First EDU 355 Field Experience!

Today was my first day of my EDU 355 field experience. I was assigned to work with the students at Cortland Christian Academy. The field experience that I will be having will be a little different than my peers that are going to different schools. The Cortland Christian Academy is a very small private school with about 115 students total in grades pre-k through 12^th grade. The graduating class this year only has 11 students! Because it is such a small school, the school does not have certified physical education teachers. The teacher that I observed today was actually an English and accounting teacher. She had very minimal knowledge on physical education because it was not her main area of focus as a teacher.

The first day of the field experience is dedicated to observing the classes and getting to see what the children are like. We got to check out the equipment that would be available to us to use in the future when we teach. For the first period that we were at St. Mary’s, we observed a class that was a mix between kindergarteners and first graders. As a warm-up, the teacher played “Simon says” with the students. Then she had the students play “red rover” for about 15 minutes. Once the students were tagged, they were out for the rest of the activity and were just sitting down. After this, the class of 18 was divided into 2 groups. They did a relay race of dribbling a basketball down to the other side of the gym and then back. There was A LOT of standing around and very minimal activity because only 2 students were moving at once. At the end of the class for the last couple of minutes, the teacher had the students run laps around the gym to “tire them out”.

The second period that we observed was a class of about 20 students that were 2^nd and 3^rd graders combined. The teacher did a “Simon says” warm up again. She then had the students play dodge ball for the next 25 minutes. To end the class, the teacher again had the students run laps around the gym for the last 2-3 minutes.

Starting next week, my partner and I will take over completely. We will be in charge of teaching for the rest of our time at the Cortland Christian Academy. The staff at the school seemed absolutely thrilled to have us working with them. I am really looking forward to bring a little more structure to the classes I will be working with. I know that I have learned a lot of innovative and fun things to do with young children and I am super excited to share these activities with the children. While most of my peers who are also in EDU 355 will do more observing and less teaching, I am excited to take more charge. The teacher told my partner and I that the classes are ours now. I am definitely looking forward to getting started next week and showing the students at the school what PE is really about!