Elizabeth Greenwood, Cheryl Burdick, Mary Ferguson, Roberto Colusso
Monthly Archives: November 2015
Inclusive PE Post – ABC Cohort
After the PE lesson we had with BC WheelChair Sports, playing wheelchair rugby and tennis and basketball, I have a new found respect for those athletes. The amount of work and dedication it takes to perform those sports and not be physically or mentally exhausted is tremendous! My arms were so sore after the first activity. It was a great learning activity and experience as I would have had difficulty incorporating physically disabled bodies into the curriculum. I have always been an advocate for inclusion and equality so I always had the notion of making sure everyone was involved as the forefront to my learning and understanding. But I realized that incorporating people in wheelchairs in PE is a difficult task in order to not make it too challenging for them or too boring for the other students. The organization left us with great advice and knowledge as to how to bring every student into PE and to be physically active in their lives. They provided excellent resources and skills that I will use in my classroom now, and in the future as a well to make sure it is all inclusive. My classroom is going to be a place where all bodies of all abilities are welcomed and included in every activity. This is a personal and deep topic for me so I am excited to have this new knowledge and bring it to the topic.
Week 8
I really enjoyed this weeks lesson at the track! First, it was great to be able to go outside and utilize our schools resources. I had never been to this track before so that was lots of fun.
This group, in my opinion, found an excellent balance for a sport that is traditionally very competitive. While we have been learning throughout this course that we need to make sport and PE available to everyone, I have been struggling with how to do this. I find it easy enough to take out the competition of an activity but that also doesn’t respect the students who are more athletic and enjoy the competitive aspect of sport. I thought the relay activity we had to do captured an excellent balance. I found it to be a fun activity with a safe environment where there were no winners or losers, but it also allowed for that challenge and goal of trying to get the batons to reach each other.
Overall I now have some new ideas about how I might make a PE environment safe, fun and inviting for students from a number of athletic backgrounds.
Track and Field Group
We had an interesting discussion in our summary of readings this week. The readings carried themes of class inclusion and working with diversity and positive language to provide the best possible PE experience for students. Because of social “norms” such as gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity; a PE class is a common ground for bullying and harassment. Some questions arose during discussion such as how to prevent discrimination of students that look “different” because of their development and maturity. As a group we discussed talking to the student privately, or the whole class as group. I think our general decision was that both options are viable but it’s what language we use to discuss the matter.
The activities that were used last Friday were both great games. I was surprise at the amount of confusion in the rooster/rabbit game. After the game I was thinking ways I could make it more clear and understandable for students. Having students wear jerseys and making the court bigger providing more running room for students.
The final activity where they had the entire class spread out in groups along the track. Each group had to march in unison around the track and when the baton came to them then the front person of the group had to sprint with the baton to the next group in front. The two batons circled the track chasing each other for 10 minutes or until one baton has caught up with the other. This is a great activity because it fosters that competitive nature of sport without concluding with a winner and/or loser. I am excited to try this game in my class!
Week nine: Inclusive physical literacy.
this was a great class for two points; the first being that everywhere in the world and especially in schools everyone should access to all aspects of education. Secondly, the racing around on the wheelchairs was great. Sadly though I can recall as a child there was one kid who was in a wheelchair and he never got to take part in PE. His education assistant would at times let him watch for awhile or when we would do long distance runs he would hand out water to us. But for the most part he was never or rarely involved in our physical activities.
I cannot stress enough how much I would work to ensure everyone had equal and fair access to any activities I will plan in physical education. I would consider what they have to offer in terms of suggestions for me to deal with their unique situation. I would educate my self on how to deal with such a situation and i would also use it as an opportunity to engage the students in educational terms as well. But at the same time i would not let my concern single them out and the need dictate the class either, A healthy balance will be what i will always shoot for in any classroom activity.
