Group A
Week # 1 Post

October 21, 2015

Guiding questions:
* What were my positive and negative experiences in PE
* What is important to teach in PE
* Fears of teaching PE
* What is purpose, understanding of PE past & present

Sorry for the late post! My experiences in PE were mostly negative. I was self conscious of my body and was teased a lot by boys.  I was often left out of the PE activities and most of the times was able to sit on the sidelines and watch or I would skip class.  PE was focused around learning how to play sports that of which I did not have an interest in.  I did join basketball for midgets and senior high school, but fell out of interest because of small town politics.  I was always turned away from sports from players being too competitive and or aggressive.

In PE, it is important to teach students all aspects of health at not just focus on games and sports. I was absolutely terrified to take this course and my whole past PE class life flashed before me.  Honestly, I was wondering if I could sit on the sidelines and pass – this is how my past in PE had shaped me!

What I learned on the very first day of this course was a breath of fresh air and I was able to relax. Some of the key things I took away include:
~ Looking at the gym as a big classroom
~ Lesson planning for a purpose and giving every activity a purpose
~ On-going assessment of students
~ Emotional safety by setting rules and including everyone
~ Play safe, no province wide, school wide and classroom rules

Prior to this class I thought I could not teach PE and coming out I can honestly say this is one of my favourite classes and I look forward to every Tuesday!

Today’s P.E. class was conducted outdoors, which was an interesting change. I have always wondered what a lecture out in nature would be like and today was the closest to the real deal. I have done many summer camps outdoors but to see a group use nature as a possible cross curriculum activity was something special. It really aligns with my beliefs that learning and school isn’t just about books and listening to lecture all the time but it is also an active process between the students and the teacher. The great thing about outdoors learning is that it takes the class out of familiar territory (classroom) to a new environment that allow for hands on learning and connection with the world. Out in nature, the student can begin to see the real world and see relevance and relationships from what they have learned in class and experience it for themselves.

Another thing that struck out to me was the “trust” game we played today. It is hard to believe how it hasn’t been two full months since we started the program but everyone in the cohort seemed to have faith that everyone in their group was going to catch them before they would fall to the ground. It just amazes me how trust can go a long way.

Today’s class was such a wonderful experience and a really awesome example for us to learn from in terms of teaching outdoor education. I feel like I learned an immense amount from Cristina, Christine and Lisa about what I need to be aware of and think about when planning for an alternative environment activity. There are a whole new set of requirements when bringing a group of kids into the outdoors and we have to be aware of all the safety issues and risks. I appreciated being taught what to tell students if they got lost outdoors and also how to organize the activity in ways that quell parent and administrator concerns. We must enlist the help of parents, other teachers, support staff and even older students in order to have a good adult to student ratio. We also need to make sure we are aware of the liabilities and waivers that need to be signed before taking kids for a lesson outside. Furthermore, we must have sufficient knowledge of first-aid or have someone on the excursion who does have this knowledge. Teaching an outdoor education class, or simply teaching any class outside, is such a valuable and worthwhile thing for us to do. I feel much less nervous about doing it after today’s class.

After reading the chapters for this week, there is so much to consider when planning a unit or even a lesson. I think routines, organization, clear communication and relationship building are some of the most important strategies for enhancing the learning environment for students. Especially for the younger grades, routines are so important. They reduce time wasted on classroom management issues or confusion. They get the kids into an activity and learning much faster and more efficiently. This ties in with organization. The ways you organize your students for activities has a huge impact on their comfort levels, feeling of safety and also their engagement in the exercise. The clearer our instructions, the quicker we can start playing and getting active. It reduces confusion and also helps with relationship building between teacher and students. The respect that comes from those clear interactions will help us be effective in engaging our students and keeping them excited about P.E.

Outdoor Education.  Chapter 4/5.

Several things struck me from today’s class.  One of which was how bringing P.E. outdoors can add a level of relevance to class activities.  In alternative contexts, actions such as running, jumping, and climbing are given a whole new meaning.  Climbing on a creative wooden play structure outside, for example, has a totally different significance in comparison to climbing on gym equipment inside a school.  I felt a sense of freedom today, that tends to come with playing outdoors.  For me this feeling connected with some of the objectives of physical education that we have been reading about, such as instilling a passion for movement into our students, and teaching P.E. through play.  Running in the forest during a game of predator had so much more significance than running in a gymnasium playing the same game.  We see animals around us outside.  We can invest more into the game, and get more inspiration from the environment when playing this game outside.

The second thing that struck me was how valuable our classmates are as P.E. resources.  Everyone has different areas of expertise that we can gain so much from.  Lisa shared with us some of her exceptional knowledge and experience regarding outdoor education today, and I learned so much from her.  In particular, she brought up many important points when addressing the question, “How do I plan for alternative environment activities”.  I found her description of unacceptable and acceptable hazards useful, and the discussion that surrounded those.  This week’s activities were very inspiring, and I look forward to implementing some of the ideas shared in the classroom!

Today was fantastic! It’s amazing how taking a lesson outside can make all the difference in how you feel, especially if you’re as sluggish and drowsy as I am in the morning .

Before today, I felt like I  had a semi-decent idea of how to teach a PE class outside due to having worked in summer camps in the past. However, I’ve found that today’s lesson has really helped me consider some things I wouldn’t have thought of while also making me feel a little more confident in my ability to teach outdoors! Maybe it sounds a little odd to hear, but I personally really liked the reminder of making sure to scan the area beforehand for any acceptable or unacceptable risks. Not only do we as the teacher have to be aware of these, but we also have to ensure that the students are as well.

The predator game that we played today was also fantastic in that, as we later discussed, it could tie in so well with other subjects. For instance, playing this game first could serve as a method of priming before formally introducing the subject matter to the students in a science or math class–not only would that be more memorable, but it’d be an active way of introducing a topic that would hopefully be more accessible to students who have different learning styles than the typical lecture or “sit down and read” variations.

Overall, I believe our outdoor education lesson was a success. Our team worked together very well, clearly delineating roles and responsibilities. My contribution was safety considerations outdoors, leading “Go – freeze” practice, co-facilitating “Quick Frozen Critters”, and leading the mindfulness walk.

I wrote myself a script of my important discussion points, but in general it was easier and more fun to go with the flow of the lesson. As we did the “Go – Freeze” activity, it was useful to see how much was learned or what needed improvement by checking in halfway. I realized that some people couldn’t hear me well, and we also discussed strategies for stopping quickly. I used my whistle to call freeze instead, and I noticed that the locomotor freezing motion became more coordinated on the way back.

We ran out of time for the Eagles to try being predators, and in a real-life class this situation might upset kids if they were really looking forward to a turn. It seemed like the class enjoyed this game for the most part, lots of smiles but some really tuckered out people as well. It requires a lot of cardiovascular fitness to survive, so playing this game a lot might be demoralizing for children who have less stamina than others. Everyone was being a really good sport about the game: the affective skill of respecting others was observed throughout and I could see that runners were careful to avoid delicate plants.

Thank you ABCs for being a wonderful class to teach! 🙂