All posts by sheena lita aperocho

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – Group Teach Reflection

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Lesson: Individual and Dual Activities

What worked well in your lesson? What specifically did you contribute?

Our team was quite flexible with the activities that we chose: we were all willing to compromise a little bit. This made planning the lesson very easy. We worked together on all parts of the lesson plan and worked independently to plan our own sections. During the lesson, we supported each other by adjusting the music and giving cues for time. Overall, I think we worked well as a team. Regarding the actual lesson, everything basically went exactly as planned. Our class was really enthusiastic and I saw many people get really into the lesson.

What did you notice about your planning and teaching? How are they connected?

Considering adaptations of the lesson was quite valuable because we actually talked about them, and this helped others feel more comfortable with the activities.

What changes needed to be made and why?

We needed to create a worksheet last minute so that the students could record their heart rates. This was a really good revision because it kept students organized.

What did you notice about the learners’ response to your lesson in the classroom? How did they respond (affective, cognitive, physical)? How did that impact your teaching and flow of your lesson?

The class was quite keen and looked really happy to be dancing. They were also able to execute the movements in a coordinated way. These responses made me excited to teach. I also noticed that the movement was neither too complex nor too simple to follow. If I were to teach a similar lesson again with the same class, I would plan with that in mind. The part of the lesson that was most cognitively taxing was the calculation of their heart rates. Since they were all able to multiply, we did not have to spend much time on this. If I had done this with my practicum grade five class, they would not have been able to do this. In that case, we would take our pulse in class for fifteen seconds and then calculate our heart rate in math class.

What, if any, would you have done differently?

I would have incorporated more assessment into the lesson. For instance, between the songs, I could have asked the class how they were feeling. Additionally, it would be a good idea to record the lesson so that we could assess the students according to the rubric we created. I was so focused on remembering my choreography that I was not able to assess every student.

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – My First PE Lesson

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My practicum is at a private school, so they have specialist teachers that teach PE. Luckily, the PE teacher for my grade five class was happy to let me teach a class today. It was based on Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). We started with a tail chase game, which was played in pairs. Students tucked a scarf into their shorts and the aim of the game was to remove their opponent’s scarf without losing theirs. We discussed the tactics they used to be successful in the game. Students said that being successful in this game involved constantly moving, moving backwards and placing their body between the scarf and the opponent. Then we talked about applying these skills to a game of soccer. The next game we played was four goal soccer. I have included a video below. We started with one ball and ended with four balls in play. I stopped the game so we could discuss the tactics again and the students talked about the same skills we talked about earlier. We also noticed that some students were not playing fairly, so we talked about being principled in PE by not cheating. We have been talking about being principled throughout this week because it is the IB Learner Profile of the month. We played another game and did a quick debrief at the end of the class.

Overall, I think it went well. The games allowed for maximum participation and students were active throughout the lesson. Having a small number of players on each team and adding more balls to the soccer game made it almost impossible to be inactive. Additionally, the students grasped the strategies that were required to be successful in playing soccer. However, I would have liked to see more students participating in the discussions about tactics. They were easily distracted in the gym and it was difficult to get them to sit still. They just wanted to get up and play another game. The PE teacher suggested adding an incentive to the discussion by saying that we would play the next game when we figured out what tactics we learned in the previous game. This is something I will implement in my next lesson. If anyone else has any other ideas, please let me know!

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – October 21st

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This week, I decided to use the guiding questions for my movement journal:

How do I approach gymnastics with limited resources?

The group that taught gymnastics did a fabulous job of this. They used very few resources: some mats, benches, and beanbags. I think that when most of us think of teaching gymnastics in class, we picture the full set of equipment: the climbing ropes, the trampoline, the balance beam, the parallel bars, etc. During the last class, I learned that none of this equipment is necessary to teach gymnastics. I also learned that for the most part, teaching gymnastics for elementary school would involve teaching fundamental movement skills. Using less equipment is also advantageous in that it would be easier to monitor safety. Fewer injuries would occur with balancing with beanbags than climbing ropes, for instance.

How can gymnastics foster creativity and enjoyment in movement for my students?

All of the activities we did in class fostered creativity and enjoyment. The first activity our group did required us to stand on a bench as a group and rearrange ourselves. Getting from one side to another without falling or causing someone else to fall involved some creativity and teamwork. The second activity involved doing different kinds of movement to get from one end of the bench to the other. We used creativity in this activity by varying the types of balances we did at the end. In the last activity we decided to play a game of tag while balancing the beanbags on top of our heads. With Steve, we were asked to create a routine using a few types of movement: a rotation, a traveling movement, and a balance.

What ideas are used to create a safer, inclusive and respectful environment?

