Weekly Journal Prompts

WEEK #1:
Describe a significant event that happened during your teaching/observing this past week.
Significant may be because it bothered you, excited you, or made you rethink intentions or
beliefs, or made you think your intentions are sound.
A significant event that happened during this past week of teaching was the positive feedback I
received from my students on the lesson/game we played in class. We are in our 5th week of the
step express program that I am implementing in all of my PE classes for the last month. The
game was called Space Travelers and it was a tag game. My students really liked that we turned
the gym into outer space and that I had them traveling through the galaxy by showing me
different locomotor skills without getting tagged by the aliens standing on the stars. I could
really tell they loved the creative atmosphere. I was really worried that my older students were
not going to enjoy this lesson as much, but I was proven wrong. I did alter the game to meet the
needs and make it more age appropriate for the older classes, but all of the feedback was
positive.

WEEK #2:
Do my actions as a teacher show that I take pride in my work?
I believe my actions as a teacher show that I take pride in my work. At my school there is not
enough room for me to hold PE classes in the gym during lunch time, so I teach my classes up on
the stage when the weather is bad and outside when the weather is good. I really want my
students to have the best experience when they come to my PE classes. My four rules that I have
posted on my door are safety first, listen and respect others, be a good sport, and have fun. My
students were not able to fully follow these rules in the condition that the stage was in. Today
during my prep I decided to clear out all the play props, costumes, and risers that have been
stored on the stage for the past year and clean up all the shelves that had an inch of dust on them.
It was not a safe environment for my students to be in. I invited the play producers to store all of
their belongings in my equipment room and provided them with shelves as well. I really value
my student's learning environment and how it is maintained. My time teaching is valuable and I
take pride in my lessons, my student's learning environment, and in the safely of my students.

WEEK #3:
Was my demeanor and attitude towards my class this week effective for student learning?
I had a really hard week. I am not sure what was wrong? I have looked at this week from all
different angles trying to figure out what went wrong. I think that the lesson looked fun and
attainable from the lesson plans, but when I actually started teaching it in a crammed space up on
the stage it wasn't really working. The classes that were able to use the gym during their PE time
seemed to work a lot better. When a lesson is not going smoothly my demeanor and at attitude is
extremely challenged. This is when I need to really make sure I am teaching effectively and that
my students are learning. When I focused on their learning and not all of my frustrations I was
able to have a better outlook on the lesson. I had to have a lot of patience and even switched the
lesson up for my younger kids because the lesson was becoming a safety issue with them. It was
a throwing lesson and there just was not enough room to implement this lesson safely for them.
I think that switching things up and adjusting to the needs of the different ages of the classes and
specific situations we become better effective teachers.

WEEK #4:
Talk about the feedback you have received from your cooperating teacher this week. Was it
useful? Why or Why Not?
I am excited to work with my cooperating teacher Lydni. She has a lot of experience teaching
and I can already tell she has a lot of good information to share with me. She has made me feel
comfortable asking questions when I need to. Our schedules are kind of hard to coordinate
because we teach at the same time, but I know there is always an open line of communication.
We do have lunch together so that is always a good time to connect if needed. She has not given
any specific feedback yet, but will be able to visit my classroom soon and will be evaluating me
on my midterm. I have talked to her a little bit about my electronic portfolio and taking the
praxis. The information and feedback she has provided on preparing me for these two major
tasks in my licensure process have been very helpful. She has a strong resume, experience, and
feedback on several of the requirements for my project and has offered to help me prepare for my
praxis.

WEEK # 5:
Are the relationships that I have with my students helping or hindering their ability to learn?
I feel that I have good relationships with my students. They are excited to see me in the halls and
at lunch. I feel that it is important to have good relationships with my students, but not be best
friends with them. It is never a good idea to exchange numbers or even talk to students on social
media. I feel that there is that professional/friend line and when crossed then yes learning may
be hindered. Students may feel like they don't have to try as hard or pay attention if they feel too
comfortable in a class setting. I feel It is best to always be professional with my students and
that does not mean you I can't have a good relationship with them on that level. I just received a
letter tapped to my door today and it said that I always make PE fun. I appreciated it very much
and it makes me happy that my students enjoy me and my classes.

