Lessons Learned and Personal Application

Well…I put all of these theories, lessons, ideas, etc to the test. As mentioned in my previous post, I was really struggling with figuring out how to teach vocabulary, digital literacy, and critical literacy in a PE classroom. We are constantly taught that as PE teachers the main goal is to get kids moving and to keep them moving, so as you can imagine I was a little bit defeated when trying to think of how to incorporate this class into a PE class. But…I decided to try all of it out in my clinical class for my self-selected project.

For my self-selected project, I choose to do two vocabulary lessons with the last one increasing motivation as well as teaching key vocabulary words.

1^st lesson—Dribbling

Before class, I wrote the three key cues for dribbling: eyes up, stay low, change pace and then I wrote all of the drills that we would be doing: rht/lft handed babies, medium, and large; rht/lft handed yoyo; rht/lft handed wrist breakers; crossovers babies, medium, and large; figure eights; and dynamic drill. Then I took the class through their usual warm-up. Then I had the students get on the base line. I went through all of the cues and drill vocabulary words and demonstrated while doing so. Then I divided the class into halves because we didn't have enough basketballs for all of the students. I had one half of the class go to the other side of the gym and do wall sits, while I took the other half through the dribbling drills. I kept saying the key cues and vocabulary words over and over and over. Then I switched halves. The lesson went really well and I felt the students learned the words and technique for dribbling. However, classroom management was a little rough. Because of where I positioned the half doing wall sits, I couldn't see them the entire time, so some students were not doing wall sits. I definitely could have rethought this idea. I should have placed students in partnerships so that partners could remind them of the key cues and vocabulary words associated with dribbling.

2^nd Lesson-Shooting form

Before class, I wrote the acronym B.E.E.F on the board. B-bend knees and balance, E-elbow up, in, and parallel to floor, E-eyes on target, & F-follow through. I took the students through a similar warm-up and then got them on the baseline. I went through the drills and vocabulary words while I demonstrated. Then I divided the students up into their 6 packs, and put on pack at each basket. I also assigned each student a letter of the acronym. The students were instructed to stand on the baseline of each basket if they weren't going through the drill. The students on the baseline were instructed to remind their classmate, who was going, of their assigned letter of the acronym. This worked extremely well because every student had a job and it helped them to learn the vocabulary because of repetition. After 20 minutes we came back as a class and reviewed the material, Then I let them shoot around for 7 minutes to work on their technique. I found that this drill also increased motivation to shoot and play basketball, because students who had been struggling making a basket were able to because they now had the tools necessary to help them get better and make a basket. This was such a fun lesson and I really enjoyed watching the students improve.

Upon reflection of these two lessons I was extremely excited! I realized that I can use vocabulary lessons, critical literacy, digital literacy, articles, etc in a physical education. My clinical teacher does “Fit Friday” where she incorporates different news or fitness articles and shares them with the class and they learn about living healthy lifestyles. They go through several activities that they can do with friends or their families. One Tuesday, the class discussed nutrition for about 10 minutes and then completed the activity for the day. I realized that the writing or reading doesn’t have to take up the entire class, but can be just a small part of the class every day or a couple days a week. I am really excited to further the things I have learned in this class in my student teaching experience and in my own classroom one day. Literacy can be in EVERY classroom!

Application

Throughout the semester, I have been doing observations at Willow Valley Middle School. Over the course of this semester I have been really struggling with how to adapt what I have been learning in this class to a Physical Education class. I found that I was able to adapt everything we have been learning to English easily, but I struggled with PE because the goal in a PE class is to KEEP the KIDS MOVING! So I set out to observe my clinical teacher with a rejuvenated purpose. I wanted to see if she was able to use the things we have been learning this semester, in her own classroom. My discoveries were motivating.

I found that my teacher used different strategies that incorporated digital literacy, articles, vocabulary, etc everyday in her classroom!! ON Tuesdays, she discusses nutrition. Her students still do the designated PE movement requirements, i.e., they do their warm-up, core work, the activity for the day. But they also get taught about weight training, nutrition, yoga, etc. For the last few minutes of class, the teacher would discuss a healthy eating habit and send them home with a worksheet, vocabulary sheet, article, etc. Then on “Fit Friday” the students would bring back what was given out on Tuesday and they had to discuss what they learned and how it applied to them. The teacher set this process up fantastically. She made sure to put up the vocabulary words on the white board in the gym and to remind them of the work they needed to be doing throughout the week. 

