School Environment

The environment at Marlington Middle School is very friendly, welcoming, and pleasant to be a part of. On my first day, I was not sure where I needed to go in the building but fortunately the secretary was very helpful. She walked me to the gym and also showed me a few other helpful things such as where to park, where the restrooms were in the building, and answered a few other questions I had. It would have been easy for her to just tell me where the gym was and send me on my way but she did the complete opposite. She was very helpful and got me started in the right direction from the start.

While walked through the halls to leave I was also greeted by three or four teachers. They all smiled and spoke to me and made me feel comfortable in the school. Mr. Gabelt also had a few other teachers in his class and they spoke to me too and were very welcoming. The students in the school were very friendly also. During class many of the students introduced themselves and asked a lot about me. They were very curious but also friendly at the same time.

The schools also has a great security feature. To get into the school, you have to buzz into the main office first and then the secretary must unlock the door to allow someone to enter. A camera is set up so she can see who is trying to come into the building. This would prevent any intruder from entering the building. As far as I know, this is the only door that people can enter into the building through.

Marlington Middle School has a great environment and I was fortunate to be placed in such a good school. They have made my teaching experience a great one and the environment has played a major part in that.

Care in Education

Compared to many other subject areas, Physical Education often gets overlooked and pushed aside. Subjects such as History, English, Math, and Science are typically considered more important are often given preference over Physical Education. An example of this would be if a student missed a class and needed to get the notes that were taken and make up a test. Teachers would often suggest doing this during their lunch or a Physical Education class. This is unfair to Physical Education classes and other classes who get treated this way. Many people consider those classes not as important because students don't get as much out of them as they do compared to other classes. But Mr. Gabelt has done a great job at getting much more out of the students in his class compared to other Physical Education classes.

Physical Education classes are meant to get students active and attempt to improve their health. Most classes just provide students with a game or activity to do and the students determine their own level of activity. But in Mr. Gabelt's class all of the students do several activities to ensure their activity. At the beginning of period all the students are required to do many stretches as a class to prepare themselves for the activity. After stretching, they do push ups, sit ups, and jumping jacks. This is already more than most Physical Education classes but it does not stop here. Then they usually have to run three or four laps around the gym too. They are also tested on all these things during the course of the class. By testing the students it brings out the competition in them and encourages them to try to do the most of one activity as they can such as push ups. The students don't look at this as exercising but rather having fun in a way and trying to be the best. Anytime students can have fun while doing something productive for themselves is always a good situation. Mr. Gabelt has found a way to make Physical Education meaningful for students and give it more respect compared to other classes because the students actually get something positive from the class.

Getting more involved

I have been shadowing for a few weeks now and I am getting more involved in the classroom each week. This week I helped out Mr. Gabelt by taking attendance for him while he got the equipment out for the game the students were going to play. For him taking attendance was easy because he knew the names of all the students in the class. I don't know all the names but I do know quite a few. Fortunately for me taking attendance was easy though because of how the class is set up. Before beginning the activity, the students line up in alphabetical order and do stretches. This meant that all I had to do was walk up and down the rows and make sure I had the right name and make sure the student was participating today. There were a few students who were not participating for various reasons. I had to write down why they were not playing but still give them credit for being in the class if they had a good reason not to participate such as a doctor's excuse. Mr Gabelt has done a good job of helping me to become more active each week and getting me comfortable about being in charge of the class.

A new Physical Education teacher

In all of my Physical Education classes from kindergarten through high school, I never had a teacher who actually participated with the students. Mr. Gabelt, the teacher I am currently shadowing, is the complete opposite. Regardless of the activity the students are doing in class, he almost always participates. Any Physical Education teacher I had just got the game set up for the students then went off to the side and did not do much else. This could get very boring because the teacher would not have much to do during the day other than monitor the students.

Mr. Gabelt does not have to worry about this though. But his participation has gone down since I have been in the class. I get to be involved in the games and activities the students do in place of him. A few examples of games I have got to do in class were be the quarterback when they played football, pitch during softball, and play basketball and and volleyball on a few occassions. This not only makes my day more fun but also passes the time much faster. If I had nothing to do in the class and just sat there the whole time the class would be boring and the day would go by slow. But thanks for Mr. Gabelt this will never be a problem.

Getting advice

Today when I was observing in my physical education class there was another instructor in there. We began talking and I found out he was also a Mount Union student and he was doing his pre-clinical work. He usually observes in the afternoon but he was in there in the morning today. We talked a lot about everything from physical education to some of the classes we had to take at Mount Union for our degrees. He also gave me a good bit of advice in teaching. He had already completed the field experience stage that I am currently in so he was very helpful. My talk with him was very beneficial and he was very helpful.

Doing things a little different

In most schools, classes are not separated into boys and girls. But I was in a physical education class today that was. This was the first time I had seen or heard of this and it caught me by surprise. I asked my cooperating teacher why the class was all girls in this case and there were a few reasons for this.

One big reason is the difference between boys and girls. Boys are typically much stronger and more aggressive when it comes to games and this is often unfair to the girls. Girls sometimes get pushed to the side and are overshadowed by boys and do not get a good experience in a physical education class as they should. But by separating them, the girls most likely feel more comfortable when they are just with girls and get more out of their physical education class. I know from previous experience in school that typically girls in physical education classes are not very active at times and do not get the activity they need during a class. But in the classes I was in today, the girls were very active throughout the whole period and seemed to enjoy the class much more than I expected. I believe being separated from the boys had a big part in this.

Another reason for the separation is the games they play. As a boy, my favorite physical education game was dodge ball and I think most other boys would agree with me on that. Girls were not usually as fond of this game as we were. There were also games that boys were not fond of that girls were such as badminton and volleyball. By having the classes separated, this solves the problem of the students having to participate in activities they do not enjoy.

Separating physical education classes into boys and girls was something I would have never thought of. But just from my short time in the class, it seems to be a success. Both boys and girls get more out of the class because of this and they also get more enjoyment from the class by being separated. This seems like a win-win situation for all and other schools should strongly consider this idea.