Sorry team!  I have been having the toughest time figuring out this whole blogging thing!  But I have it now!

Net/Wall Games

This week was volleyball basics. Starting with the very creative game of tic tac toe with an exercise kick. Followed by an intense warm-up led by Rylan, having us strafe side to side in a crouched position. This warm up is quite versatile as it can work as a warm up for many different sports including, my personal favorite; wrestling. The group teach finished their lesson by breaking us up into different stations teaching us, bumping, setting, serving and then putting it all together by keeping the ball up in a circle. I felt the way the group broke down the basics of volleyball, starting with holding an athletic stance, then teaching each major hit at different stations was a transparent and effective way of teaching. The instruction was clear, concise, and intermittent through each activity. I appreciated how we covered ways a teacher could do this lesson as a single teacher, using group leaders or instruction on a piece of paper at each station.

After reading the chapter on assessment and seeing the way the group on Tuesday used a rubric for assessment of their activity, I have a new appreciation for the difficulty and complexity of effective assessment in P.E. It’s much more difficult than I had expected. It seems that particularly in P.E., assessment is quite a challenge. I originally felt like I would want to assess based more on effort and participation- that is what seemed fairer to me based on my experience. I want to avoid giving good assessment only to those who are more physically fit or physically literate than others. However the chapter outlined some issues with weighing your assessment too heavily on participation and effort. They suggest a balance is required between assessing skills and participation/effort. I can see why this makes sense, but I am still struggling to find the best approach. I also leaned towards the idea of assessing based on improvement. Again, the chapter pointed out that students who were already competent in an area would not be graded well because they didn’t have far to improve. So this isn’t fair either. As the readings and the lecture in class suggested, using a diversity of assessment will be important for accuracy and fairness.

I liked the criteria used in the group’s rubric on Tuesday. It was really helpful to see them create a rubric for a lesson they had planned. It sounds easy to do and a lot more challenging when you sit down to do it. I especially liked how they incorporated “a good attitude” into their rubric. I think it’s so important for kids to know ahead of time what the expectations are and if they see the inclusion of criteria focusing on attitude, teamwork or helping others they will learn that those aspects are equally as important as physical skills.

I feel physical expression can sometimes tell us more about a person than what they say through text or even words. What sparked my interested in this week’s guiding question is how much I realized I used this when I’m evaluating my students for swimming lessons. Just by looking at someone’s body language, you can begin to understand why they struggle sometimes, perhaps they are having an off day. As a teacher, I believe we should place great importance in reading body language of our students. I think the first step in developing this literacy is by simply getting to know your students. I have by no means mastered the ability to read minds or anything. What I’m saying is that its possible for us to develop these skills and help us to be stronger teachers and be more attentive to our students.

The idea of physical expression also relates to our observation and assessment of student learning. By being able to read their physical expression when they are performing a task, we can gage if they need more practise or need a bigger challenge. I think that as we develop a better sense of physical expression, we not only become better at understanding how the students feels but we can also reflect on our physical expression to continue to grow.

Hi, I would like to begin by stating what a wonderful job our teacher candidate peers did today. I had a lot of fun!

Today’s lesson really opened my eyes to what my P.E. teachers have been lacking on throughout my years as a student, not only in elementary, but high school as well and that is assessment strategies. I always went to P.E. thinking if I am the fastest runner or perform greatly in a game or sport I would receive a high mark. However, that was not the case because sometimes I would get a B+ and I would question my teachers why I did not get an A. They would never give me an appropriate answer and I stopped caring because I thought this is not an “academic” course so this won’t reflect poorly on me. Unfortunately, I was not aware of their evaluating scheme. Their assessments never informed me along the way as to how I was performing, so I assumed I was doing well. It has now come to my attention that my teachers used a summative evaluation style. As we discussed in class today, this style of assessing is not nearly as effective as giving students feedback throughout the weeks or even bi-weekly. As a teacher candidate I am very happy to have these great resources to refer to, so I can make sure all students perform to their greatest potential. The assessment and evaluation strategies is my biggest take-away from today’s lesson.