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.

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.

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!

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.