Movement Journal – Week 8

I am so surprised by how much I enjoyed PE class this week! When I heard it was taking place at the track, I started to dread it! I ran track and cross country in high school and I have very bad memories from the experience. Since I am extremely competitive, running in any form stresses me out greatly. This week’s group did an awesome job making the activities competitive enough to be fun, but in a way that there was no individual pressure to perform. Because there weren’t any one-on-one races, it was impossible to measure your speed against someone else’s. This is a great activity to do in an elementary PE class, because it provides motivation to run fast without putting the pressure of one-on-one competition onto the students.

I also found the discussion part of the class very interesting. Being inclusive is hard in any classroom, but it is often even more difficult in a PE class. We talked about how often times there is no black-and-white right answer when it comes to inclusivity. To include one student sometimes inconveniences and limits the quality of the lesson for all other students; but of course that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to exclude a child with a physical or mental disability. As teachers, our job is to design lesson plans that can include everyone without limiting anyone. I was thankful to hear some strategies on how to accomplish this. Hopefully we can all be fully inclusive in our practicum classrooms this year and in the future.

3 thoughts on “Movement Journal – Week 8”

  1. I agree with you Zoe, when I heard class would be at the track I was flooded with memories from track and field in school. One memory sticks out more then other, I was in a hurdles race and the first hurdle I tripped and fell on my face. That was the last time I ever did hurdles. Other than the relay race, track was a filled with one-on-one events. However this week’s group did a great job teaching us the fundamental moves to excel in track.

    I was in Devon’s groups and he did a great job in enlightening us about this topic, even though we were short on time. We discussed a lot about what involving everyone in the call, even those who have a disability or have injured themselves. Some one suggested that a worthy option would be asking the student to help organize and co-teach. We as future teacher need to find creative ways to incorporate all students to join in regardless of their physical, and emotional abilities.

  2. Great post Zoe. I completely agree with you about the feeling of “dread” you felt coming into the track team-teach. I also did track and field and cross country all throughout elementary school as well as grade 8 and 9, and I also remember the amount of anxiety I would get as soon as I would set foot on the track. Just like you, I am also extremely competitive and I really loved how the group made the activities fun and did not just focus on the competition aspect of racing. The activity is definitely one I would like to try with my class for a PE lesson. My group talk was led by Megan and we also discussed how the inclusion of all students is very important, especially when there are potentially high levels of competitiveness.

  3. Great post Zoey, I agree! I had an extremely love/hate relationship with track. I dreaded the competitive aspect of track and the stress of only having one chance to do well. That is why I have always preferred team sports as we win and lose as a team and there are many chances throughout a game to redeem yourself and try again. I was surprised and relieved on Friday to find that I was having a really great time. The group did such a good job of making the games inclusive and not overly competitive. I will definitely be using the game of Roosters VS. Rabbits in my P.E. class as it works on physical literacy, scaffolds by gradually building upon the basic movements from walking to sprinting, and was inclusive which tied in well with their group chat on diversity and inclusion.
    It is really hard to come up with lesson plans that are inclusive to everyone when our students are all at different levels of ability. We talked about ways to include children with injuries by giving them responsibilities to aid the teacher or alter the game so they can still play. I also was thankful to hear of some different ideas of how to include everyone. Now if only PE could be included throughout all schools as a mandatory daily subject that is covered for more than just half an hour!

Leave a Reply to Jackie Prior Cancel reply