Teaching Philosophy Statement

John F Kennedy once said, “Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” He believed that a person who has conditioned their body will exceed when striving towards intellectual achievements. Parents across America have seen the influence that physical exercise can have on students. After school physical education programs, such as sports, not only condition the students to maintain physical health, they also work with teachers to make sure the mind is also being conditioned through learning. Students who participate in school sports are required to maintain their grades to academic standards to be able to participate in the activity. Even

The issue of obesity has been ongoing in the American society for over a decade and there is much that can be done to fix it. As the great businessman Richard Attias said, “Obesity is a problem that nearly every nation in the world is facing, but there is much that we can do to fix it” (Attais). With very little progress being made to stop or slow it down in the present time, the focus should be shifted towards the future. America’s younger generation should be taught about health, nutrition and preventing major weight gain. Adding lessons and classes to the American public school system that pertain to these subjects would greatly benefit our society in the future. Educating students about nutrition and physical activities will make them more aware about their health and staying healthy. This will cause students to be more proactive by eating healthier and exercising frequently. As a result, there will be a decrease in obesity in our society as the younger generation grows up.

Obesity is a deadly and horrible disease; however, it can be prevented. Physical activity is the “cure” to the obesity epidemic. Obesity is the result of “‘caloric imbalance’ -- too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed” according to Childhood Obesity Facts. Physical activity burns off a majority of the excess calories one may have. PE classes do an efficient job of getting students physically active without overworking them, or taking away from freetime after school. Therefore HCSD should keep the current physical education requirements and not replace it with sports.

To do so, the Federal Government needs to make it mandatory for all high school students to participate in physical education. Physical Education restricts any harmful illnesses from forming since the activity promotes muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance (Grace). Young adults need to be physically active in order to avoid dangerous cardiovascular diseases from forming and the Federal Government can ensure this by enforcing physical education within high schools. In fact since the last decade, physical education has been argued and decreased in importance; as a result of this, more and more young adults are developing heart diseases in an early age. In fact, according to the CDC, physical inactivity increases one’s risk for dying prematurely, dying of heart disease, and developing diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure (Physical). It's only a matter of time before the number of young adults that get a cardiovascular disease rises, and the only thing that can help stop this is the Federal

Schools must make students conform when it comes to the popular debate on physical education primarily for health reasons. To begin, obesity is a growing problem in the United States, and along with obesity comes a plethora of health problems such as heart disease and diabetes (Menza). As this epidemic

Admittedly, children obtain high-calorie food and beverages like fast food and soda more easily because they can catch sight of numberless these products by the media or their surrounding people. Opponents of nutritional education in physical education class claim that obesity is caused by increasing the amount of calorie intake outside of school and nutritional education in school physical education is useless. Nevertheless, the combined effect of nutrition education and physical education contributes to an improvement of children’s dietary habits. Michael Prelip et al. refer to Los Angeles Unified School District which insists that nutritional education should be united into the general school curriculum to acquire the educational effects (521). In other words, school physical education should include active movements and nutritional learning to acquire both side effects to handle school-age children’s obesity problem. Besides, Prelip found that the teacher influences children in nutritional education because they recognize the teacher as a nutritional educator, and as a result, students’ dietary behaviors changed toward a tendency to take in fresh foods like fruits and vegetables (524). Therefore, nutritional education in school physical education improves high-calorie eating habit that is one of the reasons for obesity. Why do you think physical education is not enough to shoulder the responsibility of only physical

Systematic reviews have suggested that those under the age of 18 years of age should have at least 60 minutes/day of physical activity in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Janssen & LeBlanc, 2010). As emphasized before, exercise should and may be incorporated whenever possible. Curriculums with physical education included may optimize what is already present, such as breaks between classes and programs that can be offered before or after school. Naperville, Illinois created an exercise model in which P.E. classes were scheduled before academic classes to give the children a boost and to create an enhanced state of attention (Ratey, 2009). These P.E. classes focused on the individual student’s fitness abilities and encouraged students to increase their heart rate by 80 to 90 percent, monitored by a heart monitor, at their own ideal pace. Exercising before the hardest classes allowed the students to relax and to clear their mind, so as to be able to focus on the next subject fully. Naperville’s model proved to be successful, and showed that a class of 230,000 eighth-grade students finished first in science in the world, and sixth in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1999 (Ratey, 2009). Not only that, 3 percent of an entire sophomore