WEEK # 6:
Were my lessons successful this week? Why or Why Not?
I really liked the lesson's that I taught this week. I put a lot of effort and extra work into them
because I was getting evaluated by my CT and Supervisor. I like taking the time to go through
and follow a lesson plan template and specifically list my objectives and how I am going to
measure them. For this lesson the skills was the overhand throw and I had to get a little creative
in how I was going to measure it. I explained the proper technique of throwing an overhand
throw and watched and observed my students as they threw the ball back and forth. I just
decided to have each student partner up and stand across from each other and hold up their hands
as a diamond and had them aim for that target. The partners could move the target around to
different spots to make it more fun. I then asked my students how many times their partner hit
the target and I could observe their progress that way. Then I explained to them a game we
played the rest of the class the period called Hula Hut. This game was a huge success! A lot of
my students liked it because it is the most like Dodge Ball, and that is all they ever want to play
in PE. This is different however because the targets are buckets, hoops, hula hoops, and cones,
not human beings.
WEEK # 7:
In what ways, can I support my colleagues in their students learning?
When the 4th grade came to me needing my help in the step express program I was really excited
to help them out. Everything fell into place and I decided to incorporate this program with all of
my students. I really felt like I was doing them a huge favor and it also helped the students learn
a lot. The lessons were rather informative and educational. I personally learned a lot as well. I
think it is important to keep an open communication between my student's room teachers
because there are a lot of physical education activities that can be done in PE that meet
requirements for each of my student's curriculum. Square dancing is a perfect example. I would
gladly be willing to add a square dancing unit for my 4th graders. The problem is that this
collaboration doesn't usually occur as often as it should. I also support my other specialty
teachers with what they are teaching in their classes. We have often talked about coordinating
our units so that we are teaching the same theme, or even combine classes. We also have lunch
together every day and are able to talk about what is working or what is not working and I feel
like we have a great support system for each other.

WEEK # 8:
What have I done lately to relieve stress and focus on my own mental health, to ensure I remain
an effective teacher?
I make sure that I include time for myself in my everyday life. My release is exercising with
friends. There is a group of us that support each other in our physical goals. We all get along
and have fun together too. We call ourselves the running buddies, but we do more for each other
than just run together however. We are always there for each other with a listening ear. We keep
on task with our exercise goals by motivating each other. I do not like to work out by myself and
with these ladies in my life I stay on track and cn get up at 5 am and hit the classes at the gym. I
enjoy working out with these ladies and I feel that it really does help me get through the day. It
gives me energy to be a more effective teacher. We also go on weekend trips throughout the year
to participate in various relays and races. These are motivating events that keep us training
throughout the year. And who doesn't like to get away with your friends for the weekend? I sure
do, in fact we have a relay in St. George this next weekend and I am so excited to get away! I
think it is important to always remember what you love to do and what motivates you. It is easy
to get stuck in the same old routine and get depressed. This is not healthy. I wanted to have a
profession that I love and supports what I believe in. Physical activity is a huge part of my life
and I honestly do feel like it keeps me sane, healthy, active, and generally a happy person. When
you are happy and motivated it shows in you work, at home, and with personal relationships.

WEEK # 9:
What choices have I given my students lately?
I have recently been asking my students about what unit they would like to do for the month of
May. I personally would really like to do a dance unit, but wanted to get feedback from my
students. Surprisingly they said that they think it would be fun, but had some exceptions. I like
to involve my students with the decisions that are being made in our classes. They are a huge
part of the lessons and I like to involve them with the decision making as much as possible.
When they are involved I feel that there is a better connection between them and I. I feel like
they are more positive about the activities in the class, they want to participate more, and there is
a general sense of working as a team; These things have to be present in a PE class in order for
things to run smoothly. When I was first starting out in my Master's program there were specific
lessons that I had to prepare and teach my students. One unit in particular was tumbling and
gymnastics. This was a hard unit to get through. A lot of my students were not interested and I
was struggling with the lessons I had to prepare. I remember though that once I started involving
my students in the decision making process of what was going to be presented my whole attitude
and theirs changed immediately. I also let my students choose what equipment they would like
to use when they earn a free day in PE, I often have a variety of games my students can choose
from and I also have my students switch up the rules when we are playing a game. I feel that by
giving my students choices it increases their self esteem, motivation, and desire to work and
participate in my classes.

