The biggest learning experience I had this week was in PE class. The first jumprope lesson was a disaster- it could not have gone worse. Almost no one was on task, they weren’t interested in the youtube videos I found, some kids were using the equipment improperly, they weren’t staying in their assigned groups, I had students talking back and arguing with my decisions, some students snuck out of the gym before dismissal, and the goal of raising our heartrates with skipping was definitely not achieved.
So why did this happen? I went over the lesson and came up with several reasons. Firstly, it wasn’t my lesson to begin with (I was doing this because we had Jump Rope 4 Heart this week and my SA indicated we needed to do a couple days of skipping). I took my SA’s suggestions of setting up stations and having the video playing and music, etc. But in reality, I didn’t know enough about chinese skipping or the Jump Rope for Heart program to effectively fake it. I think the students could sense that they knew more about skipping than me, and pounced on this opportunity to assert their authority. Reason two: on Wednesdays we have the grade 7s from the other class with us, so I was teaching 6 extra students that I don’t have a relationship with at all, one of whom tends to ‘stir up trouble’. Reason the third: I didn’t outline clear expectations for behavior and for the skipping skills I expected to see. In the classroom I explained the logistics for how the stations would be set up and how the rotations would work, but I didn’t tell them exactly what I was looking for in terms of performance. This was a major error, because the students were not intrinsically interested in the activity, and so had no reason to be accountable to me.
The next day I taught jump rope again. The difference was night and day. The students were completely on task, stayed in their groups, were showing me their skipping skills and techniques, and were not using equipment improperly or fooling around on the mats, etc. After the terrible lesson on Wednesday, I ‘lectured’ the students on appropriate gym behaviour, and made each of them write me list of expectations teachers have of students in PE. The next day, I reminded them of this list, and set clear expectations of them. Students were told they had to stay in their teams, demonstrate or attempt to demonstrate each of the skills on the posters, and remain on task. Any student who was fooling around on the mats or doing other off task behaviour would sit out and receive a zero. I brought my clip board to the gym and made notations on each student as they rotated the stations. I also gave the students a choice, if they worked well and showed me they could act appropriately, once we finished the station rotations we could play Stop Ball. In all, it was a great learning experience, one that I know I will continue to reference in future lessons.
The end of this week was a treat. Jump Rope for Heart, a circus presentation in the gym, and Kindergarten buddy time. Does it get more fun than that?
