Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge 

Rationale for Artifact #1:

Description: This artifact is a lesson I taught in the middle of our team building unit at Jackson Elementary. This lesson intentionally set students up to work collaboratively with one another to achieve a common goal. The goal of the activity was to pass objects only using their feet to the next person in line without the object touching the ground. Each team was attempting to go through all 3 levels by the end of the period.  

Connection: This artifact aligns with ITPS knowledge indicator 2D which states "The competent teacher understands the relationship of knowledge within the disciplines to other content areas and to life applications". This lesson illustrates the relationship that can be drawn past the PE environment and into the classroom. The skills that were implemented in this lesson are skills that transcend beyond the gym and even the classroom but all the way into the daily life of the student. 

Importance: In PE it is important to implement skills into the curriculum that go beyond they gym. This artifact illustrates that practice in teaching lifelong skills and applications that will benefit students not just in their current school year but also throughout their educational careers and eventually into their lives after education. 

Rationale for Artifact #2:

Description: This artifact is a lesson I implemented at Jackson Elementary in the middle of our team building unit. This lesson focused on the need for students to display effective communication skills and also learn to work through disagreements when they arose. Students were split up into teams and work on these skills of conflict resolution and communication. 

Connection: This artifact aligns with ITPS performance indicator 2N which states "The competent teacher facilitates learning experiences that make connections to other content areas and to life experiences". This lesson implemented opportunities for students to learn skills that would stretch beyond the PE classroom but also into their general education classrooms as well as their daily lives. 

Importance: This artifact highlighted the importance of communicating with others and also resolving conflicts with others. This is a skill that students experience on a day-to-day basis. The overall arching theme of the week was "be slow to talk and quick to listen". I would say at the beginning of each class that "it is easy to talk but it takes a special person to listen". We would emphasize being the person we expect others to be. These skills are not just important in a PE classroom but they crossover into the life of the individual student.