4. Learning Environment

Rationale: This was a Social Emotional Lesson that I taught at Minooka Community High School. My cooperating teacher asked me to create an SEL lesson to teach and I was so very excited to do so. We just got done learning about Social Justice and its impact on teaching, so I decided to do a lesson with a similar theme. I was ask to shy away from racism. This lesson was about big and small issues in the world and sparking students awareness as well as an attempt to inspire them to take opportunities in their lives as they arise to help others in need and to make a difference, not only for the people they are helping but for themselves.

This lesson created an environment that sparked students interest, allow them to have interactions with each other that were positive, and helped them to be aware of their own influence they can have in their communities, improving their self-worth.

I learned from this lesson that there are so many volunteer opportunities that students can be involved in. I also learned that students may not know of these opportunitie and it is helpful to lead them and make them aware. For example, in my future career, I can encourage my students to show up, and show up myself to different events such as handing out turkeys to those in need during the Holiday season.

Rationale: This was the part of our class curriculum that I was reponsible for writing in my PE curriculum writing class. This piece of the curriculum was about the program goal for games.

I feel that in PE it is very important to take a break from the regular content and throw in some fun games for students to participate in. Participation in games helps create an environment for students to learn in more of a fun atmosphere, be active, and socialize with one another in a positive light.

Games give students the opportunity to use their skills in positive and meaningful ways. In any content you can create games that are simple, easy, and fun. This is similar to team building activities. It is great to ee students excited about learning, applying themselves, and staying actively engaged.