Planning and Instruction
Artifact: EPE 300 Grade 7 Square Dance Unit (Will be uploaded once it is graded and necessary changes have been made)
Description:
This semester one of the assignments in my EPE class was a Unit Plan. Our class was split up into different sections such as Dance, Aquatics etc. as well as different grade levels. I ended up with Grade 7 Dance. After looking at the old Evergreen Curriculum (We now have a new Middle Years PE Curriculum) I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and chose Square Dancing as the focus of my Rhythmics/Dance unit. I have never square danced in my life and was not 100% sure what square dancing is. After putting in a lot of work researching I was able to find some solid resources and in the end I put together a unit that I am very proud of.
Impact:
This unit plan opened my eyes to an issue that I will most likely have to deal with in the future, teaching something you don’t have much experience in. I have never square danced in my life (although I will be taking a dance class next year), yet I was going to create a unit of study on square dancing. From what I have heard it is not uncommon for beginning teachers to teach out of their subject area. It took me a bit more work than it might of had I been an experienced square dancer but I was able to plan the unit. I also got to try out some of my learning activities during a micro-teach which went very well. My peers were extremely proficient with the Do-Sa-Do!
Intention/Challenges:
How will I make sure that I am able to find information and resources on certain aspects of physical education or other subject areas that I may not know a lot about?
Recommendations:
I need to be very resourceful and practice the lifelong learning that I preach. I need to use the personal learning network that I am continually creating for myself through networking with local teachers or by connecting with educators from around the globe via tools such as twitter, delicious, wikis or blogs such as this one. This will allow me to access ideas from many different cultures and help me with my teaching. It is also important for me to be good at researching and being able to find credible and quality sources.