One way of making the class inclusive is to allow students the option to not participate in activities that are more challenging, or offering them the option to do an easier movement. When Steve asked everyone to do cartwheels, he gave us the option of walking across. My cartwheels are fairly bad, so I was glad to have this option, especially as everyone was watching the procession of people doing perfect cartwheels across the floor. In terms of creating a respectful environment, I think it would be a good idea to do this from the beginning of the school year. I would engage students in a dialogue about it and bring it up from time to time.

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – October 7th

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Playing the three games at the end of the last class really solidified my understanding of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). My biggest take away from that experience was how much fun I had. I thoroughly enjoyed and was equally engaged in all three of the games, even though I knew that the first two were played to prepare us for the third game. I will definitely incorporate this model into my teaching practice because it is fun, it helps to develop skills for a more complex game, and the skills developed can be transferred to other games in the same category. In the TGfU model, I found step five to be very interesting. Some sources call this Skill Execution and others call it Application of Skills. In this step, students identify and practice the skills they need to improve their performance (Ophea, 2014). The Teacher Candidates that taught the striking and invasion games made sure to follow this step. They stopped us in the middle of our games to ask us what we needed to do in order to be more successful in our objective. I found that this really helped me to refocus and play more strategically.

On the Ophea website, Individual Pursuits was included as a category of TGfU. I am curious to know more about how TGfU can be incorporated in a yoga or gymnastics lesson. I also wondered whether TGfU could be a useful model for a dance lesson. Hopefully we will learn more about this in upcoming classes.

 

References

Ophea. (2014). Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) Approach. Retrieved from http://www.playsport.net/about-playsport/teaching-games-understanding-tgfu

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – September 23rd

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Margaret Whitehead’s definition of physical literacy involved the word “motivation.” I thought that this was really interesting. My definition of physical literacy involved competence and confidence, both of which were included in Whitehead’s and the Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE) definitions. I never thought about motivation as a component of literacy before, but I definitely think it is an essential part. After all, if a student is confident and competent in certain kinds of physical activity, but does not want to do it, we would not be able to accomplish our goal in PE to inspire students to be active for life.

I really enjoyed the badminton lesson. At first, I thought that it would be boring to only work on a few skills. I played badminton in high school and I was so eager to get onto the court and play a full game. However, after playing the adapted version, I realized I was having fun, and so was everyone else! I think that having teams work with the team on the opposite side of the net fostered a team spirit and made it so that no one could really lose. I thought that this was a great idea, especially after the talk we had last week on the Hall of Shame games and activities. The badminton games were also arranged in such a way that all students were able to participate equally, without much rest. This was also brilliantly done. It inspired me to think about how different games like basketball or soccer could be adapted in a similar way to maximize student participation. Finally, I think that it was great that the group only taught a few skills. This makes perfect sense because we will be teaching elementary school students, and this will likely be their first time encountering badminton. By teaching a few skills at a time, students will not be overwhelmed.

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Sheena’s Movement Journal – September 9th

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What is the purpose of physical education?

According to the new curriculum for BC, “Physical and Health Education (PHE) is designed to develop educated citizens who have the knowledge, skills, and understandings they need to be safe, active, and healthy citizens throughout their lives” (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2015a).  I believe that the last three words, “throughout their lives,” is a critical component of this statement. I think that PE lays a good foundation for living a healthy lifestyle later on. I had great experiences in PE. Throughout my school life, I was exposed to so many different kinds of sports, games, and physical activities. In Junior High and High School I went on to play for various school teams. We also had a YMCA inside our High School, so I learned the fundamentals of weight training there. These amazing experiences shaped the person I am today. I could not imagine my life without exercise. I enjoy a variety of activities including weight training, running, yoga, dancing, and hiking. I never really thought about the significance of my positive experiences in PE until my adult life. I have many friends that do not want to go to the gym because they feel scared or insecure, or they are unsure of what to do. I feel that if they had had the same great experiences in PE, they would be more inclined to work out.  It is up to us as future educators to make PE a pleasurable experience for our students so that they will continue to live healthy lifestyles.

In the new curriculum, there are four categories under curricular competencies: physical literacy, healthy and active living, social and community health, and mental and well-being (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2015b). I think that it is important that social and community health is a category. While other classes may involve some collaborative work, there is no other class that focuses on it like PE. You would not usually require teamwork to solve a math problem or to write an essay, for example. In order to play many of the games in PE, communication and collaboration is necessary. These are skills that are required throughout our lives, and PE provides the arena in which to develop them.

References

British Columbia Ministry of Education (2015). Rationale. In Building Student Success: BC’s New Curriculum. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/goals-rationale/physical-health-education

British Columbia Ministry of Education (2015). Learning Standards (Grade 3). In Building Student Success: BC’s New Curriculum. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/physical-health-education/3