Field Experience

On, Dec. 7, 2007 I visited St.Benadict Catholic School. It was a really great experience. St. Bens goes from k-8 and their is only one P.E. teacher there, will just call her Mrs. T. Mrs. T has to come up with diferent curriculum and gradding system for nine different grade levels. It is challenging but she loves it. She sat me and another class member down and just talked to us for almost two hours about where she went to school, how she got a job, the challenges of teaching so many grade levels in the same day, different kinds of students you will encounter, different kinds of parents you will encounter,lesson plans, and ways to keep all of your students in all of your classes occupied for the entire class. She also gave me at least six books and a few great web sites for P.E. and health. She explained the differences in how catholic schools are run and public schools are run.
I got to observe her teach kindergarten, first, fifth, and seventh grade classes today (Each grade only has P.E. once a week for 40 minutes). It was fasinating to see the different activities she came up if, how she got everyone involved, and how she even got me involved in the class activities and teaching her class. Teachers and experiences like that make you realize how much you actually want to be a teacher.

Middletown Board of Ed. Meeting.

On November 20, 2007 I went to the MIddletown Township Board of Ed. Meeting. At the start of the meeting the audience was 75% students and 25% adults. There are 11 board members, 8:women, 3:men. 1 man wasn't present at this meeting.

(the sequence of events)

• The Pledge was said
• 2 representatives (one from each high school) came up to the podium and talked about their schools extra curricular activities for the next few month's like dances, sporting events, plays, bottle cappers.
• The 2 principles (one from each high school) and an advisor took the podium and handed out civics awards that students from both high schools had won.
• There were 30+ awards handed out.
• MHSS Principal Kelly announced and gave out awards to MHSS girls soccer team.
• After that many students left.
• MHSN Principal Cartier handed out an academic award to a student.
• Then the same principal handed out awards to the girls gymnastic team.
• A MHSN student got a singing award.
• Another student got an award for running a marathon.
• MHSN received an award for their field hockey team.
• All students where dismissed from the meeting.
• There was an open mic to any town member that wanted to say soemthing.
• One person came up and asked why two janitors got fired.
• The board then explanned why.
• closed open mic.
• Moved to the treasury and secretary report about Oct. 2007
• A Bill Lists was approved.
• The approval of Budget transfer was approved.
• The upcomming plays at both high schools were talked about.
• Mentioned that someone donated $25,000 to the library.
• Announced Thanksgiving football game.
• Talked about State Test Assessment
• Voted on weither or not they would except a foriegn exchange student. It was approved.
• Voted for 15 items on a town bill.
• Then there was confussion and argueing between two board members because they were holding two different policies in their hands, so they were argueing about nothing.
• Voted to put agenda items online.
• Presentation of the 06-07 finace report.
• 19 new policies were announced to the board for review. One of the policies talked about the presence of HIV and AIDS and how to spread awareness.
• The board then debatted as to wether parents should be notifiedor that students life illness shold be kept private.
• Talked about school drug and alcohol policies.

It was very interesting to see what goes on at a board meeting first hand.

Thanksgiving Football Game at Middletown High School South 2007

Middletown North vs. Middletown South

On Thanksgiving I went over to Middletown High School South to watch the 2007 Thanksgiving game where Middletown South plays there cross town rivals in the annual turkey day football game. You forget how big your town is until you see a good portion of it assembles in one place. What a great experince. Everyone there seemed to be happy. You saw families walking in together just beeming with holiday spirit. I saw thousands of high school students interacting and having a good time, Moms where talking about how they had to leave early to finish cooking or where crying that it was there son or daughters last Homecoming game in high school, Dads where talking about where there sons where going to go next year or what the players of the past have done on Thaksgiving. I saw old friends reunited after having gone away to college and I saw Middletown South destroy North 35-7. I myself saw some teachers and friends I haven't seen in a while. It was as holiday as holiday gets.

Community Service

For the past 12 years I have been a volunteer karate teacher at Amato's Karate and Weapons Academy. I volunteer every Saturday from 11am - 1pm. What an amazing experience every single week is. I am constantly having students come in from different age groups, ability levels, races, religions, and economic backgrounds. I have taught students with down syndrome and have taught kids who are "naturals". I have taught students who live in area's where the only time they were aloud to go outside was to go to karate and I have taught students who's parents make six figure salaries a year. Regardless these students backgrounds we are all brought together by one thing, and that is karate. Regardless what these students do or don't have to put up with outside of the dojo all goes away once they come to class.
One of best parts about this experience has been finding new ways, every week, to reach all of my students in some way.I want them to leave my leave with a smile on their face or feel as though they have accomplished something. This isn't always easy, but it is what makes it rewarding and was what made me want to become a physical education teacher.
Through my thousands of different experiences and dealings with so many different kinds of students I believe that I have been and will continue to be a very affective educator of physical things.

NCLB

The intent off the NCLB is good, but is unrealistic. The NCLB was formed to help improve the school performance of US students. I believe that every teacher should try and reach and teach as amny students as they can, but making every school 100% proficient, I believe, is impossible. There are to many variables and to many different kinds of learners in this country to achieve this. There are too may different kinds of teachers and to too many different kinds of students. Finding the perfect mesh of teacher/student in every school in every town in every state, even though it would be great if it happened, is unrealistic. If a school is close to being 100% proficient and just has a few bad seeds, it will ask it's "not so good students" to not show up on that day (you know this has and does happen), so the schools proficientcy scores will go up. If that happen's, that isn't an accurate depiction of what the school and area are reallly like. Just because a school looks good on paper, which is all a proficientcy test is, doesn't mean that we are actually turning out good students. It is sad to say, but the world needs lawyers and the world needs ditch diggers. Society needs people to succeed and fail to stay alive.

Arts High

I really enjoyed my first trip to Arts High. I really have never seen a class setting like that. It seemed like every student that was there really wanted to be there. You didn't see any kids with their heads down sleeping or getting loud and disrupting the teacher. All of the students seemed to want to be there and want to do well.
The administration and teaching staff all seemed to love their job. They all where so connected to what they do and I got the feeling that they truely wouldn't want to work any place else. As opposed to other schools I have seen, none of the teachers seemed to be there for a pay check, they all wanted to make a difference. Thats what America needs and thats what kids need and I hope all of us feel the same way about our profession because if we don't, it's time to change majors.

First thoughts of the Inquiry Project

I like the four goals of the inquiry project and I think we will benifit greatly from our findings. I haven't narrowed down what my question is going to be yet, but I'm thinking about it.