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Olympic Edu-tainment
Steve Jefferies
For educators, the Winter Olympics can be more than just a diversion
from regular TV watching. Similar to other international sporting
contests, the Olympics present educators with unique opportunities
to integrate sports with other areas of the school curriculum.
In addition to simply being entertained by the sports, with guidance,
children (and adults) can learn much about the athletes and the
nations they represent. Because sports transcend political borders
and cultural boundaries, they exist as one of the most effective
ways of breaking down prejudices and improving international understanding.
Whenever the world is in turmoil it is easy to dismiss sports as
trivial entertainment. But in reality as history has demonstrated,
sports can be a powerful force for uniting (or dividing!) nations.
As we watch these Winter Olympic Games let's all do our part to
help improve international understanding. Check out some of the
educational resources we feature in this issue, then use the excitement
of sports to help your students better understand our world and
our humanity.
Steve Jefferies
Coaching Section
Editor
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Official
Salt Lake Winter Olympics 2002 Web Site
Not sure how long the site will be maintained but here's where
you and your students can find out what's happened over the past
week in Utah.
Schedules, results, medal counts, interviews, photos, slide shows,
and stories. Also includes athlete biographies and even some audio
interviews.
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Salt
Lake City Olympics Screensaver
Two versions available - athletes or mascots - both in PC and
MAC formats.
Olympic
Torch Relay
Relive the best moments from the Olympic Torch Relay! Track the
path of the Relay across the USA. Photos and slide show. Great
way for your students to learn more about the States!
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| Olympics Helping Children |
Olympic Aid is an athlete-driven humanitarian nonprofit organization
using sport and play to enhance child development and build
community capacity. Its vision is a world in which every child
enjoys the right to play.
One of the goals of Olympic Aid is to deliver programs in situations
of disadvantage around the world. Olympic Aid advocates on national
and international levels for the inclusion of sport and play
as recognized and well-supported strategies of child and community
development.
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Questions to Ask, or
Thoughts to Share?
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Education Site
for the Olympics and Paralympic Games of 2002
The Utah Education Network has created
a web site to answer almost anything you would like to know about
the current 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Here's just a sample
of what's available:
- Information about all the winter Olympic sports
- Olympic Winter Sports Lessons
- Olympic Education Stories: How Utah teachers have integrated
the Olympics into their academic curriculums
- Links to information about all of the continents and nations
participating in the Games
- And much more...
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Olympic Curriculum Guide
The Amateur Athletic Foundation
of Los Angeles has developed a "Learn & Play Olympic
Sports Curriculum Guide." You are invited to share the Olympic
excitement with updated classroom lesson plans. The teacher's lesson
guides and reproducible masters of classroom materials are presented
with a choice of downloadable PDF files or HTML. Check out this
great and FREE teaching resource!
One of the most interesting aspects of this project
have been the "Oral History" reports. Several oral histories
have been completed from Olympic athletes living in Southern California
and these are available here.
Want to encourage your students to learn more? Direct
them to the AAF Web Arcade! Take a test of your skills and your
knowledge of the Olympic Games. With a Java-enabled browser running
on a Windows95, NT or Mac platforms several games can be played.
Click here
for more.
Educator's
Guide to the Olympics
The Education Department of the Salt Lake Organizing
Committee for the Olympic Winter Games and the Paralympic
Winter Games of 2002 created this guide for K-6 educators. You will
find Fact Sheets, Questions and Activities, Worksheets and Lesson
Plans to help you incorporate the Olympics into your curriculum.
(Note: You will need the free Adobe Acrobat plug-in to view these
documents.)
Watching
Olympics with Children Can Be Educational and Fun
Prior to the 2000 Olympics, NASPE published a list of activities
adults and children could do together. Some of the suggested activities
would need modification for the winter events but if you are looking
for ideas this is a good start
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"The most important
thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just
as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the
struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to
have fought well."
Baron Pierre de Courbetin
Founder of the Modern Olympic Movement
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| International Olympic Committee |
According to the Olympic Charter, established by Pierre de Coubertin,
the goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful
and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination
of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding
with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. Visit the official
IOC web site for
more information about the Olympic Movement.
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The
"Real" Olympic Games!
"Were the ancient games better than ours? More fair and square?
More about sports and less about money? Are modern games more sexist?
More political? Have we strayed from the ancient Olympic ideal?
During this Olympic season, you may hear from announcers, critics,
commentators and even athletes that the Olympic games are too commercial,
too political, too "professional." Or that the judging is too nationalistic.
In fact, politics, nationalism, commercialism and athletics were
intimately related in the ancient Olympic Games. We may not realize
it, but in today's games we recreate --with surprising accuracy
-- the climate and circumstances surrounding the ancient Olympic
Games."
Learn more by visiting this wonderful, educational web
site created by the University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
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| Paralympics: Olympics for the Disabled |
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Paralympics
2002
Did you know that the first Championship for the Disabled was
held in Austria in 1948. During this year English doctor Sir Ludwig
Guttman organized the Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games that ran
parallel to the Summer Olympics. These events provided the foundation
for the Paralympics.
The term Paralympics first referred to the word paraplegic. A
paraplegic is a person who has lost the use of their legs. Since
the modern Paralympics include athletes with a wide variety of
disabilities, the prefix para is now interpreted to mean parallel.
This means that the Games for disabled athletes are parallel to
the structure of the regular Olympic Games, but have a modified
schedule.
The VIII Paralympic Winter Games of 2002 will be held March 7
-16, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will feature the world's best
disabled athletes. More than 1100 competitors and officials will
participate in 25 medal events.
This web site informs and also has a coloring section for kids.
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Animated
game action archive concentrates on recreating professional
match actions/goals and explains the positive and negative aspects
(both defensive & attacking) of each action from a coaching
point of view. A short description of the major aspect of each animation
is given.
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| If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or
questions about particular topics, please email one of the following
Coaching Section Editors: |
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