Hello Everyone,

This week our group readings primarily discussed the benefits of flexibility in the classroom. Sienna was my group leader for the reading summaries and she demonstrated, and taught well, the importance behind flexibility in a lesson plan. We were reminded that although we might have a set goal in our lesson that it is OK to go off the track and be adaptable in our learning environments with our students.  For instance, Steve did this at the end of our nature walk on Wednesday. Although he had planned for us to continue back to UBC in a particular direction out of the forest, he had recognized and listened to our request to continue our walk in the woods back to school; Steve altered his plan to fulfil our needs. As a class, we were able to spend more time in the forest and we adapted our end of class reading summaries to be  conducted outside since we were short on time. I think, just like life, the ability to be flexible is so important for our personal well-being and also our cognitive development. Flexibility teaches us about internal spaces that we might be unfamiliar with. It allows us to see other sides to situations and also helps to decrease our stress-levels as we become more comfortable with adapting to new scenarios. Recognizing that humans are different in their needs and wants helps an educator to understand that lesson plans are not guaranteed  ‘step by steps’ and rather, are more of a blue print for the ‘big idea’ and ‘set objectives’. Relative to our walk in the forest, nature shows us that a tree is meant to grow straight and tall; it has a goal to reach the sun. Looking closely at the underlying process that occurs in it’s soil, you can observe how flexibility is beneficial for the trees growth. Random stones and life in the soil create new scenarios that roots have to be flexible and adaptable for so that water is possible to obtain for growth.  Taking this into the classroom, always be ready and open to taking your lesson off the track.

Nice job today for the Group Teach 3! Thank you for getting us moving and placing us outside. You made a fun, active, and motivational lesson. The travel time out to the field was an excellent warm up and enjoyable. Chuck the chicken was another fun game that allowed us to collaborate and still move around. Your main game of kicking ball was fair, interactive, and strategic.

I am confident that your lesson would encourage new students to see PE as a positive experience ! Everything was fair and well planned for success. You made us move around and I do believe that will help students in their learning environments. I think that movement can teach us a lot about the way we learn. Movement increases the minds ability to focus and to think. Without movement, the brain is not going to be functioning at its best.

Below is a video about ‘learning through motion. Krissy Moehl demonstrates the skills she has learned in her racing career. She shares with us how movement taught her so much about the world that she lives in. It is a good example of how movement can teach us about how we learn.

Firstly, I want to recognize that the first group had a fantastic class planned for us last week! Thank you for being one of the first presentations and setting some great examples for us to use in the coming weeks.

This post discuses what the appropriate age group might be to first introduce children to the topic of sexual education. The current curriculum of British Columbia introduces concepts of sexual education in grade 6, but some parents and policy advocates are recommending a younger age – as early as Kindergarten. Two developers from Vancouver have recently developed an animated application for children ages 5 – 12 that teaches about ‘where babies come’. These developers are trying to work with the Ministry of Education to get the application into schools and promote sexual education at an earlier age.

I heard about this issue last weekend while listening to the CBC radio. I immediately thought of our physical education course and wondered ‘What would Steve think about this issue?!’ In my opinion, it is a very young age to introduce children to the topic and I would be worried about the ramifications in an institutional environment. Is the subject mater too mature? Does it open up ideas too early? Will these children be too comfortable with sexual topics? How will that affect their interactions with other peers- bullying, sexual harassment, earlier sexual experiences.

An earlier introduction to this topic in school does allow children to understand  it in a realistic perspective rather than a made up tale, for example, the general stork and baby image.  I do believe that we need to be real with children and not censor every topic. Children do have curiosity about the world and we should honour that and teach them the truth.

You can view the video for the application below.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/teaching-kids-about-sex-through-a-mobile-app-1.3222464