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Ally’s Movement Journal – Sept. 30

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Firstly, thanks Tobi, Emily, and Gemma for an awesome lesson! You were all fantastic in front of the group and I really appreciated getting outside into the sunshine and playing such hilarious & fun games!

When they introduced Chuck the Chicken I was SO excited! It’s one of the games we play at work (with kids/teens who are on the autism spectrum) and it’s one of our favourites, even though it never *quite* works the way it’s supposed to – getting such a diverse group of kids to play a cooperative game is quite a challenge!

One of the most important things I learned in my PE classes in undergrad was that the games we play in PE, especially with the younger kids or to accommodate a diverse group, don’t have to look like the ‘real’ game forms. It’s OK to modify and adapt games to make them fit the needs of your students – not making the kids fit into the game. This is something I’ve come to understand well through working with kids with disabilities: trying to play a ‘real’ game of soccer or basketball almost never works, and it’s really so much better to modify it. It’ll make you happy, because it will work, and it will make the kids happy, because they’ll actually be able to be successful! And the new versions often turn out to be super fun, like 3-ball kick baseball! I don’t think any of us would have rather played kickball on Wednesday because we were having so much fun with the modified, more inclusive game!

 

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Week 4: throwing games

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Great job Pamela, Sonya, and Emily! Thank you for choosing activities that avoid eliminations. I enjoyed this class for several reasons, the instant activity, our group discussion, and how was assessed and modified the activity as a class.

The instant activity was FANTASTIC! The music was engaging, upbeat, and fun. Prompting students to dance in particular ways, such as dance like a dog, bird, and boogie, helped to warm up different muscles. The directions we clear and short.

The group summary and discussion, lead by Emily, was not only informative but also engaging. We discussed about the different options for evaluating students and how they relate to PE. Overall we agreed about the importance of moving away from traditional letter grades to more observational assessments. We compared assessing PE to assessing an English class and how there are fundamental skills and outcomes; however, if the student participates and are increasing their skill base they should pass the course. Offering a pass/fail assessment rubric may relieve stress from the individual student and may encourage them to foster their skills in the future.

Having the class work together, using the rubric, to assess the first activity was awesome! Learning how to modify activities will be extremely helpful during our practicum. Using the group opinions, after filling out the rubric, helped to modify the game to be safer for all participants.

All around great class!

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Jessica’s reflection Oct 1st

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First I want to thank Tobi, Emily and Gemma for such a fun class! You all really set the bar high and made me remember some of the reasons I loved PE in school! It has been a long time since I was playing a team sport on turf, even if the game was one I haven’t played before it made me nostalgic for my days of field hockey.

The chuck the chicken game was a great way of opening up the class, I have never heard of the game before but it was very helpful in promoting the positive qualities that would be so useful in the three-ball kickball game. I enjoyed its goofy nature because in sports you have to take risks to really have fun and learn and chuck the chicken made everyone feel comfortable with each other.

I also thought it was awesome how the group took a sport that has been put into the hall of shame and changed it to be inclusive. Everyone was moving almost all the time and I would feel comfortable taking this game into my classroom!

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Group A: Week 3 Physical Literacy

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Honestly, I didn’t understand exactly recall what P.E Literacy meant at first, forgetting about the definition of ‘literacy’. In re-learning from Steve and classmates through discussion what it means. I knew it was understanding physical educational language, in the beginning of the discussion, I was thinking that I wasn’t a PE literate person. My perception was the old school ways of PE.  In reflection of the readings it highlighted how important it is to create a safe learning environment for all students. Whitehead stated the importance of teaching the movements to promote healthy living versus run, jump, and be competitive because that could come later. In discussion of what teachers can do is help motivate by teaching about healthy living is a ‘building block’ (Steve words) to give tools of confidence to students. They will be competent and therefore will have a better understanding and have the knowledge to make healthy choices for oneself. “Teachers provide the experience of P.E. literacy” (Whitehead, 2014). Also, another interesting part of this article is that I was able to better understand about the art of flow, as in Case #1, “Timid Timmy”, how PE had a negative impact on him as he didn’t have a desire to run however he was interactive with people online from all over the world who had the same interests as he did for the art of flow, juggling. Physical literacy is life long learning, I am happy to learn more about it.

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Chris’ Reflection for September 30th

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Hi everyone, I’ve chosen to reflect on Tobi, Emily, and Gemma’s soccer/baseball group teach. First off, thanks for letting us chuck the chicken, I think it really allowed me to release some stress. I never actually had the opportunity to ‘chuck’ the chicken myself, though I lived vicariously through my peers, and was able to run back and forth down the field. The main activity, soccer/baseball, was well-thought out and meticulously planned; I felt engaged throughout the entire activity. There were one or two occasions where we kicked the ball out of the fence, requiring us to use our climbing-literacy to retrieve the ball, it added to the experience. I think the group was really able to take a hall-of-shame game and twist it into something magical, where everyone was included and really engaged in a variety of ways.

