Kinesiology Leadership Practicum for Teachers Reflection

During the 2014 fall semester, I had the privilege of observing and teaching health
to eleventh and twelfth graders in State College Area High School. State High is a large
suburban and rural public school district located in State College, Pennsylvania. Not only
does this school have a high graduation rate in the ninetieth percentile, it is also ranked
23rd of 628 in Pennsylvania for best public high schools. Though the predominantly
white school lacks diversity when it comes to ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation, the
students displayed acceptance and respect in the health classroom I was in. I was
fortunate to work in a classroom that did not lack resources and materials for both the
teacher and students to use to enhance the educational experience.
After sitting in on the teachers first lesson, my entire view of how to run a health
class was completely changed. My own personal experience in my high school health
class consisted of lectures where the students spent the period copying the teachers notes
and doing worksheets out of the book. Conversely, the lessons I witnessed at State High
incorporated a variety of teaching styles. For the fact that not everyone learns the same
way, it is important to meet the needs of all of the students. In order to succeed in this,
my cooperating teacher included power points, pictures, videos, music, journal entries,
projects and lectures. More importantly, everything that was taught throughout the units
was related to the students everyday lives.
In addition to my observations, I also had the opportunity to teach three lessons.
With each lesson, I grew more confident and comfortable in front of the students. I
quickly learned that creating lessons is a time consuming process that involves a lot of
hard work. My cooperative teacher gave me detailed corrective feedback after each time I

taught. This feedback really helped me improve not only my lesson planning skills, but
also my overall teaching. Like my cooperative teacher, I incorporated a variety of
teaching styles throughout all of my lessons. In realizing that the students do not do well
with class discussions, I based my activities around work that can be done in groups.
With this, the students became much more engaged and interested in the topic at hand.
Overall, I gained a lot of knowledge in my practicum experience. My cooperative
teacher challenged me to produce lessons that led to the success of getting the students to
be more involved in the classroom. While I still have much room for improvement, I can
now enter my student teaching semester with more confidence than I had before.