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Physical Literacy Reflection

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What a great way to end our group teach lessons for the semester! Elizabeth, Mary, Cheryl, and Rob did a wonderful job of taking all of the skills we have learned this semester, and created a unique and effective lesson!

The instant activity where we got to create letters of the alphabet using our bodies and partners, and then coming together as a group to create “CITE” was a lot of fun, and also provided an opportunity for us to work on our team building skills. This activity would be a great way to get students active in a fun way, as well to develop their group work skills, such as cooperation, giving instruction, and listening skills.

I really enjoyed the warm up and the cool down where the team lead us through an imaginative environment such as a forest and a jungle to stretch and move. I thought the music in the background was a really nice touch, and definitely sets the mood for the activities.

I thoroughly enjoyed the main activity, where the group set up several different stations that each focused on a certain skill that we had learned throughout the year. I especially liked how the group had activities that incorporated mental health, such as the meditation centre and the positivity wall.

What I think is really great about having a variety of stations and allowing students to explore them is that students are able to have a sense of ownership and choice in the classroom. They are able to become innovative and use their imaginations, such as when a group of us started a game of “hungry hippo”, even though it wasn’t a designated station.

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MOVEMENT JOURNAL WEEK 10

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Health literacy is encompasses a wide range of skills from the individual. As a result the definitions offered are fairly broad. The Canadian Public Health Association suggests it is the “ability to assess, understand and act on information for health”, while the Canadian Council on Learning defines it as the degree to which we are able to access health information for healthy decision-making and to maintain our basic health.

Daily Physical Activity (DPA) refers to provincially mandated initiatives targeting concerns about inactivity and poor health among Canadian children. DPA involves regular and consistent opportunities for physical activity in order to change student attitudes towards participating in physical activity. It has also been linked to higher academic achievement, readiness to learn and improved classroom behaviour. DPA can be implemented during instruction time, but is different from PE in that it is not a curricular subject in and of itself.

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Movement Journal- week 10

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It was our last group teach for PE last Friday. I thought the group did an amazing job on teaching health and physical literacy. The instant activity of spelling out letters was fun and gave us the opportunity to be creative (I love the CITE photo Steve took). I was in Cheryl’s group for reading discussion; the summary was clear and concise, which gave us the chance to reflect more for discussion. I learned new information and strategies for facilitating health and physical activities into other subjects and I had fun listening to other people share their experiences. The warm up and the cool down were awesome; I can imagine grade 2-3 students would be really engaged with acting out as wild animals in the jungle.  Also, this is a great activity to do a cross curriculum with a drama class! I loved the main activity and I was able to get to 13 out of the 16 stations.  We all had so much fun; they must have spent a lot of time preparing for all those stations and setting up. I like how they connected different subjects to the activities at different stations, such as art, music, English and health. This last PE lesson was a great demonstration of how to do cross curriculum with PE and other subjects and it was very well taught!

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Week 10 movement post

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Way to go Liz, Cheryl, Mary, and Rob! I really enjoyed the group teach today and was extremely impressed with the preparation and planning that went into the lesson. I liked that the instant activity, warm up, and cool down were inclusive of all physical abilities. By using animals and natural settings like the jungle or forest, I think these activities would be great as an introduction or follow-up to other subjects that focus on animals and land, like science. The main activity of stations that provided choice was by far my favourite aspect of the group teach as I liked being able to play and try out new equipment with different people. I also liked that it was OK to gravitate towards stations that I preferred (like soccer and dance). The stations did a great job of hitting on the learning outcome of, “how to participate in different types of physical activities, including individual and dual activities, rhythmic activities, and games.”

Through the discussion that focused largely on healthy living and well-being, we talked about how we could incorporate healthy living into our classrooms when we are not doing PE. In my practicum class we use movement stations that have card instructions such as, “run on the spot,” “wall push-ups,” and “jumping-jacks,” as brain breaks. I know DPA is supposed to be 30 minutes of daily physical activity, but not all schools are enforcing this. As future teachers, it is important to remember that daily physical activity and PE are as valid and valuable to learn as math, writing, or reading. Throughout my long practicum I hope to incorporate more active ways of learning, as well as educate my class about health and well-being.

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Week 8, Movement Journal

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This week was dual and individual activities in P.E. taught by Devon, Michelle, Megan and Jen. When everyone was out at the track, and the group told us we were going to be sprinting, the whole class groaned simultaneously. Everyone seemed to have a negative view on running and sprinting before entering the class, and by the end of the class I know I had changed my views. I felt that through this lesson, I felt more able and comfortable with teaching sprinting and running. Their instant activity was engaging and not only was a warm up physically but also brain activation, connecting the brain and the body. I have played this before with other animals, and can be changed to animals or topics which the class could be studying to make it more cross-curricular. Another great thing about this lesson was that it was very inclusive. All students were included at all times. When we were doing the activity on the track, we were either working on marching in proper form in a walking speed, or we were sprinting towards the next group working on your form at a quicker pace. This was also set up in a way that the whole class was working together rather than on teams. There were no winners or losers. Although there were no winners and losers, we were able to work on our own to improve on our own sprinting abilities.

Great lesson group!

