Blog Post #1

About Me
My name is Phillip Hall and I have lived in Alabama my entire life. To be more specific, I was born in Fairhope, AL. and lived in Loxley, AL until my family and I moved to Silverhill, AL; where I reside today. My major interests are completing college, becoming a physical education teacher and coaching a basketball team at a middle or high school level. Other interest are playing basketball and video games with my friends.I am attending the University of South Alabama because i partied too much my freshman year at Troy University and my parents and I agreed that it would be best for me to attend school closer to home. So I enrolled at Faulkner State Community College where I received my Associates Degree in general studies. After Faulkner State I realized that I wanted to major in Physical Education, so I enrolled at USA because of their wonderful education department.
I guess the most personal information I can tell you about myself is that I am twenty-three, im left handed and I don't have a spleen or any children! Many people say I look like actor/rapper Drizzy Drake! My girlfriend Lauren and I have been together on and off for the past three years of my life and she is my best friends sister! I have a little brother named Josh that I asked Santa Clause to bring me when I was seven years old and a year later he made it happen! My dad told me that my Santa was a black man, how ironic! Both my parents have college degrees, my father is a nurse supervisor at a hospital in Baldwin County and my mom is a middle school principal in Baldwin County. I attended the same high school as my parents; my mom was even the assistant principal of my high school.
I want to enter the field of education because physical education was my most favorite subject in school. I enjoyed everything about physical education. Having wonderful P.E. teachers also influenced my decision in becoming a physical education teacher. My passion in life is basketball! I enjoy playing it, watching it,teaching people how to play it and also playing it on video games. If there is a ball and hoop, i'm satisfied . I pray they allow basketball in Heaven, because I would love spending eternity playing basketball. I guess the only other thing I can tell you about myself is that I'm a huge Kobe Bryant fan, and one day before he retires from the game I will watch him play live in Los Angeles.

When I Begin Teaching
When I become a teacher, I plan to teach either middle school or high school physical education, grades 7-12. My teaching curriculum will be aligned with the state's course of study. I have learned that lesson plans are key to keeping good time-management and class control. Therefore, I will be sure take extra time in writing good lesson plans. I will write plans that I hope will interest all of my students.
After reading this question, I looked on the Internet about different methods of teaching physical education. The methods I will use are both discussed, the Teacher-Centered Approach and the Student-Centered Approach. The author listed seven teaching styles under these approaches.
The first approach is the Command Approach which is more teacher-centered and the teacher makes most of the decision about the lesson. Teacher given commands and students following. The second style discussed is Practice Approach, which is also more teacher-centered. The Practice Approach is where the teacher teaches and the students practice what is taught. The third style is the reciprocal style, which is more student-centered. This style allows students to give feedback while observing their classmates perform a skill. The feedback is rather they performed the skill properly or how they can perform it better. The fourth style is Task which is both teacher and student-centered. In this model, all students are given a task; however; students will determine what level they will begin at. Guided Discover and Problem Solving are the 5th and 6th styles, which are more of a student-centered approach. These approaches allow students to determine the movement of the task. The difference in the two is in Guided Discovery, the outcome is always the same. In Problem Solving, there can be more than one correct outcome or end result. Exploration is the last style discussed. In Exploration, students are allowed to move around more freely to figure out what movement works best for them.
The tools my students and I will use are the different strategies listed in education approaches stated above. Allowing students to experience different strategies is a learning tool in itself. Having proper equipment for activities is also another useful too to have in a successful physical education program. I also hope to incorporate technology into my lessons. I realize some schools are not equipped with technology, but I hope to incorporate it in some manner, even if it is simply to understand how to read monitors on a treadmill or read a pedometer. To me, good lesson plans will also benefit me and my students.
My class will be a place where students want to come. I will not be a teacher that simply throws a ball out but rather a teacher that teaches the skill, practice the skill and observe to ensure accuracy. My students will learn from different methods. They will learn from me and also learn from their classmates. My students will learn skills/activities that they probably would not learn as well in another physical education class. The students in my class will say that I was their favorite teacher and my class was their favorite class; just as I did when I completed high school.

Dr. Pausch's Video on Time-Management
Dr. Pausch's video was very interesting. Many things on his video are things I have heard from my parents, grandparents and teachers. In this video, Dr. Pausch spoke specifically on: goals, wasting time,delegating, dealing with a boss, tool and skills and dealing with stress and procrastination.
Dr. Pausch's recommendation on goals is to ask yourself why am I making this goal and what will happen if I choose not to do it? He states that when making a goal, a person should always do the right thing adequately, instead of just doing things right. He emphasize that just doing things right can be dangerous.
Dr. Pausch also states that experience is a valuable tool and it comes with time. He points out that there are NO short cuts to experience and that good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. My parents always say "You live and you learn" or "Did you learn anything from your mistakes". Dr. Pausch's last statement was dealing with stress and procrastination. He recommends good planning. His phrase was failure to plan is planning to fail. His suggestion is to plain daily, make a 'to do list' and break things down into small lists. In other words, don't try to do everything at once; knock them down one by one.

Penn Stated on Time ManagementThe idea that would be most useful to me on the Penn State website, would be to keep a weekly schedule. I believe that Dr. Pausch is right when he says planning will limit stress. With today's technology and iPhones, a weekly schedule will be easy to maintain. Penn State gives eight steps for a successful weekly schedule. They are: (1) Fill in all fixed times (2) Highlight deadlines (3) List all courses and assignments (4) schedule open times (5) Schedule time for recreation (6) Set realistic goals (7) Allow for flexibility (8) Reward yourself for sticking to schedule. This website was very useful and I do intend on making me a weekly schedule.