Staying Fit!

Physical education is so much more complex than what meets the eye. I personally love sports; team sports, individual sports, you name it I will play it. But there is so much more to physical education than just sports and game. It’s an understanding of the body, how it develops, how to control movements, and how to react when your body is telling you that it has reached its limit. Yes, physical education involves sports and games but what about the other aspect of it? What about your actual body. For example, the health aspect of the major. Do physical educators actually discuss with their students the importance of healthy eating, or the importance of the FITT principle? Students should know and understand how important to your health daily fitness and a good diet actually is. Obesity is at an all-time high and we as physical educators have to take a stand and educate students on how to prevent obesity. We also should express to them the importance of the FITT principle and how it can help you in your future years of life by lessening your risk of heart disease. It makes me sad to see over-weight/obese people or adults struggling with health issues and it makes so much sense to incorporate that aspect of physical education in daily lessons. Over the years we have learned so much about our bodies that we need to do a better job of making people more aware of what can benefit them and what can do harm to them in for their future.

Wild Wild Westttt!

Just being part of the swishy pants club? I think not. Being in the physical education program is much more than that. Over the past few weeks I continued to learn more and more on how to properly approach certain situations, and also how to handle an entire class of kids with a short attention span. Granted, there is obviously so much to learn but I feel as though that even with few past few weeks under my belt I am getting closer to becoming a Physical Educator.
This past week in lab we went to St. Mary's but we went in style. The theme of the week was Western so most of us took that as an opportunity to really bring the theme to life by dressing up. We all arrived in our cowboy hats and plaid shirts ready to teach our games.

This week I was with the second through fifth graders. Being in costume really got their attention and made them more excited to participate in your games. We structured games around the Western theme to make it that much more fun! The children were great and loved all of our costumes and games.
Since they are a bit older and more physically developed they really like to play more competitive and challenging games. Their attention is still pretty short so it is important to keep your direction as brief as possible and to the point.

Chapter 1 - An Overview of Developmental Physical Education

Crazy Cartoons!

It's so incredible how different the teaching style is from teaching a group of kindergarteners rather than teaching a group of 2nd through 6th graders. The kindergarterners are wild. Their attention span really maxes out at under a minute so you have to be sure to keep your rules for your games short and to the point. The older kids on the other hand, they have a little bit more control and do a better job listening. This week I was with the older group. They have absolutely zero filters when it comes to talking to you. The things they were saying were nothing you could expect. Once we got to the gym it was a little more complicated, they wanted to run around and do their own thing until we brough out the scooters...that quickly got their attention. Unfortunetly, time had run out before I got to teach my game but I gained a different experience from this lab.
One of the girls in our group recently had a surgery and wasn't able to play any games that involved to much movement. This was my first experience with this type of situation and I couldn't be happier it happened. We played catch for about 35 minutes, she had all these crazy stories to share and before she left she thanked me for paying attention to her because she "normally has to play by herself." Talk about an amazing feeling, knowing you helped a kid and all it took was a little attention.