PELINKS4U - Promoting Active & Healthy Lifestyles

From the Publisher…

MY PE VISION

Last month I invited you to think about your vision for physical education in the future. It won’t be the last time I encourage your participation in a project that the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) is calling "PE2020." NASPE wants to hear from YOU and what you think the future priorities for physical education should be. And it also happens to be the focus of my sabbatical work for the next year - so I need your help! If you are a Public Radio listener you may already be familiar with a somewhat similar project entitled "This I Believe" in which people famous and not so famous shared insights into what they'd learned about life. The results have been insightful and fascinating. The NASPE Board hopes for the same results from PE2020. But it won't work without your participation.

Build a Shared Vision for Physical Education in the Year 2020 and Beyond

SHARE YOUR PE VISION HERE

I need you to take some time to think about how you would like to see physical education look in the future. It doesn't matter the level you teach or your qualifications. We want input from professionals and non-professionals of all ages and backgrounds. So here are a couple of ways you can participate.

First, write your own vision and submit it to the www.pe2020.org web site. Visions can only be a maximum of 500 words. That's not many words. More detailed instructions and options for focusing your writing on one theme can be found on the PE2020 web site.

Second - and here is where you can really help - make this a project that will involve your students. It would be a great way to integrate some writing with thinking about what students would like from a future physical education experience. If you work in the K-12 setting invite some classroom teachers to work with you. If you prepare future physical education teachers, writing a vision would be a wonderful exercise to get your students to think about a different kind of physical education. In both instances, the PE2020 web site has some free classroom resources for educators. Use these to help stimulate and focus student writing.

As I write, the PE2020 web site currently has 105 submissions. That's a good beginning but not nearly enough. I'd like thousands, and thousands are quite achievable if you participate in the project and help me out by involving others. Please join me in helping to shape the future of physical education teaching. As a start, I'll share my first writing effort (below). It took me a few tries. The first draft turned into a class lecture. The second draft summarized other people’s thoughts. I realized I needed to be more personal, and it led me back to thinking about my beginnings in our profession. Hopefully, it will interest you and more importantly motivate YOU to write down your own thoughts and share them on the PE2020 web site. Read more at www.pe2020.org.

Shaping Lives: Physical Education Teaching

I knew I wanted to be a PE teacher when I was about 13. By then I'd grown to idolize my high school PE teacher Mr. Gradi. I loved soccer and Mr. Gradi provided plenty of it. Outside of school he still played amateur international soccer, and in school he delighted in playing soccer with his students on our fields, playgrounds, and in the gymnasium. He also taught me gymnastics and basketball, tennis, track, and much more. It was he who started me skiing by organizing a weeklong Christmas school ski trip to Austria. Later, in learning of my interest to become a PE teacher he encouraged me to college. My parents once told me that for years they endured hearing me repeatedly tell them "Mr. Gradi said this" or "Mr. Gradi said that." They joked that they often felt my PE teacher lived in our home. They never complained though, probably because sports and physical activities kept me so busy they never had to worry about me getting into trouble.

Unlike many of today's parents, my parents never attempted to focus my interests towards any one activity. I grew up to be competent at most things athletic, but never a superstar specialist. What I got then, and remains today, is a love of pretty much any physical activity. I love to move. I don't like to sit. When a doctor told me to quit running because I had plantar fasciitis his advice puzzled me. He clearly didn't understand that someone who loved to run couldn't just quit running.

Today, the need to move is part of being me. It's a habit that I won't let quit. I no longer seek competition but I've learned to habitually do my best. Like my former PE teacher, I love to play. Movement brings joy to my life in addition to keeping me healthy. As I age the importance of physical activity to counter physical degeneration is becoming more important. But playful movement does so much more. It elevates my spirit and energizes my mind. While I know there are medical conditions I can't control, I'm convinced that an active and healthy lifestyle is my best insurance against them.

I feel sorry for those whose lives have never been touched by their own Mr. Gradi: Those who don't grow up playing sports, or games, or simply living physically active. I feel sorry for those who began life healthy, yet now suffer the irreversible consequences of neglecting their body's need for motion.

I hope those who chose to teach PE in the future will recognize the power they have to change lives and the responsibility on their shoulders. I hope tomorrow's physical educators will realize its up to them to motivate all of their students to love being physically active. Our creator designed a body that thrives on movement and declines without it. Today's world conspires toward sedentary living and poor eating. Left unchanged the future consequences for all of us are predictably catastrophic.