WEEK #10:
Tell me about an experience you had with student learning this week. How did it go? Were
objectives met? Why or why not?
This week I taught my students about offense and defense in basketball. It was not as easy with
the younger kids because Jr. Jazz teaches players to not swat the ball away from a offensive
player. This was hard to teach my younger student's about defense when they are being taught
not to take away the ball in their community league. The older students however, are very
familiar with taking the ball away from another player in basketball and I was able to evaluate
them and I could see that objectives were being met. The two drills that I had my students doing
this week focused on dribbling and passing. The dribbling drill allowed my students to
offensively dribble through a maze of hula hoops keeping their dribble under control and in their
possession. There were students inside the hula hoops that were defensively trying to gain
possession of the ball as players dribbled by. I was able to keep a rubric of each student and see
if they successfully were meeting their objective of making it through the maze, and successfully
taking the ball away defensively when they were in the hoops. I also observed my students
practicing accurate passes to one another in the game monkey in the middle. I was able to
measure their objectives as well and see if their passes were accurate as well as their defense in
intercepting the ball. I feel that my students have participated in these activities before, but when
I taught them how to play by focusing on offense and defense skills they took these activities
more seriously and with more effort. I feel like they really learned a lot.

WEEK #11:
Are the relationships I have with my colleagues conducive to creating a collaborative culture
focused on learning?
I was excited when the 4th grade team came to me and asked if I could help out with their step
express program for 8 weeks in PE. It really helped provide me with informative and
educational information to teach my students. I decided to extend these lessons to all my
students instead of just implementing this program just for my 4th graders. I feel that my
students learned a lot from these lessons because they contained a huge amount of educational
information. My students learned about calories, circuit training, health related fitness, and
much more that I have not introduced to them up until this point. The lessons were very user
friendly and fun for my students. I feel that my student's learning experience was enhanced by
collaborating with the 4th grade team and incorporating the step express program into my
curriculum map this year. I make it a point to interact with my colleagues as much as possible. I
am a very social person and I need social interaction in my life. I have the opportunity to sit
down at lunch with the teachers at my school every day at lunch. This is a very productive time
to get to know each and every one of them (that have lunch at my time) and discuss issues,
upcoming events, students, tips, and other informative information. Without this time and these
relationships I dont feel like collaboration would take place as effectively as it does.

WEEK #12:
After listening to the administrators in our class, take some time to reflect on your thoughts
during this panel. Did you learn something? What did you take away from this discussion?
A memorable teaching experience this week was having my 3rd graders come to me during their
recess to help with my 1st grade classes. It was fun to see my older students interact with my
younger students and see them using the same cues and attention getters as I do. They had
already had this same lesson this past week and were implementing skills and techniques that
they had previously learned. It was pretty rewarding to see them act out what I had taught them
in the same lesson the day before. It made me feel good about what I had taught them and the
fact that they had listened and retained the information that I had provided for them. It just made
me realize that what I am teaching them sticks and that these classes are very beneficial to each
individual. It is easy to get stuck in a rut and just try to make it through the day, but these lessons
are very important to these students and will help them develop a love for staying active
throughout their lives. These students of mine are pretty impressive and are always willing to
help. The best part of watching them help with my lesson was how they resolved conflict with
rock, paper, scissors. One of my favorite ways to solve any problems in PE is using this method.

