Category Archives: Uncategorized

Week 11 – Response to Guiding Questions

What is the importance of collaborating and sharing ideas and resources?
As a teacher candidate, I am walking into the teaching environment as a fresh slate. With this comes advantages and disadvantages. Most importantly, I have little knowledge of the physical education classroom that I can apply to my own teachings in the future, besides what I have learned about in EDCP 320. The importance of collaborating, sharing ideas, and resources is that you should be taking ideas from your fellow teacher candidates and more experienced teachers to create the best classroom culture and physical literacy environment that you can have. As someone who grew up being quite weak in physical education class, I know that I valuable perspective for those students who do not love to exercise or feel that they are good or that they enjoy certain sports. What this means for my students is that I can support their needs better than someone who has excelled at PE their entire life. On the other hand, perhaps those who excel in PE would be better off with a teacher. These are the people I need to be collaborating with so that I can create an inclusive environment for everyone.

How will I support and create conditions for student growth, success and enjoyment?

I will support and create conditions for student growth, success and enjoyment by creating a positive atmosphere. I don’t care how long it takes for me to build this culture at the beginning of the year. To me, the most important part of a physical education classroom will be the fact that it is a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. Name calling or teasing will be addressed immediately as something that is absolutely not tolerated in my classroom. With this type of inclusive environment I will be giving my students the tools they need to succeed in physical education. As well, I strongly believe that a growth mindset needs to be supported in every classroom, so I will constantly model and share this mindset with their students so that they will not think that their ability in any sport will be stagnant, but as something that can improve with time. Lastly, I hope students will have a chance to try many different types of physical activity so that they will learn to love and enjoy a variety types of physical activity.

Dance Class Reflection

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!

Physical Literacy Teaching Reflection

Teaching PE this week was so much fun, and  I liked how engaged everyone was with our Bingo activity and our animal-themed warm up and cool down.  As we prepared I was thinking of how to facilitate engagement in activities that would promote an integration of mindfulness, health and fitness.  Throughout this course I’ve come to recognize how important it is to be present in the moment when we’re getting active – focusing on breathing, appreciating the process, enjoying the surroundings, having an attitude of acceptance and engaging in exercise for physical, mental and social benefits.

We incorporated stations to promote good social interaction during physical activity: cheering for each other, running a ‘victory lap,’ engaging playfully in physical activity together, and exploring new games.  We also incorporated health and mindfulness activities: meditations, positivity flowers, and personal goals.  Our approach was to plan an activity that could be used as an end-of-term festive class party to celebrate the big ideas that we would hope to have covered with our class already.

I was very appreciative of the feedback I received after teaching.  I felt encouraged to hear that I set a safe, inclusive environment for everyone to participate in.  I look forward to practicing developing better volume in the gym so that all participants can hear me!  I found this feedback extremely useful practically.  Thanks for the safe environment to practice teaching PE!

Nov. 29th. Movement Journal #4. A Term In Review

As my final blog post I thought I would try to revisit what I have learned over the past few months, what I have enjoyed and what I am looking forward to.

Let me start with the basics. I have learned that P.E. can be fun. That may sound obvious but for me it was a huge learning that has evolved since September. As a child I wasn’t a huge fan of P.E. I was athletic and enjoyed a variety of sports but they were always solitary activities. I enjoyed swimming, dance, and gymnastics but I tended to shy away from group or team activities. I strongly disliked the competitiveness of team sports and dreaded participating in sports that I felt I wasn’t very good at. So, this course was a wonderful opportunity for me to revisit P.E. and gain a new, fresh perspective. I greatly enjoyed all the activities we participated in and was particularly surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed activities I hadn’t in the past. I think it made all the difference that as a cohort we made the effort to make the activities enjoyable, cooperative, inclusive and attainable. It seemed that we could all participate in the activities and didn’t feel we were being judged as the activities were manageable for everyone. I also liked how we designed activities so that no one was ever in the performance spotlight, it was team effort, that was supportive at all times.