Last week, the teacher got the entire students’ families involved. As a class, they discussed healthy treats, and on sent home a sheet that the students had to discuss with their family and decide what healthy treat they were going to try out that week. IF the family wanted to share that treat with the class, they could bring that to “Fit Friday”. Several students showed up with healthy treats. It was so neat! The students were able to share their experiences and if they brought a treat they shared it with the class. This only lasted about 12 minutes. Then for the rest of the class, they did activities that they can incorporate at home. It was really cool!

So I guess the moral of all of this is that all of these strategies we have been learning about CAN be incorporated into a PE classroom. This new found motivation is what inspired me to pick my self-selected project of teaching two vocabulary lessons to my clinical PE class. Stay tuned for my next post to learn how that went… J

Affective Dimensions of Reading

Growing up, reading was always a "big deal" in my house. Every night, my parents would read some sort of book, but my favorite was "Ferdinand", or my dad would sing Willie Nelson's "Mamma, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys". To this day, that song and that book are my absolute favorite. I was taught to read at a young age. I love discovering new things through books. Reading has always been fun for me and I consider myself to be a good reader. I love reading the newspaper. I know the newspaper doesn't seem all that interesting, but I love it. Growing up in the South, you kinda "adopt" family. Well, we adopted Mamaw and Papaw Underwood. Papaw and Mamaw would babysit me when my parents were at work. I learned so many things from them, but one was to enjoy reading the newspaper. My Papaw would pour a cup of black coffee, pull me up onto his knee, and we would read the paper together. Papaw smelled of old cars, animal feed, musk, and coffee. We would spend an hour every morning reading the paper together. To this day, I can't read a newspaper without thinking of Papaw.

I learned to love Western books from my grandpas and dad. They read Western book like they are going out of stock. :) When I was in middle school, I got hooked! I absolutely love reading Western books! Gone With The Wind is also one of my favorite books. I also love a good mystery book.

I can only think of a few times were reading wasn't enjoyable. Most of the times I remember are reading text books. It is a challenge for me to read text books. It seemed that textbooks were long, long, long, and boring. Whenever I would have teachers assign reading out of textbooks, I struggled! I dreaded it and would put it off till the last minute or not even read it. I also felt that some teachers didn't even discuss the reading from the textbook, reading the book was merely busy work. However, even though textbook reading isn't as enjoyable as a good Western, I don't detest reading a textbook. I have found that the last two semesters, the textbooks are more enjoyable because they relate to what I want to do.

Based on my own experiences, I want to include literature from all genres and all forms. I want to give my students an opportunity to explore their interests and develop new interests. Choices are going to be a huge factor in my classroom. Students will be able to read all sorts of books, texts, comics, etc in my classroom. I also plan to incorporate the textbook into my classroom. I don't want it to become busy work or a punishment. This will allow my students to see how interesting the text can be versus just something that they "have" to do for English class. Also, I think as students see how much reading can influence and shape their lives, that will foster good perceptions of themselves as readers. The more they enjoy reading, the better their perceptions will be. I hope to create an environment where reading is enjoyable, valued, informative, and motivational. I love reading and I hope to share that with my students.

Affective Dimensions of Writing

A Home

When I first started school, I didn’t always consider myself to be a writer. I was good at writing and I never really “hated” it, but I never thought I expressed myself or ideas through writing. It wasn’t until last semester that I began to consider myself as a writer. Crazy right!!?? I am an English major and it took me that long to consider myself a writer… I had to take a creative non-fiction writing class. My professor created an open environment and the class felt like it was a big writing circle group. The professor created a safe environment by sharing his own work and had two people every Friday share a piece of writing they were working on for the class or writing for their own benefit. We would read each others’ work, at least twice a week, and would give each other helpful feedback. Our professor even joined our writing circles. We read his work, and he read ours. It was a non-judgmental environment that allowed creative juices to flow. After establishing this environment in the classroom, we were assigned to write a paper based on a shape or picture from our past or present that had some sort of significance to us. I hadn’t written anything like that before. I was nervous but excited. I rummaged my brain for a shape or picture that had some significance to me. I decided on my old house in Mississippi. Instead of just writing about my house, I wrote the essay in the actual shape of my house. As I continued the essay, I began to write about the two-bedroom apartment my family lived in when we first moved here, and then continued about the house we now live in. (I will post it on here so you know what in the world I am talking about). When I was done, I felt proud and very vulnerable. While writing that essay, I found out more about myself and the meaning that my old house held. I discovered that I could not only express my thoughts through my writing, but also discover myself through writing. This was very empowering. Now I know this story sounds like a cheesy English major experience, but that assignment changed how I write. Yes I still write for “the grade” or assignments, but until that assignment, I never really wrote for fun or just because I wanted to. But now, I enjoy journal writing, writing letters to my Mammaw in Mississippi, and writing quotes in my smash book. My smash book is helping me to get creative with quotes, journaling, and pictures. It is so fun and allows me to be creative, which is sometimes difficult for me. 