WEEK # 13:
Choose a colleague to collaborate with. Tell me about the situation.
I chose to collaborate with the music teacher. We are going to combine our 6th grade classes we
teach one week in April. We will be teaching them a mini dance unit. We are excited to combine
music and exercise together and we think our students will enjoy it too. It has been a little tricky
coordinating the gym with other teachers because this next month everyone will be getting ready
and practicing their class dances for our end of the year dance festival that we hold at our school.
I usually just hold PE outside this time of the year so there is never any real conflicts. However
when we combine PE and music we will need the sound system in the gym, so the scheduling
part could be tricky. This is something that I have never done before and I hope it all works out
well. It could be hard to coordinate 60 students all at the same time in the gym, but I am up for
the challenge. I like working with the music teacher. She knows a lot about music and dancing.
This is one area that I am not very comfortable with in teaching so this will be a good experience
for me to learn more from her. Who knows maybe the 6th graders will catch on real quick and we
can enter our dance in the dance festival.

WEEK # 14:
Tell me about a teachable moment this week!
This week I had Spring Break for my school district but I can share an experience from the
previous week. I let my students have a free week the previous week in PE because it was
teacher appreciation week and the week before Spring Break. It was fun to bring out a lot of
different equipment. It was a type of review week from all our previous units of soccer, football,
and basketball. I also added jump ropes, Frisbees, and scoops to the stations. It was fun to go
around and help students with different skills that were taught in each lesson. For example when
the students were shooting basketballs I would come around and ask them if they were using
their BEEF form and reviewed with them what each letter stood for. When the students didn't
remember then it was a great time for me to teach them and go over each step of shooting. It was
very rewarding to see that a lot of my students remembered the BEEF form from our basketball
unit. Football was the first unit we did this school year and it was really neat to play around with
the kids and how my students remembered how to throw a ball properly. They needed to use the
laces, hold the football up to the ear, and aim for the numbers. It was fun also to teach the
younger kids how to jump rope. You just assume that children that age already know how to
jump rope or hula hoop. This is not true, so it was fun to teach them these skills.

WEEK # 15:
Tell me about your experience with your mentors. What kind of feedback did you receive? What
did you learn from them? What did they learn from you? Any additional thoughts on this topic
My experience with my mentor was very positive. She was there when I needed her, but my
situation was a little unique. I am already the PE teacher at the school that I student taught for, I
did not have someone there by my side monitoring, critiquing, or teaching me. She was
Kindergarten teacher at my school and she taught the same hours that I did. She observed me for
my midterm evaluation and my final evaluation. She was helpful. We would talk at lunch and
she would give me advice about my electronic portfolio that I needed to compete at the end of
my semester in my student teaching program. Lyndi gave me good advice on how to manage my
classroom and how to get my student's attention better, which has been very beneficial to me.

WEEK # 16:
Create 3 professional goals with objectives for your first year of teaching.

Short Term Goals

Goal 1
Introduction:
Students perform better when they are motivated. I feel that one way to motivate my students is
to have them make their own choices. This will be a short term goal that I would like to monitor
throughout the school year. Choices seem to give my students ownership, responsibility, and
desire to participate and improve in physical activity.
Objectives:
Develop a curriculum that is more based on choices than team sports. I want my students to
focus on what motivates them. I feel the best way to do this is have an environment in my class
that provides my students to be in control and making decisions. This will really focus on the
cognitive development and growth of my students throughout the year.
I will have my students help me design a school website with information on how to stay
physically fit with suggestions, exercises, healthy foods that my students personal incorporate in
their lives.
Activities:
I will increase my knowledge by attending several professional development conferences or
courses that are offered throughout the year. This will help with introducing new activities that
will motivate my students. I hope to find new and fun ways to teach my students that require
them to make their own choices and decisions that will help them live a healthier lifestyle.
I will provide reflective journals to my students and will allow them 15 minutes at the end of
class to take a minute and think about what they had learned that day, feelings they would like to
express, and any other thoughts that they would like to share. I feel that expression is a huge part
of the learning process. If they can reflect and give feedback to the lessons they learn everyday
in PE it will have more of a purpose and impact in their lives.

