Category Archives: CITE Cohort

Movement Journal for Week 10 (Nov 27th): Amanda Santos

Congratulations to the group this week. Liz, Cheryl, Mary and Rob, the lesson was so much fun. Upon first glance, physical and health literacy seems like a hard topic to create a PE lesson plan around, however, you all did a great job incorporating both topics into the lesson. The creativity of the warm-up and cool down was awesome and the instant activity was so much fun as well. All in all it was great to have so much choice and flexibility within the lesson.

I never really thought about health and physical literacy before this course. These concepts are an integral part of the foundation of physical education and life as well. It is clear that health literacy has a symbiotic relationship with physical literacy. Being a balanced person and understanding how to be literate and take care of one’s own self is important for children to understand. Physical education is no longer just about sport but about the child or person as a whole. Health literacy encompasses more than I thought and learning about the many aspects of health literacy was enlightening. The lesson made me take into consideration how literate I am in both health and physical literacy and how I can change that.       

Reflection – Michelle Parker

This week was my group’s turn to teach. We taught track and field, specifically sprinting. I think our lesson went well, my instant activity was short, fun and engaging. The class enjoyed the warm up as well. We did dynamic stretching to music and it turned into a dance party. I think these ideas really transfer to the classroom as students really enjoy doing things this way. I also felt that my discussion group for the reading summary went really well. We had a great discussion and I almost did not get through everything I needed to for the summary. I felt that the reading was really engaging for us to discuss and we were all in the same mindset for it.

Our planning was difficult. We ended up changing our lesson plan quite significantly as we had planned way to much. However it came together in the end which was great. We ended up changing our track relay the morning of. We realized that the track was bigger then we were thinking in our heads and needed to modify the game so there was not as much running involved. We wanted to make the game enjoyable for people who are not runners and we felt this modification was important for that.

I felt the group was really engaged and I was not expecting this! I felt people were not excited when they heard what we were doing but the attitude really changed as we got into the activities. I think we managed to make running fun!

Movement Journal Week 8

When I heard that we were going to do track and field outside I was a bit worried because it has been very cold lately. However, once we went outside I had so much fun laughing during the warm-up activity. I also liked the rabbit and rooster game. The game trained us to pay attention because many people kept forgetting whether they were a rabbit or a rooster. They also taught us skills on how to run and the proper posture for running. I think my favorite activity would be the marching/sprinting relay. I noticed that a lot of teams were tired of marching and just resorted to walking afterwards. It would’ve been great if they added more explicit instructions. For example, blowing the whistle as a signal for people to alternate from marching and skipping every 2 minutes. I haven’t run in a while and it was fun to just do a short sprint. I also realized that we have lot of great runners in our class.

Movement Journal for Week 9 (Nov 20th): Amanda Santos

It was so great to be back in PE class. I never really was a fan of track but I was into field. However, this class made me change my mind and helped me to understand some ways to make running fun. Thank you very much Devon, Michelle, Megan & Jen for a great concept and class! The main activity was my favorite and it made me want to run more! I could see myself using that exact lesson plan for my practicum class. The group did an amazing job and made us work hard, I was super tired after!

The chapters this week were very interesting and the talk about disability and inclusion in PE class intrigued me the most. It is so hard to include every child, as every child’s interests are different, so adapting a lesson of PE in track and/or field is a challenge in itself. As we are learning, classrooms are a safe space and PE class is no different no matter where you are. As teachers, we must try to make our lessons as accessible as possible and include all types of learners. The main activity was a great example of that, for the most part you were either walking or skipping, or even doing a light jog. When it came time to sprint, it was short, and the concept made it fun. The movement skills and techniques involved were useful and helped with the main activity.

Reflection on Outdoor Education

The outdoor education lesson has been my favourite thus far! Although I found myself thoroughly exhausted after the instant activity, Lexi, Jackie, Brianna and Katy were able to craft a relaxing, yet still active, workshop for us all to take part in. The weather could not have painted a better picture of how much value an outdoor lesson can have. On my practicum, I have been lucky enough to be in several PE classes that have gone outdoors. In one of those classes two teachers and I led the grade sevens through a bootcamp activity reminiscent of the instant activity. The kids loved it and we did too. This approach will definitely be something that I will be looking to do over my practicum.

Outdoor Education / Alternate Environments – Movement Journal Post

Last week’s outdoor P.E class was fantastic!! It will definitely be a class that I will always remember. I thought that  Jackie, Lexi, Brianna and Katy did such a wonderful job of leading the class. They were very organized, and everything flowed and transitioned very nicely.

