Pe Philosophy

William Schlott Teaching philosophy

The most important lesson that any physical educator can do is to teach their students that there is at least one kind of physical activity that they can enjoy for the rest of their life. Physical education is the most under rated class in school. It is seen as an opportunity for students to run around and get rid of some of their energy so they can pay more attention during the “more important” classes. This misconception could not be further from the truth. Physical education is where students learn how to move, why it is important to stay active, what they can do to stay active throughout their lives, and where they can go in their communities to be active. It is important that students learn the skills and rules of the games and activities that will be taught in physical education. Too often students are only taught what they need to know in order to participate in a particular activity. What they miss out on is that each of those activities helps their bodies stay healthy in different ways. Basketball increases cardiovascular endurance, racket sports help with reflexes, rock climbing requires a great deal of muscular endurance, weight lifting can develop both muscular strength and endurance. Each of my lessons will reinforce the idea that every physical activity has some kind of fitness component. Proper technique is the second most important aspect of physical education. If you participate in an activity but your movements are inefficient, or worse harmful, it will not be an enjoyable experience. To accomplish these goals, I intend to use several different teaching methods depending on activity. I will command, practice, and station methods in activities where discipline and technique are important, such as self-defense, the technical aspects of team sports, and proper exercising techniques. However, I will use guided discovery to teach different tactical concepts. These include the give and go, or developing a personal workout routine. In all of my classes at Cortland every one of my professors made it clear that it is not good enough to just go through all of the tasks you have for the day; If the students have not learned anything, then all of the tasks were a waste of time. instead, the students learning is what should be the most important. In order to determine if students did learn or, more importantly, that I effectively taught in accordance with the national SHAPE America Standards: I will use several different assessments. The most used assessment I will employ will be my own observations during class time to make corrections and determine if students are on task and if that task is effective. I will also utilize check lists and rubrics to assess students’ skills for each activity that is done in my physical education class. Mini quizzes or exit slips will be used to determine students’ knowledge of physical activity. The two factors that will most likely determine if a student participates in class are; is the task achievable for the students and are the students interested in the task being taught. The first factor plays a large role with students who have a disability. For these students I will adapt my lessons so that they can not only participate at a level that allows them to succeed, but also enjoy physical education along side of their peers who do not have a disability. This can be done by slowing down the tempo of the game, using scooters instead of running, or even blind folding the entire class to do an activity. This not only allows students to participate in activities with their peers, it also gives their peers a glimpse

into what they go through on a daily basis. The other factor, interest, may have more to do with cultural preferences than a sense of apathy. Not doing a soccer unit in a school that has a very large passion for soccer is just foolish. However, not everyone at that school is going to be as passionate about soccer as the rest, which is why it is important to include other activities that might be culturally neutral: like European handball or tchoukball. As I stated before, student learning is paramount. This means all students and not just those who are athletes. As such I will regressive tasks built in to my lessons to allow students who are not able to grasp a skill or concept right away. By allowing students to do tasks that they can accomplish successfully while still being challenged they will be much more engaged in that task than they would be if the task was too difficult.