As for rolling around all morning at first I was pretty hesitant because as a child my elders would always tell me to not play with a wheelchair or crutches unless I wanted to be in one myself. They believed if you play with one of these items you would end up in one of them. I got over that fear and I sat down in one thinking that my Gramma must be up with he spirits looking down upon me shaking her head saying, “ah you! Kenthen!” But I enjoyed the experience and instead of looking at as ‘playing’ in a wheelchair i was educating myself on what it will be like for a possible student in the future.
Week 8, Movement Journal
This week was dual and individual activities in P.E. taught by Devon, Michelle, Megan and Jen. When everyone was out at the track, and the group told us we were going to be sprinting, the whole class groaned simultaneously. Everyone seemed to have a negative view on running and sprinting before entering the class, and by the end of the class I know I had changed my views. I felt that through this lesson, I felt more able and comfortable with teaching sprinting and running. Their instant activity was engaging and not only was a warm up physically but also brain activation, connecting the brain and the body. I have played this before with other animals, and can be changed to animals or topics which the class could be studying to make it more cross-curricular. Another great thing about this lesson was that it was very inclusive. All students were included at all times. When we were doing the activity on the track, we were either working on marching in proper form in a walking speed, or we were sprinting towards the next group working on your form at a quicker pace. This was also set up in a way that the whole class was working together rather than on teams. There were no winners or losers. Although there were no winners and losers, we were able to work on our own to improve on our own sprinting abilities.
Great lesson group!
Week 8 – Track and Field Group Teach Reflection
Teaching Physical Education is something that I was a little worried about going into this program. Because I did not particularly enjoy PE growing up, I was concerned that my experience would transfer into my PE teaching practice. However, Steve has done an excellent job in teaching us how to make PE fun and inclusive for everyone. In addition, I could not imagine a better environment to learn how to teach PE, than being in our CITE cohort! As a result of this, I found myself really looking forward to teaching sprinting at the track.
Our warm up activity, Rabbits and Roosters, was a little tricky as a lot of people were a bit confused on how it worked. This is something that I was not anticipating, but is completely realistic in a classroom setting. After a few tries, everyone was getting the hang of it, and seemed to be having fun. If I could do this again, I think I would get a few students to help us model it, so that students could first see how it should look like. But I think Megan did a super excellent job at demonstrating each round, and what the students should be focusing on as they play the game.
Our cumulative activity also seemed to be a great hit! I was a little apprehensive about how people were going to receive this activity, mostly because of how big the track is, especially for sprinting. But it turned out to be great, and everyone was using the sprinting techniques that Rabbits and Roosters focused on. The baton relay race also had just the right amount of competitiveness to it, that everyone seemed to enjoy the race, and everyone felt included.
This lesson could also be adapted to include any students with disabilities. For instance, if there was a child in a wheel chair, the child could get help from another student while racing around the track passing the baton.
Overall, I felt that our group worked really well together, and we all had an opportunity to share our ideas and contribute equally to the group teach. Thanks everyone for making it such a fun lesson to teach!
Maria’s Movement Journal: November 18
Movement Journal # 9: November 18
This week in Physical Education, my group and I presented our reading summary and instant activity. For our instant activity, we decided to have our peers participate in a game of chain tag. My group and I wanted to introduce a game that our peers could use during their practicums. My Grade 1 and Grade 2 students play various tag games during Physical Education. Therefore, I decided to teach my students chain tag during the PE lesson I taught in my practicum. I thought this tag time was effective in that it required students to work together and play cooperatively with one another. My students seemed very receptive to the new game and were enthusiastic throughout the entire activity. The great thing about tag times is that they can essentially be used in any grade level, and they often require students to be constantly moving. When I consider which games to include in a PE lesson, I am always thinking about which games require full student participation and activeness. I believe that these are two important things to consider when devising a lesson, in order to meet the curriculum standards and to achieve physical literacy.
