One of the focuses of my physical and health education for this week is to get the students become more active and encouraging. There will also be times that the students need to focus on fundamental movement skills or communication skills. It is hard to include all these elements into one lesson, but it is important to plan multiple of them in the unit plan to make it as comprehensive as possible.

I am more aware that teaching any subject or any unit would be a long journey, which requires much patience. Even for Physical and Health Education, it requires the teacher to put many factors, not only safety and participation, into considerations in order to make a good lesson. It also involves a big amount of time to develop mutual understandings on how things will be done in this classroom before a successful lesson can take place. For example, introducing, learning, practicing, and effectively responding to a new signal in the gym are all necessary steps that build on each other. Moreover, all of these will take up an amount of time to develop depends on the age group.

Moving beyond the signals, the students and the teacher need to have the mutual understanding and expectation. Having the students be willing to respond to a signal is also a big challenge. It is necessary to show the students that we care about what they want, but there will be also consequences for disrespectful behaviors. A positive relationship with the students is the foundation of everything.

I tried something new today. Before I started my sound activity with the class today, I went to one of the students and specifically invited him to join us for the sound activity that I prepared. This student usually does not join the carpet time with the others. He would sit at the table near the carpet with an EA and work on his own things. He would listen or join the conversation from time to time, but he does not seem to be interested in being fully engaging in the classroom.

I told the student that we would be doing a sound activity, which would be really fun if he wants to join us at the carpet so he could see better and engage better. He simply replied with an “OK”, but later I noticed that he participated better even though he still chose to sit at his table. He put up his hand to answer questions throughout my sound activity, and also the music and math class after that. When I approached him during math time and asked if he was willing to explain his thinking strategies, he showed willingness in talking and explaining his work to me.

It is possible that today is just a coincidence, but I see the potentials in having him better engaged in more activities in the future. I believe that letting him know what is happening ahead of time makes him feel more prepared. Moreover, showing him that I care about his presence and would love to have him with us together in the classroom make him feel more welcomed as well.

Recently, there are many issues with the students’ communication skills. Students were not being very respectful to each other and to adults around them. Students were not using good listening skills during the carpet time. There were a lot of interruptions during a discussion. One student walked away from me while I was talking to him couple times, and I had to pull him aside for a conversation. The teacher had to spare time to discuss this issue with the class.

The teacher asked the students to think about the core competencies that they had been talking about and think about what does it mean to be respectful to others. Here are some answers that the students provided:

• Don’t ignore the signals. Stop at the signals (ex. Chime, bell, clapping)
• Sitting nicely and ready to listen
• Looking at the speaker
• No interruptions while other people are talking
• Don’t boss around. It is different from helping others
• Reminding our friends; having responsibilities to help each other

The class had the same conversation when they decided to make a classroom agreement. However, the students needed constant reminders to make it truly work. Despite the fact that there are many projects need to be finished, it is still more important to have this conversation with the class.

Fostering good habits takes time and especially when there are so many other things going on in the students’ lives outside of the school. Frustrations from home or with friends can have a major influence on the class. I realized how friendships play crucial roles in the classroom and can affect the classroom’s atmosphere significantly. As it might sound very obvious, but I did not truly understand until I witnessed it myself. As educators, it is our responsibilities to find the root of the problem and provide suitable support accordingly.