Health & Physical Education Students Observe in Local Schools
Health & Exercise Physiology students in the teaching certification track have been observing in local schools this semester. Two students in the program have taken on a more active role in the class they have been observing.
For the past few weeks, Marc Clayton (Class of 2025) and Jack Schmidt (Class of 2025), have been observing the Health and Physical Education class at Springford School District 9th Grade Center. The class is taught by Matt Gallagher (Class of 2019) and Allie Moffet.
Marc and Jack have been assisting with class warm-ups and drills, as well as student assessments. During their observation hours, Marc and Jack have been able to ask their host teacher, Matt, questions about how to make a class “flow”. They have also been learning how to make physical education class inclusive for all students. This includes giving students the choice of how competitive and active they would like to be on a given day. For example, the students have been playing football in class, so students who may not want to participate directly in the game are learning touchdown dances instead.
The experience has helped them to gain a greater understanding of the level of detail and planning that goes into teaching physical education. Most importantly, Marc and Jack have learned how necessary it is to be flexible when teaching, as a lesson might not always go to plan!
Their experience can be summed up by Matt’s comments about the boys,
“Marc and Jack have been amazing with us for the past 6 weeks at Spring-Ford’s 9th Grade Center. They were extremely active from the beginning, asking questions about how the school runs, our physical education curriculum, and daily operations in PE. They were eager to jump into a lesson or lead warm-ups at the start of classes. Marc and Jack seem to be ready to take on any task and are sure to make amazing health and physical education teachers. As an Ursinus alumni myself, I was so happy to have Ursinus students observe and help with their teaching journey.”
Great work Marc & Jack!!