Monday, January 9, 2012

First Class of EPE

Our first EPE 310 class was last Thursday night.  It is because of that class that I have started blogging and signed up for twitter, but our class wasn't just about technology.  It is a phys ed class after all.

We played a number of games that were interactive and got us moving, but didn't focus specifically on competition or on excluding anyone from the process.  No dodgeball for us. :)  I tried to find examples of the games we played online so that I could add links to the specific activities, instead of trying to explain them all, but I was unsuccessful in my search.  I will keep looking for online resources to share, but am also planning on drawing out the activities and scanning them so I can update this post with more details in the near future.

The best part about all of the activities that we did was that they were active and inclusionary.  There weren't long periods of time where anyone was standing around waiting to participate, or where they had been eliminated from the game and were waiting to get back in to play.  The games were not set up as a direct competition where one team would clearly win and another clearly lose.  The games did not single anyone out where the whole class would be watching that person perform the task and be able to judge them on their aptitude.  Too often I have seen teachers who don't take the time to plan, or don't know where to go for resources to plan their phys ed class and consequently they end up playing the same games we did when we were in school.  Dodgeball, king's court, tag, four corners, octopus, etc.  Many of these games have an active physical component, but they single people out and contribute to some students not liking phys ed because they are always eliminated.

I loved phys ed when I was in school (even though I wasn't always the best athlete) because I was competitive and I was one of a handful of girls in my elementary school class that participated in sports outside of school.  There were others who danced, were in gymnastics, or figure skated but those activities didn't translate as well to the sport based competitive style phys ed classes that were prevalent 20-25 years ago.  Although I was "good" at phys ed and always liked it I can now understand why so many of my peers did not enjoy spending time in the gym.  At the time I was shocked that people didn't want to run around and play games, but now I can see that if students are not feeling included, and are not having any form of success they will be less likely to want to continue.

After one class and an handfull of phys ed activities I am already looking forward to more interaction with my peers in the gym and more interesting and inclusionary activities to be able to draw upon when I start teaching.

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