS 1H) and understand the balance of when to allow students more autonomy in the classroom as well as how to be sensitive to developmental needs. I think I am making the adjustment from middle school last semester to the younger grades and realizing the higher degree of structure needed. I am wired towards a creative learning environment; however, structure and order needs to precede this in order for young students to be successful. For this upcoming week I aim to develop a stronger relationship with the students and discover what their prior knowledge and experiences are so I may link them to future lessons in the classroom!

Goals: 1. What have been the prior units taught and normal sequencing from K-5
          2.  Find connections to help students who don't enjoy gym be more willing to participate