Each time I come to our PE class I get so excited thinking about what I am going to get to teach this year during practicum! I was especially pleased that we covered physical literacy this week. Physical literacy is such an important aspect of a child’s overall health and I really think that with a focus on this we will be able to encourage more children to participate in an active lifestyle and enjoy their PE experience.

I think physical literacy really ties in to some of the reaccuring themes in our other classes. In particular its focus on specific skills relevant for our everyday lives rather than just focusing on skills relevant for a specific sport. In our other classes we have talked about assessment and expanding from the traditional test based model to incorporate activities that allow a variety of students to excell. A focus on physical literacy feels like a step towards expanding assessment in PE. Although Whitehead suggests that physical literacy is not something we can assess, it gives us another ruler on which to measure our classes advances in healthy, active living and drives us away from just assessing how well students are able to play a given sport.

Lastly I really enjoyed the volleyball lesson that this weeks group of teacher candidates put on. The ‘shuffle monkey’ activity was a particularly good example of a physical activity that is useful in a variety of sports and also a variety of everyday activities!