CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP CALENDAR

A New Year and New Resolutions Teaching K-12 (or even college) health and physical education provides us many wonderful opportunities for professional growth and renewal. The upcoming new year and winter break (no matter how short it might be!) provide teachers a chance to start something new and resolve, perhaps, to do something better for the students we work with. For me, the latter part of the fall this year has been particularly motivating because on election day in early November our local school district had their professional in-service day and the next week our state of Virginia held their annual state convention (the Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance or VAHPERD). Our VAHPERD Convention was, as always, a great time to see old friends, meet new ones, and marvel at the creative, and innovative ways our colleagues engage students in health and physical education. I came back to my small town armed with packets of ideas to share with my own students (who will be future teachers) and motivated to work even closer with our local teachers to try some new things to help youngsters build physically active and healthy lifestyles. I am lucky in that my university highly values and wants me to work with local schoolteachers, but I know in many college settings, professors are more likely to be encouraged to apply for grant funding and conduct research that candidly is often not seen of much value to local teachers. Unfortunately, that often leads to the ill will felt in “town and gown” situations where local schoolteachers have little or no contact with the teacher educators at the local university. This gets worse, of course, when the university teacher educators publicly berate the local schoolteachers as being “behind the times” and the local schoolteachers respond with the charge that university faculty are “out of touch with the reality of real schools and real schoolchildren.” I know, for example, cases where university teacher educators are actually more popular outside their own home town! Of course, charges from both teacher educators and local schoolteachers do share a touch of truth. I know as a university professor, it is much easier for me to teach solely in my safe little college campus and basically ignore working with local teachers rather than deal with the logistics of off-campus teaching. Likewise, it is easier for local schoolteachers to teach solely in their world and ignore the university as a place where some good ideas might help their program. Yet, I have also found that when you really get to the bottom line, both local universities and school districts want to work together, it just seems like neither has found a good way to do it!I can’t remember a single instance in over 10 years of teaching college health and physical education where a local teacher declined my inquiry into working together. And likewise, I can’t recall many instances where a schoolteacher has told me that their request to work with a local university professor was ignore or rebuffed. I am sure it happens…so please don’t send me any nasty emails! J But rather, I wonder if we might resolve to build stronger partnerships between local school districts and universities as we begin planning for our new year.And yes, I know it can be a pain to coordinate the logistics…and it can’t always be a one-way street.It is typically easier to bring college students to a local K-12 school, but why not bring local K-12 schoolchildren to the college campus sometimes?Further, how might department chairs and deans of colleges of education work with local superintendents and principals to pursue some shared teaching loads? Perhaps a New Year’s resolution would be to make just one (or a few) connections in or local communities.I’ve spent a bulk of this column extolling the virtues of university/K-12 partnerships, but certainly if your community does not include a college or university, you might be able to connect with a local fitness center or recreation center.

Scooper Ball Teaching middle school students at the Blacksburg New School in Blacksburg, Virginia…teachers Tony Marro and Tommy McGuire have realized success using plastic scoops (similar to those available in a majority of equipment catalogs) in a lead-up variation to lacrosse. The plastic scoops are better than the often substituted milk jugs (though obviously more expensive) because they are easier for propelling the ball toward the goal or toward a teammate. The short-handled scoops were easier to use than lacrosse sticks (& also easier for the teachers to transport!). Their game of scooper ball is played similar to lacrosse (& other invasion activities such as ultimate frisbee or soccer) in that the ball is moved down the field by the offensive team with a series of short passes as the defensive team attempts to intercept the ball, defend their own goal, and defend the offensive players “invading” their space. The offensive players are working on maintaining possession of the ball, moving to open spaces away from defenders, and attacking the goal. Teachers Marro and McGuire started by working with throwing and catching by individual students in their own personal space, then progressed to throwing and catching with partners or teams of three in small general spaces, then progressed to small-sided (2v2, 3v3, etc.) versions of keep-away. Depending on the surface they were playing on, they found a Koosh Ball often worked better than a tennis ball because it did not bounce as much and was easier to scoop off the ground. The goals themselves were varied from using simple cones (and a goalie) to more complex milk crates turned on their side (with no goalie). Both Marro and McGuire will graduate from Radford University following their student teaching this spring…they’ve already stated one of their first purchases when they get their first teaching job next fall is to look for scoops!

Hot Ideas from PE Central

Middle and High School Lesson Ideas This link directs you to PE Central's Middle and High School Lesson Ideas Section which is intended to help share some of the exciting lesson ideas submitted by teachers.

 

"Today's physical education teacher must realize that competitive team sports are not lifetime in nature, that developing a high level of skill is not possible for all people, and that not all students are athletes. A healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity should be the objective of our programs.  Our programs must emphasize fitness and physical activity, not just skill and competition."  - Bane McCracken

This was passed along from colleague, Gerry Cernicky... "I am doing an activity for the second year that I call the 'Internet row/bike competition.' I invite middle schools that have Concept II Rowers and AirDyne Bikes, to a friendly competition. Students in grade 6,7,and 8 will participate during either their physical education class or during an afterschool program biking for a 10 minute ride and then recording their distance or rowing for 1K, 2K or a 10 minute row for distance. Scores will be recorded and verified by a teacher and sent to each participating school over the Internet or via fax. Students in each grade can compare how they did in relation to all the other schools. I found this to be a great motivational activity for my students. Last year we had schools from PA, IL, MI, MA, FL and CT participating. Let me know if you are interested in participating this year." Joe Kovacs, P.E. Teacher  Middlesex Middle School  Darien, CT.

Contribute YOUR Ideas

If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Secondary PE Section Editors:

	Jon Poole
	Bart Cagle
	Darla Castelli
	Isobel Kleinman

 

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