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Negative Social Trends that Physical Educators Might Assume Responsibility to Change
It is horrible kids shooting kids, and it has been happening increasingly in schools across the country. Can we help? I think so. We are in the environment that spawns the anger, belittling, and feelings of exclusion. It happens in the locker rooms, gyms, and on athletic fields, and has been cited by troubled kids as the reason for their violence.
It's time to take inventory of how we handle difficult social issues.
Do you react to verbal abuse or just ignore it?
Do you try to preserve the dignity of the class outcast, or let him or her work it out alone?
Do you intervene when competition leaves students feeling inferior?
Are teams created to be emotionally supportive and equally competitive?
Do you teach appreciation of all performance positives, not just those involving scoring?
Are students held responsible for poor behavior toward each other?
Have you thought about eradicating behaviors that do not belong?
Psychological 'safety' is important and often unattended. What kind of poor group dynamics do you see, and how do you deal them? Let me start by sharing how I deal with students who verbally abuse each other.
I remove the student from the activity and talk to them alone, trying to get them to understand how the other person feels and why what they did upsets the person, the class, and me.
Then I give the student a way out by telling them how important an apology would be, and that if they can make a sincere one to me, the class, and the student they abused then they can return to the game.
In my experience, this defuses the problem rather quickly, though the hot heads take awhile longer to come around. Most kids realize their error, apologize, and get back to the game, and it has worked if the same student doesn't repeat the behavior again. If they do, they are pulled out again and I up the ante...a longer talk, possibly after school...a longer period before I choose to say anything, a longer time for them to sit out and think. If the behavior is not improved the problem needs more attention, and for that I would call parents, guidance counselors, and the school psychologist.
Isobel Kleinman
Section Editor
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Sneakers made to order
www.customatix.com lets you custom design sneakers. You can choose color, graphics, logos, and sole patterns. The most simple sneaker pattern will start around $70. Once ordered, the sneakers are suppose to arrive in two weeks.
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Many thanks to those people who responded. Please feel free to return to the site and post your suggestions, opinions, questions, problems or wishes.
Of those who wrote, two made suggestions. One suggested teaching more individual sports. The other suggested creating class teams and dividing them into different levels for competition.
For the most part, respondents vented. The consensus seemed to be that students were cheated in COED classes since the genders are different, the curriculum is compromised, and teachers find themselves playing policeman instead of teacher.
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Vulnerability of Knees
During March, major tennis and national basketball tournaments found their star females sidelined with knee injuries. Venus Williams chose not to play Gladiator to appease the crowd in order to protect her knee, and the next day her sister Serena paid the price of the crowd's disappointment. They booed Serena. The crowd was more understanding for the basketball players whose benching was not protective, but necessary. Each had ruptured her ACL ligament. One girl, not for the first time.
In "Knee Injuries Take a Toll on Many Female Athletes," The New York Times, March 29, 2001, Jere Longman reported that more women suffer ACL problems than men, and that Shea Ralph, who ruptured her ACL a third time, did so in spite of vigorous training to prevent just such a reoccurrence. As I read I couldn't help but remember my own ACL experience and how, during post surgery and a year of physical therapy, my therapist insisted I work the hamstrings more than any other muscle. That was sixteen years ago, but he hammered it into my head.
At that time, we physical educators were not teaching quite so much in weight rooms, but since we are now I am concerned with what I see. First, weight rooms usually have one area to develop hamstrings. A quick look around at a working class usually finds no one there. I can guess why.
First, kids don't like lying on their stomach. They feel too vulnerable. Second, they can't lift as much weight. And third, most teachers don't push working the hamstrings.
Kids find their way to machines where they can sit and lift - often the machine that strengthens the quads - the muscle that will, if too strong, cause hyper-extension and ruptured ACLs.
I am no doctor, but know that such a workout can lead to problems. The muscles around the knee can help prevent hyper-extension. To do it, the hamstrings must be at least 75% the strength of the quads.
So, the moral of the story is...maybe we should teach kids to exercise their hamstrings first.
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Life Speed
Have you ever watched kids on the merry-go-round,
or listened to rain slapping the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,or
gazed at the sun fading into the night?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.
Do you run through each day on the fly.
When you ask "How are you?," do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,
with the next hundred chores running through your head?
You better slow down,don't dance so fast,
Time is short, the music won't last.
Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow,
and in his haste not seen his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
'cause you never had time to call and say "Hi"?
You better slow down, don't dance so fast
time is short, the music won't last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
it's like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race, so take it slower,
hear the music before the song is over.
-author unknown-
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Its Spring and time to go out. Many of you will be trying to teach tennis to a heterogeneous group by using a teaching progression where every student can feel they are gaining control of themselves, the racket, and the ball. If you are looking for a successful way to do that, you might be interested in checking out the tennis chapter in Complete Physical Education Plans for Grades 7-12. It spells out a 'graduated' approach to teaching tennis.
Those of you who got the chance to learn to ski on short skis might remember the concept, and how you were able to ski difficult slopes in no time. Take the concept a step further, using regular tennis rackets, and you can do the same thing by setting up shortened targets and progressive goals. Once students get competent at each level, you can increase the goals.
Imagine every student meeting the ball on the middle of their strings, knowing that they can direct it in the direction they want, and doing it over and over again, backhand and forehand on the very first lesson. What a nice way to begin, with an active lesson that gets confidence up and enthusiasm high, and students are actually having fun from the beginning.
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Warrensburg Middle School PE Department
Eric Thomas, a recent graduate of Central Missouri State University, has
developed a useful PE homepage for his school. He teaches boys physical
education at Warrensburg Middle School. His page is meant to be used as a
resource for students, parents, and other physical education teachers.
He has included in this web page the units developed this year. In the lower
part of the screen (use the scroll bar in the lower right hand corner of your screen), you have find these units complete with the learning cues or what Eric calls " key components for skills that we teach". This site provides a peak through photos into Eric's PE class in action.
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Racism: The Berlin Olympic Games
The issue of intollerance in our society has also had repurcussions in the sporting sphere. The 1936 Berlin Olympics empitomise this issue. "For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics."
Check out this site which presents an online version of an exhibition created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC that was on display at the Museum from July 1996 - June 1997. You can use this as a teaching resource for promoting tolerance and respect for multicultural diversity.
Drug Use in Sport
Another issue which always provides hot news in the Sports Media - the issue of doping! If sports is meant to promote the pursuit of excellence, to which extremes are athletes supposed to push themselves?
This can be an interesting issue to explore with students. Is it a health issue, ethics issue, or both? This is a good site which also provides educators with a teaching guide, students with an evaluation rubric, and a link to the "Australian Sports Drug Agency" and "Check it."
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100% In Control
Queensland Health's alcohol and other drug education campaign for 12 to 17 year olds, is a site that targets young people as a means of positively influencing life long attitudes and behavior associated with alcohol and other drug use, which in turn will impact their present and future health.
The campaign aims to delay or prevent the initiation or uptake of alcohol and other drug use, and to minimize the associated harms to young people in the campaign target group. Safety tips, 'non-alcohol' party ideas, advice on how to quit smoking, and other information for young people are provided on the site.
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If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Secondary PE Section Editors:
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Help to support quality physical education and health education by contributing to this site.
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