It has been said once, but it deserves to be said again: this week the group did a great job at showing us how to teach invasion games. TGfU was a great edition to this class as well, because it will help us in the future with breaking down lessons in a way that helps our students understand the ultimate goal.
We also gained a lot of great knowledge when discussing curriculum and different theories we can apply to our teaching styles. I believe that is necessary to combine different curricular approaches that will assist teachers is modelling a healthy and active lifestyle for our students. Students need the encouragement to find what works best for them in regards to fitness. As I said in our group discussion this week, I don’t particularly like volleyball, but the fact that I was able to get a chance to try running, basketball, badminton, as well as a variety of other games and sports in elementary and high school encouraged me to pursue the fitness lifestyle that works best for me in adulthood.
As well, I cannot emphasize enough how important I believe it is that we encourage our students to eat healthy when in school. From someone who came from a home where eating healthy was not even a consideration, I think it is essential that children are given opportunities to see what a healthy diet looks like and how they can achieve a moderately healthy lifestyle at home or at school. At the very least this given students more opportunities and ideas about how they might eat healthy in their adult lives.
Iris, I’m glad you liked our lesson on invasion games! Invasion games tend to be my favorite type of sport, so I was excited to teach a lesson based on them. I also really loved Steve’s game with the tails, especially when we were in groups. The games were very fast-paced and fun, but they also made us focus on what skills and strategies we were using. I’m really thankful that we talked about lesson models this class, because knowing different strategies for teaching PE will help the future groups plan their lessons, and will also help us as future PE teachers!
I think you’re right that the key to being a good PE teacher is to use many different lesson models. TGFU is a great model for teaching skills and for allowing kids to appreciate and play the game right away (so that we avoid the “when are we playing the game?” question), but TGFU should not be used as a teacher’s only lesson model. I think all of the models discussed in the reading and in class have pros and cons and can be worked together to create an interesting and educational PE class. For example, the multi-activity model is great because it allows kids to experience many different sports and decide which one(s) they like best. This leads to more active adults. However, I remember as a child in PE, we did the same sports year after year; by the time I was 10 I was sick of them! I think that’s why it’s so important to be more creative and to mix and match lesson models.