Resources:
Collaboration between my students' home room teacher will need to be established. Curriculum
will be created by the topics in which each age level will be studying that year in their home
room. This will help with the learning process, confidence, and interest in my physical education
classes. We will meet once a month to follow up on how this program is working and how it is
increasing confidence and motivation in our students.
I will provide a survey at the end of the school year to see how the students enjoyed this way of
teaching by letting them make choices and have a voice in the activities.
Timeline:
This goal will be for one year. After the year I will go over the assessments and see if fitness and
motivation increased throughout the year.
Assessments:
I will observe through the Fitnessgram results how the students' activity choices have affected
their overall fitness level. I will test students on a regular basis and the program I use can
support attaining the data required for analysis. The Fitnessgram program can sort the data by
age and sex indicating what percentage of the students have reached or exceeded the healthy
fitness zone.
I will ask my students questions after each lesson and record their improvement on a graph.

Goal 2
Introduction:
In the age of technology I would like to incorporate more ways to record fitness progression in
my PE classes.
Objectives:
Using the data collected download it into the computer and allow students to use information to
create their own personal individual fitness plans.
Present this idea to the district so they can help incorporate adding Fitnessgram software and
PDA software into physical education departments. This helps incorporating technology into our
classes.
Activities:
Provide training quarterly in this new way of adding technology into our physical education
classes in our district can collaborate and feel comfortable adding this into the courses. I will
find guest speakers that are experts in this topic to come and present this new up and coming
technology that will help improve our students' skills and love for physical education.
I feel that the best way to understand something completely is to take time and observe how it is
implemented. Several appointments should be set up to observe other teachers that have used
this new technology in their classrooms.
Resources:
The best way to learn is from others. Some classroom teachers may be more comfortable with
technology and this is a good way for them to come in and mentor those that are in need of help.
Send out an invitation for parents to come in and present any technical information to the
classroom. If parents don't feel comfortable in this specific topic of technology invite them to
come and attend some of the training courses so they can feel comfortable and will be able to
help implement it into the PE classes.
Timeline:
I would like to check the progress of this specific objective quarterly. Aug, Nov, Feb, May
Assessments:
Test all 3rd through 6th grade students with the Fitnessgram. Use a variety of methods to
record/collect data including personal data assistant.
Provide a cognitive test to see if fitness increases while using new technology

Goal 3
Introduction:
Provide adaptations to my lessons for those that may need accommodations due to ADHD,
Anxiety, Developmental Delays, or any other form of disability.
Objectives:
Develop a comfortable environment for ALL of my students. This will be accomplished with
modifications, curriculum choices, and a more inclusive atmosphere.
Provide a shadow teacher, parent, or peer that can come and assist during PE so that everyone
gets a positive experience in my PE class.
Activities:
An important activity is to videotape students choosing and implementing modifications to the
lessons so that they can participate and improve on their skills and the lessons. As a teacher of
30 plus students in a class it is hard to see everything that is going on in the classroom. If the
lesson is videotaped observation and assessments can be made.
A study circle is another activity that can be implemented in a physical education lesson. This
way everyone contributes and observation of information can be evaluated.
Resources:
Volunteers will be needed to come in and help with daily events and especially for assessments.
I will create a sign up genius for those who would like to come in and help in these activities.
Invite a professional that works with children with disabilities and provide a training for others.
Timeline:
This is a short term goal and will be reviewed and assessed at the end of the school year in May.
This will be evaluated to see if I would like to continue to assess this way within a 5 year span.
Assessments:
Some assessments that will be provided are the Fitnessgram with modifications and
accommodations. For example students can perform modified curl -ups and push- ups instead of
the regular ones required.
Accommodations from an IEP will be present.
 Allow extra time to finish exam
Read test directions orally
Ask student to repeat directions in their own words
Ask student to repeat directions in their own words
Allow students to take exam in a small group setting
Provide frequent breaks
Allow students to answer orally

NCLB will be implemented. This prohibits schools from excluding students with
disabilities from the educational accountability system.

Out of level assessment- a non-grade level instructional assessment. An

assessment made at a grade level that the student is assigned to.
Alternate assessment- an assessment designed for the small number of
students with disability who are unable to participate in regular state
assessment, even with accommodations. Some examples are teacher
observations, samples of work, or assigned tasks.

Alternate Achievement Standard- An expectation of performance that differs in complexity form

a grade-level achievement standard