Entry 57

School Placement: Carlisle School

Cooperating Teacher: Mancino Craighead

Grade(s)/Subject(s) of Placement: 6-12 (Sports Medicine, AP Statistics, PE (6-12))

Date: 11/20/14

Summary of Today’s Activities:

Normal planning period.
PE (5th, long) - Well I knew it was too good to be true - the senior schedule to lead today leaves right before class and doesn't even check out. Once the school got in contact with his dad, the dad gave an excuse that he left because he had "blisters on his toes". See below my reflection in regards to this matter. I quickly had to step in and makes plans for my class, yay. The warm-up consisted of our new-revised routine - with timed exercises. After exercises, we began our basketball lesson with lay-up lines. And since I wasn't prepared to introduce anything new, I just went with whatever they already knew well. The other drills that the class participated in was 3v2 and 2v1 and then they finished up with a 4v4v4 activity (winner travels down the court to the other team of 4 in attempt to score more points).
Middle School Study Hall - drives me nuts every Tuesday and Thursday; feels like punishment.
Middle PE (7th) Monday/Thursday class. Special day - last class before Thanksgiving so I waived the normal 20 minute warm-up routine. I allowed them to just "be active" for 10 minutes to be sufficient as a warm-up. Then I introduced a new dodgeball game called "ghost ball". Ghostball is a normal game of dodgeball with a set number of balls (start off with 1 or 2 and increase by 1 ball per every game played). However, the team is allowed to select a "ghost" to go to the other teams side but only allowed to travel on the outside perimeter of the court. Each team is allowed to use their ghost by throwing them a ball so the ghost can throw a ball at the other team - so balls will be thrown at you from all angles of the court. Once you get hit, you become a ghost on the other side of the court, so you are still technically in the game. The game is played until 1 side has all became ghosts. We played 3 rounds of this before I let them have 10 minutes of free play before we left for the day!

Reflections of Today's Activities

It has become an epidemic of parents sticking up for their children by supplying them with excuses once they violate school rules. It is almost more important for the child to seem "golden" for the parents, rather than teaching them that breaking the rules has consequences. It is troubling that parents value appearances over being responsible - but what can a school do about what? I'm so tired of hearing excuses rather than being held accountable for actions. What is the appropriate action a teacher should take in this situation? 

Planning the same lesson plan for Sports Medicine doesn't always mean that each class will react the same to it. My 2nd period class is comprised mostly of freshman who are too scared to get in trouble so they tend to follow all directions given. My 4th period is a mixture of all types of students within the grades with various athletic abilities - but certainly a variety of personalities. My 4th period did not respond as well to the lesson as my 2nd period today. Instead of following directions and performing the workouts, I got a few students trying to dip out and then smarted off to me - I WAS NOT HAVING IT!! I had to stop during the warm-up and put the desks back together so they could do written work instead. It was to my understanding that they couldn't handle the "hands on" experience, but they still needed to know the material - so they were given a paper to write about the science behind progressive-resistive training. Hopefully, this will change a few behaviors in class - a few can ruin the entire experience for everyone. I'm not sure how politically correct this method is, but I tend to take my coaching habits to the classroom to make all students learn accountability and how to act in a group of people. Go to the main content