Middle School Observation

Panther points. I read this chapter with both of my observations in mind. My observation in North Minneapolis with Erik, at the middle school, at first seemed like I wasn’t going to learn anything. However, I think I have seen the example of what NOT to do in a school environment. My co-operating teacher along with all of the teacher’s in the middle school have decided to give Panther points out as a way to positively enforce good behavior. Eric’s yellow and red card system, followed by removal from class was used as the reinforcement of bad behavior. I directly witnessed a kid, let’s call him Marcus. On day one he was helpful in helping other kids with projects and was given a Panther point for his awesome leadership. On day two he even stayed after class to clean up and pushed many chairs in to straighten up. I even commented he was so well behaved when the rest of the students were out of control. On day three I saw a change. Marcus was told by Erik the co-operating teacher, that he should be doing these respectful and nice things without the Panther Points awarded as Erik had given him a lot of points throughout the days. This child turned his attention not in a good way. His behavior went from model student back to disruptive in one twenty-four hour period. Why? Toshalis writes the answer, “….students reach the following conclusions: nothing is worth doing unless it comes with a reward.” (Toshalis. p. 281)

The Students at Brookeville high school resembled the students of any high school, broken and in need of a savior. As my team entered the football stadium we immediately recognized immodesty in the girls, in which many of those were just in middle school. We continued walking and I notice the less popular kids sitting on the grass hill, or off to the side not participating in the event. We finally reached the bleachers and observed the parents screaming and cheering on their emphasis Brookeville bees. After passing the section of adults, we found our seat behind the student section. This area was prime for observing the high school students interact.

The school that I chose to do my field work at is called Diamond Lake Elementary School. I chose to do this school because it is five minutes from my house and I work doing recess duty at the school. I am not a teacher at the school but I do work at the school which allows me to do observations there. According to the Illinois report card Diamond Lake has 330 students enrolled.("DIAMOND LAKE ELEM SCHOOL (2-4) - DIAMOND LAKE SD 76") both the Illinois report card it is 62.4% hispanic. Upon looking at the other races I found out that there are 24.5% white students, 6.1% Asian students and 1.8% black student.("DIAMOND LAKE ELEM SCHOOL (2-4) - DIAMOND LAKE SD 76") 60% of those students are low-income and 1% of them are homeless. Although they have more than half of their students on low income they have a surprising 96% attendance rate .("DIAMOND LAKE ELEM SCHOOL (2-4) - DIAMOND LAKE SD 76")

The contents included in this report will outline; the meaning of fitness, components of fitness, measurements and evaluation of physical performance capacities, the three energy systems, oxygen consumption and delivery, training methods and training principles.

The title of the article is Physical Education, school physical activity, school sports and academic performance written by Francois Trudeau and Roy J Shepard. The title of the article reflects the text as it discusses the relationship between academic performance at an elementary level and physically active activities that students can participate in such as physical education or school sports. The article also indicates that there are certain advantages in academic performance directly correlated with the time devoted to physical activity throughout the school day. The authors present a very clear and organized focus throughout the article providing a detailed explanation of the results of the conducted study. The article states that there has been an extensive discussion about the relationship of the elements in the article. Both elements, academic achievement and physical activity, are independent determinants of a child's health.

My first inclination is to verify with my supervisor if I can join the observing team as I am very hands-on when it comes to assigning and delegating tasks. In order to properly observe at least 75% of the teaching staff, a fourth observer is necessary. I would be more than willing to take on that role and to focus on the ELL push in/Owl Hours. If approved I would add to the already created observation schedule. I assigned observer A to go in on a Thursday to the Middle School classes. The observer’s experience in Middle School and Social Studies will be put to great use this way. I wanted at least one observer to see what the environment is like on a half day. Furthermore, the half-day schedule allows for more ease in changing between

Athletics are a major part of many students’ lives while in school and out of school; however, are athletics negatively affecting a student’s academics? Since sports were introduced to public schools in 1910, there have been numerous conflicts between athletics and academics. Athletics have and will continue to harm academics because sports can lead to mental disabilities and students are unable to attend class, which increases the students’ chances of falling behind in their studies.

Participating in high school sports can benefit by increasing health, relieving stress, and impacting the body in positive ways. There are always the kids in school that aren’t in shape or as fit as most students, but there is always this alternative for them. The number of unhealthy living high school students is increasing as the years go on. They don’t try in the gym classes or weight training and that causes them to stay in the worse shape. Studies show that high school sports build sportsmanship and character.

On top of having to wake up on a Monday morning, the gym students of Wilson Southern Middle school hear “Alright guys it's time for the mile,” from their gym teachers. Kvetching and groaning is the wonderful reaction the teachers get when they enter the gym. Every semester Wilson Southern’s gym class is required to complete the mile as part of their fitness testing. 80% of the students surveyed at Wilson Sothern don’t enjoy doing the mile. They say the reason for this is because “it’s too much work”.After talking to the gym teachers, they explained that the traditional middle school girl student’s weight should be around ninety- five pounds to 115 pound for girls and for boys eighty-eight pounds to 110 pounds. That is not the case here. The teachers have been very worried about the student’s health as well as the state law requirements. Therefore, every student is required to complete a mile as a part of their fitness testing. This mile run was not made to torture the students but to prevent them from any health issues that could present them in the future.

Imagine being a whale. Not just a ginormous whale, but one that lived in a fish tank that didn’t accommodate your size. You’re uncomfortable, never any wiggle room, and there’s not enough room to breathe. I figure this is a decent analogy to describe my middle school for me.

Physical exercise is a necessity in schools because children and young adults need the physical exercise and the endorphin production. “Gym classes provide students with physical exercise on a consistent basis. It is particularly important for the physical well-being of children who do not engage in physical activities

The FitnessGram is a special fitness program that is used to measure and report the physical activity in students and other youth. The purpose of the fitnessgram is to allow for children and teens to have a good understanding of not only what a healthy lifestyle is but, to be able to measure their own physical health and manage it. This program raises awareness of the importance of being physically active and gives children an opportunity to set goals and measure their progress. This program focuses on the five main aspects of fitness, Cardio endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, muscular flexibility, and body fat composition.

An activity that I did in elementary school that I think would be a great idea to keep it going is that the teacher brought in a bunch of goodies that are circular. Some of the things that she brought in were pizza’s, cookies, pies, Oreos, etc. Before we got to eat anything, she explained to us that pi is the ratio of the circle’s circumference to its diameter. We all washed our hands and put on gloves to measure the diameter of the food available. Not only did she stress the importance of Pi, but when she cut the pizza we talked about fractions with the number of slices that the pizza had. I think that this is a great lesson for teachers, that I would love to use in my future classroom. Pi day is always supposed to be fun when in elementary

counts? How does motivation and physical activity differ by grade and gender? Based on the information obtained in the study, results for the first research question revealed that when students viewed the physical education learning environment as one that is task or mastery-oriented the student in turn viewed participating in physical education positively. Results also revealed that there was a connection with student insight of the learning climate and attitudes of the student as opposed to self-determination. Results for the second question revealed that associations with attitude, self-determination, and learning climate during the 24-hour pedometer count were not strong. Results from the third research question confirmed results from previous research, that physical activity levels and student motivation decreases after grade six. Results from the pedometer count further confirmed the theory that physical activity declines in grade six. Further studies concluded that gender plays a role in physical activity levels. According to the pedometer counts, boys achieved a greater amount of steps than girls, thus confirming that boys reach a higher level of physical activity than their opposite counterparts. The authors acknowledged that the findings reported with gender levels were consistent with other research conducted in this area.

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.