Education majors attending Southern Adventist University teach PE every Tuesday to students at Standifer Gap SDA and Ooltewah Adventist School. Along with hands-on experience, the students meet every Thursday in the Hulsey Wellness Center to better prepare them for teaching.
Professor Judy Sloan splits the students into groups of three, where each group is assigned a grade. While one of the three students teaches, the other student assists the leading teacher while the other video records the lesson.
Before being able to go out and teach, students spent three weeks in class learning about the NAD Elementary School Physical Education Curriculum and the skill set required to teach it correctly. Though they are equipped with the basic skill set requirements to go out and teach, students spend every Thursday in the classroom learning more. Class periods consist of doing physical activities while learning new ones to implement with the kids. Joni Belonio, junior education major who teaches 5th grade PE, said “In class we also talk about how we can, as a teacher, provide an understanding of physical fitness and how kids could acquire and maintain physical fitness.”
Though students are equipped in class with proper guidelines to teaching, students are also able to be hands on and structure their own class lessons. Belonio said, “As an intro activity, I would have them run and run and occasionally skip, hop, jump, bear walk, crab walk, and other aerobic exercises. For a fitness activity I would have them do some stretching, and muscular strength/endurance exercises like push-ups or sit-ups.”
Ansley Travis, junior education major who teaches 4th grade, said, “I like getting to hang out with the kids. It’s better than just a normal class where you just learn about teaching and this one is hands on and you actually get to go out and teach.”
By allowing students to have hands-on experience, it has created a deeper understanding about teaching and made students excited for the future. Belonio said, “Taking this class, I have learned multiple ways I can integrate PE into the classroom. And if ever I find myself teaching PE, I have learned how to implement math, language arts, reading/spelling and many other subjects into PE.”