10. Different perspectives.

KIN 217 turned out to be different from what I had originally intended. Once the program was completed, my advisor began observing my lessons and providing feedback, which was initially difficult to accept. However, with significant time and effort spent on repeatedly breaking down and rebuilding the curriculum from scratch, the program began to improve. Despite this progress, my new curriculum is still far from perfect. Here's the story.

I have been working with a professor who has emphasized the social and emotional aspects of physical education. He observed my classes and conducted post-teaching reflective analysis (PTRA) with me, focusing on how students experience and feel in class rather than just improving their motor skills or fitness knowledge. He believes that promoting positive emotions and collaborative enjoyment of physical activities can support lifelong physical activity. I revised my curriculum to emphasize cooperative learning and to address students' social and emotional well-being. After making these changes, my professor expressed approval of the revised curriculum.

I'm currently taking a program development class with a professor who's researching physical education curriculum and pedagogy. The class is focused on comprehensive evaluation of physical activity programs, and after some consideration, I chose to evaluate my teaching class, KIN 217. Through this class, I was able to further elaborate on my curriculum, which focused on democratic pedagogies and collaborative learning for 9th-grade students' PE, while still satisfying state core standards in PE. I created an eight-page report detailing the program and expected positive feedback. However, the professor's feedback was not what I expected. He noted that the curriculum did not include any core components of physical education and suggested that I include details of standards and methods for enhancing motor skills and health-related fitness. While my program includes opportunities for students to learn core knowledge and develop movement competencies, more than half of the report focused on cooperative learning and democratic pedagogies. I am now being asked to prioritize the fundamentals of PE in my curriculum.

To be honest, I agree with the professor's feedback that I didn't focus enough on the basics of physical education in my curriculum, because I was too preoccupied with adding more methodological practices. However, I felt conflicted between two different perspectives and felt pressured to choose one over the other. I was unsure if it was possible to prioritize both aspects in my curriculum, or if this was just a misunderstanding caused by my preoccupation with the issue.