Physical education teacher candidates use effective communication and pedagogical skills and strategies to enhance student engagement and learning.
My name is Amanda Griffin, and this semester at SUNY Cortland, I have had the pleasure of working with Thomas in Physical Education. After creating Thomas’s Individualized Education Plan and determining his long term goals, the remainder of the semester was targeted towards making improvements. Thomas did show improvements in all areas; although some were stronger than others.
A long-term goal for the affective domain was that Thomas would be able to complete at least 4 out of the 6 tasks without saying “no” or laying on the ground and disrupting other lessons when in class. At first, I noticed that Thomas would only complete part of a task or not do what I asked at all. He would also run and knock over other teacher’s areas or interrupt their lesson. Each week, I would set goals for how much I wanted Thomas to complete and how to avoid interrupting other lessons. Although there were still points in the lesson where Thomas would refuse to participate in activities, it was not as frequent anymore and he was able to get back on track. Because of all the distractions in the room, I tried to keep Thomas continually moving so that he didn’t become uninterested. At this point in the semester, Thomas is able to spend more than half of lab participating in an activity, whether it is what I have planned or something he wants to do and he does not interrupt other lessons.
Student’s name: Thomas
Lab day and time: Tuesdays 6-7
Lab day and time: Tuesdays 6-7
Semester and year: Fall 2011
Date: November 29, 2011
Dear Parent/Guardian of Thomas,
My name is Amanda Griffin, and this semester at SUNY Cortland, I have had the pleasure of working with Thomas in Physical Education. After creating Thomas’s Individualized Education Plan and determining his long term goals, the remainder of the semester was targeted towards making improvements. Thomas did show improvements in all areas; although some were stronger than others.
A long-term goal for the affective domain was that Thomas would be able to complete at least 4 out of the 6 tasks without saying “no” or laying on the ground and disrupting other lessons when in class. At first, I noticed that Thomas would only complete part of a task or not do what I asked at all. He would also run and knock over other teacher’s areas or interrupt their lesson. Each week, I would set goals for how much I wanted Thomas to complete and how to avoid interrupting other lessons. Although there were still points in the lesson where Thomas would refuse to participate in activities, it was not as frequent anymore and he was able to get back on track. Because of all the distractions in the room, I tried to keep Thomas continually moving so that he didn’t become uninterested. At this point in the semester, Thomas is able to spend more than half of lab participating in an activity, whether it is what I have planned or something he wants to do and he does not interrupt other lessons.
In the cognitive domain, I spent a lot of time trying to get Thomas to recognize and be able to identify different colors. The long term goal set for Thomas was that he would be able to recognize at least 3 different colors when using objects in each activity. Each week, I would pick a color that Thomas had to identify for me in his book when we read as well as the objects used for the activities. The primary colors I focused on were yellow, red, and green. Since Thomas was able to match colors, I would ask him what color a ball was before he put in on the matching poly spot or what color a car was in his book. I also used a color chart that had different colors. Although at this point in the semester Thomas is unable to recognize all the colors I thought he would; he can recognize red and yellow well and if you reinforce them he remembers more throughout the lesson.
In the psychomotor domain, Thomas performs the most, he loves to run and always be on the move. The main long term goal I focused on was having him be able to jump off a gymnastics mat with both feet and land on both feet simultaneously 5 out of 10 times. I started by having him just jump on the ground and reinforcing two feet. Then, I moved to jumping over small objects and finally to jumping off the mat. Thomas has been able to accomplish jumping off the mat with two feet, not the 5 out of 10 times, but it will definitely happen.
Thank you for allowing me to work with your son. It was a true pleasure!
