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Health and Physical Education Observation Paper

Health and Physical Education Observation Paper

Briana Cox
Ivy Tech Community College

InTASC Standards, Brief Description, and Rationale

Standard # 7 Planning for Instruction

The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by
drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as
well as knowledge of learners and the community context.

Name of Artifact: Health and Physical Education Observation Paper

Date: November 10, 2015
Course: EDUC 240- Health and Physical Education for Teachers

Brief Description: Observe a classroom and visit with an elementary health/physical teacher.
Spending extended time with a teacher will allow first-hand knowledge of the students and
teachers learning style. Using information obtained, write a reflection paper.
Rationale: To document my understanding of InTASC standard 7, Planning for Instruction, I
have completed an observation of Physical Education and Health Education elementary
education curriculum, and reflected on the experience in relation to the national P.E and health
standards and best practices in this course.

Introduction:
The school that I attended my observation at is Jonathan Jennings School 109. This is an small
neighborhood elementary school located at 6150 Gateway Drive Indianapolis, Indiana 46254.
This IPS school was very small and held less than 600 students. I decided to attend my
observation here because it was close to where I had lived and I was interested in viewing an
urban school setting. Walking into the school was very nice everyone was friendly. One thing I
notice was cameras everywhere inside the hallways. That was different for me because I usually
spot many cameras inside a middle school or high school.

Classroom Observation Experience:

One experience I noticed is when I first arrived to do my observation the P.E teacher was not
inside the gymnasium. Instead she was on lunch duty watching the fourth graders. She had
explained to me that sometimes the school becomes shorthanded on teachers and everyone might
have to help out even if its not their specific job title. I remembered a discussion in class on how
some school might not have a P.E teacher and might have to step in to teach the subject
themselves. In this case the school didnt have a lunch aid and the gym teacher took over for a
little while. Finally entering the gym I had seen a small class session of second grade students.
They were all in a group one behind another getting ready for their fitness test. Since I was at the
end of the class hour they were ending the test with galloping. Galloping is another form of
skipping. The 26 students were graded on the time it took them to gallop across the gym and the

way did they completed the task. After the students ended their test the teacher decided to play a
movement game with music. They were each told to match up with a partner and create the
letters she yelled out. The class was over quickly, students were called to line up and prepare for
their home teacher to arrive. Next I was able to see a full gym class which were 1st graders. The
class was 45 minutes. The teacher arranged seating charts on the gym floor by alphabetical
order. The students knew exactly where they were supposed to be. To get their attention she used
sticker charts as a reward. She started off this class with warm ups such as: ABC toe touches and
arm stretches. They also had a fitness test which included, sit ups, jumping, hoping, and
skipping. She used music to help with instruction and direction. Integration with math and
spelling was also included with the fitness test.

Teacher Comments:
She enjoyed working with all age groups. She stated that she had younger students grades
kindergarten to second on Fridays for 45 minutes and secondary grades later.

Summary: I enjoyed watching the different teaching techniques that was given with the age
levels. I started thinking of my own strategies when she was teaching the class as well. I realized
there are different ways you can integrate other subjects in a P.E course. Not only are the students
becoming active but they are learning at the same time.