PHED 2720

Developmental
Games and Activities

Mentor Assignments 2015

PHED 2720 Developmental Games and Activities

Mentor Program
Contract for Ethical and Professional Behaviour in the Schools
I, ____________________________________, as a student representative of the
University of Manitoba and the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Managements
Physical Education program, agree to comply with the following standards of ethical and
professional behaviour in the schools throughout the period of the mentor program.

I will endeavour to present myself in a professional manner with regard to

my
involvement with students and school staff, to include the following:
I will arrive at the agreed upon time each day I am in the schools.
If I am to be late or absent on a particular school visit, I will phone the school
ahead of time and leave a message for my mentoring teacher.
I will dress in appropriate physical activity attire.
I will adhere to any specific school code of conduct.

I will communicate in an open, direct and professional manner with the

physical
education teacher, principal and students:
I will at all times use appropriate language while in the school.
I will treat all students and staff with respect.
I will clearly articulate my purpose for being in the school to students and
staff, and that I am in the school to learn from the mentor experience.
In the event of a conflict with a student or any disclosure of abuse in speaking
with a student, I will immediately communicate the issue with my mentoring
teacher.
If in doubt about how I should interact with students, I will seek advice from
my mentoring teacher or the course instructors regarding the situation.
I will thank the mentor teacher, either in person or in writing (a card) at the
end of my school visits.

Regarding the mentoring assignments,

I will clearly articulate the purpose of each mentor assignment and that the
activities involved are designed to facilitate communication between the
mentor teacher and student regarding issues of professional practice.

 I will explain that the information gathered will be used for learning purposes
only, and will be shared in-class with the course instructor.

I understand that my mentor teacher has the right to contact the course
instructor
should s/he have any concerns about any of the above items.

MENTOR ASSIGNMENT (20%)

VISIT 1: School, Teacher, and Program Characteristics

Your name__________________________________
School Name:

School Division:

How many students?

What grades?

Physical education and Health teacher(s) name:

________________________________________________________________________

Number of years teaching: __________

For each weeks mentor assignments, marks will be allocated for breadth and depth of your
description and for how well you connect your observations with theory and concepts we have
discussed in class or touched on by the readings; grammar and spelling (i.e., professional
presentation) will also be considered.

Part I: Philosophy and Objectives of the PE Program: (10)

a) Draft a one page description of your teaching philosophy: consider your philosophy
from a wholistic perspective, with a key focus on the sense of purpose you bring to
your teaching. We will discuss this in class prior to your mentor visit. Post your
Philosophy Statement on your e-portfolio.
b) Ask the physical education teacher to explain his/her personal philosophy of teaching,
the objectives of the PE program, and what they believe are the key strategies for
teaching children to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes that will lead to healthy,
active lifestyles. Provide a short written summary of the teachers responses (max half
page).
c) How does the teachers responses resonate with your own hopes, beliefs and
expectations about teaching physical education in the future?

PART II: Listening to Advice from Practicing Teachers (5)

a) What is/are the most significant change(s) in PE and Health, in the PEH teacher's
opinion, since they started teaching?

b) What one thing do they wish they would have learned in university before they started
teaching?

c) What one piece of advice do they have for a beginning teacher?

Part III: Ask a Burning Question . (10)

a) Choose one issue to discuss with the physical education teacher that has personal
meaning for you (e.g., Classroom management, Inclusion, TGfU, Motivating students,
Physical literacy; Games literacy; Teaching skills and tactics in games, etc ) and
explain why you are interested in this topic.
Topic: _________________________________________________
b) Construct 3-4 questions related to the issue that you can ask the PE teacher; list your
questions and the physical education teacher's responses in a typed summary. Use open
ended questions designed to elicit thoughtful responses.

c) Describe what you have learned from speaking with the teacher about these issues
(e.g., were you surprised by the answers, or were you expecting these responses?).

MENTOR ASSIGNMENT VISIT 2

For this assignment, hand in as a separate page with your name attached.

Part IV: Practice your observation skills the two minute observation
Choose one class from your first visit to the school, and write a wholistic description of a
two minute observation of all that is happening in the class. Practice your observational
skills (back to the wall, scanning) and focus on what you perceive to be the critical
component of the class and as a visitor = describe in detail all that you observe during
those two minutes. Be mindful about all that is happening that relates to what you are
learning in class.
For example, what activities were taught? How did the teacher organize the activity?
From your understanding of observation strategies, which is the teacher doing? What
types of verbal feedback was provided to students? Was there a critical component that
the teacher emphasized? Were the students on task and engaged in active learning? The
final product of this description should give the reader a feeling of what it was like to be
in the gym for this short period of time. Be sure to include a description of the grade and
number of students in the class. An excellent description will provide a rich picture of
what it looks and feels like to be in that gym at that time (see pg. 175, Observing Student
Responses), and will include terms that we have talked about in class.

Part V: Teacher Practices with regard to Assessment (5)

Ask the physical education teacher to explain the policies/practices with regard to
assessment and evaluation. Ask the teacher to:
a) describe how students are assessed in class (e.g., what criteria, how often,
using what assessment tools, etc);
b) describe their reporting techniques (e.g., what criteria are reported, how often
are report cards sent home, etc).
Collect samples of assessment tools and/or report cards that the teachers use and include
with your assignment; if you have permission, post the examples on your e-Portfolio. If
you are unable to collect sample assessment tools from the teacher, search for sample
assessment tools that would match what the teachers use as described in a) above and
post on your e-Portfolio.

Part VI: Assessing Participation and Effort (5)

a) Observe a group of students while they are participating in a class activity. Identify
students who you believe are actively participating and engaged in the class activity, and
describe what their participation looks like. That is, what does active participation look
like in terms of the student's body language, facial expression, etc. What about students
who appear to not be putting in effort in the class: describe what these students look like.
Do you believe that 'effort' is observable? If yes, state why/how you know. If not,
explain.
b) Do you believe that participation with effort should be one of the criteria used to assess
students in physical education? If so, how would you assess this? If not, explain why.

Part IV: Addressing a critical issue in games play (10)

Teachers are often too busy to stay connected with the research literature. As a reciprocal
activity that allows you to show your appreciation for the PE teachers support of your
mentorship experience, ask the physical education teacher to identify one area of interest
related to teaching games that she or he would like to learn more about were they to have
the time.
Once you have identified a particular topic, go to the physical education and health
research and scholarly literature (i.e., refereed journals) and find TWO scholarly/research
articles that address the PE teacher's area of interest.
In a one page written summary (typed, single spaced, paragraph form), integrate the key
points of each article into a summary that you will give to the teacher. The summary
should provide an adequate description of the key concepts from the research and/or
theories presented, and highlight the key findings and/or recommendations from each
article.
Be sure to choose articles that provide meaningful and relevant information that will help
inform the PE teacher in ways that are useful to their teaching practice. Include a full
citation for each article (i.e., author(s) names, year published, article title, journal title,
volume, and page numbers) on the bottom of the page.
Email or drop-off your summary to the PE teacher (this is a good opportunity to also give
them a thank you card) and submit your one page copy to complete your mentor
assignments.
Students who produce summary papers of a high quality will be encouraged to submit
their work for publication in the MPETA Journal.
For this assignment: 7 marks will be allocated for the breadth and depth of the summary,
including the usefulness and relevance of the information, and 3 marks will be applied to
the quality of the writing (error free, etc) and the completeness of the citations.

10