Philosophy can be described as a set of ideas and beliefs that govern how one acts.  That being said, ideas are great, but how one acts in their everyday life is a better example of their true personal philosophy.  Since I cannot demonstrate actions in writing I will at least summarize as best I can and with the greatest amount of truth, how I operate in my classroom and how I expect my students to act as a byproduct.  Someone once said, if you don’t have your health you don’t have anything, and then a lot of people followed suit and said the same thing as I am doing right now.  What is most important about that saying is getting people, in this case students, to believe it wholeheartedly and use it as a moniker for everyday living.  The more people that live by this principle the better our society will be as a whole.  My teaching will attempt to instill this in every student through a friendly class environment, effective lesson planning, well-thought out units, and assessment that allows me to examine the competence of my teaching.

            The days of the old physical education plan that I and those before me grew up with are gone and today we struggle to create a legitimate content area that promotes the healthy physical development of all our students, as well as higher cognitive function.  I want my students to respect me in the utmost and as a byproduct I believe that I must exemplify health and fitness.  If they see me eating it will be healthy; I will participate in classroom activity because I don’t believe in telling someone to do something and not getting involved myself; I will lead by example in everything I do everyday; and the students will be informed about my recreational pursuits so that maybe they will become inspired to become additionally active outside the school environment.  No matter how much I attempt to gain respect in my students through instruction and example, I realize that there will be classroom management issues.  I expect students to misbehave on occasion, but I will not let them continue to do so.  Students will be presented with rules to abide by at the start of the year and will be able to create and vote upon additions that they deem necessary.  If a student does not follow a rule then they will be verbally notified about their misbehavior in front of the class; if the student continues to be disruptive then they will be singled out from the days activities and I will talk to them after class.  Keeping an open line of communication with all students whether misbehaving or not, will be my personal policy, because I not only choose to be an authority, but a friend as well.  Students who act out have a reason for doing so and I want to know the reason so that I can get the students back into the class where they can be active and learn.  I have observed at local high schools for quite a while now and I know that there is nothing more useful in classroom management than proximity control.  Students who are misbehaving know that they are and the closer you are to them the less likely they are to do it.  Also, if you want to command respect you must give respect; if you want a student to act like a responsible adult you must treat them like one.

            A feeling of success and hopefully an addiction to success will permeate my classroom environment.  This can be achieved through authentic assessment on multiple plains as well as a variety of activities that contact a plethora of different skills.  As I said in the opening paragraph, physical education has changed and with the change has come the absence of strictly participation based grading.  I want to have students that don’t just show up and dress down, but those who participate, learn, and show me through multiple avenues that they can make the grade.  Those that excel at certain activities will have the chance to demonstrate their innate skills, as will everybody else.  In classes that I have observed I have seen the use of heart rate monitors to gauge the level of student activity.  This is just the start, the PE 4 Life program has taken things to an outstanding level of instruction using multiple modes of authentic assessment.  Boring activities make for bored students and those cause problems.  In turn, better prepared lessons using diverse assessment make for exciting classes and involved students.  Yes, my students will have tests in their physical education, they will be oral, they will be written, they will be demonstrative, and they won’t even have to study, because they will already know it.  I expect all of my students to show up to have fun, but that’s not all I expect them to do.

            Physical education and activity is a topic that I am utterly driven to pursue every day of my life.  Such a drive makes me want to take others on the ride so that they can enjoy life in all of its glory.  That may sound a tad religious, but hey, I do think that physical activity and its pursuit is that strong of a force.  I will get my students to enjoy all of the things that their bodies are able to do for them; they will be capable, they will be active, they will be healthy, they will be knowledgeable, and most importantly they will have fun!