Physical Education and Me

     I have known for a very long time that I have wanted to be a physical education teacher.  I love to teach, I to love play with kids, and I just love kids.  Throughout my years of being a student, my physical education has not been very good.  Granted, I do not remember elementary or middle school all that well, so I cannot just say it was all horrible because i do not remember it all.  But high school is when I realized that I wanted to be a physical education teacher. 
        My high school physical education teacher was horrible.   She was not the type to just roll out a ball, she was more the type to not do anything but worry about the rules.  Every day in class for the first two days on a new unit we would do nothing but sit there and go over the rules of the game.  Then when it actually came time to play, we had to sit there and listen to her give us play by play on what we are suppose to do and what we are not suppose to do.  I do know that as a teacher you are suppose to teach the students about the rules and how to play the game, but that goes to a certain extent.  There is the tactical way of teaching students and also I was in high school, so by then I should have already known about how to play a game.  Also I have learned now that by high school we are suppose to be getting away from sport oriented class, well my classes were just that.  We did not even do the physical fitness test, which is something that can be rather important in physical education because it allows the teacher to assess you and see where you as the student stand in comparison to others.  Not only that but if someone is worried about their weight or how they are out of shape, then the physical fitness test can help a student set up their own fitness plan.  My teacher just spent too long on the rules of a game  than just letting us as high school students and "adults" figure it out on our own.  She also did not really teach us anything about personal fitness.  We never really learned about ways to keep ourselves healthy or fit in the future.  Coming to Cortland, I did not know a lot of these fitness tests that some other students have done.  I did not know how to create a fitness plan or even what one was.  The only thing i really knew about was the rules of any game because that is what I was taught.
    Another thing that my teacher was not very known for, was assessing students.  I was a year round athlete and she was my coach for one of them.  If you were an athlete, you were set in her class.  If you weren't, then you were looked at like you had no idea what you were doing and you had to do everything just as well as the athletes did.  It did not matter if I walked in late or not prepared, I was still getting an E in the class.  So the class was very unfair when it came to grading.  I was not complaining but now that I know that is wrong, I realize that it was not fair to the other people in my classes.   She never really kept with her consequences either.  So when someone was not prepared for class, a disengaged student who just did not want to go to class, she just let them be and never made them go change.
   She is the reason why I am becoming a physical education teacher.  I do not want students to hate or dislike physical education because they do not enjoy it.  Class can be fun for everyone if you have a teacher who actually cares about it and has the right tools for it.  I feel that she is one of the reasons why phys. ed has the reputation it does.  We never had any assessments being done so our grades were either an E, S, or U.  We never had any tests, quizzes, homework anything written.  She had her favorites, and if you were not a favorite or an athlete, your phys. ed class miserable. 
     Another reason why I became is because I love working with kids.  I have grown up with a day care center in my house since I was about 8 years old.  The kids make my day when I see them and I just love being around them.  I see what my mom does with the kids, and she makes a difference in their life every day that they are there.  The parents are so grateful to my mom for what she does and I just want to make a difference in a child's life like that.  The kids just make my day better even if I am only with them for only a little while.  They have such big personalities that can just make you smile.  When I went to my 355 observations, I would go there miserable because I was always tired because it was early, but once I started playing with the second graders I left that school feeling much better.  I was smiling and in a much better mood.  At first I only wanted to do high school, but after that, I want to teach elementary.
    When I become a teacher, I will be doing things the way I was taught to do them.  I have been given all the tools to do it and I will use them.  Something I was always taught was you have the ability and the tools, so just put them together.  Cortland has taught me so much on what a good physical education teacher should be like and i have the motivation to make that difference in someones life.