Katherine Wendling

In my placement thus far, I have learned to keep my classes grades 3 through 5 and 9

through 12 fun while placing high importance on life-long health skills. Seeing both ends of

health curriculum and how they intertwine with each other, while working with other colleagues

in my district has been so rewarding. I have found strategies that I can add at both levels of

education such as more technology integration to make lessons different and exciting. I also hope

to be able to get my own classroom next year, to create an environment like what I get to teach in

at the high school level. They have a circle setup classroom, with different chair and desk options

for students to choose from. I love this setup because the kids can interact more closely with their

peers, which seems to make them more engaged in lessons as well. Resources to have these

changes happen would include access to student laptops at all levels for more technology

integration. I would also need my own classroom at the 3 through 5 grade level to create the

learning environment like the high school.

Professional development opportunities that I can attend to improve my skills as a health

educator and to better my instruction for my students are sometimes hard to find or advocate for.

I would like to see more online trainings related to health, reaching out to administrators about

more opportunities for health-related trainings and using professional development days to

complete different trainings.

Follow-Up Support
 - Team Action Plan Template –
Objective: Determine professional development opportunities to match target
audience needs.
Propellers: Feedback from staff on a survey or form and input on what types
of PD opportunities they would like to have access to
Hurdles: Support from administration on PD opportunities for specifically
physical education and health and funding to run these specific programs for
K-12 staff

Action Plan

Action Step Lead Person(s) Timeline

Create a team to meet K-12 Director One month to decide

about PD opportunities who will be on the
PE Representative team/committee
Health Representative End of September 2024

Meet with the newly K-12 Director Two months to come up

developed team to go with a top priorities list
through top priorities PE Representative with input from all K-
12 staff
Health Representative
End of November 2024

Disperse surveys to all All K-12 PE/Health Two months to give out
K-12 PE/Health staff on staff in the Penfield surveys and gather data
what PD they would Central School District from all staff
like to attend in the
future End of January 2025

Next Steps
Actions We Will Take Within the Next Three Months:

Action Lead Person(s) By When?

Research options for PE and Health End of March 2025

PD opportunities Representatives

Funding opportunities PE and Health End of April 2025

through the district Representative
District Office

Schedule PD PE and Health End of May 2025

opportunities that staff Representatives
has requested be
available Administration

Additional Partners/Stakeholders We Need to Involve:

Partner/Stakeholder How Will They Be By When?

Contacted?

District Office for Email End of April 2025

Funding Purposes

PD speakers/program Email or Phone End of May 2025

coordinators

Follow-Up Support Needed:

Type of Assistance When Preferred Method

Feedback from End of 2025 school year Survey

participants (K-12
 PE/Health Staff)

Administrator Feedback End of 2025 school year In-person Meeting

Recently in my time at the high school, the students were given the opportunity and

instructions to start their final paper before it is due at the end of May. The final paper is about

current events or contemporary issues, or they can come up with their own topic, but it must be

approved. They also were given reminders if they have not completed their baby projects, that

opportunities are running out to schedule their allotted time.

Successes in the past few weeks include being able to help some students write outlines for

their essays and assist them in how to find articles and resources to use and how to document

them properly. This was a fun project for me to help with because I was able to further connect

with some students. I also have had some major breakthroughs with some students who were

very closed off at the beginning of the semester but have slowly started to open up. These

students have been participating more and asking me more one-on-one questions during classes,

which is an exciting change. I haven’t had very many struggles in the past few weeks, but we did

have a student return from a small run in with the police, so navigating how to assist him through

the end of the year has been interesting. I have leaned on my SBTE a lot during the process, just

for tips and ideas on how to keep him motivated and willing to participate in class. Overall, the

last few weeks have been going great and I am looking forward to recording my final lesson

within the next week or so! The finish line is coming up quickly!