I began student teaching in the Oceanside school district on September 21, 2020. I was assigned to the high school for the entire 13 weeks of my student teaching. When I came on the first day, I felt excited to start and have the opportunity to learn from so many knowledgeable physical educators. I soon fell in love with the school, students, and faculty. Going into the school year, we were unsure as a department of what we would and wouldn`t be allowed to do with our students from equipment use, to units we would be allowed to teach. I had an incredible host teacher that made me feel welcomed every day I walked into the office. I was lucky enough to work with an incredible physical education department that provided me with a ton of great knowledge from their many years of experience.

I created and taught my own fitness unit that included learning the difference and importance of performing static and dynamic stretches, as well as teaching different lower and upper body exercises that can be performed without a gym or any equipment that were also specific to either one or more of the five fitness components. This unit also included different fun fitness games that can be performed anywhere with any amount of people, and it ended with teaching the students how to properly put together a full workout for themselves while applying the different topics they learned throughout the unit. I had a great time performing this unit with the students and teaching them the importance of fitness for not only their current health but as well as being able to show them the many ways they could use to stay active and healthy throughout their lifetime.   

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After the completion of my student teaching, I was hired as the Physical Education permanent substitute teacher for the Oceanside school district, specifically the High School. Since I had student taught in the district for three months, I felt comfortable, confident, and excited to begin my new journey in my new position. I held the title of a permanent substitute teacher for one and a half years. At the beginning of this current school year of 2022, I was given the position of Physical Education Teacher Assistant at the Kindergarten Center. With this position, I am able to create and teach a full K and Pre-K curriculum that I currently teach to 19 sections of kindergarten and 9 sections of pre-k. I have students with all different types of ability levels and different learning styles in each of my classes which allows me to always be creative and adaptive within my lessons. My main goal is to help build that foundation within my students to perform different locomotor movements, manipulative skills, and stability exercises. With this knowledge and skill development at their hands, they will then have the confidence within themselves to want to try sports or be more inclined to want to go outside to move and play with their friends. I continue to make it a priority in my student`s learning to develop these skills from both their physical and mental understanding to both the performance and identifying standpoint.