Week 13 Reflection

This week is the final week of inquiry implementation, but I will continue to collect data for a week post-implementation. During my first week of exercise implementation, I believed that video tape recordings would be the most useful and versatile data I collected over the weeks of exercise implementation, however, I found that my notes and reflections were equally or possibly more valuable in my research. Although my opinion of the classroom energy and involvement are not measurable, the changes and new results I notice are valuable to my research and reflects the individual attention I give my students. After looking at the data of comprehension test scores and energy rating charts, I notice that the data does not show consistent or great changes before and during the implementation of exercise. I reflected on these test scores and wondered what I can collect from these scores and any patterns I can find. I decided to turn to my notes about positive changes I am noticing after the implementation of exercise. One thing I noted was that morning work seemed to be completed more quickly on days that we exercised. I had warned students the first week of exercise implementation that we would not exercise if there was too much morning work to be completed, but never reiterated this requirement during the rest of the weeks of the implementation. I decided that I wanted to keep a numerical record of the percentage of morning work completed on days we did and did not exercise to support my noticing and provide quantitative data to show positive results linked to the implementation of exercise. I created a simple chart where I record the date and whether we exercised that day or not, how much work as assigned, and how much work was completed by 9:00 AM when we start morning routine. I have just started using this chart for this week and I'm already noticing a drastic change in the percentage of completed morning work comparing days we exercise and days we don't exercise.

Week 12 Reflection

This is the 12th week of my internship and the third week of my inquiry research implementation. Students are already in the routine of exercising three days a week, taking energy rating surveys, and myself leading instruction all day. Students really seemed to transition well. I'm feeling great about my instruction, because assessment scores for each subject are great and the class got a B average on their science test. For this chapter of science, I implemented a little more exercise through kinesthetic learning activities.  Students made up dance moves and presented them to show understanding of the different traits of animal groups in the vertebrate species. Also, during morning exercise activities, we moved like animals and shouted out whether animals we were moving like were vertebrates, invertebrates, and what animal group they belonged in. I wonder if the results on the final assessment test for this chapter are a result of exercise being implemented in the morning over an extended period of time or the exercise based lessons I've implemented during science instruction. I used a variety of instruction and assessment methods with this chapter, including having students observe and journal the different class pets in the room (turtles, hermit crabs, worms/vermicompost, iguana, and gecko), showing videos of different animal groups, and creating a movement demonstration of the animal group traits. All of these factors could be a contributor to why the students did so well with this lesson. They really showed understanding throughout the weeks of this instruction and paid close attention to every activity. It is hard to relate this attention, comprehension, and involvement with this lesson to my research implementation, because of all the other differing factors in this chapter's instruction compared to past science chapters taught this school year. However, my mentor teacher taught a science chapter a few weeks before my research implementation. In her lessons, she lead a hands-on activity, art based lessons, and open discussions. These varied instructional formats did not result in high scores from the overall class. Therefore, it is not as if past science lessons implemented only written or lecture format instruction. I like to think my exercise implementation has made some impact on keeping students alert and involved in regular instruction. I also think that by tying the science lesson done late in the day to the early morning exercise routine helped information to stick or become more memorable to some students who seem overexerted towards the end of the day.

Week 11 Reflection

     It is the 11th week into my internship experience and it is the second week of my inquiry research implementation. The students seem to be very receptive of the inclusion of exercise in their morning routine. Thus far, I have only had one student come dressed inappropriately. Students often greet me the mornings of work out days excited, asking what kind of exercise we will do today. I thought that by having different exercises each day, students would be more likely to participate because they wouldn't know if we were doing a kind of exercise they would not be interested in. It turned out, they were more eager in the mornings just to find out what we'd be doing, let alone excited to exercise each day. Throughout these two weeks of implementation, I have lead a variety of exercises. Some have a "girly" stereotype while others are typically considered "masculine" activities. I decided to implement a variety of exercises styles so that the students in my class would not feel that the exercise activities were dominated by a particular style or type of exercise like dance themed or sports themed. I expected that during the dance style exercises, many boys would not participate and during the sports themed exercises many girls would not participate, however, after implementing Zumba instruction and football drills instruction, I observed my video tapes of the activities and found that both sexes were equally likely to participate in either exercise. In fact, some boys were more active in Zumba than football drills and some girls were more active in football drills than Zumba. I wonder if students liked having a chance to participate in an exercise activity they are usually not given a chance to participate in. For example, football drills are done during football practice outside of school and it is uncommon for girls to be a part of a football team. Likewise, Zumba is an activity often done as "mommy and me" or girl dominated activity that boys would not have the opportunity to participate in without feeling surrounded by females. Also, I implemented some exercise activities that did not have a gender bias like warm up exercises and cardio. I felt the participation in these exercises was limited compared to Zumba and football drills. I believe one cause of this could be that these types of exercises are often done in the physical education classroom and therefore dull or routine to most students. After talking to other teachers in my school, I found that the physical education teacher does not typically implement activities that are considered male or female dominated. I assume the physical education teacher does this to not leave out any students in the activity, without realizing that students may be open to all types of exercise, especially at such a young age as they are eager to be active and have fun, whether it be a "girly" or "boyish" activity. As a result. I wonder if we the adults are to blame for these biases and judgments around different forms of exercise.