HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Last night's Olympic Games Opening Ceremony entertained me, sometimes puzzled me, but most of all reminded me of the incredible unifying power of sports. Beyond the pomp and pageantry, the unabashed excitement of participants as they paraded around the Olympic track was palpable. For all participants and spectators, the London Olympics will be memorable. For a smaller number of athletes the Games will be life changing.

I had somewhat similar feelings of elation and anticipation when earlier this month it was announced that the delegates of AAHPERD had voted to transform the Alliance into one national association. If you are an active AAHPERD member you’ll know this was a historic decision. Sometime in the not-too-distant future there will no longer be separate national associations for physical education, sports, health, dance, and physical activity. The vote was important for AAHPERD and will impact all of us, members or not, who teach in the professions that AAHPERD represents.

This issue of pelinks4u features an essay I've written that highlights some of the organizational and structural parts of AAHPERD likely to change in the future. It is based on interviewing individuals who have served as leaders in our professions. As you will read, AAHPERD needs to make additional changes for it to successfully continue providing professional leadership. Similar to the experience of some of this summer's Olympic athletes, how AAHPERD performs will certainly be memorable and most likely, life changing.

In addition to the editorial, pelinks4u also features some excellent new and original articles from contributing writers. Scroll down to read the brief introductions to each article and click the links for the entire article. Also be sure to check out the latest professional news in our News section that highlights what's happened in both June and July, and what is upcoming in August.

All of us at pelinks4u hope that you are enjoying a great summer and taking time to enjoy your family and friends. We also hope you are making time to participate in some health-promoting physical activity. See you in the fall.

Steve Jefferies, publisher pelinks4u

EDITORIAL

AAHPERD: The Challenges Ahead

Background
During fall 2011, I was invited to be a candidate for the 2012 AAHPERD President-elect position. In preparation, I decided to contact individuals who had served, or were currently serving, in the Alliance's national, district, or state associations. Almost 50 sometimes hour-long phone conversations followed, throughout which I took detailed notes. Intentionally, I initiated conversations with individuals who I anticipated would have differing opinions about the status of the Alliance and the best way to move forward. I discovered that despite some key differences there was substantial agreement about the urgent need for change. Without exception there was a common and clearly passionate concern about AAHPERD's future.

Collectively, these phone interviews provided a perspective I decided was worth sharing. This essay is a compilation of what I learned from my conversations. No claim is made as to the objectivity. Nor do I plan to identify any of the interviewees. I've attempted to compile information in a meaningful order. I've tried to be accurate with any dates and data. Any errors are my own. Differing opinions, especially on important topics are identified and compared. I've tried to avoid inserting my own opinion but have sometimes added background information. At this critical crossroads in the future of AAHPERD, it's my hope that this essay will help inform and contribute to the discussion of the challenges ahead.

Read the rest of this article >>

Social Media and Physical Education
Have you considered using Facebook or Google+ with your students? Most readers are familiar with the growing number of social media being used to share information with family and friends. But what about the potential of this technology to enhance physical education instruction?

In this article, Matthew Cummiskey and Joanne Leight provide a wonderful overview of the different ways that physical educators could use social media. If you've wanted to get started or are just intrigued by the idea (and don't want to get left behind), check this out. (read)

Coaching Athletics in Educational Environments
This year's Olympic Games serves to once again remind all of us of the importance of sports in the lives of people around the world regardless of race, religion, gender, age, education, and wealth. For children to experience the joy of sports participation it makes sense for us to expect our coaches to be properly qualified.

This month, Deborah Cadorette reinforces the importance of coaching education and describes the information and opportunities available for aspiring coaches to get trained. Deborah also gives her personal perspective on the place of sports in middle school settings. (read)

Planning for a New School Year
Based on many years of elementary physical education teaching experience, Tom Winiecki share tips for ways to get off to a good start this next new school year. It's easy for people who are skilled in sports and physical activities to forget the difficulties and fears that learners bring to physical education. Failures can quickly transform attitudes and impact student behavior.

Tom provides some great advice for ways to turn potential negatives into positives, and to make sure physical education classes are positive places for all students regardless of ability. (read)

A Preliminary Evaluation of a Social-Cognitive Theory-Based Structured Physical Activity Program for Improving Fitness in Populations with an Intellectual Disability
This article reports on the effect of an intervention program designed to increase the physical activity and physical fitness of young adults with an intellectual disability.

Krishna Dipnarine, Anthony Delisle, and Christine Stopka report that people with an intellectual disability (PID) tend to be more obese and less fit than non-PID populations. A 1-hour structured physical fitness intervention, held twice weekly for 8 weeks resulted in positive increases in all recorded scores. The study added support for the value of this type of exercise program for those with an intellectual disability. (read)

Fitness Homework
Included among the items you'll see in this month's "News" columns is a report on "flipping." If you aren't familiar with flipping in a teaching context, it describes the process of switching around what students do during class and at home.

Kyle Krupa's description of "fitness homework" is a good illustration of flipping. Instead of taking away valuable and limited time to be physically active and learn movement skills in class, Kyle has developed a series of homework assignments designed to help his student get the knowledge they need outside of class. (read)

The Thinking Process of Planning a Quality Lesson
Watching skilled teachers is amazing. They make teaching look easy, and yet anyone who has tried to teach knows that it's not.

This month, Wei Bian reminds us of the importance of 'planning' as part of the teaching process. She distinguishes between decisions related to the “what” to teach and the “how” to teach. Whether you are a novice or experienced PE teachers, it’s a great overview of the different elements of a typical lesson that need to be considered. (read)

Take Time to Evaluate
Summer and planning for the start of the new school year are good times for reflection. Asking ourselves what are we really trying to achieve when we teach physical education is a good place to start. Isobel Kleinman believes that if we are ever going to combat obesity and its related negative health consequences we have to get our students to love moving.

Isobel challenges readers with some thought provoking questions about the impact of their programs. Based on her many years teaching experience she then shares some practical teaching tips. (read)

The Time for Healthy Fundraisers is Now
Most physical educators probably need little reminding of how tight school budgets are in the present economic climate. But what to do about it?

Even before the economic downturn, most PE teachers struggled to adequately fund their equipment needs. And while it's nice to see the ways in which technology can be integrated into our teaching, it's a lot harder to be able to afford and maintain technology for classes of 20, 30, or more.

Jeff Sirlin is an experience fundraiser. In this article he describes the changing nature of fund raising and provides PE teachers with some great fund raising suggestions. (read)