I really loved today’s group teach. I think it was an awesome idea to present mini games and activites for us to play that can be used in different ways during our own practicum experiences. My favourite was the maze game. Chris, Maymie and Julie placed coloured circles onto the ground and created a code. They then split us into two groups and the point was for each group to complete the maze by stepping on the correct colour all the way to the end without talking to one another. One person began, if they stepped on the correct colour our teachers would stay silent, if they picked the incorrect colour our teachers would make a beep sound that would signal our cue to restart. I thought this was such a cool team building exercise and is something I can really see myself using with my grade fives. Some modifications we discussed were spreading the circles out to encourage students to jump from one to the other, adding an extra component of skill building exercise and coordination. Chris also suggested moving the circles even closer together, and when the player steps on the wrong circle he or she has to take a lap of the gym. This adds exercise as well as an extra component of difficulty, as the person would have been running around the gym instead of watching their teammates and learning the code. Playing games which involve communication skills besides talking is a good learning tool for both teachers and students. It’s important to remember that not everyone will be comfortable with their words, so encouraging communication through other avenues is key. Great job!

Today’s group teach was really interesting and I feel the activities we did are things I can see myself implementing in my own gym class. The first activity we did was a small warm-up of a lap around the gym to get our heart rates up. Elixa, Sheena and Kate then instructed us on how to measure our heart rates, which we did after our lap and recorded on our worksheets. After recording, we did a dance aerobics routine. This was so fun, I really enjoyed the music. After this segment we re-measured our heart rates and recorded them again to evaluate if anything had changed from our previous record. After this we did a choreographed dance segment, which was fast paced and engaging too. We recorded our heart rates again and then moved into yoga. Yoga was obviously slower paced and more relaxing so my heart rate went down. I think this was a really great way to introduce a new area of health and physical literacy to the class. Knowing how to find your heart rate and being aware of what a healthy heart rate is for resting and exercise is so important and teaches students responsibility in their own health. I think this group did an awesome job of encouraging physical literacy and new knowledge for us!

This was a great way to end the course. It consolidated everything that we have been learning about when it comes to making physical literacy part of everyday life of students. What better way to do that then to work in into different curricular areas. Hearing everyone’s ideas facilitated the idea of creating a drop box in which all of the students within the cohort could submit their lessons for future use. My only issue was that there were two different groups that were presenting that day and it didn’t seem as though there was enough time to do both. If two groups had presented in the penultimate week, it wouldn’t have been so bad; we would still have been pressed for time in that class but the last class seemed to be unfinished. With the yoga group unable to get to all areas of the lesson that they wanted to, the lesson seemed as though it were left hanging. I believe that there should have been more of a warm-up for it but there didn’t seem as though there was enough time. Because of this my hip is still hurting a week afterwards and I am thinking of going to see a doctor about it.

On Tuesday Sept. 22nd

We had our first presenters and it was great. The warm up that Claire did was awesome. Opened up my imagination and created a safe place to have fun and engage in this classroom, the gym. Then we went outside to the field for Target Games. It was a great demonstration especially since the part of thinking positive and self thoughts and reflections are totally human nature. I was once told, we are our worst critics.

We all engaged in the target games and lots of positive attitude and positve communication was happening between us, we had paired up to practise throwing, aiming and hitting the target. It was a little competition and from what I observed everyone enjoyed this activity. It was fun and engaging for all ages and I know students in elementary schools would engage and enjoy this PA as well.

