| Kinesiolgy Essay, Research Paper
How to go about developing a community within a physical education classroom setting.
Each physical education classroom setting makes up its own community. A
community is a group of persons that are supportive of each other, take responsibility for
their actions, cooperate with, and trust one another. The students within the class help in
the making of decisions that affect the classroom environment. But how do you go about
creating a community?
In the beginning of the class year the teacher/instructor needs to get all the
students together in an open and safe grouping and set the ground rules for how to
conduct themselves while participating in the class meeting. These boundaries would set
this meeting apart from any other class time.
The meetings would need to be consistent over time. The meetings would need to
be organized and scheduled for certain times throughout the school year. And meetings
could also be called in the case that there is an important issue that needs to be discussed
sooner as opposed to later.
The biggest concern is cooperation. The environment within the meetings must be
safe, caring, and controlled. Safety would allow the students to hold a sense that any ideas
or statements made by them during the meetings would not be criticized by the class as a
whole. It takes a lot for a child to open up and speak about their thoughts and feelings in
front of their fellow students. A caring environment would aid in the process in making
the students feel safe. Having all the students pay attention and listen while others speak
would create a caring atmosphere. Control within the meetings would give structure to
them. The teacher needs to control the environment by organizing the room, setting rules
that would only allow one person to talk at a time, and requiring that the students help in
the decision making process would help create a fair and equal environment between the
students themselves and between the teacher and the students.
“A learning community exists when students feel valued, feel they are supported
by their teacher and classmates, are connected to one another, and are committed to each
other’s learning, growth, and welfare.” The process that was just discussed would aid in
the creation of such a community.
“A learning community exists when students feel valued, feel they are supported
by their teacher and classmates, are connected to one another, and are committed to each
other’s learning, growth, and welfare.” The process that was just discussed would aid in
the creation of such a community.
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