Methods of Teaching Health & PE for Elementary Classroom Teachers – Dr. Matthew Lucas
With teaching children, one of the biggest issues within a classroom is how to ensure students are able to stay on task, but if they’re being forced to sit in a chair for hours at a time, especially younger learners, how are they supposed to stay on task and in their chair for that long?
That was the main focus of this class with Dr. Lucas, who had experience both as a Health and PE teacher, as well as working with those who may have special needs or different abilities.
There were three very important things he reminded us every class that we needed to take away from the class, even if we didn’t remember much else from the class: always befriend the gym teacher and custodian on your first day (access to equipment and on the good side of the janitor in case of any incidents), invite the principal to observe in your first few weeks (makes you seem less intimidated by being observed and of administration), and some pieces of sign language (as classrooms are becoming more inclusive, it’s important to know to help communicate with those who may be in the Hard of Hearing or Deaf community).
The class was very hands-on, as we went into the gym in Willet at least once every week or two to work with different equipment that would be used in an elementary gym setting. The best experience was watching the faces of 20 young adults light up as soon as we walked in and the parachute was out on the ground.
We were faced with different skill levels, such as being taught how to juggle, diving into the Health and PE Standards of Learning for Virginia to create lesson plans for each respective subject, and even getting to combine movement with a classroom lesson plan as well as combining learning into a PE lesson plan.
Overall, I really enjoyed the class. The interactions I’ve had with professors so far and how they want to change learning are the exact reasons why I chose to teach and continue to stay in the major I do. Movement and inclusion learning is a big focus of mine for my future classroom, and getting to use things I had even learned in my SPED class last semester into practical application was a great experience for me.
It also helps that Dr. Lucas is a serious but caring and slightly goofy professor. He truly cares about all of his students, and while his memory can get the best of him sometimes, he’s one of the best and most understanding professors I’ve had in my time at Longwood.
My artifact is a health lesson plan I got to work on with new friends in my class. Of course, once you get deeper into your major, you begin to see the same people over and over again in your classes, but you usually find your niche of friends to sit with and work with during assignments. I was able to make a new friend that was in two of my classes this semester that has become one of my close friends, as well as two other girls in my class I had had brief interactions with before working on this lesson plan together. We got to create a life-sized board game as a part of a PE lesson plan with math components, as well as let the class play the game and instruct students on a lesson.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1egtw4vW9cxi36uGr0nKiTnSxpoptcQNnbMpF-3q4FgY/edit?usp=sharing