Today was the last day of class and it was a little bit sad to see it end. I am happy that Steve offered to come help teach/coach in our practicum schools – it would be so great to have him come into our class and model a great PE program. I feel like this course made every subject approachable and demonstrated all kinds of entry points for students regardless of physical ability or sports knowledge. His calm and approachable attitude to PE was inspiring.

In the beginning of the year I remember everyone being nervous about PE, or excited, to run laps and sports drills.  Turns out from day one this is not the case. We learned multiple ways to approach teaching our PE class and have the textbook and PE Blog as a resource. I hope someday I do get a chance to attend a PE Pro-D Workshop. As a kid I loved sports and believe it to be a powerful influence on who I am today. I also remember some bad, cliquey things we did in highschool that discouraged people from playing on the team with us because we wanted to win – but also learning in highschool that playing sports was about being active and having fun and not always winning. Although I like winning and working together as a team to develop our skills. This can only be done through great leadership and confidence building in every player. We can start this in our PE classes. I may have accidentally volunteered myself to coach a badminton team during practicum and I don’t want to mess this up.  I want to teach through modelling healthy choices and promote an active lifestyle in my classroom.

I   want schools to be involved having a positive impact on every childs physical literacy.  I want to use our brain breaks resource jar, as well as everyone else’s very creative lessons to reach our targets for Daily Physical Activity. I want to get my class outside. I will do my best.

This was a great lesson and great modelling of enthusiasm and excellent teaching strategies in the gym.

Daniella was so funny and so into her warm-up and Sasha was so much fun when explaining the game and Para using her excellent music skills was so wonderful. This is the first chance we have had this year to hear Para sing! It is so much fun to see everyone being their authentic selves. Students respond to this really well so I guess if you are ever feeling frustrated just get back to the basics and get back to what you love. Teach from your heart and your enthusiasm for the subject will shine through. Try and develop enthusiasm for all of your subjects, MATH can be fun and Science can be fun and everything is fun!

Healthy choices are great, I loved acting out the sugar rush and veggie balance. It was an active way to help us feel the effects of sugar and learning through full body movement. I want to use this in all of my classes and your lesson reflected a cross-curricular approach, as well as the new curriculum of teaching health in PE.

This was so much fun! I loved learning about the sports options available, and the education programs and grant programs that they provide. All of the representatives from each organization were friendly and excited about sports. I love sports and believe they are so important. I want to tell everyone about how much fun wheelchair basketball is! And that they can play tennis or rugby and everyone can play, not just adults. I loved the kids and the party options. I should be honest and say that I was a little bit nervous about being in the chair and playing the games, but I have always been not so much of a risk taker. Other students in our class loved it! I am glad I got to experience it and learn about bc wheelchair sports.

We read an article in our social justice class about how sometimes having students “pretend” or act out a disability in order to get their point of view can actually have more negative effects that positive effects. I do think that is true if not done with proper care and attention. Having the professionals come in and teach us was a great way to raise awareness to an issue, and was a lot of fun and a great work out at the same time. PE can easily be modified simply by changing the rules or introducing some special equipment, but it is not as daunting of a task as I originally thought. BC Basketball and BC Wheelchair sports are another great resource we can use in our future careers as teachers. Spread the Word!

I actually enjoyed our dance class lesson. This is the one that made me the most nervous about teaching and learning – my strategy to pair up with Agnes (a fellow nervous dancer) was foiled when our group was separated into 4 lines! Now what was I going to do!

My only dance experience has been some less than enthusiastic swing dance lessons, “dancing” at the bar or whatever you call that – mostly just distract and run away from the dance floor – weddings (which are always a great time!) and PE class where we learned line dancing and two step (probably). So far my love of line dance has not been very useful so I was really excited to learn this dance – they taught us 4 basic movements, eliminating any fear or confusion – and then a simple set of steps that we all completed IN A LINE! I loved that. This was line dancing without being country which means most people will like it, not just redneck girls like me. It was a great lesson and I appreciated their instruction and enthusiasm. By the end of the lesson I was feeling brave enough to incorporate more emotion and movement into my steps. SUCCESS!