I also greatly enjoyed learning about physical literacy as a concept. As an adult I do not participate in any of the activities that I did as a P.E. student. It is unfortunate as I am sure I would still enjoy dance and gymnastics in-particular, but my lifestyle doesn’t seem to afford these activities at the moment. Rather, I now participate in hiking, pilates and spinning classes. Also, I am also much more concerned as a adult about my complete wellness. For example, I am careful in selecting what I eat, I try to get as much exercise as possible, although it is increasing difficult in such a busy program, and I take time for myself to get outside and get some fresh air. When I was a student in P.E. we never talked about wellness as a concept and what it meant to live a healthy lifestyle. It was more about how many laps you could run in ten minutes. I am happy to see that there has been a shift towards physical literacy, in that there is a focus on teaching children how to live a balanced lifestyle and why that is important. I am also excited to see that there is room now in P.E. to teach activities which will realistically be a part of a student’s life. Not many of us will become professional soccer or basketball players but we might go hiking, biking, or to a yoga class and it is nice to see how we can incorporate those activities into our P.E. lessons.

I am grateful that I have learned a variety of activities that can be applied to my practicum class and future classes. I feel I am leaving this course with practical hands-on skills and improved confidence that I might be able to teach this subject. I look forward to my years ahead in the gymnasium and outside in teaching students about what it means to live a well-rounded lifestyle. I hope to design lessons that are fun and inclusive for all. I will rest assured that there are plenty of resources available for my information and colleagues who I can share ideas with. I look forward to continuing my P.E. education and vow to never make another child run the ten minute mile again!

Thanks for a great class!

Inclusive PE Post – ABC Cohort

After the PE lesson we had with BC WheelChair Sports, playing wheelchair rugby and tennis and basketball, I have a new found respect for those athletes. The amount of work and dedication it takes to perform those sports and not be physically or mentally exhausted is tremendous! My arms were so sore after the first activity. It was a great learning activity and experience as I would have had difficulty incorporating physically disabled bodies into the curriculum. I have always been an advocate for inclusion and equality so I always had the notion of making sure everyone was involved as the forefront to my learning and understanding. But I realized that incorporating people in wheelchairs in PE is a difficult task in order to not make it too challenging for them or too boring for the other students. The organization left us with great advice and knowledge as to how to bring every student into PE and to be physically active in their lives. They provided excellent resources and skills that I will use in my classroom now, and in the future as a well to make sure it is all inclusive. My classroom is going to be a place where all bodies of all abilities are welcomed and included in every activity. This is a personal and deep topic for me so I am excited to have this new knowledge and bring it to the topic.

Week 8

I really enjoyed this weeks lesson at the track! First, it was great to be able to go outside and utilize our schools resources. I had never been to this track before so that was lots of fun.

This group, in my opinion, found an excellent balance for a sport that is traditionally very competitive. While we have been learning throughout this course that we need to make sport and PE available to everyone, I have been struggling with how to do this. I find it easy enough to take out the competition of an activity but that also doesn’t respect the students who are more athletic and enjoy the competitive aspect of sport. I thought the relay activity we had to do captured an excellent balance. I found it to be a fun activity with a safe environment where there were no winners or losers, but it also allowed for that challenge and goal of trying to get the batons to reach each other.

Overall I now have some new ideas about how I might make a PE environment safe, fun and inviting for students from a number of athletic backgrounds.

Track and Field Group

We had an interesting discussion in our summary of readings this week. The readings carried themes of class inclusion and working with diversity and positive language to provide the best possible PE experience for students. Because of social “norms” such as gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity; a PE class is a common ground for bullying and harassment. Some questions arose during discussion such as how to prevent discrimination of students that look “different” because of their development and maturity. As a group we discussed talking to the student privately, or the whole class as group. I think our general decision was that both options are viable but it’s what language we use to discuss the matter.

The activities that were used last Friday were both great games. I was surprise at the amount of confusion in the rooster/rabbit game. After the game I was thinking ways I could make it more clear and understandable for students. Having students wear jerseys and making the court bigger providing more running room for students.