As a future teacher of English, I hope to help my students feel like writers and become writers before they reach their fourth year of college. I want to create assignments that are “fun” and “exciting” to my students. This will require me to get to know my students, attend their extra-curricular activities to support them, and to have creative assignments for them. One way I want to do this is to give my students options. Allow them to express themselves through writing, pictures, drawings, smash books, scrap books, etc. For example, I had a teacher in high school that had us do a paper assignment, but we could pick from the 20 topics she gave us. The topics were on things all of us were interested in and could relate to the book we were reading at the time. We also had to give a presentation about our paper. She allowed us to make a video, a power point, create a piece of artwork, create a music video, create a rap, etc. This got the “overachievers” and the “underachievers,” so to speak, to be actively involved in the process, content, and product. The teacher worked with us every step of the way. It was a consistent interaction between teacher and students. We had weekly and daily check-up lists. My teacher also made sure to give us constructive feedback. It was neat to see all of the creative products that everyone came up with. This was the similar experience with my creative non-fiction writing class. Everyone’s creativity was completely different, but that is what made the class so unique. I want to create that kind of atmosphere in my classroom.

Here it goes....First blog post...EVER!!....

My name is Jessica Parker. I am named after the "Jessica" from one of the best movies of all time, "The Man From Snowy River." I am from a little town in Mississippi. When I get nervous or tired, my accent gets really thick! I moved here with my family when I was a sophomore in high school, and I went to Mountain Crest High School. I love the outdoors, especially huntin' and fishin'!  I love rodeos! I love hanging out with my family and friends. I love country music! I say y'all, fixin', gonna, winda (window) a shopping cart is a buggy, and fire flies are lightin' bugs. I am the JV head coach for girls' basketball at Mountain Crest. I also work at GNC, and I am a  for tutor the athletes at USU. My socks never match, and I love nike shoes and boots! Another interesting fact is that I have torn both my right and my left ACLs. I blew my right knee during an intramural semi-final basketball game. My team went on to win that tournament, all for a FREE T-SHIRT!! I love free t-shirts! I blew my left knee a year and a half later at the USU women's football clinic. Yes, I am that competitive. :) I am a senior this year and I am not sure if it has sunk in quite yet... But...I am excited to be done and to FINALLY be teaching!! My major is English and my minor is PE. I love reading and writing. I love sports and PE. As a coach and tutor, I have come to love when the "lightbulbs go off" when students or players finally get it. That is an awesome feeling! That is what drew me to teaching and coaching. I was drawn to English because I enjoyed being able to write about anything I wanted. When I first moved to Utah from Mississippi, I was made fun of for my accent. I got into trouble for saying "yes sir" or "yes ma'am" or "no sir" or "no ma'am" because they thought I was being disrespectful. Then people would treat me like I couldn't understand them because I talked different. Writing became my outlet. I could express myself without judgement. This is part of why I want to teach English. I want to help teenagers to discover themselves by expressing themselves in reading, writing, drawing, art work, music, etc. I am drawn to PE because I have always had a love for sports. I hope to continue coaching basketball wherever I end up, but maybe pick up some other sports along the way too. I also want to teach a strength and conditioning class. Working at GNC has helped me to understand the value of nutrition, weights, healthy lifestyle, specific sports training, and pre/post training. I am excited to learn so that I can be the best I can be and to live life to the fullest. I strive to live my life with no regrets! I am excited for what the future holds!