PHED 239 Module 4: High School Site Observation/Teaching Assisting Assignment

Due one day after the observation Directions: Read and become familiar with the questions below BEFORE the observation. Submit answers to the questions on a separate sheet (wordprocessed/double-spaced). Points will be deducted for grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. Total = 30 pts. Include the following general background information: Name of high school - East LongMeadow High School Name of cooperating teacher(s) - Mr. Tim Gerry Grade level of students - 10th grade Number of students in class observed - 20 students Description of facilities & equipment available at school - large gym with multiple basketball hoops and a large amount of space, small gym with only two basketball hoops, swimming pool with four lanes, a diving board, and a shallow and deep end, and a weight room Questions: 1. Describe how students interacted with each other, teachers, and/or administrators. Because my cooperating teacher was not present today I had the opportunity to view all three of lessons going on. One factor that was consistent in all of the lessons I observed was that all students interacted very well with one another. I did not see any excluding, bullying, or behavioral problems between the students. All of the students were participating and cooperating with each other as well as their teacher. For the most part the students also worked very well with their teacher. There were only two instances today where I saw something that I truly did not like. One was in Mr. Gerrys class where the substitute, Mr. Russell, was present and students took advantage of this by not following the proper directions of indoor soccer and it looked as though the substitute was simply babysitting the students. The second instance where I saw something that I did not like was in the pool during Mr. Magees lesson; one student said,this game stinks, why can't we play something else. I have nothing wrong with the student being honest; however, it

was unnecessary for this student to scream it for the entire class to hear. Outside of those two instances I really liked what I saw today and Im very excited to g o back and work with these students. While watching Mr. Gerrys class, I saw some really advanced athletes and this excites me because I know I will be able to do more activities and games with them as well as be able to challenge them even more. 2. What characteristics of a high school student did you witness? Give examples. Today I witnessed students who are at different levels in terms of physical maturation, fitness, and skill levels. In terms of physical maturation, all students were at different levels in terms of being ectomorphic, endomorphic, or mesmomorphic. The majority of the students I observed were either towards ectomorphic or mesomorphic; however, there were some students that were endomorphic. Some students were obviously taller than other students and some students were more heavy set than other students. This goes right into the fitness of the students. It was apparent that some students were more fit than other students in terms of cardiovascular endurance. With the activities being done in the three different classes I did not have a chance to see any muscular strength in the students; however, the cardiovascular endurance for all students varied. There was one student in particular that stuck out and this student was constantly running the entire time I was observing, this students cardiovascular endurance was through the roof. As stated earlier, there were a wide variety of skill levels. For the class that I will be teaching the skill levels appeared to be very high while for M r. Magees class the skill levels didnt appear to be that high and for the freshman class that I observed I did not have the opportunity to see any skill levels because they were working on a cooperative games unit. With these students, I did witness any cliques, bullying, or other behavioral problems. The one thing I did see was a lot of cell phones were out. For example, most of the students that were not participating in PE today were on their cell phones. Also, I saw a lot of cell phones just out in general on the floor or around the activity area.

3. What rules, routines, and management techniques are used by your cooperating teacher(s)?

Because my cooperating teacher was not present today I did not have the opportunity to ask or observe him. However, I did notice that in Mr. Magees class that students were not permitted to go past a certain point in the pool for obvious safety reasons. Also, when speaking to Dr. Mangano, she explained some of the routines. For example, the students are allowed six minutes at the beginning and end of the lesson to change. This means I need to make sure the students have six minutes at the end of each lesson to go into the locker room and change. Also, Dr. Mangano explained that the students perform a warm up everyday before starting the lesson and I am very excited about this because Dr. Mangano also told me that Mr. Gerry is very into CrossFit and I was planning on incorporating some CrossFit in the warm up for the students. Other rules are that students must change clothes for Physical Education as well as be wearing a pair of sneakers and students generally cannot wear jeans to participate in Physical Education. 4. What units are the students participating in during this time of year? How do the teachers determine what units the students will be involved in? How long are the units? Some of the units that I observed today were cooperative games, water sports, and indoor soccer. In addition to those, students will be doing badminton, floor hockey, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, and dance. The teachers pick the units for the students and for Mr. Magees class I heard him say that there is a high intensity competitive group and a medium intensity group, the students get to pick which intensity they would like. I would think that the weather plays a large role into what the teachers picked for units. I would have liked to see a fitness unit available as it is an activity which promotes lifelong fitness and teaches students how to stay fit and active for their entire life. The two units which I teach at East LongMeadow High School will be eighteen days for indoor soccer and eighteen days for volleyball. 5. Any discipline issues? If so, how were they handled? What is the tea chers discipline policy? There were only two discipline issues that I witnessed. One was the student in the pool who had screamed. This was handled very calmly by Mr. Magee; he simply just asked

her not to do that again and he explained to her why this activity was being done. The second issue was with Mr. Russells, the substitute teacher, class. This issue was not so much behavioral, it was just a high number of students on their cell phones. Mr. Russell did not ask the students to get off their cell phones or even acknowledge them really. Unfortunately, I did not get to ask Mr. Gerry his discipline policy. I do plan on asking him through the email once he responds to me. 6. What are the average class sizes? How are classes divided (i.e. by grade level, skill level, etc)? The average class size is between fifteen to twenty students. In the freshman class there was eighteen students, in Mr. Gerrys class there was exactly twenty students , and in Mr. Magees class there was about fifteen students. The students are divided by grade level first. There was a freshman class, Mr. Gerrys class is a tenth grade class, and Mr. Magees class was eleventh grade. Then I believe students are split into high and medium intensity classes, I know for a fact this was the case with Mr. Magees class; however, I am not sure about the other classes or grade levels. 7. What is/are your biggest concern(s) about teaching at the high school level? My biggest concern with teaching at the high school level is that some students might not respond to or respect me because I am not much older than them. By no means am I worried about this because I am fully prepared to handle this problem; however, this is mainly what concerns me with high school students. I am going to be firm and fair with the students that I will be teaching. I will most certainly be friendly with the students and I want the students to have a great time; however, the students need to know that I am their teacher and they will respect me.

8. What are you most looking forward to in regards to teaching at the high school level? I am most looking forward to being able to get more into strategy with the students as well as being able to really refine the students skills. Rather than going over skill cues and having students recite the skill cues for me I can refine the students form and make them better athletes. Im also very interested to see how advance some of the students

skill levels will be. I find it more enjoyable to see students in game play using various types of offenses or defenses that I have taught them. Or whether I give the students a challenge for a small sided game and to see them figure it out is much more enjoyable. Also, I feel as though I can use bigger words and better describe what Im trying to say with high school students and they will really understand me. For example, I can explain to these students more in depth the physiological processes of the body, how the body works, and what happens to the body during physical activity and the students will be able to understand and grasp what Im explaining to them.