My experiences in PE have, for the most part, revolved around the ‘main’ sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer etc. Fortunately I have always enjoyed most of these activities, however it has been a while since I have played any of them. Coming to class on Friday I was a little nervous about how well I would do if we had any skills games or drills.
I realize now, after playing mission impossible and chuck the chicken, that my experience in PE is not how it has to be. It had never occurred to me that a sport like baseball could be broken down into a game like chuck the chicken (it’s hard not to laugh as you throw a rubber chicken with no head across the room!). This game was fun, engaging and allowed us to work as a team in order to be more successful, while at the same time it was helping us with the basics of a sport.
This class made me so excited to start planning PE and health lessons! It is such an unique opportunity we have to change the way some children feel about being active and healthy. With the new curriculum and what we will learn in this class, I feel more confident that by the end I will be able to effectively teach PE and health. And now I am not nervous at all about coming to our next class!
I felt the same way as Jessica before class on Friday. The last time I did PE class was almost 10 years ago, so I was very nervous as I walked into the gym. My hope was that we would play a team sport such as basketball or soccer where I could blend in with a group of people, instead of a game such as baseball where at some point everyone would be watching me and I would feel the pressure to perform well. I hated baseball when I was in school, but surprisingly loved Chuck the Chicken!!! Similar to Jessica, I really liked how Steve used Chuck the Chicken to demonstrate the basic techniques for baseball. This activity placed less responsibility on individuals, whereas in baseball the stress would fall on the person hitting the ball. I appreciated how Steve asked us how we could do better and we discussed how to improve together as a team; this differed from my experiences in school when people would start blaming one person for not doing well. It’s still hard to believe that I actually had so much fun learning baseball skills and teamwork without feeling anxiety and pressure. As with Jessica, this class also changed me from being scared to teach PE to being excited about how to teach PE in a way that is more fun and engaging to the children. I am no longer nervous about this class and I can’t wait till next week!
My feelings about PE were similar to both Jessica’s, and Pamela’s; I felt nervous attending the first class because I wasn’t sure of what was expected and weather P.E would simply entail running laps. Like Pamela, I haven’t been in a gym environment for more than 10 years. However, I am very happy to see a different side of physical education. I liked how gym made me feel psychologically but often felt like I was being judged for my fitness level. I think that the strategy of numbering off students from 1-10 should be used in the classroom because it ensures students don’t become self-conscious of their physical fitness.
As suggested by Health and physical education article, I realize that I can present physical education in the same engaged fashion by seeing that the gym is an extension of the classroom and it should be a place for safe fun!. One fear I have about teaching PE is being able to have access to enough resources which I could use throughout the year to plan my lessons.
I can also relate to Pamela hating baseball because of the pressure to perform. I think I would exclude this type of game from my teachable content because children’s emotional safety would be compromised. If children feel unsafe or unwelcome, they will not be able to take in new information and their cognitive capacity to learn would be used up by embarrassment or feelings of self-consciousness.