Travis

Clark

Personal Philosophy

The purpose of a quality physical education class is to be able to teach a

student so that they are learning, not just letting them run around a gym. This is

termed as teaching to the whole student. What this means is that you are teaching a

student how to learn new skills, applying their knowledge, achieve a healthy level

during physical activity., be personal responsible, and to value physical education.

According to Lund and Tannehill, these would be the five national standards that a

teacher must allow for students to achieve at the end of a physical education class.

What I want to strive at with my students is to learning about new skills and valuing

physical education. This would allow for them to find enjoyment in physical

education and continue doing activities outside of the class.

There has been an increase in the amount of obese students. If I can provide

students with the needs to a physically educated and fit person every day, there will

be a decrease in the amount of students that come through my program to be obese.

By teaching to them for the enjoyment of learning new skills and valuing physical

education this will allow for them to not be bored and want to participate more.

Following standards one and three will be the standards I would like to base my

physical education class around. These state that a student must demonstrate

competency in variety of motor skills and movement patterns, and demonstrating

the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of

physical activity and fitness (Lund, Tannehill).

 These can be maintained through a skill theme approach, where students

must have to learn new skills and be able to practice and appropriately use them in

a physical education class. Lund and Tannehill states that a skill them approach is

where progression goes from simple to increasingly complex skills. Although the

skill theme approach may not be developmentally appropriate with some skills, I

will make sure that I make them appropriate. High school students may not need to

learn how to hop, skip, throw and catch, and other locomotor and non-locomotor

skills. Some of the more complex skills will be used, such as new games as in curling,

shot put, and archery. These are some examples of new skills students at a high

school level may have not ever seen or tried before. Implementing new skills to

students can allow for them to enjoy different types of games and try them out in

their community if they dont have it.

There is a certain way teachers can teach, one way is the direct instruction or

as the Children Moving book calls it interactive teaching. This teaching approach is

the most common used physical education approach. This allows for me as a teacher

to make sure the students are on task by telling them what to do. This allows for the

students to get through multiple skills throughout the entire semester. This teaching

style is known as teacher-centered, where the teacher guides their responses. The

reason I think this approach works the best, is that a lot of students that may come

to me in a physical education class, dont fully understand how to do certain skills. If

I teach this way, most of them will grasp it better. I am a believer in a student-

centered teaching style as well. A student-center physical education class is basically

where the teacher gives students a task and they have to go and try and accomplish
a task. You can use this in the skill theme approach, because you can let them try a

certain skill, and if they arent fully getting it, you teach it to them and use a teacher-

centered style. Having a quality physical education class can come with its bumps in

the road as some students may be handicapped, or disabled. The way I would handle

this is getting the parents involved in asking what types of activities this child can

do. Once I figure that out I can base my physical education class around that child to

meet the needs of accomplishing standards one and three. If a person is getting

quality physical education, and meeting the standards stated in Lund and Tannehill,

a student is able to further their activities in the future.

Lund, J. L., & Tannehill, D. (2015). Standards-based physical education curriculum

development. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Graham, G., Holt/Hale, S. A., & Parker, M. (2013). Children moving: a reflective

approach to teaching physical education. New York: McGraw-Hill.