Clinical Observations #1
I began my clinical observations last Wednesday in one of the local middle schools. I was assigned to one of the two physical education teachers that handle the three grades in forty five minutes periods. The classes are integrated into one large class with each teacher having a set amount of students to whom they are responsible for. The classes run in size from a group of 20 to around 40 at the most. During my first three days of observation the students were involved in a charity event called “Hoops for Hearts”, which required each student to shoot and make as many free throws as they could in one minute. During this time period it was very evident that the teachers were using a couple of Marzano’s teaching strategies, the first being “Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition”. Each student was reminded that their effort would directly relate to their participation grade for the day. The one strategy that will be a running theme for me in these writings will be Marzano’s “Non-linguistic Representations”. This strategy is built into my content area by the daily use of engaging in kinesthetic activity, even though it is at a somewhat limit basis in these classes. After the first three days of hoops for hearts the following Monday the class began the FITNESSGRAM. The first measurement was the “sit and reach”, which for most classes took about fifteen minutes to complete. Of course there is always that one class that is an anomaly and takes two days to complete because of the size. After the first couple of days the class activity was centered on catching any absentees to complete the task. During the down time, after and during the testing, the class broke into informal groups and participated in playing some form of basketball. If not playing basketball they were either sitting in the bleachers talking, leaning on the walls talking, or kicking the soccer ball or volley ball at each others heads. So by definition the use of Marzano’s “Cooperative Learning” strategy was in play during this time as it was implemented by the students in their playing of what ever game they decided upon.
With those three strategies in place and being actively used I still find the class boring at the very least. There appears to be no discipline at most times, even with the procedures that are implemented. Most of the activities I have witnessed so far only engage one to two students at a time. I would have made sure that even during these testing moments I had an activity ready to get the rest of the class up and involved in something else. I believe a good game of Frisbee golf or ultimate sponge ball would have worked. These kinds of activities would keep the class focused more on movement then sitting around. As of right now, this class takes on more of a babysitting service then a classroom. I have even noticed that when the kids stretch at the beginning of class they still use antiquated techniques that have been laid to rest long ago. So as the students in this class run about and act like they’ve lost their minds, I see why and can’t blame them much. Their current view of a physical education class is going to play havoc for their future high school P.E. teachers. Of course that’s only if the next teacher in line takes a more proactive view of teaching the subject matter and doesn’t perpetuate the current strategy being used.