Scott Coderre Background Information On Tuesday September 24th, I will start my student teaching for my first module at Agawam

High School. On Thursday the 12th, we were able to observe Jamie Podworski and two of his classes at Agawam High school. The students are able to pick which unit they have before each unit starts. Students in his C and D period classes age ranged from 9th graders to 12th graders. The first lesson he gave was on pickle ball, while the other was softball. Jamies classes tend to stay under 30 students as he had one with 24 and another with 27. He took the class out to the tennis courts where we observed his lesson. The facilities at the school were very nice compared to others Ive seen, especially the weight or fitness room. This room was very large with a wide variety of equipment. However, he taught his lessons on the tennis courts and softball field. Since there are different classes that are doing the same unit throughout the day, the teachers are often able to leave equipment out on a cart or bin to be brought in later in the day. This saves a lot of time and effort for students and teachers. There are 6 tennis courts which made pickle ball very simple to include everyone. Overall, this was a great experience and the facilities should make the student teaching experience much easier. 1. Describe how students interacted with each other, teachers, and/or administrators. The students at Agawam High School in general, seemed very respectful and energetic. They all listened to Jamie as he was teaching the lesson and they werent playing with equipment or talking to each other, which could be a problem with high school students. They all seemed to participate in pickle ball and were interacting with each other while playing. I saw several students laughing and enjoying themselves, and I saw others trying to compete.

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What characteristics of a high school student did you witness? Give examples. Today I was able to see a high school that was much different than the one I attended. I

witnessed the physical education classes having a choice on which unit they participate in before the unit starts. I was also able to witness students being respectful during lessons and gameplay. When talking to Jamie I learned that not all groups are the same, but having units that the students can choose makes life a lot easier because everyone seems to enjoy themselves. 3. What rules, routines, and management techniques are used by your cooperating

teacher(s)? Jamie was able to effectively engage his class by sticking to a strict warm up routine. Directly after the warm up students are already placed in front of Jamie and they know it is time to listen to the lesson of the day. Their warm up consists of jogging for up to 4 minutes, jumping jacks, 10 push-ups, and 10 sit ups. This is a great technique because he is able to get his students in one place ready to listen without wasting any time. 4. What units are the students participating in during this time of year? How do the

teachers determine what units the students will be involved in? How long are the units? The students in the two classes we observed today with Jamie consisted of pickle ball and softball. Teachers will start a unit at the same time and give students a choice on which unit they wish to pick. The teachers at Agawam find it beneficial to provide the students with a wide variety of activity in the units. They offer team sports, individual sports, and fitness

activities all at the same time. The belief is that if there are students who dont typically enjoy physical education classes, they have choices of fitness activities which helps their participation and grade. Units will typically last a couple weeks with 47 minute classes. Outdoor activities will take place in the fall while weather is still permitting. 5. Any discipline issues? If so, how were they handled? What is the teachers

discipline policy? In the classes today, we were not able to see any disciplinary issues. There was one student who did not dress appropriately for class so was forced to sit out and lose points on their grade. If students were talking while Jamie was explaining he would simply wait for them to be done and tell them they are wasting their time. This also did not happen often. 6. What are the average class sizes? How are classes divided (i.e. by grade level, skill

level, etc)? The average class size for Jamie is approximately 25 students, with his highest being 27 for this particular unit. Students in each class range from grades 9-12 and have a choice on which unit they wish to participate in. Usually the more skilled students will join units that involve team sports. 7. What is/are your biggest concern(s) about teaching at the high school level? My biggest concern about teaching at the high school is gaining respect from the students from day 1. I am not far in age from these students and will try to gain respect right

away. I want to keep students engaged in every activity just as if their original teacher were teaching. 8. What are you most looking forward to in regards to teaching at the high school level? I am really looking forward to teaching skill lessons with these high school students. The older students tend to have more experience and skill when it comes to certain team sports or activities. I am excited to mix strategy as well as skill into my lesson plans, and see how far each student progresses.