I am not a very athletic person, so when I found out that I have to participate in physical education (PE) class after many years I was very nervous and worried. In Korea, students always know their standing in every class because they get ranked. During evaluations, students perform one by one in front of the class. Therefore, this gives me the knowledge of my terrible standing in PE class, causing me to be very passive and inactive. Other female students in Korea have a similar dislike to PE class as opposed to the male population. This is why our first PE class made an impression on me since all girls actively engaged in the activities: playing volleyball, basketball or Frisbee. I still have fears about teaching PE class because I am worried that my bias could affect my students. I do not want my students to perceive PE class negatively as I did. Physical Education is very important since it provided an opportunity to explore the importance of an active and healthy lifestyle by encouraging students to develop physical abilities as well as cognitive skills. One thing I have learned in the first class is that it is not a subject where we just teach sports. The ideal PE class I want to create is one where all girls and boys actively participate and do not think of PE class as intimidating.
3 thoughts on “Sep 9th Movement Journal Yea Dun Ryu (Sienna)”
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Thanks for sharing your experiences and we all look forward to working together to provide you and your future students with an inclusive physically literate physical education class
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Sienna! It’s really interesting to hear how PE is different in different cultures, and I can definitely see why you would feel apprehensive about doing PE again! I totally believe that you can use your experience for good in teaching PE; like Maryam was saying this afternoon, we learn a lot from the bad examples of teaching. Hopefully you have lots of good experiences this semester to help you start enjoying PE!
Hi Sienna,
I want to start by saying that I’m shocked at what you had to go through in Korea. I know we talked a little in conversation today about your intensive schooling, though I wasn’t aware that you were put through such a poorly instructed ‘Phys Ed.’ class. Being singled out to perform and ranked based on that performance is a stigma that runs through many students minds before entering PE.
I feel badly for the pressure they placed on you and the harmful effects it may have caused. Hopefully we can work at removing the effects, the bias, and develop your deep love and appreciation for Phys Ed. I think most of all, we need to consider that students back in Korea (and many other places) are, to this day, going through similar programs as yourself. Rather than leaving students with the same discomforts, we need to leave them feeling exactly as you felt during our first class.
See you tomorrow!
Chris