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Week 7 Gymnastics Teach Journal

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This week Klara, Elissa, Jessica and I taught our P.E. lesson on Gymnastics. We aimed our lesson towards a Grade 5 class with all different athletic abilities. I felt as though the class went a lot more smoothly than I was expecting. We decided to start off with some warm-up instant activities that were associated with Halloween and gymnastics since it was the day before Halloween. It as a way to have the class be more involved. During the whole class, the students were given a Halloween character, and were supposed to act like that character throughout the class. When it came to teaching the gymnastics movements and activities, we decided to teach in a circuit rotation format, breaking each station down with different challenges and ways of making the stations either easier or more difficult depending on the students abilities. I was in charge of the jumping stations, and there were also a balance, rolling and bear walk stations. At my station, I started everyone together breaking down the steps of how to jump with single legs as well as two foot jumps and how to land. I talked about the importance of using your arms to help create more upward movement, as well as ‘loading/activating’ your leg muscles, and how to land best without harming your knees and the rest of the body through ‘soft landing’ and lowering your center of gravity. We practiced our jumping, and then worked on jumping forwards and backwards and side-to-side. After I felt the majority of the students were fully able to jump with proper form, I allowed the students to go to the small stations within the jumping station. We had hula-hoops to practice two feet and single foot jumps. Then there were vaults at different heights where the students were able to jump off of and focus on their landings. I emphasized that they did not have to do anything they did not feel comfortable with, so some of the students did not jump off of the highest vault.
One of the questions we focused on this week was how are teachers suppose to teach activities was limited equipment? When teaching this week, we used very limited equipment as well, using only mats, benches, cones, hula-hoops, and then the vaults which we didn’t have to use. These are all pieces of equipment that is most likely found in most Elementary and High school gyms. Although the students may think that these activities are not equivalent to attending a gymnastics facility, these are a lot of the same movements being done in the school gym.
The main topic in the readings for the week talked a lot about the connection between law and teaching, including TORTS law. Being a P.E. teacher, there is a great deal more injures that occur compared to all other classroom settings. Therefore as a P.E. teacher, as well as all other teachers, we have to be more aware of the surroundings and possible situations which could occur, and how to avoid any negative situations. Torts law is not very well defined in a few words, but it is pretty much any situation that could have been avoided while a teacher is responsible, that teacher can been seen as guilty. We must treat all students as if they are our own children.

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Movement Journal – Week 8

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I am so surprised by how much I enjoyed PE class this week! When I heard it was taking place at the track, I started to dread it! I ran track and cross country in high school and I have very bad memories from the experience. Since I am extremely competitive, running in any form stresses me out greatly. This week’s group did an awesome job making the activities competitive enough to be fun, but in a way that there was no individual pressure to perform. Because there weren’t any one-on-one races, it was impossible to measure your speed against someone else’s. This is a great activity to do in an elementary PE class, because it provides motivation to run fast without putting the pressure of one-on-one competition onto the students.

I also found the discussion part of the class very interesting. Being inclusive is hard in any classroom, but it is often even more difficult in a PE class. We talked about how often times there is no black-and-white right answer when it comes to inclusivity. To include one student sometimes inconveniences and limits the quality of the lesson for all other students; but of course that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to exclude a child with a physical or mental disability. As teachers, our job is to design lesson plans that can include everyone without limiting anyone. I was thankful to hear some strategies on how to accomplish this. Hopefully we can all be fully inclusive in our practicum classrooms this year and in the future.

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Reflection – Michelle Parker

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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!

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movement journal – week 8

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The two group teaching teams from last class did very well. I like how the gymnastic team included Halloween theme into their activities, and I thought it was very neat. As well, I thought the four stations were broken down nicely, and giving the instructions while we were all at the middle instead of explaining it four times at each station was very smart. As for the summary and discussion, our discussion in terms of how to create a safe and inclusive environment was rich and helpful for the practicum. For the dance team, I liked the warm up activity where we had to act like eggs, chickens and dinosaurs. It was fun playing and watching other people, and I think they did a great job using the scaffolding technique. In addition, I loved how they not only taught us certain moves but also gave us the freedom to create dances close to the end of their lesson. All presenters from both groups were enthusiastic and have clear, loud voices! Good job girls, I loved it! 🙂

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Post-lesson Reflection Journal Week 8: Dance

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I had so much fun co-teaching this class! We were all so pleased and thankful for everyone’s enthusiasm and participation. I feel like that was a huge contributor to the success of our lesson.

We tried to keep things interactive, accessible and fun while also hitting the appropriate physical education competencies, which I think we were able to accomplish pretty well. It was important for us to scaffold the moves so that everyone had the opportunity to build up to the full dance, and express themselves to the best of their ability. My part consisted of brainstorming lesson ideas with the group, co-writing the summary, suggesting the use of apps in assessment and dividing the group, in addition to teaching my portion of the lesson and leading my small group discussion.

Our group gelled well in terms of planning, and we agreed on most aspects of the process. As soon as we had addressed the competencies and figured out a main focus for our session, the details came fairly easily. We have relatively similar approaches to teaching, planning and what we would like our students to get out of the lesson.

I feel like the students responded positively overall. Everyone seemed engaged, and were able to grasp the choreography and challenge themselves to complete each activity to the best of their ability. The discussion ran smoothly, and the group had many good ideas and input about technology in the classroom.

Next time, I would look at tightening up some of the transitions, for instance sending smaller groups of students to collect props. I think we provided moves and options for a variety of skill levels, and scaffolded appropriately, but I might also have included some further options for students of all skill and comfort levels, such as an alternative to the dance off at the end.