The reading summary this week focussed on Chapter 7, Diversities in Physical Education, and Chapter 8, which addressed the areas of Adapted and Inclusive Physical Education. My small group and I had an in-depth discussion about the contexts of diversity (i.e. race, sexual orientation, religion, gender, and so on) and possible approaches for alleviating the problems these different diversities pose. For example, when discussing body image, my group suggested that the physical educator should invite people from the community with eating and weight challenges to speak to the students about ways to overcome unhealthy body images. In Chapter 8, my group discussed how there is no formal Canadian or provincial law to ensure physical education for people with disabilities. Instead, we must trust that the physical educators will do their best to include people with disabilities in Physical Education. We then read a case study of an educator refusing to include a student with Asperger’s syndrome in his class because of the student’s perceived bad attitude. We analyzed the case study and stated recommendations as to what the educator should have done, and what we would do in such a situation. Overall, it was great to have my peers thinking and discussing important concepts and scenarios because these are issues we will have to face as future educators!
Week 7 Gymnastics Teach Journal
This week Klara, Elissa, Jessica and I taught our P.E. lesson on Gymnastics. We aimed our lesson towards a Grade 5 class with all different athletic abilities. I felt as though the class went a lot more smoothly than I was expecting. We decided to start off with some warm-up instant activities that were associated with Halloween and gymnastics since it was the day before Halloween. It as a way to have the class be more involved. During the whole class, the students were given a Halloween character, and were supposed to act like that character throughout the class. When it came to teaching the gymnastics movements and activities, we decided to teach in a circuit rotation format, breaking each station down with different challenges and ways of making the stations either easier or more difficult depending on the students abilities. I was in charge of the jumping stations, and there were also a balance, rolling and bear walk stations. At my station, I started everyone together breaking down the steps of how to jump with single legs as well as two foot jumps and how to land. I talked about the importance of using your arms to help create more upward movement, as well as ‘loading/activating’ your leg muscles, and how to land best without harming your knees and the rest of the body through ‘soft landing’ and lowering your center of gravity. We practiced our jumping, and then worked on jumping forwards and backwards and side-to-side. After I felt the majority of the students were fully able to jump with proper form, I allowed the students to go to the small stations within the jumping station. We had hula-hoops to practice two feet and single foot jumps. Then there were vaults at different heights where the students were able to jump off of and focus on their landings. I emphasized that they did not have to do anything they did not feel comfortable with, so some of the students did not jump off of the highest vault.
One of the questions we focused on this week was how are teachers suppose to teach activities was limited equipment? When teaching this week, we used very limited equipment as well, using only mats, benches, cones, hula-hoops, and then the vaults which we didn’t have to use. These are all pieces of equipment that is most likely found in most Elementary and High school gyms. Although the students may think that these activities are not equivalent to attending a gymnastics facility, these are a lot of the same movements being done in the school gym.
The main topic in the readings for the week talked a lot about the connection between law and teaching, including TORTS law. Being a P.E. teacher, there is a great deal more injures that occur compared to all other classroom settings. Therefore as a P.E. teacher, as well as all other teachers, we have to be more aware of the surroundings and possible situations which could occur, and how to avoid any negative situations. Torts law is not very well defined in a few words, but it is pretty much any situation that could have been avoided while a teacher is responsible, that teacher can been seen as guilty. We must treat all students as if they are our own children.
Week 11 – Movement Journal
Track and field was an interesting lesson this week. Personally I struggled with the first game we played. I found I did not have enough momentum to push off and get away from the team that was chasing us. I wonder if this game would have been better if the spaces between the two teams was a little further apart.
The racing around the activities was an interesting activity! The group did a great job of explaining it, though I wonder if this would be an easy enough activity to explain if there was only one teacher instead of four. I know that after we split up into our groups, our group needed a second explanation of what exactly we were doing. With strong leaders in the classroom, I believe this would still be possible.
Regarding the topic of diversity and inclusion, I feel that this lesson could be easily adapted for students with a variety of different learning needs. If a child was in a wheelchair they would still be able to participate in the baton race activity, except they would race to the other team in their wheelchair instead of using their legs. If a student struggled with a language barrier, it may be possible to pair them with a student who speaks the same first language as this student so that they can participate in the class activity as well. For me, the most important thing is that all students are included in the physical education classroom whether they suffer from a learning or physical disability, or even a language barrier.
Thanks for keeping us all active! I feel like we all got a workout on Friday morning.