Last Tuesday Dec 1st. We had two fantastic groups up to do their group presentations. The first group did a warm up and a fun relay game on “farmers”. It was very different and absolutely interesting for the TC’s to get the students to do the harvesting work outs. Slashing. Picking high and picking low, and doing the chicken run. On to the relay game of farming. We were put into groups of four and raced each other to the other end of the gym and each of us had a food group to search for the daily amount of each food group. It was so much fun and laughter.
The second group presented a yoga meditation, warm-up, and yoga work out. It was very good and interesting as well. However I was very tired and felt exhausted from the first group presentation. As we relaxed into the first meditation (warm-up) my mind was concentrating on deep breathing (inhaling & exhaling) and soon I realised that I was the only one who did not have my right had over my heart and my left hand on my stomach as we did the deep breathing. It was a funny moment on my part. One other classmate caught my reaction and we laughed quietly together. Yoga was more then I thought it would be. It was relaxing but some of those positions that I had to hold was actually quite difficult as my body was telling me “you’re done!” I kept doing what I could.. My right shoulder was feeling the pain and I remember that because I had difficult time to reach up to the sky at this time during the yoga work-out. I think that all the presenters were very enthusiastic about the presentation of the groups choice. It was a great day to learn of how new things, as these two presentations gave me a better insight and playful of how to be a farmer and the concentrating and having a strong mind for the yoga class was fantastic and very interesting.

Kenthen Thomas blog week two movement.

Physical activity for as long as I know has been an integral part of my memory, from playing and running to just downright having fun. However in the early years of physical education the structured fun that was being taught to me was in more than one way very confusing. I wasn’t sure what was going on and why all of sudden the act of running and having fun had to be so structured with so many rules and why there always had to be winners and losers. The fun of physical movement befuddled what i thought to be just fun, thus i think physical education needs to be clear and concise about what the projections are for the children and what they hopes are for their assessment and achievements. Running and having fun and just moving are integral parts but the term physical literacy is also a huge part of what will make up the educational part of this learning experience. Also the constant need for my own reflection and self assessment of my own teaching techniques and considering and reconsidering what works and what doesn’t. Also there seems to be an overwhelming fear of PE as a class and how can I as a teacher change that fear, how do I combine fun, athletics and the inevitable competitiveness that will arise in a class of twenty or more personalities?

Wow, what a packed and productive last class. I can’t believe we managed to fit in group discussions, two group presentations, and a resource share. I am really happy we had the opportunity to share our resources with everybody else. I was really impressed with some of the lesson plan ideas and resources that I was hearing and thinking of ways how I would incorporate them into my extended practicum. The group presentation on Yoga did an incredible job considering the time constraints. I found myself quite relaxed and stretched out after their activity. Yoga is a mind-body workout that will improve flexibility but also bring back focus and concentration. I teach grade 1’s and I imagine they may have trouble focusing while practicing certain yoga poses, however I’d like to try it with them perhaps as a cool down at the end of a PE session, with a peaceful song playing in the background. Yoga’s gentle movements are useful tools to relieve tension that may have built up during the PE activity and may help relax them. Breathing exercises is also an aspect of Yoga that I want my kids to practice. I would introduce the breathing exercises to them during our yoga cool down and keep referring back to them in times of anxiety and stress that they may encounter throughout the day. Overall, I think Yoga poses and exercises are adaptable to any age level and its skills can translate to actions that are mindful when engaging in other things.

I am really grateful for the opportunity to have BC wheelchair sports visit our class and enrich our knowledge on the opportunities they provide for individuals with physical disabilities to engage in able-bodied sports. Opportunities provided by the BC wheelchair sports truly changes the lives of individuals with physical disabilities as it encourages, supports, and respects their active living goals. By doing so, a sense of achievement and success is provided for them. This feeling will contribute to their motivation to continue in their personal active life goals and embrace a life long physical literacy. As I reflect, I remember one of our professors pointing out that it is inadequate to have able-bodied individuals to experience wheelchair sports themselves to motivate them to create equality and fairness for the students in the class. Although I agree that it is important for the people who introduce this topic and provide this opportunity to have expertise and knowledge, which transfers into their ability to appropriately deliver content material to the right age group. However, having had the opportunity to personally experience wheelchair sports myself, while not knowing much about the programs that BC wheelchair sports offered, the equipments themselves, the sports, and the skills that it requires; I am confident to say that this experience has really made me realize how talented, strong, and athletic these individuals are, and has motivated me to have my students exposed to this information and be able to experience this themselves.

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