As a child in elementary school, I always looked forward to one class and the was physical education. Being a little child, full of energy, I always wanted to run around and play a game of some sort. School districts are starting to cut these classes to make more time for the core classes, which are English, social studies, and math. One-third of students under the age of 17 are overweight, and 1/6 of the students, that are overweight are obese (Costanza par. 6). Cutting physical education classes are a big reason to blame for this. Many kid are not getting their recommended 60 minutes of physical activity in a day. Most kids get most of their recommended time of physical activity through physical education classes at school. So if physical

High schools today need to realize that the impact the faculty makes at schools impacts their life at home. This is why learning key skills to being healthy should be more prominent. The United States has an extreme obesity problems, which leads to nutritional deficiencies, diabetes, and heart disease. All these issues can be helped and sometimes solved by healthy eating and exercising. School systems spend thousands of dollars on making sure kids eat nutritional meals while they’re at school. This however, does no good in helping students to continue eating healthy once they go home if they’re not taught what is beneficial for their bodies at school. Many schools do not even teach basic cooking skills. Most people would agree that one necessity to life would be food and its pretty important to be able to cook it. Doing this will teach students how to cook something other than Ramen Noodles, and something much healthier. Exercise is something many in the United States have let take a back burner. Everyone should be getting an hour of physical activity a day, which does not occur as often as it should.

School physical education programs are the primary social institutions responsible for promoting physical activity in youth (Sallis et al., 1997). A consensus reached among all the studies, was that schools are the best location for childhood obesity intervention. This is a result of children molding beneficial dietary and physical leisure habits at a young age and schools capacity to impact those behaviors (Sallis et al., 1997). Physical education also promotes physical activity outside of the school and has as a public health benefit. Behavioral theories involved in enhancing physical activity include the Locus of Control, Health Belief model, and the Social Learning Theory. Physical education in School allows the Health Belief Model to be addressed to students regarding the severity of obesity and the benefits of taking preventative action. This may also assist in removing any perceived barriers the child may have and motivate the student to take action.

“Almost seven in 10 parents say their child’s school does not provide daily physical education even though experts recommend 150 to 225 minutes per school week” (HSPH). Obesity is a major public health crisis among children and adults, and it is one of the leading causes of death. Over the years, childhood obesity has become an increasing and ongoing concern for many parents, in regards to their child’s health and well being. The lack of Physical Education in public schools has decreased over the years, and it is no longer mandatory for a student to take P.E or even some schools have banned P.E classes. U.S public schools have failed to comply with the recommended guidelines in the CDC for public school physical education, which states one should do “30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity on all, or most, days of the week” (CDC). It is sad to see that most public schools can not even take 30 minutes to work out their students and as obesity concerns rise, physical education classes are being cut. It just does not make any sense.

While physical education classes are beneficial for the state of a student’s health as well as a way to be active during the day, requiring students to complete a substantial amount of exercise and then judging them on that performance is unreasonable. Holding every student in one high school accountable for reaching the same standards of every other student, is holding people down from reaching goals. People who don’t reach these standards are suddenly not good enough or simply not as good as their peers, which is unkind and unfair. It is time to change the way people look at physical education and it’s not hard to do so.

Everyone knows that physical education helps improve a person’s overall health. Students that are physically active and participate in physical education courses are less likely to make bad decisions that could possibly affect their health or change their overall outcomes in school. Physical activity can also help improve circulation, raise endorphin levels, help reduce stress, affect the students overall mood, and can also help students to be more attentive in the classroom.

Physical education being mandatory in a school setting is a very controversial issue in our world today. Many general education teachers think it is a waste of time, students are not learning, and/or more attention should be focused strictly on classroom studies and schoolwork. Therefore, the number one question is, should physical education in a school setting be mandatory? A debate between two high school students was divided equally. Mara Cobb, a senior from Kentucky, describes, in a typical school setting, we learn or are meant to learn concepts, which will help our future lives. She states, “There is an obesity epidemic, and exercise is a crucial way to prevent future health issues, like heart disease and diabetes” (Menza, 2015, p. 2). Students do not realize what they are learning, no matter what age they are, benefits them later in life. She also makes a good point when saying even though some kids do not like to participate in physical activity, or feel awkward in front of a whole class; they are benefiting themselves in the long run. On the other hand, School Jackle disagrees. He believes physical education is somewhat humiliating and based on ability (Menza, 2015, p. 2). I would have to disagree significantly with his statement. I feel as though if a teacher is teaching in the appropriate way, he/she would get graded on their participation in the class and willingness to participate no matter what the ability he/she has. It is true work ethic outweighs

I seek to combine today’s best practices and align them with the national physical education standards to inspire and educate my students about the importance of physical activity and lifetime fitness.