Philosophy of Teaching
I have been raised in a family full of teachers and educators. Growing up, I thought I wanted to do anything but teach. I believed this until around my junior year of high school. At that time, I was taking a course completely out of my element, Drama. Little did I know that this course would change and influence my life forever. My teacher was a fun, spunky, interactive and inventive woman. Not only did she teach us about the theater but also life lessons as well. My teacher made me think, if she could influence students in a subject area that not everyone has a particular interest in, then maybe I could do the same, only in a different subject area.
Health and Physical fitness has always been a huge part of my life. I’ve played sports since kindergarten and only recently turned in my playing shoes for coaches shoes. I’ve realized very quickly that not all people are interested in Physical Education, but I personally believe that Physical Education is one, if not the most, important subject areas in schools today. I believe that sports skills are important for students to learn, so they might participate in some type of lifetime activity. But I think that physical education has an opportunity to influence students with so much more. We only get one body in this lifetime, and how we treat our bodies directly affects other areas of our lives. My main goal as Physical Education teacher is to give my students the skills to maintain a healthy active lifestyle, and influence them to want to do so. This area includes, but is not limited to the following contents: fitness, diet, and health. Lastly, I believe that Physical Education has an opportunity to emphasize self-esteem, self-reliance, ability to work within a team, and social skills. These are very important mechanisms not only for physical education, but also for going college and having a job. Students have to learn interact with others, and this can be done in a Physical Education setting.
I plan to obtain these goals by using a variety of different teaching styles and curriculums. For students to able to obtain new knowledge they need to become active learners. I believe they do this by being given responsibilities. Don Hellison is a firm believer that students will not act responsible unless we trust them enough to give them responsibilities. I plan to enforce this belief in my classroom. The different curriculum styles I plan to use include: Fitness Education, Sport Education, Outdoor Education, and some aspects of Adventure Education.
I believe the only way to assess students is to use “Authentic Assessment”, which is a term coined by Dr. Mary Lou Veal. Through
authentic assessment students should be assessed cognitively, affectively, and psychomotorly, which is directly connected to our National
Standards. Students in my class will get assessed throughout the curriculum. This includes diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment.
Most of the Assessment in the classroom will be through the psychomotor domain, since this is the most important aspect of Physical
Education, but I think cognitive (written tests) are very important for confirmation of knowledge retention. I do plan on finishing each unit with
a summative performance based assessment. In the Sport Education Model, this would be reflected through a tournament like setting. This
process allows the teacher to review student’s application of skills on multiple occasions and allows for a thorough evaluation