This week of PE was awesome! We had some ladies visit from BC Wheelchair Sports and were able to experience playing basketball, rugby and tennis, among other sports in wheelchairs. I was inspired at how many different sports/games can be played by including both able bodied individuals and participants  in wheelchairs. Experiencing wheelchair sports first hand was a much better and insightful experience than reading about how to include people in wheelchairs in PE from the text. I had a great time and feel much more confident in my ability to incorporate lessons that are inclusive of all throughout my career. It is awesome to know how many resources are readily available for us as future educators. I appreciated how these sports gave athletes with disabilities the opportunity to actively participate and engage in PE, instead of “participating” by keeping score or doing something else that does not neccesarily get them moving around. I will definitely be contacting the ladies from BC Wheelchair Sports to visit my future PE classrooms.

Jeevan Mann

EDCP 320

Prof. Steve McGinley

December 1^st 2015

Assignment 4: Cross-curricular Lesson

Based on the H.A.C.E (Health & Career Education) lesson I taught my grade 4/5 practicum class on bullying, I would extend the lesson to incorporate PE by having the students create and perform a dance with movements that are associated with the 4 types of bullying: verbal, physical, covert & cyber bullying. I would split the class up into small groups of 4-5, and have them use their bodies to creatively express movements that they consider to be associated with terms that are connected to the 4 types of bullying. Some example of words they could use to express bullying through movement/dance include: teasing, intimidation, excluding others, etc. This lesson would allow students to think critically of what it looks like to be bullied, as well as expressing the emotions involved of bullies, victims, bystanders and oppressors of bullying, while being physically active. The Big Ideas that are tied into my cross-curricular lesson of PE and H.A.C.E. from the new BC curriculum are the following:

Personal choices and social and environmental factors influence our health and well- being.

Developing healthy relationships helps us feel connected, supported, and valued.

My original H.A.C.E. lesson plan on bullying is below.

Cheryl, Rob, Elizabeth and Mary did an amazing job creating physical literacy and holistic lesson plan to wrap up the semester. I enjoyed the variety of choices that were provided to the students. These stations incorporated physical, social and mental health activities to engage the students. Giving students options is a powerful tool for children to explore and learn.  The group was aware of students staying at an activity for an extensive amount of time and encouraged us to try new activities. I was very impressed with their energetic,  creative animal warm up and cool down (the special background sound effects were a nice touch).

Physical activity is an important aspect of our lives, however, it is often pushed aside. It is important to educate students on healthy living. Modeling active lifestyles  at school is a great way for kids to learn and implement into other areas of their life. Using physical education in cross- curriculum is a great way to make sure children are being physically active for minimum 30 minutes a day.

By Daniella Chai, Para Demosten, Sacha Raino, and Renee Pasula.

Chapter 14:  Health Literacy

–  What is health literacy? Individual’s ability to ACCESS, UNDERSTAND, & ACT UPON INFORMATION in order to generate change for the betterment of their health.
–  The late 1980s brought reports of connection between better education and better health outcomes. This is for many reasons, i.e. better employment, better access to health care, extended insurance, more income, etc. This realization sparked more research on the issue.
Better health and quality of life is the result of actions, genetics, and social determinants.
–  Examples of everyday health literacy issues: bullying, body image, food choices, high risk behaviours (smoking, drinking,…), …
–  Health behaviours are learned and can be changed.
–  Health literacy has lifelong benefits.
–  Some barriers to health literacy are cultural beliefs, low level of education, lack of understanding, systemic barriers…
–  Health is now understood as something involving prevention, rather than dealing with illness as it strikes, and something that involves ALL aspects of a persons life. “Health is a balanced state that allows individuals to achieve their full potential in life.”
–  The 7 dimensions of health: emotional, environmental (work, community, country…), mental/intellectual (engagement with world around you, lifelong learning…), occupational, physical, social, spiritual (understanding one’s own beliefs leading to sense of meaning or purpose).
–  Purpose of health education: Students “develop awareness of the varying components of health and wellness, and begin to assume responsibility for, and actively participate in, their own healthy decision-making.”
–  Biggest health issues facing children/youth in Canada: Physical inactivity (too much daily screen time), nutrition (too much fast food, not enough fruits and veges), mental health, substance abuse, sexual activity, bullying.
–  School year habits are forming, kids are more open and willing to accept positive health behaviours.
–  Pillars of comprehensive school health: social and physical environment, teaching and learning, healthy school policy, partnerships and services.
–  A student who is not healthy will not learn well.
–  Reason for failure of some health programs in schools is that they were “piecemeal, short-term packages”. School needs to develop a complete action plan, involving the “whole” school (people, place…).
–  TIP: Use the list of many amazing health websites at end of chapter.

