Content Knowledge - Session One Blog

I was lucky enough to participate in Division I Collegiate athletics at SMC while I was an undergrad student from 2000-2004.  It was during this time that I REALLY decided that teaching students to want to be physically active was something that I had a passion for.  This had also started to develop from my participation in high school sports and travel ball teams.  I could see the changes that hard work could make and I bought into the idea that even though I might feel uncomfortable pushing my body to new limits, there were lasting benefits that I use in my classes now.  When I started my undergraduate Kinesiology classes with an emphasis in teaching (which is where I feel that I learned MOST of my content knowledge and the types of strategies I use in my teaching) I found that the experiences that I had playing organized sports really helped to enhance the understanding of the content standards for PE.  I could easily relate to content that had to do with motor skills, mechanics, the affects of emotional, cognitive, and physical factors on performance and much more.  It helped to serve as a foundation for me to find deeper ways to teach and demonstrate the content to my students.

The discussion on Ball's "Subject Matter Preparation for Teachers" was very insightful.  Hearing the comments from classmates has helped me to constantly remind myself that I need to take a really raw look at what I can do better.  When I reflect on a class or a strategy or concept that did not go particularly well, I tend to want to house most of the blame on the attitude, enthusiasm or behavior of my students.  Although I do house some of the blame on myself for maybe not preparing enough or being excited about a lesson, I definitely need to look at my own pedagogy and knowledge of the content FIRST before any complaints about my students come forth.  The discussion really helped me see this - there are so many talented teachers in this program and it is really refreshing to hear them talk about their experiences and philosophies and thoughts about their students.

In my past blog, most of my guiding questions involve motivating physical education students and what kind of role the teacher plays in that motivation.  I am still pretty sure that these ideas will be the focus of my inquiry, yet I am not quite sure how I am going to incorporate that into my capstone project.  The resources that I have found are mostly journal articles and studies done on motivation and how that translates into students' attitudes about physical education or physical activity.  I believe that there will be more than enough research in this area.  In terms of possible experiential learning sources, I have thought about possibly going to a PE conference (AAPHERD, CAPHERD) yet, those don't really take place in this area or in the time frame that I would like them to.  I have also looked up programs like which help provide PE curriculum and other resources.  Also, I would like to interview a professor that I had here at Saint Mary's about the question that I decide to go with.

I love teaching freshman PE.  Most of the freshman PE classes that I have over the years have been so wonderful.  The students are eager, they work hard, they are still scared of teachers (for example, I can whip out my cell and threaten to call Mom to get them back on track! Ha!) and they are just plain fun.  They make teaching fun for me.  I don't know why I resonate so well with them, but I do and although I require them to work hard and sometimes they don't like it, we have a good time.  I probably have so much fun with them because I am so immature at times.  I also get extremely competitive with some of them; for example, my favorite unit is badminton.  I LOVE it.  Due to the nature of who I am, I have a hard time losing.. who doesn't?  Well, it's 100 times worse in my case and even though my Mom has done a great job trying to teach me how to be a better person, this is one of aspect of my personality that slips through my professional wall.  Anyway, I won't go into any more details about that - I am competitive and the kids usually get a kick out of it.  Ah, freshman.

I responded to Sheridan Arredondo( sheridanarredondo.blogspot.com), Betsy Varellas ( getmovingintheclassroom.blogspot.com) and Lloyd Schine (smc-mat-schine.blogspot.com).