It helps that our classroom atmosphere is so close-knit, I feel very included and welcomed. There was one instance where I went for the kick, missed it completely, fell on my rear, and felt great! Instead of laughing at my misfortune, teammates resumed their game-faces and we got right back into win the series.

Thank you to everyone for being so enthusiastic and supportive to our peers, I enjoy the sense-of-community,

Chris

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September 23rd – Movement Journal #2 (Kaira)

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I really enjoyed this week’s group teach with badminton! I have never played badminton before, and was initially intimidated by the prospect of playing in front of all my classmates. However, the Group Teach team (Fiona, Julie R., and Helen) created a great learning environment by splitting our class into small groups so that nobody was singled out.

In addition, being in a small group of four created a fun group dynamic where all members showed support by cheering each other on! My team (Jen, Sydney, and Amy) were amazing in that they would let me take another shot if I failed a serve, giving encouragement and motivation. Games like these create small communities that foster a sense of belonging in children, which as we’ve all learned is essential for their social and emotional learning. 🙂

P.S. I apologize for the late post, Group A!

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Week 3 Movement Journal-Katy Machut: Physical Literacy

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Through the literature about physical literacy, I have learned to change my perceptions of simply seeing this course as a way to do plain exercise. I have realized that a physical literacy is taken from a standpoint of mind and body being the same. Such an analysis I feel is important because often the mind is ignored and the focus is just on meeting fundamental movement skills. Therefore, I feel that as I teacher I should incorporate social emotional learning within the curriculum in a way a child will understand. The goal of using social emotional learning in PE is to see the child as a whole, rather than someone who needs to meet skills in a check box fashion.

I also feel that learners would benefit tremendously from alternative activities outside the classroom as suggested in our reading.  However, I question how many lessons would be optimal in case the change of venue becomes too distracting for the children. I think that I would allow time for a reflection about physical education experiences after the students returned to the classroom as a transition activity. I wonder what the best approach would be to encourage a child who refuses to take part in basketball lesson because he/she fears she will get hit by the ball?

 

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Group A Week 3 – Christine

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Physical literacy is an important concept to grasp as an educator – for me, it’s so easy to get caught up facilitating a game or watching to make sure everyone’s following the rules that I can lose track of what the kids are supposed to be learning!  I think the focus in this class on keeping things simple is helping with this concept for me.  PE isn’t about kids mastering the rules and skills for sports.  That can be involved, but what’s most important is giving kids opportunities to move and explore different ways of being healthy for life.  I think that both of the groups that have done their team teach so far have done an excellent job on teaching lessons that are a good balance of simple and engaging, and they’ve been really accessible for multiple ability levels.

The readings for this week addressed multiliteracies, a concept that has been popping up in multiple courses (I’m starting to see a pattern…)  I feel very encouraged by the fact that this is such a focus in PE.  I find it very helpful to structure my thinking on making PE accessible by thinking about the different literacies involved in creating a PE lesson – does it teach movement skills, teamwork, healthy lifestyles, including others?  These are important skills that help kids learn to be healthy and active, but also support learning in other curricular environments.

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Net/Wall Post Lesson Reflection.

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  1. I think what worked well for this lesson was that our group was on the same page, therefore was able to keep the lesson going smoothly. We planned the entire lesson together and made sure we all knew what was happening at all times. While we planned the lesson together, my responsibility was to put together and lead the instant activity. As well, to lead the station to build on volleyball setting skills.
  2. One thing I noticed about planning and teaching was that it can often be a collaborative effort. As futures educators, we may be the lone teacher in the classroom, but we still have to be able to work in a group; ie. with our fellow staff. In terms of teaching and planning, I noticed that we do need to make changes on the fly. It is easier to make changes ahead of time, while planning, but I found having a backup to our activities helped with changing things on the fly. We had something to fall back on, therefore making it a little easier to change things up.
  3. I noticed our learners week very engaged. I believe our enthusiasm and encouragement throughout the lesson helped with that. They were able to build on their skills as we gave them tips in a positive and constructive way. As well, our group made sure to keep the learners building on their volleyball skills, even while moving between the skill stations (ie. The shuffle monkey position). I think they were able to have fun with it, while continuing to be active participants in class. And because we kept the fun movement (the shuffle monkey) consistent throughout the lesson, we were able to keep the flow of the class and allow our learners to follow instructions easily. They responded well to the fun aspect of our lesson; they listened more intently and we were able to have a smooth lesson.
  4. I think if we did anything differently, we would’ve made sure that we were always loud and clear with our instructions. I think we could have also had smaller groups to help with building on more skills and giving more feedback towards the learners.

 

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