Day 4...Building Bridges (3/4/10)

Today was a beautiful day! The weather was really nice. We had sunny and cloudless skies with a small breeze that helped it from being overly hot.

We are building bridges with students and just like it takes some architects longer to build one bridge compared to another, it will take longer with some of the students. The students will both let you in their life immediately and be open with you or they will be reserved and you have to prove yourself as a teacher and friend before they feel comfortable around you. I have had some students come up and talk to me like they have known me forever and with others; it’s like pulling teeth for them to just say hi to you.

However, my colleague and I still stand at the doors at the beginning and end of every class to greet the students and wish them good days. I have seen the students be more open to saying hi to us throughout the day when we see them outside of class. I really like how they come up and give you a high five and a fist to say hello. Once one student does it and another student sees it, it starts a rippled effect. I just like how the students are becoming more comfortable with coming up to us instead of staying away because they don’t know us yet. I think that they see that we are very cordial and amicable and it helps them feel safe. That’s the type of atmosphere that we teachers need to be making; an environment in which the students feel emotionally and physically safe.

Even in advisory at the end of the day, I sat down with a group of girls and just talked to them. These are the times that I enjoy the most because it is not so stressful and I can open up with the students. The students got a chance to ask me any questions they want and the students get a chance to get to know you more. In return, the students feel more comfortable to open up to me because I was willing to do so for them. You need to be a little open with the students in order to create that community and that bond you want to have with them.

There was a substitute today for one of the teachers. When I sat down next to him, he said “So you want to be a P.E. coach?” I smiled and replied, “No sir. I want to be a P.E. teacher.” “You don’t want to be a coach then?” “Yes I do want to be a coach, but a teacher is different than a coach. They are separate entities.” It really bugs me that people think that being a P.E. coach and being a P.E. teacher are one in the same thing. This level of thinking and mentally is what gives physical education a bad reputation. P.E. teachers are teachers like anyone else. We teach to have the kids learn. Coaches, on the other hand, yes they teach skills, drills, and strategies, but they do so for competition and winning. Teachers teach so students can be lifelong learners of physical activity.

I was really active with the students today. Rinalldo and I began doing their lap with them. Then for my classes, when we do the walk/run, I go out and do it with them. Coming in for Tae-Bo, I still am participating like them and with them. I was walking around and telling some of the students who really hate Tae-Bo that I don’t understand why they hate it so much when their form is so good. The one girl just smiled and the other boy I said this to said, “No miss.” I repeated “Yes you are. You have better form than half the kids in this class” He smiled. I can really motivate the students to pick up the intensity of their participation. For example, the Tae-Bo video was doing kicking. I started walking around the class telling the students to kick me in the hand (just to show them that they can kick higher). I found that the students did better when I did this for them. Either that or they just really wanted a chance to kick the teacher.

My second class went really well too. There are 34 students and I can proudly boast that I know all their names. I just hope that I can remember them the next time they come in to class next week. Rinalldo and I ran with the students again. It really does motivate them to do more. We tell the students that if they finish after us, they have to do it again. However, we walk the first half and then slowly jog the second half. We just want to push them to do more instead of what they are already doing. I even jumped into the stretches and warming up with the students. One girl looked at me and gave me a smile and thumbs up as if she was congratulating me for participating with everyone. After we did the stretches and running, we came back in and were waiting for all the students to go to their classes. I stood on the basketball court and all these girls just started coming up and talking to me. I can see that they are starting to get comfortable with me being there. I really like that feeling and knowing that the students are opening up to me.

My supervising teacher told me today, “Don’t show them any fear. They can smell fear.” This was said before my third class which is the one that caused me tears the first day. If anything, I displayed an exuberance to be here again. It’s a new day. I thank God for putting me in this situation and giving me the strength to show up once again. I thank Him for putting me in a position to be such an influence in these students’ lives. Daniel 12:3 states that “those who teach others to live right will shine like stars forever and ever.” My job is to not fear teaching, but to teach others to live right. I am not just teaching students how to be physically active, but through my teaching, I plan to teach these students to develop the abilities to be compassionate, respectful, and understanding of others. I will be teaching these students to be better people and things that they will carry through them for a lifetime. Therefore, there is no reason for me to be afraid of going to each class, regardless of what happened during the previous one.

My third class was a lot better this time. One student came and asked me what we were doing. I told him it was similar to what we had done the other day. He started complaining again and saying that that was not what P.E. is and they should be playing. I then proceeded to tell him that we will be doing some activity in the beginning and the end. He lightened up a little bit and let me do what I do as a teacher. This class is one that cannot sit for more than 15 minutes or they start getting antsy and need to move. In the beginning of class, we did group juggling and saying the names of the people we were passing it to. I need to learn all of their names still. Then we got into the co-creating a curriculum and today we talked about physically and emotionally safe classroom environments. Today, I gave each person in the group a job. Only 1 student was the recorder and I think that this really helped with management. The other jobs included a spokesperson and an information keeper. Depending on group size, there might have been 2 information keepers: one for the spokesperson and one for the recorder. I saw that this made everything go a lot better and smoother. We did an activity (group juggling/name game) in the very beginning so they still had the illusion of being active. I also told the students that we would do another activity at the end of class but we had to get through the questioning part first. This helped to focus the students and settle them down to do their work.

So far I have done the co-created curriculum with 3 of the 6 classes. We still have yet to get to the morning classes, but won’t be able to until after spring break. They have already started a new unit and our cooperating teachers don’t want that to be interrupted. I think I found a way to do this type of curriculum with the students though. Being inactive for 90 minutes during what is supposed to be their P.E. class upsets some of the students. Doing an activity at the beginning and then sort of “bribing” them with an activity at the end seems to help the students stay on task and complete the work.

I said a couple weeks ago that elementary school might be the place for me, but really any place would be good for me. I can make it work wherever I go. If I set my mind to do something, I can usually do it and do a good job at it. I would prefer a middle school or high school not only because they might be more skill developed than the elementary students and because of some of the sports I could teach, but also because it is the most influential time during an adolescent’s life. They are the most vulnerable during the middle school years and trying to find their identities during this time. I think that I can make a big difference in a lot of young kids’ lives and be the positive role model they need.

I am barely a week into this placement. Who knows what’s going to happen next. I could love the rest of it or something could happen in which makes me not want do this age level. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.