What is the importance of collaborating and sharing ideas and resources?
As a teacher candidate, I am walking into the teaching environment as a fresh slate. With this comes advantages and disadvantages. Most importantly, I have little knowledge of the physical education classroom that I can apply to my own teachings in the future, besides what I have learned about in EDCP 320. The importance of collaborating, sharing ideas, and resources is that you should be taking ideas from your fellow teacher candidates and more experienced teachers to create the best classroom culture and physical literacy environment that you can have. As someone who grew up being quite weak in physical education class, I know that I valuable perspective for those students who do not love to exercise or feel that they are good or that they enjoy certain sports. What this means for my students is that I can support their needs better than someone who has excelled at PE their entire life. On the other hand, perhaps those who excel in PE would be better off with a teacher. These are the people I need to be collaborating with so that I can create an inclusive environment for everyone.
How will I support and create conditions for student growth, success and enjoyment?
I will support and create conditions for student growth, success and enjoyment by creating a positive atmosphere. I don’t care how long it takes for me to build this culture at the beginning of the year. To me, the most important part of a physical education classroom will be the fact that it is a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Name calling or teasing will be addressed immediately as something that is absolutely not tolerated in my classroom. With this type of inclusive environment I will be giving my students the tools they need to succeed in physical education. As well, I strongly believe that a growth mindset needs to be supported in every classroom, so I will constantly model and share this mindset with their students so that they will not think that their ability in any sport will be stagnant, but as something that can improve with time. Lastly, I hope students will have a chance to try many different types of physical activity so that they will learn to love and enjoy a variety types of physical activity.