Eric Kruger - Student Teaching Week 6

During this week, I was able to have the head of the P.E. department observe me during one of my classes. The class that she observed is the class that I would consider my trouble class. The students in this class to not work well and will put minimum effort into the games and drills. This was deliberate on my part as I wanted her feedback on how I could address these issues, even if it meant that I was hit for points on the observation. After the class I spoke with her and she did indeed tell me that it was a rough class and lesson. I told her too that I knew it would be and that I wanted her to see this class for that exact reason so I would be able to improve myself and find was to break through to a class of this nature.
Another hurdle that I have faces over the past week was a student in my swim unit. Bring that we are required to have a certified swim instructor teach the lessons, I am tasked with taking the non-swimming students the the fitness center for their daily activity. We have a student that has refused to get in the pool or participate in the fitness center as well. I had come to find out that he has and IEP that is behavioral based. I was able to talk with his case manager and find ways to work around this. We have since made up a specific program for him that seems to be working well (20.C.4d).
One thing that I want to make sure to get across to the swimming class is the effect that it has on them throughout the day and why they should be doing it (20.A.4a). Being that swimming is a unit that most high schoolers do not want to participate, it is going to be important for them to see the benefit of the unit and what it can do for them in the long run.

Eric Kruger - Student Teaching week 5

This week I had something happen that was a first to me. At our school, we have to post grades every two weeks. I have a student in one of my freshman P.E. classes that did not dress for class 3 times during the two week grading period. With the no dress policy here, he would automatically get a 50% off his grade. I had to pull him aside and tell him what the situation was and that he needs to turn things around if he wants to pass the class. I also called home and emailed the family, with no response. I am hoping that he does start to come around and start to raise his grade because he is an athlete and he will be ineligible if his grade continues this way.
With the new unit that we are in (floor hockey) this gives a new opportunity to to work on different standards. Being that there is going to be a lot of hand eye coordination as well as puck handling, finding ways to put together movement patters to control the stick and puck is going to be vital (19.B.4b).  Along with this, it is going to be, important to be safe with the stick and puck to make sure that the students are not raising the head of the stick too high and that they are not lifting the puck into the air (19.C.4a).
One things that I want to make sure that I am focusing on over the next few weeks is to change my warm up for the classes and make it more dynamic. I want to find ways to get the students more involved in the warm up and more active. It is going to be important to find ways to incorporate the skills of the unit unto the warm up so that they can develop the skills better for the unit.

Eric Kruger - Student Teaching Week 4

This was a difficult week to really talk about. With the weather and how cold it was, my school has two late starts, and two days off. On the days that are late starts, our periods are naturally shortened and it makes it very difficult to be able to set up our full, or even actually lessons for the day. For all of my classes, it is required that either we set up equipment, or classes before us set up the equipment to use for the day. With not much time on our hands, all of the P.E. classes elected to forgo setting up the equipment and just alibiing for the day. In all of my freshman P.E. classes (3), we either played danish long ball, or combined with another class and played a large game of kickball. In my strength and conditioning class, it was pretty much up to the students on what they wanted to do for the day as we would not have enough time to be able to get through our assigned workouts for the day. With this as well, during today on the late start, it was a unique situation as the school was just coming back from 2 days off and would be heading into the weekend the next day. Needless to say, most students were already checked out the moment they walked in the doors today.
It is hard to trying to find standards to attach to this week due to its nature and the circumstances. It did help me understand and work with adaptation when situations change and the lesson plan has to go out the window for that day. Next week, we are starting new units, so I want to make sure that I am able to set a good understanding of the units upfront and make sure that the students feel comfortable heading into them.