I really enjoyed the different stations that the group had set up, and that each station had a different focus. This shows that outdoor education is holistic, and does not necessarily mean it has to always be active. For instance, I really enjoyed the art station where we created images out of natural materials. This could also transition into a math class where you have students looking at patterns, or perhaps even ratios (how many pine cones to leaves does your image have?) !

I think that many teachers are a bit hesitant to take their students outside for fear of not being able to control the students, or for not being able to keep track of where all the students are. However, if the expectations are clearly stated before the students go outside, then taking the class outside, should be a beneficial experience for both the students and the teachers. Plus, I think that the more going outside becomes a routine, the more likely students will respect and understand the teachers expectations.

Outdoor education is definitely something I would really like to incorporate into my teaching style, so this was such a wonderful way to feel inspired!

Awesome job Jackie, Lexi, Brianna and Katy!!

Movement Journal- Week 6

Lexi, Brianna, Katy and Jackie did very well today for outdoor education. Their instant activity “Cite Possible” was very interesting and informative. We got to move around, interact with strangers and explore nature. I was in Katy’s group during discussion, and she led the summary and discussion very well. Instead of giving us a lot of information once, she used many questions to keep our attention and stimulate us to think about the textbook content. For the main activity, I loved all four stations. Katy’s lesson on Air was helpful; I learned about many properties or air which would usually ignore or take for granted. In Lexi and Brianna’s stations, we learned about the importance of team work and supporting each other. Finally, Jackie’s station was fun and meaningful, and it was clever how she tied it in with the aboriginal content. Making art with leaves, wood, and other objects from nature can be adapted in both primary and intermediate classrooms, either in art, PE or even science classes. Overall, I think the class today was very well done and helpful, and I will definitely use some of the lessons they taught in my practicum. Good job ladies! 🙂

Movement Journal – Michelle Parker

One thing I reflected on this week was how PE was taught in my practicum school. This past week I was able to see two different PE classes with two different teachers. Interestingly, both classes played some form of dodgeball. The grade 7 class played a variation of dodgeball called partner dodgeball where they were taking turns hitting their partner. The grade 3 class played “skittles” a game where they had to hit down pins in the back of the opposite territory. Then they played the version of dodgeball where once a student is hit they go to the opposite side and have to hit someone on the opposite team to get back into the game. It is interesting to see so much of a hall of shame game being played in the classroom.

 

The result of this really made me think about how I would plan a PE lesson. I think my first PE lesson will be one with a variety of activities and one that is inclusive for all students. As I get to know the students I can learn what they enjoy doing and plan inclusive games around their interests.

 

We looked at alternative environments for lessons. My school is located within a residential area so walking to other environments is limited. However, they have a huge grass field in the back. There is a lot of space to set up fun amazing race, obstacle course type games. Some of the activities we did in this week’s class would work really well in this environment.

Outdoor Education – Jenny Cho’s Reflection

Well done Brianna, Jackie, Katy and Lexi! It was a nice change of environment to be outside. I really enjoyed the instant activity. It reminded me of the amazing race. Our cohort is energetic so it was nice to have the chance to run around outside!

This week we are learning about Outdoor Education and how we should incorporate our environment and setting in our lesson plan. I have always thought outdoor education was like going on a tour or  a field trip. But that isn’t the case. We can take indoor activity and played them outside. This is great in many ways. Most students enjoy being placed in a different setting, we love being in the sun when it is sunny and most importantly, it gives students ideas how to play outside while teaching physical literacy. For example, passing a balloon teaches a lot. We had to work as a team, we had to think of a strategy and also, manage our strength so we won’t pop the balloon. It was a lot of fun.

I liked the discussion question Lexi proposed to our group in regards to the characteristic of our own PE teacher. I had a really great connection with my PE teachers and they are my role model. I would not be where I am right now without them. I can only hope I can do the same to my future students.

Movement Journal Week 6

Today’s Outdoor Education class was so fun! I think we all had a great time going outside and just exploring the campus. I’ve been at UBC for 4 years now but I think this is only the second time I’ve done any physical activity outside on the campus (the first time was when we had the Dance Play outside of Scarfe). The weather was nice and it was just great to experience P.E outside of a gym setting.

I think the group did well. I especially enjoyed how they set up separate stations so we could do different activities. The blindfold game was a good experience because it encouraged us to take a step of faith and trust in the person that is guiding us. Overall, the class was structured well and I like how we got to do our cool down at the flagpole.