Week 13

Returning back to teaching this week was nice, after a week off for spring break. I started teaching health education to one class each day for the Health Education Grant. I also began a new unit of bowling for the younger grade levels (kindergarten through third grade). This week, I had the opportunity to reflect better on my teaching and how my teaching was delivered by editing my student teaching video. Even though I am going into my 14^th week at my placement, I am still learning more and more about myself as a teacher each week.

When I began teaching and preparing for the Health Education Grant, I was surprised to see the amount of freedom I was given teaching a 40 minutes class solely on nutrition. I was told to follow a health curriculum that the school had for health education, but most of the lessons that were provided were outdated with the lessons focused on the food pyramid. Since the nutrition lessons were outdated, I followed the basic outline but I was able to incorporate the food plate rather than the pyramid. Following the IPTS one, content knowledge, I made sure to evaluate my resources that were available in the school for comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usefulness for student to get the most information in the 40 minutes dedicated to nutrition. Each class I taught was a bit different the lower levels I focused on the food plate and the upper grades I focused on nutrition labels and facts. I noticed a change in behaviors for both grade levels, high and low. It seemed that the upper grades were more focused and interested in the health education in their classroom, while the lower grades seemed distracted with the fact that I came to their classroom to teach rather than in the gym.

From my own observation, many of the students eat flaming hot snacks and pop for a snack, before school and after. I really wanted to get the students to really understand how unhealthy and poor their choices were without saying “hot chips, Cheetos, and pop are bad for you, you need to change that.” I decided instead to enter my health class munching on a bag of flaming hot Cheetos and a 16oz bottle of Dr. Pepper. Almost instantly, I had a reaction for my students. “That’s not healthy!” “Your not suppose to be eating that for breakfast.” Were just a few of the comments I received from my students. I really wanted to create a clear and accurate presentation of what the students do daily, rather than just giving an example. Even though I had to begin my day with a 650-calorie breakfast, it was worth it when I was able to get the reaction I wanted from my students. Using a different approach to the introduction of my lesson I met the IPTS six for instructional delivery.

This past week, I have been watching hours of my teaching for my student teaching video. At first, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the amount of clips I had to go through, but once I began to see my own teaching from a different perspective gave my the opportunity to reflect on what I have been teaching for the past few weeks. I noticed that I tend to give student very detailed instruction. I felt at the time, that it was needed in order for students to stay on track and needed to eliminate confusion. I feel after reflection on the lessons and some classes, that I can give a less detailed explanation to allow much more time for the students to be active. It is funny, because I know from past classes I have taken at Trinity I know that their should be more doing than talking, but I did not realize that I was doing more talking than I should have been doing. Since reflecting on my teaching I now take the introduction down by half in order to give students more opportunity for practice. Since I have become aware of this, I noticed that my students are able to follow direction and follow rules, because they have become familiar and aware of my expectations for their class and the students as individuals. Following the IPTS ten, I have been able to accurately understand method of inquiry through self-assessment. 

This next week, I want to continue to observe student behaviors in order to deliver a better nutrition lesson to each of my health education classes to come. I want to be sure that the time that I am given is most beneficial for students to learn something new, and have student begin to develop goals for themselves and their nutrition. I will continue to be an advocate for health education and physical education even if I have to take one for the team by eating a high calorie breakfast to impact the learning of my students.