TED 633-Assignment 1A

Introduction

Hello everyone...my name is Sara Smith and I am currently working on my Master's in Secondary Education with the intention of teaching Health Science and Physical Education. Health and fitness have been passions of mine since I was in Middle School. I would read everything I could on nutrition and loved learning about all of the various training techniques. Ironically, I never really cared for Physical Education because I was not terribly good at any sport in particular and therefore, I was generally one of the last students chosen for groups and teams. (I hope to change that for my future students!) Exercising was a whole different story, though. I have always loved helping people reach their fitness goals and so I decided to become a certified personal trainer and group instructor while I attended CSUF to help supplement my income as a Physical Therapy assistant. After moving to Las Vegas, Nevada and getting my BS in Kinesiology, life just kind of happened and I had my two amazing kids. Once they were both in school , I went back to Personal Training. Unfortunately, having a trainer is not considered a necessity, so income was not as consistent as I would have hoped and the schedule had me away from my kids early in the morning and late in the evening. So, I began working in an urgent care calling patients back with their blood work results and came to the very sad realization that people really just do not know or understand too much about their own health, or lack thereof as the case may be. This helped me decide that it was time to go back to school myself so that I could become a teacher and educate future generations about fitness, nutrition, and overall health.

How did your personality affect your choice of content area? How does or will your personality affect your relationships with your students?

So, I opted to take both personality questionnaires and I got two completely different results. The only personality train that came back the same on both was sensing. I think having somewhat of a balance of all the traits will help my relationship with my students because I will be able relate to many different personality types. The Teamtechnology Questionnaire said that my personality is very "unique"....I'm sure that was meant as a compliment and not just them being politically correct. ;) I am not entirely sure how my personality affected my content area choice, but I do know that I am extremely passionate about health and fitness and I love helping people learn about various philosophies and techniques, their scientific reasoning, athletes/people that each may be suited for, so that they can make educated decisions on what works for them personally.

How will your teaching and learning style affect your teaching and your students' abilities to be successful?

My learning style came back as moderate in all categories with the exception of a low score in competitiveness. I have never felt the need to compete with others in regards to grades (unlike the gym!). That is simply me versus me. I hope to instill a similar mindset in my students. If you always do your best work, honestly give it your all, there is no need to be concerned with what grades other students received. If there is genuine concern for a poor grade and a student approaches me about it, if they are willing to try and improve their work, I would absolutely give them that opportunity. In my opinion, knowing what is expected of me is so important so I plan to give my students information so that they may be successful if they truly apply themselves. I believe taking personal responsibility for your actions and trying to improve those things if done incorrectly speaks volumes about a person's character and desire to do well. Giving students the chance to rewrite assignments can actually increase understanding and retention of the information and give them the opportunity to perform self-assessment which is a useful tool throughout life. Personally, I thrive on factual information, but once I know the facts, I love to discuss the various philosophies and allow students to draw their own conclusions. Similar to my personality, my learning styles all fall somewhere in the middle, meaning that certain information I learn more effectively by myself, while with other things, a collaborative environment is more effective. I hope to include teaching styles that appeal to all learning styles and leave an open line of communication at all times to ensure success and understanding for as many of my students as possible.