Week 7 Landon Mitchell

Week 7:

The week started out on Tuesday due to no school on Monday for Presidents Day. The week went by quick since the freshmen class that I teach began a new unit in the main gym. We are teaching the students badminton. Also, since the freshmen are out of the swimming unit we are implementing heart rate monitors to all students. This is a great tool to use in PE for assessing student cardiovascular fitness and effort level during specific activities. The Polar heart rate monitors that we use at school allow you to see the heart rates of every student in the class in real time. This week we went over the correct way to wear the heart rate strap and how to troubleshoot them if need be. Many of the students understood the process and were fascinated by the technology. Since the freshmen class is a combined we discussed that we should go over serving first and master serving. After serving then go over the rules for doubles play and we let the students play a practice round of rallying back and forth to understand how the birdie flies through the air. Students were exposed to a fitness Wednesday with all other PE classes. With Wednesdays being a late start students only perform 25 min of physical activity in PE. With the heart rate monitors being used for not only my freshmen class but also my sports class, we can help students improve physical fitness and cardiovascular endurance. We have started to use the heart rate monitors in my sports class. We finished up the CPR and fitnessgram unit and moved onto volleyball. The first day we went over simple rules and I let the students play a scrimmage game to assess their skills. Throughout the week I applied more skills in bumping, setting, and serving. The students are eager to play games and we will be separating the kids up into teams and plat a volleyball tournament next week. Strength and Conditioning was similar to last week, students are increasing in weight from the ones that are turning in work outs.  I have noticed that many of the students either took this class to lift weights or they were put into this class because they were not able to get in a class they requested. It can be difficult to motivate students that do not want to be there. (3I)  I had my second observation this week. I spoke with Todd about my instruction and he gave me great feedback on my lesson planning and my instruction. I hope I am able to apply his feedback to both areas to become a better teacher.

I have been speaking with my cooperating teacher about different techniques and skills to advise students in trouble. I have been talking with both of them about certain situations what they have done and what happened after the fact. They told me that with the experience and advice of other instructors you become your own teacher. They philosophy you create may change slightly but your morals stay the same with how you want to improve the knowledge of physical education and the importance of physical activity to benefit healthy personal goals.(2A)  The promotion of a physical life can help students in many different facets of life. This element can be an easy thing to instruct but for that message to reach every student is the difficult part.

Next week I will be continuing the lessons in badminton and volleyball. I look forward to increasing my teaching skills in a net game and applying the skills to other activities (6A). I will be having my third observation at Reavis, I have had a conversation with Todd about things to improve and things I need to keep applying to ensure that my lessons are reaching all students (6H). This week we have set a good foundation for my classes and I cannot wait to see how advanced the students will become at a multi-movement sport such as volleyball or badminton.