Chapter 16: Beyond Physical Education: School-Based Physical Activity Programming

School-Based Physical Activity
–  Inactivity is on the rise—there is a greater need for getting kids active in schools
–  There are guidelines issued by CSEP that make recommendations for each age group
–  Current guidelines (2011) recommend 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA per day
–  Regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status; PA should be safe, enjoyable, and developmentally appropriate
–  Schools offer a unique opportunity to provide PA to the majority of children, of which some may not have access to such facilities, equipment or coaching otherwise.
–  There is a decline in quantity and quality of PE programs—PE budget decreasing or more emphasis placed on other subjects
–  School setting, administration and teachers are the major influencing factors affecting PA in schools

Curricular Physical Activity:
–  Curricular PA works to help students: 1. Develop competence across a spectrum of physical activities 2. Demonstrate a personal commitment to their own health and wellness 3. Develop the capacity to understand, communicate, apply and analyze different forms of movement.
–  Accessible to all
–  Provincial mandates: DPA (2008 in BC) will improve academic performance, readiness to learn and student behaviour
–  Variety of forms that DPA takes in schools: whole school, teacher-driven and student-facilitated
–  Importance of planning DPA: inclusivity, role-modeling, support, health and safety (supervision, space and equipment)

Intramural Physical Activity:
–  Organized in to 4 categories: sport imitations (modified version of the sport), low organization activities, special events and clubs
–  Different from curricular PA is the structure and purpose: structure is school-wide and only from one school; primary purpose is participation. –  More casual, fun and inclusive; deemphasize instruction, skills, proficiency
–  Traditional Model; Pick-up Model; Free play model; whole school model; leadership model
–  Same considerations in terms of supervision, health and safety, equipment etc.

Interscholastic Physical Activity:
–  Usually a combination of structured individual and team competitions: local, regional or provincial
–  Voluntary, participation through try-outs
–  More emphasis on competition and winning
–  Elementary model; Secondary Model
–  Role of the teacher; supervision, equipment, facilities

Discussion Questions, Ch. 14:
1.  What do you consider to be some of the challenges for providing and promoting health education in schools today? What do you believe are some of the challenges a physical educator faces when it comes to health education?

2.  When planning, what could you do in terms of classroom environment, teaching strategies, use of technology, and other methods to give students the chance to become truly health-literate individuals? How can you involve parents in comprehensive school health planning? What personnel would be needed to develop an action plan for comprehensive school health? Why?

Discussion Questions, Chapter 16:

1.  What kind of DPA models/methods have you seen or been exposed to (in your practicum school or from your own schooling experiences) and which methods do you find most effective? Do you have ideas for how you would like to organize or implement DPA when you start teaching?

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.

Wow, what a semester! It’s so weird to think that the PE course is over. This semester, we were thrown into the world oh physical literacy and education where we challenged our previous notions and idea. The group today on Nutrition and Health fully showed how to make PE lesson cross curricular. We showed how to not only extend lessons from previous classes and bring them into the PE setting, but how to make educational and engaging activities for our students. The activities we did today, like the health food race, and the warm up, were not only fun, but really brought in the knowledge of the food pyramid and how to make healthy choices. The importance of bringing in healthy choices and having that discussion with your students is super important in today’s society, especially since everything is digitized and processed. Incorporating subjects and topics such as the health food pyramid really brought the lessons and activities into context and helped everything to make sense. The presenters really did a fantastic job in facilitating the group and treating us like their given age group. It was a lot of fun to see another cross-curricular lesson and learning about healthy choices! 😀

What an amazing way to wrap up PE 320! Cheryl, Elizabeth, Jennifer and Rob pulled off the most intricate physical literacy lesson. I believe there was over 16 stations with various activities and levels of engagement. I really enjoyed the free-play nature of this lesson. Being able to engage with different stations and tasks and move on as you please was wonderful. I enjoyed that there were multiple stations that weren’t being used so you could always move along without having to take turns and wait. The lesson was very well designed in this sense. I would have enjoyed travelling with a partner for a little more motivation to read and try some of the other activities. My favourite activities were those where I got to colour a flower with motivational phrases, the meditation station and the goal making template. For me, I was always the type of PE student who preferred to participate in sports so it was nice to challenge myself by doing more low key activities. I can see how this lesson was designed for all learners. Although this lesson seemed like a lot to organize,  most activities were quite simple to coordinate and doing it over the course of a few weeks would be worth the effort. The group had put a lot of thought into aspects of the lesson from the tic-tac-toe organizer that encouraged movement to stations and the way they approached us during the lesson and encouraged us to challenge ourselves and stay on-task.

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!