Questions & Answers

What are the steps and procedures that you use to create, design, implement and assess a unit of work for your class.

The first step that I would take for creating a unit to teach in Physical Education would be to find out the information for the class that I will be teaching this lesson to. The information that I would need for my unit to be the most successful would be, find the expectations that the school has for the physical education program, grade level, class size, class interests, what outside resources are available to the students, what facilities and equipment available to teach in. After I acquire this information I base my lesson(s) off of the information that was give to me.

The second step that I would take would be to start to create a unit based off of the information that I had learned about the class that I am teaching. I would write daily lesson plans that were fun, appropriate for the age and skill level, and provided lots of opportunity for the students to practice, success and to be healthy and active.

The next step that I would take would be to create regular rules and routines that the students will follow every time they enter my class, in light of being proactive and keeping peace regulation and normalcy in my class. This will help my lessons be more successful because they will flow more smoothly because the students will know what is expected of them at all times, and what the consequences are if they do not follow expectations.

How have you established a safe and supported environment in your class? Please include the behavior management strategies that you have used.

Creating a safe and supportive learning environment consists of two major components the first component is managerial and the second is instructional. Both need to be established and successful for the learning environment to be both safe successful. First is managerial, which is simply your class management. This is where you set up structure in the class that will allow it to flow effortlessly. Structure includes setting up regular rules, routines, expectations and consequences that are the same for every class every day. This lets the students know what is expected of them, the rules that they should follow, how they should enter and leave the gymnasium, and what happens when these rules, routines and expectations are not followed correctly. Also because these all stay the same from class to class it gets the students into a habit of behaving and allows for your class to flow very smoothly. Furthermore since the students are aware of the behaviors that are expected of them and the ones that are not expected of them then is allows for a safer learning environments because the students know what it is that they should be doing and what will happen if they do not follow these rules. Rules and routines are most effective when they reflect a positive environment while teaching children to be responsible for their own behavior.

Next is setting up the instructional portion of your safe and supportive learning environment. This is having thro, well throughout, and well prepared lessons for all of your classes every day.

In addition to how I set up a safe and supportive learning environment here are some of the strategies that I like to use within my physical education class, always try to use positive interactions, have rules clearly posted for students to see, never use sarcasm, no stupid questions, get off to a good start on the first day of classes. Furthermore, I try to always maintain consistency in my class, and I always walk my talk. If I want the students to behave appropriately then I must follow all the rules and behave in the correct manor myself.


Please explain how you will ensure that all students learn.

I believe that I am very competent in my ability to implement an effective and inclusive learning and teaching process. I know that though my courses here at SUNY Cortland and the close to eighty hours that I have put in at schools observing successful physical education teachers, and teaching in place of those teachers; that I am prepared to begin my student teaching. I have had much practice with different teaching styles, and have had the chance to put them into action and see the results though my classes. I also have the adapted concentration so I have spent a lot of time focusing on inclusive teaching and different strategies to make inclusive teaching a success. Furthermore, I have observed and assisted with classes at McGraw elementary school this past semester that has a student with a visual impairment, and see in action different ways to help this student be successful in a regular class.

Furthermore, to insure that my students are learning I will always complete regular assessments of my students. This will show whether or not my students are learning, and it will also show if my teaching style and delivery of my lessons and information is successful. The best teachers out there are reflective in their teaching. By reflective I mean, always being on top of their game. They reflect upon their teaching to find more effective ways to teach their students, they asses their own teaching, the use the resources that are available to them to be the best teacher that they can be. I am going to be a reflective teacher, so that I can have the opportunity to teach my students to the best of abilities.

Please explain how you have worked as a part of the team in a school environment.

I have worked as a part of a team in a school environment right here at SUNY Cortland. I have been a teacher’s assistant for 4 different classes. Motor behavior, Adapted P.E., Racket Activities and Skill Acquisition. Each class besides skill acquisition I have been a teacher’s assistant for at least one semester. I have been a teacher’s assistant for skill acquisition for three semesters now. In all of these classes I have had to work very closely with my professor. As a teacher’s assistant I have many different jobs that were expected out of me. I had to show up to classes early to help my peers with certain sports related skills. I have had to set up tournaments and make the brackets for these tournaments. I have held study sessions before tests. All of these jobs were expected out of me by my professor, not only were they expected to be completed by me, but had they not been completed then the educational objectives for that class on those days would not have been met.