Daily Post

6/26 In your opinion, describe why you think communication is a key component to collaborative practice. Give a few examples and use a personal anecdote to support your view.

I feel that communication is very important for the collaboration process to be successful because not everyone has the same ideas or values. In order for the team to come to a consensus regarding a common goal dialogue needs to happen.  Each person can share their ideas and after listening to everyone’s input a decision can be made by the collaborative team.

Communication isn’t always only verbal, non verbal actions such as facial expressions and body language, sometimes speak louder than words. When I was the director for an after school program we had a meeting about incorporating some new programs into the enrichment time.  One of the team members agreed to go along with the plan the rest of the group had agreed on. However, by her body language I could tell that she wasn’t completely on board.

 Most recently while collaborating with my colleagues about how we should arrange fitness testing, we all had different but similar ideas on how it should be done and though communication we where able to agree on how to complete testing as a department and were successful in doing so.

6/28 please share your swimming experience and how can this be viewed as a collaborative experience? What did you learn about yourself in this experience? How valuable is/was collaboration in this type of educational setting?

I really enjoyed my time at the swimming pool, as well as, working with children with a variety of disabilities. I spent some time just sitting on the side of the pool observing the older students jumping in and getting accumulated with the pool. While observing I was able to talk to the instructor/paraprofessionals about some of the students and their skills. I also talked to one of the students who chose to sit on the side with her feet in the water. Before moving to the opposite side of the pool to work with the Deaf or Hard of Hearing group, I observed an instructor and some of my peers transfer a student from a wheelchair to the pool. I took this opportunity to take some mental notes about the transfer. Once I made it to my group I noticed that the instructor was in the pool and the students were sitting on the deck with another adult with which whom she was communicating with the entire time. I then made my way into the pool where I worked with a young boy on a variety of beginning skills. We worked on walking down the wall, leg kicks, arm pulls, and blowing of bubbles. The entire time I was in the water with my peers, instructor, and students there was constant collaboration mainly through communication. Also, some with helping to do certain skills for example: if a student wasn’t kicking, then a peer would come over and grab the student’s legs and start to move them. I found this experience to be very beneficial because I was able to gain some experience in the pool working with individuals with disabilities. I was able to work on some collaboration skills while working with other instructors, students and peers.

7/5 Please share your thoughts on why it is important to consider and understand the importance of diversity in your physical education class.

It is important to understand the background of your students because with all of the diversity within one class each individual student brings to the table different life experiences. As a teacher I try to make sure that my students feel that what they are learning can be used in their daily life even if it is something that they would normally not partake in. Much of what we do as teachers is adapt and change our curriculum to meet the needs of our diverse population of students. It is very rare to find one or just a few students of different backgrounds so we (teachers) need to be equipped with tools to teach them. Much of what I do is research and show various skill sets as it has evolved over time to what it may be today. As I learn more about my students I am better able to related topics to them. I also show the students that physical activities come from various places and they may even be able to relate to a specific concept as it may be related to something their culture has.

7/5 In this post please discuss your feelings about doing a blog and reference a classmates’ blog here with a link to your blog and to their blog.

When I first heard about the blog assignment I was nervous and apprehensive. I didn’t think it would be too difficult, as I feel comfortable with my computer skills. After trying to navigate through the program I quickly learned that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I am still not completely sold on the idea of my blog being accessible to the public, although I do understand how it can be a useful resource. Here is a link to my blog http://gbonham67.blogspot.com/ and a couple of links to my classmate’s as I feel that they have done a really good job with their blogs http://greekphysedteacher.blogspot.com/, http://apechico.blogspot.com/, www.chicoape.blogspot.com.