Dance can be intimidating because we often think of ballerinas or real modern dancers and their ability to perform complex moves synchronized and very quickly. It was nice to see that this is not the only way. I also really enjoyed the articles that taught the basics of modern dance. I want to teach dancing as a story telling and dramatic movement – from more of a theatrical approach than an actual song and dance routine. Maybe as teachers we just need to demystify dancing. Don’t worry so much about looking good or getting the beat right and practice using your body to show emotions. The kids that love dancing will be able to take this and expand on it, and the kids that are intimidated by all this dancing, will be able to access it from a point of view where they can be more comfortable. I actually feel prepared to teach dance now.

On a side note, I was watching SHAW local tv this morning and they had a kids dance instructor group on there called FUCI, fun unique creative individuals and they were great! I want to bring them in to my class. Also DancePlay is full of great resources as well. Dancing can be fun and easy to teach!

This was a great class!

I always loved gymnastics as a kid and would do cartwheels around the field for hours, more often than not I would be doing cartwheels or handstands all day long!
I didn’t know how to approach this as a subject in PE and don’t think I ever did it in my own PE classes but this was a great way to teach gymnastics safely and effectively. I liked the progression activity where we practiced different ways of moving through space (walking, rolling and spinning). This is an accessible definition of gymnastics and one that does not involve twisted ankles and sports injuries. Gymnasts are often seen as very small, elite athletes and it was a lot of fun to play around with gymnastics without the pressure of being an elite athlete. I will definitely try out these lessons in my classes.

The balance activities with partners and in groups was also very effective. Line Tag with bean bag balancing was another great version of tag. Students were engaged just by trying to balance the bean bag and stay on the lines.
The parachute was also a lot fun – can’t wait to do this in practicum!

It was also great to see everyone so happy in this class. There was a lot of cheering and risk taking going on when we all did our own versions of cartwheels, shoulder rolls and log rolls. Great job class!
(Everything I have to say this week is positive!)

This week was outdoor education with lisa, audrey, christina and christine. I enjoyed this lesson and love watching people shine when they are teaching something they love – that was very evident in this class today.

Outdoor education can be overwhelming but we reviewed safety concerns, risk assessments, behavior expectations and boundaries. The activities were all well thought out and organized. I played prey and predator on a class field trip to the wetlands and it was a great example of incorporating pe into all aspects of a lesson. It was fun and we remember a lot through drama, movement and engagement. I feel less overwhelmed by outdoor education because of this lesson.

BC has so many opportunities forcreating experiential education opportunities. We learn so much more and internalize the information when we are given a chance to interact with nature. My practicum school is very close to the seawall, i plan to teach my students outdoors in my local, urban, beautiful setting. In the city it is so easy to feel trapped by all of the buildings and cars and it is important for us to show our kids places where they can feel connected to nature.

We can collect and analyze ocean rocks, kelp, sand and mussel shells. We can make art projects with leaves. We can study the snails, worms and spiders. We can play in the park. Connecting to the land is a part of who we are and outdoor education is very important.

I hope everyone feels empowered, educated and inspired to take their kids outside all the time! Inquiry based education depends on these real life experiences!

I was surprised how nervous I was to actually teach this PE class!

I knew exactly what we were going to do, I was confident in my team and in our organization of the class and choice of the lesson but when it was time to actually start teaching I was very intimidated by the space of the gym and the acoustics.

I wanted to use the whistle as a class management technique to save my voice and discourage yelling during gym class. This would be the signal to stop, listen and be. gin activities as directed by us, your teachers today. I wonder if anyone noticed because I even outlined in my lesson when to blow each whistle!

