2. Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge

The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.

Rationale:

The above lesson plan was written for my high school classes at my fieldwork placement. Students learn about the five components of fitness through doing them. Students worked in groups and rotated to different stations with exercises designed for Muscular Strength, Body Composition, Muscular Endurance, Cardiorespiratory Endurance, and Flexibility. There was a poster at each station for students to review what is happening with their bodies while participating in these various fitness components. Students are also able to calculate their own BMI.

I find fitness and strength training to be fun, interesting, and so it is my strong suite when it comes to content knowledge. I hope to find myself teaching in the weight room somewhere some day, because I absolutely love it. I have a lot of experience and am very knowledgeable when it comes to kinesiology which can be applied to teaching physical education.

Through this lesson students learned the various components of fitness, while being active, and exploring something that was new to many of the students. It was fascinating to see students interested in getting started in the gym using equipment and seeing what they are capable of. One particular student was working on lifting dumbells and I was able to teach him the proper form. Another student learned how to operate a leg press.

Rationale:

For the first part of my student teaching, 9 weeks, I spent working with second and third grade students at the Elementary Level. I became an expert in locomotor and non-locomotor movements. I wrote the above lesson plan for students to use these skills in a fun, game-like setting. Students were place into six different groups, and give a poster with one of the locomotor movements as a word on the front. They were to take turns in their groups using the locomotor movement to go to the center of the gym, which was the pond to grab a note card and try to complete their word. Once the word was complete they were to sit down as a team at which time they would win.

Elementary students need to learn basic locomotor movements and get really good at them. We practiced these movements day in and day out. Students tend to get board, so this was a really fun and creative way to use content knowledge to get kids moving while still sharpening their movement skills.

Students over time, with the use of these types of activities, improved. This was seen through observational assessments day in and day out. Seeing the growth in students, is a really rewarding part of being a teacher. I challenge myself to make the lessons engaging and stay engaged through out so that the students get the best experience and I also learn from my students.