Steve Jefferies, publisher
pelinks4u

PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR

EXERCISE AND DIABETES

PHYSICAL EDUCATION VERSUS NON-PHYSICAL EDUCATION DAYS AT SCHOOL

TITLE IX: IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN IN SPORT AND EDUCATION

EFFORT SURPLUS' IN THE FACE OF BUDGET CUTS

INCORPORATE SPRINTING TECHNIQUE INTO ALL OF YOUR TEAM'S CONDITIONING AND RUNNING

KAYAKING AT A SCHOOL WITHOUT A POOL

RADIBALL: A GREAT WAY TO DEVELOP VOLLEYBALL SKILLS, TACTICS, AND GAMES!

CYSTIC FIBROSIS: A CASE STUDY IN COURAGE


	PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR This month, Ed Kupiec shares insights from two teachers planning to start new physical education teaching jobs in his school district. Ed also shares advocacy suggestions to help teachers justify their physical education programs. As you may know (read this month’s news), the Portland (OR) School Superintendent has proposed to eliminate all elementary PE teaching positions. The time to generate support for school physical education is before cuts are proposed. Finally, this is Ed’s last article for pelinks4u and on behalf of readers the pelinks4u staff thanks Ed for several years of wonderful contributions.
	EXERCISE AND DIABETES University of Florida student, Govinda Allin writes this month about diabetes. Learn more about the risk factors, symptoms, and consequences of diabetes. Although the exact causes of diabetes are not entirely certain, Govinda reports that there is extensive evidence illustrating the positive effects of exercise and education.
	PHYSICAL EDUCATION VERSUS NON-PHYSICAL EDUCATION DAYS AT SCHOOL What difference does school physical education make to kids physical activity? Unfortunately, despite the many benefits claimed for physical education there remains an urgent need for supporting research. In this short report, Brian Malkinson summarizes the findings of a recent research that compared physical activity patterns on days that students participated in PE and days without PE. Evidence clearly showed an increase in physical activity on days with PE.
	TITLE IX: IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN IN SPORT AND EDUCATION In all likelihood, few current physical education teachers or coaches know much about Title IX. Passed in 1972, this law focused on addressing the inequities of discrimination. Despite no explicit mention of sports, Title IX made a huge impact on sports and coaching opportunities for both men and women. This month, Janet Parks from Bowling Green State University introduces readers to a recently published 3-dvd set that provides a comprehensive history of Title IX and issues raised by this legislation.
	EFFORT SURPLUS' IN THE FACE OF BUDGET CUTS Author John Strong reports that he is confused by the "spotty logic" displayed by those who choose to focus resources on "academic" goals at the expense of physical education’s goals of promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles. It's frustrating and sometimes causes us to question whether the headaches are worth it. John believes it is, and in this well written essay encourages all of us to "do what's right" and recognize the positive impact we are having with our students.
	INCORPORATE SPRINTING TECHNIQUE INTO ALL OF YOUR TEAM'S CONDITIONING AND RUNNING Athletic director of a huge school district (14 high schools), Bill Utsey gets to attend many competitions and practices. All too often he notices the poor running technique of athletes in sports that demand speed. In this article, Bill details ways that coaches can incorporate speed-training techniques into their coaching practices.
	KAYAKING AT A SCHOOL WITHOUT A POOL No pool, no problem! Resourceful grant writing and program planning has enabled Neshaminy School District (PA), teachers Terry Martian and Jane Gibbons to introduce their students to kayaking and other outdoor pursuits as part of their physical education program. The authors provide tips on course content and online resources together with photos of their students in the water.
	RADIBALL: A GREAT WAY TO DEVELOP VOLLEYBALL SKILLS, TACTICS, AND GAMES! Ever played "Newcomb?" It's a game elementary physical educators sometimes use to introduce volleyball skills to their students. Rowan University faculty member Peter Rattigan has taken this game and modified it to overcome many of the limitations. Now named "Radiball" Peter describes the modifications he has found appropriate for elementary aged students.
	CYSTIC FIBROSIS: A CASE STUDY IN COURAGE "By the time her daughter Katelyn was four-and-a-half years old, Leisa Sims had begun hearing the word "paranoid" from physicians in response to her concerns for her daughter’s health…" Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited chronic disease that affects approximately 30,000 children in the US. Author, Kathy Nichols tells the extraordinary and inspirational story of one child’s experience with CF and the impact of exercise therapy and physical activity in treating this disease.


		Aug/Sept 2010 Vol. 12 No. 7