I was nervous about not being heard and because of that really didn’t want to speak at all. I was happy with our demonstration of this brand new game and very very impressed with everyone’s participation and how quickly everyone grasped the concept. I was so nervous about teaching a brand new game that I was very clear on instructions – even  outlining someways to be succesful at strategy – Steve said maybe this should have been left up to the students to discover (as that is what TGFU is all about) so next time I will leave more space for student exploration in my PE lessons. It is very rewarding as a learning to discover and own knowledge for yourself, but I also really wanted this to be successful. I also felt like the group was very cohesive and happy when Everyone Wins. This is a great way to make everyone feel included, regardless of athletic ability.

Invasion games are complex games and I thought Prairie Dog Pickoff was a great way to introduce invasion games – we used the website PhysicalEducator.com It has plenty of resources and modifications for this game. Check it out for more fun PE games.

We also wanted our lesson to have an overall SPACE theme. I liked our warm up activity because it fit the theme and allowed the class to explore the full size of the gym (and think about how much space they had when finding places to put their hoops). It’s also a good way to be silly and warm up at the same time. That was also the approach to the cool down activity. Some students will be unable to focus and I thought using the hula hoops was a fun way to stretch out and calm down while still having fun. I thought breathing inside the hoop was also a great way to visual overall calmness in the body.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR BEING GREAT SPORTS AND FOR EVERYONE WINNING!

This week Eric, Krystal and I taught the class about invasion games. We chose to teach this lesson because I thought the title sounded interesting and the first game that came to mind was Capture the Flag, a classic game we have all been playing for a very long time and also recently a Shame Game. When we did just a little bit of research I found the category of invasion games was a lot more than that. It included any game that was about defense, offense and protecting a zone or target from the invading team. These games are much more complex than striking, target or net/wall games in that they usually involve basic strategies and skills to be able to play them.

The way we were probably taught most invasion/territorial games in PE was through a series of drills, scrimmages and intramural sports. This is called the multi-activity curriculum pe model. This approach is usually successful if your class has a background playing these sports on a team and has practiced these drills before. If this is new to them there can be a high rate of frustration as students do not like to be asked to perform in front of others, or waiting or learning new skills this way. It can create anxiety and boredom for all of your students. A lot of games that were taught this way in PE are soccer, football, basketball and rugby. It can be hard to get a real grasp of the game.

There are other ways to teach these popular sports which is what we learned about by reading Chapter 3 and comparing and contrasting various curriculum models in PE class. We used our game Prairie Dog Pickoff as a way to demonstrate the Teaching Games for Understanding Model. This is a fun game using alternative equipment and boundaries but some of the basic rules and strategies involved in most invasion games. The students had to work together to develop strategies to knock over opponents targets and defend their own. It was a fun way to get all learners involved in the game and everyone could participate at a level they were comfortable with. I was very impressed with the success of this game and can’t wait to teach it in my pe classes. I think the Teaching Games for Understanding Model is very effective and in line with the new BC Curriculum that is student centered and learning focussed. I am looking forward to exploring this more.

In my next post I will reflect on what it was actually like to teach PE for the first time! Stay tuned!

Week 2 of PE this week marked the beginning of our journey into actually being Physical Education Teachers! Great job, Group 1 – Lisa, Tina, Claire and Agnes!

I would like to discuss some of the guiding questions from the syllabus as I think about what kind of PE class I want to teach. The biggest challenge may be that we do not see ourselves as “experts” in PE, or even as very athletic or sporty – but the truth is we don’t need to be good at PE to still have fun doing it. Enthusiasm and good attitude are the most important aspects, and it may be hard to always feel confident during the class (especially if we are teaching 18 year old athletes), but it is our attitudes that will inspire the class and promote learning – more than skill.

PE teachers need to find a way to keep everyone involved. I think as we have become adults the ideas of being active and healthy have changed so that we are free to pursue activities that we are more personally interested in, and all of these activities are valued (for example, yoga, rock climbing and paddleboarding). We need to draw attention to the fact that moving around is good for our brains, bodies and stress levels. The increased awareness of physical health and mental health is also something I am very interested in learning and I want to learn more ways to keep people active, healthy and enjoying PE. I can see how much happier it makes me everyday and these are habits we need to develop in our classes.