The final activity where they had the entire class spread out in groups along the track. Each group had to march in unison around the track and when the baton came to them then the front person of the group had to sprint with the baton to the next group in front. The two batons circled the track chasing each other for 10 minutes or until one baton has caught up with the other. This is a great activity because it fosters that competitive nature of sport without concluding with a winner and/or loser.   I am excited to try this game in my class!

Week nine: Inclusive physical literacy.

this was a great class for two points; the first being that everywhere in the world and especially in schools everyone should access to all aspects of education. Secondly, the racing around on the wheelchairs was great. Sadly though I can recall as a child there was one kid who was in a wheelchair and he never got to take part in PE. His education assistant would at times let him watch for awhile or when we would do long distance runs he would hand out water to us. But for the most part he was never or rarely involved in our physical activities.

I cannot stress enough how much I would work to ensure everyone had equal and fair access to any activities I will plan in physical education.  I would consider what they have to offer in terms of  suggestions for me to deal with their unique situation. I would educate my self on how to deal with such a situation and i would also use it as an opportunity to engage the students in educational terms as well.  But at the same time i would not let my concern single them out and the need dictate the class either, A healthy balance will be what i will always shoot for in any classroom activity.

As for rolling around all morning at first I was pretty hesitant because as a child my elders would always tell me to not play with a wheelchair or crutches unless I wanted to be in one myself. They believed if you play with one of these items you would end up in one of them.  I got over that fear and I sat down in one thinking that my Gramma must be up with he spirits looking down upon me shaking her head saying, “ah you! Kenthen!”  But I enjoyed the experience and instead of looking at as ‘playing’ in a wheelchair i was educating myself on what it will be like for a possible student in the future.

Week 8 – Track and Field Group Teach Reflection

Teaching Physical Education is something that I was a little worried about going into this program. Because I did not particularly enjoy PE growing up, I was concerned that my experience would transfer into my PE teaching practice. However, Steve has done an excellent job in teaching us how to make PE fun and inclusive for everyone. In addition, I could not imagine a better environment to learn how to teach PE, than being in our CITE cohort! As a result of this, I found myself really looking forward to teaching sprinting at the track.

Our warm up activity, Rabbits and Roosters, was a little tricky as a lot of people were a bit confused on how it worked. This is something that I was not anticipating, but is completely realistic in a classroom setting. After a few tries, everyone was getting the hang of it, and seemed to be having fun. If I could do this again, I think I would get a few students to help us model it, so that students could first see how it should look like. But I think Megan did a super excellent job at demonstrating each round, and what the students should be focusing on as they play the game.

Our cumulative activity also seemed to be a great hit! I was a little apprehensive about how people were going to receive this activity, mostly because of how big the track is, especially for sprinting. But it turned out to be great, and everyone was using the sprinting techniques that Rabbits and Roosters focused on. The baton relay race also had just the right amount of competitiveness to it, that everyone seemed to enjoy the race, and everyone felt included.

This lesson could also be adapted to include any students with disabilities. For instance, if there was a child in a wheel chair, the child could get help from another student while racing around the track passing the baton.

Overall, I felt that our group worked really well together, and we all had an opportunity to share our ideas and contribute equally to the group teach. Thanks everyone for making it such a fun lesson to teach!

 

Movement Journal

Last week was an intense class. We started with the physical literacy of the proper running technique. The instant activity we played was really fun, I actually wish we played it longer, and I think I might try it in my P.E. class at my practicum school upon return. Next we did a relay race, I’m not a big runner, I actually hate it, but it was enjoyable. I can’t see myself doing this is practicum, mainly due to the lack of space and facility at my school. Regardless, this activity was exhausting, I was so sore all weekend. So, it works, in regard to the 60% activity rule of thumb. Unfortunately, we only have a few weeks of this left. I’ve learned a lot and could have used another semester of P.E. pedagogy, it remains the most challenging, yet fun class for me to teach. I look forward to the oncoming weeks and hope to soak up as much as the knowledge lobbed my was as possible.