All posts by iris hall

Week 11 – Response to Guiding Questions

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.

Week 11 – Movement Journal

Track and field was an interesting lesson this week. Personally I struggled with the first game we played. I found I did not have enough momentum to push off and get away from the team that was chasing us. I wonder if this game would have been better if the spaces between the two teams was a little further apart.

The racing around the activities was an interesting activity! The group did a great job of explaining it, though I wonder if this would be an easy enough activity to explain if there was only one teacher instead of four. I know that after we split up into our groups, our group needed a second explanation of what exactly we were doing. With strong leaders in the classroom, I believe this would still be possible.

Regarding the topic of diversity and inclusion, I feel that this lesson could be easily adapted for students with a variety of different learning needs. If a child was in a wheelchair they would still be able to participate in the baton race activity, except they would race to the other team in their wheelchair instead of using their legs. If a student struggled with a language barrier, it may be possible to pair them with a student who speaks the same first language as this student so that they can participate in the class activity as well. For me, the most important thing is that all students are included in the physical education classroom whether they suffer from a learning or physical disability, or even a language barrier.

Thanks for keeping us all active! I feel like we all got a workout on Friday morning.

Lesson Reflection for Week 8

This week was the dance lesson that Cheryl, Jessica, Rebecca, and I. I found the project of creating a dance lesson both fun and difficult. As someone who loves to dance but also experiences the nervousness of performing improv, I knew it was going to be a challenge to stand in front of the class and teach this lesson. Overall, I believe that things went well!

For our opening activity we did a popcorn activity! This is such as simple, fun activity that I believe students at a variety of ages would appreciate. However, I was thinking, what if you really hate to dance? I wonder if, when this activity would be done in the older grades, would there be students who don’t want to participate for fear of being judged? This game would require a classroom culture that is inclusive and supportive of others so that no one feels nervous to perform their own dance moves with the class.

For our main activity we chose to teach “Watch Me” to the entire group. We did this first by teaching different animal moves and the chorus moves in a fun game. This part of the activity did not go as well as I would have hoped. For next time, I would like to modify this game so that the participants are not running towards each other while doing the actions because I feel that it provided the risk of students being hurt if they were to run into each other. Besides this setback, I really enjoyed the energy everyone brought to the dance off and I believe I would be capable of teaching this lesson. Not only that, I feel that the lesson would be easily modified for a variety of different age groups.

Lastly, standing in a circle for stretching was a great idea that I stole from the gymnastic group before us. I thought this was a great idea and way more appropriate than just standing in front of the group because it allows the teacher to see everyone’s eyes and make sure that everyone is performing the movements. By stretching in a big circle, there is a less chance that someone shorter will miss out on the stretching movement because they don’t want to participate or because they can’t see what is happening at the front of the gym.

Week 5 – Movement Journal

It has been said once, but it deserves to be said again: this week the group did a great job at showing us how to teach invasion games. TGfU was a great edition to this class as well, because it will help us in the future with breaking down lessons in a way that helps our students understand the ultimate goal.

We also gained a lot of great knowledge when discussing curriculum and different theories we can apply to our teaching styles.  I believe that is necessary to combine different curricular approaches that will assist teachers is modelling a healthy and active lifestyle for our students. Students need the encouragement to find what works best for them in regards to fitness. As I said in our group discussion this week, I don’t particularly like volleyball, but the fact that I was able to get a chance to try running, basketball, badminton, as well as a variety of other games and sports in elementary and high school encouraged me to pursue the fitness lifestyle that works best for me in adulthood.
As well, I cannot emphasize enough how important I believe it is that we encourage our students to eat healthy when in school. From someone who came from a home where eating healthy was not even a consideration, I think it is essential that children are given opportunities to see what a healthy diet looks like and how they can achieve a moderately healthy lifestyle at home or at school. At the very least this given students more opportunities and ideas about how they might eat healthy in their adult lives.

Iris’ Movement Journal – Week Three

Yesterday we were given the chance to explore the grand concept of volleyball! Growing up I can easily say that volleyball was my least favorite sport. I had chicken arms and a lack of coordinator, which made every time I hit the ball feel painful. Include the lack of support  from classroom peers and the teacher equals a lack of love for this wonderful sport. To this day I will never say  ‘I LOVE VOLLEYBALL!’, but I will say that a positive atmosphere makes all the difference. Today’s group that presented showed the class that providing a high energy environment is possible without the competitiveness. Instead that provided constructive criticism and positive feedback without singling out anyone in the class.  This made even the most

The last two weeks have also given me some more ideas when it comes to classroom management. While our presenters have provided high content lessons, I see key difference between teaching children and teaching adults when these lessons are performed. I feel like classroom management in a class may not be a challenge for me, but perhaps a PE gym class will be more difficult. I will need to invest in a whistle and be specific when I give instructions on who is to do what, what line the children will stand on, where the balls will go at the end of the activity, and so forth. Watching our last group pair us off into separate activities made me think ‘that’s so cool! But can I do that?’ It might take some time, but I’m up for the challenge!

Week One – Iris’ Movement Journal

Throughout elementary and high school, PE was always my favourite class!! However, the frustrations that came along with this class were endless. Even though I loved PE, I would never have said that I was better than average in any of the sports we played. I was often picked last for teams, and despite the enjoyment I got from PE, and my strong willingness to participate in every activity, I often received C’s, and even a C- at some point. This was extremely disappointing to me and made me feel that I shouldn’t have even bothered to try. Not being recognized for making an effort and bullies made PE less and less enjoyable for myself. It is only in the last five years that I can begun to enjoy physical activity once again as I realize that even though I’m not especially great at certain sports, I enjoy these activities!

For this movement journal I decided to ask my boyfriend what his experiences were in elementary PE. He also experienced bullying, but he said that this was specific to playing basketball or soccer, specifically relating to when he couldn’t score a goal.  I asked him if he was ever picked last for a sport and he recounted one time when he was picked second-to-last when they were picking teams for handball. What is interesting is how this resonates with youth. Such a small act as being picked second-to-last in handball is remembered in adulthood, twenty years after the experience occurred. This is why we, as teacher candidates, need to make a different to children’s lives by not emphasizing competitive sports, but instead, supporting a active and fun environment, where the importance of teamwork is the focal point.