Jeevan’s Week 1 Movement Journal Submission:
So far we have had one PE class, and I already feel like I am learning a lot. I did not know what to expect coming into this course but was excited because PE was one of my favorite subjects throughout elementary and high school. I could relate to some of the material in the ‘Hall of Shame’ readings we were assigned for this week, but some parts really surprised me. I did not consider games like ‘Duck Duck Goose’ and certain types of Tag to necessarily be bad games to play with students, but after reading the articles, I can see why they are not the best first choice. I am lucky that I had mostly positive experiences in PE, but I have witnessed others feeling humiliated because they were chosen last for a particular game or were made fun of by everyone else because they lacked a certain skill required for a given game. I believe that PE should be a place where physical literacy is expressed, learned and taught, and where inclusiveness and fun are also major factors.
I was also really surprised to find out that games like “Tag”, “Simon says”, dodgeball, and “Duck Duck Goose” are part of the “hall of shame”. I have played “Simon says” just a couple of months ago with a big group of students, and at the time I thought it was fun for everyone! It was definitely interesting to learn why those are not the best games to play. Reflecting on my own PE experiences in school, I realized that activities and games from the “hall of shame” constituted the majority of our PE classes. No wonder I did not particularly like PE, and learned to dislike it more and more as my high school years went by. I remember being embarrassed and anxious to have to perform complicated routines in front of the whole class, fearing not being chosen as part of a team, and spending a lot of class time waiting for the winner of a game to be announced so that we could go on with other activities. I am happy that in this class we can learn creative and positive ways to make all students feel comfortable and to encourage them to be active for life and enjoy physical activities. Hopefully all our students will have positive experiences like you had in elementary school!
I too feel that I am already learning so much in this course. The fact that I will be expected to teach gyms classes in my teaching career didn’t really hit me until our first day of class. Unlike you, I did not come into this class very excited, as gym class was never my favourite. Although I do enjoy sports and being active, the memories of my personal experiences in PE are not very fond ones. I remember being very bored in gym class because the teachers would not switch up the activities during a unit. For example, during our “floor hockey unit” we played floor hockey every single class with no new ideas or concepts, just new teammates. I also recall many classes where we ran laps and I developed feelings of resentment towards my teacher as he or she stood against the wall blowing into a whistle every now and then. However, reflecting on these negative experiences gives me motivation towards developing a practice that does not leave me students feeling the same way about PE class as I did.
I thought the Hall of Shame activities were very thought provoking. Like you, I did not initially agree with some of these games at first (I loved playing dodge ball). However, the reasoning behind these selections helped me to understand what is important to consider when developing activities for meaningful PE experiences. Although I may not consider myself to be a very athletic person, I am excited about challenging myself to use my creative skills along with the material we will be presented in this course in order to become a strong and influential PE teacher.