Since joining twitter in November 2017, it has given me the courage to make some changes. Changes that I always thought should happen, but did not act upon. Changes that should take place, but never knew WHAT changes to start with, WHY they needed to change, and (more importantly) HOW to make these changes. I have always questioned my program/curriculum, but never knew where to turn. Being on my own “island” when it comes to teaching, I do not have anyone to bounce ideas off of. No one who would support me and give me feedback on my teaching. I felt alone and stranded. Background When I student taught back in 2006, I did 8 weeks in a high school and then 8 weeks at the elementary level. When I taught at the elementary level, I ended up taking the position when the previous Physical Education teacher went on her maternity leave and then she decided not to come back the following year. I basically fell into the position and I do not regret taking the position. I love the school that I am at and the school district is very supportive of its employees. In my school, I am the only Physical Education teacher for grades kindergarten through sixth grade. I see every student in the school and have built up the curriculum. When I took the position 13 years ago, there was no curriculum, nothing to base my teaching off of. The previous teacher would just do what she wanted to do. She would just play sports activities and whatever the students want to play. When she left, she made me a CD of all her lessons and that was that. So when I took over, I sort of went off with what she did. I stayed with the sport-based units and worked on the skills for each of the sport. I figured those covered the state standards and that was fine. We would do drills of the skills and then put all the skills into game play. No one said anything, no one bothered me and I could do what I wanted as long as I got the kids moving, they received grades and no one got majorly hurt. Everyone was happy, everything is fine. Eventually, I started to just show up to school, teach all day, and then just go home. It got to a point where I did not enjoy going to work and it became redundant. The main reason for starting to think of these changes happened because of a class I had and some of the issues that starting arising. Issues where students did not want to come to class. Issues where students wanted to sit out and not participate. Issues where students would purposely forget their gym shoes at home so they could sit out. Issues of behavior from students who normally would not act out or play around. I had to think of something and had to think of it FAST. I noticed that students just did not care to be in my class. Was my class just not interesting anymore? Daily Warm-ups The first change that I started with immediately was my daily warm-ups. To be honest, I did the same Daily Warm-ups everyday. I thought that if they would do the 5 Fitness Tests daily in class all year long, their score from the Fall Fitnessgram tests to the Spring Fitnessgram tests would increase. Then I finally sat down and looked at the scores and compared them, I noticed that they did not improve much and mostly stayed the same. My 3rd through 6th graders would come in and start with a 3 minute jog around the gym and then a minute walk. Some would jog on their own, some would jog with a friend, but most would just walk and talk. This is where I would find myself saying to them that they should be jogging not walking and talking with a friend. After saying that, some would start jogging, but that would only last a lap or two around the gym and then back to walking. Then came to sit-ups with a partner, they would just do a few and go back to talking. Push-ups, forget it! Most would just lay on the ground, only do a few, or do them incorrectly. Then a different stretch everyday and then shuttle run in 2 groups. Day in and day out. I then started Friday Fitness Stations, where each Friday was a different set of stations. I found myself repeating how to do the exercise or station that they needed to do and even then, there was no effort. I felt like I was at a dead end. Once we were back from Winter break, I threw out the daily warm-ups and started with Instant Activities. Activities where they were constantly started moving and we played different tag games. They were out of breath and sweating after a few 1 minute rounds of tag. They seemed to put more effort into not getting tagged then they did during the 3 minute jog. I then started adding in the exercise component of the tag games and they did not realize that they were working on muscular strength and endurance when they got tagged. I figured I was now on a better path to get my student’s heart rate up. Sport-Based Units vs. Skill-Based Units Like I mentioned before, I started teaching off Sport-Based units where I would do a sport for 3 weeks (6 or 7 days on how our schedule panned out). I would spend the first few days working on drills of a skill (soccer - dribbling, passing, shooting) and then play lead-up activities for the last 3 or 4 days. Then I would switch to another sport and run it the same way. Each year, I would try to find and think of different drills or lead-up activities for the sport units to change things up from the year before. Somewhere deep down, I knew this is not the best way to run my program and that there has to be a better way. Each year, I would get students asking me what sports we were going to be playing. I would have parents at conference time asking how their son or daughter were doing in basketball or volleyball. I would have parents ask me to work on soccer shooting more because their son played on the area’s soccer team. Parents would ask when I would start basketball because their son was trying out for a team. Parents would call me “Coach” and in my head, I would say that I am not a coach, but their son/daughter’s Physical Education Teacher! I did not go to school to be a coach; I went to school to become an educator. National Standards I noticed many of the Physical Education teachers on twitter where running their program based off the skills of the National Standards. I knew this would be better for my students and also for me. This was basically my first exposure to the National Standards. I knew this is where I wanted to head towards. I knew I had to dive deeper into the National Standards and let that guide my program to create my curriculum. I noticed teachers talking about looping their curriculum and revisiting skills to help students master the skills throughout the school year, rather than for 3 weeks. Cliff Roop directed me to Joey Feith’s blog about “Unpacking the Standards” (https://thephysicaleducator.com/2017/04/18/unpacking-the-national-standards/) This definately opened my eyes more on the standards and then started thinking/creating my calendar for the upcoming school year. New Beginnings This is where I begin my new construction project. I placed my hard hat on my head and grabbed the tools I may need. Like any construction project, I know it take time and lots of effort. Change is always difficult task that take time. I recently watched Ben Lander’s blog about “Change takes Time” https://www.thepespecialist.com/changetakestime/ He is definitely correct where any type of change takes time and is a challenge. It takes time for the students to adapt to the new concepts. It takes time for getting things when you need or want them. It take time to throw out your old lesson plans/curriculum and start new. It takes time even for me to adjust my old ways into something better for myself, but more beneficial for my students. I believe I am now on the right pathway to help not only my program, but to help advocate our profession. - Matthew Holben (@holben_pe) * Always a BIG shout out to Cliff Roop (@HDPhysEd), Joey Feith (@joeyfeith), and Ben Landers (@pespecialist). Thank you for all you have done for not only inspiring me to become a better professional, but others as well!
0 Comments
|
AuthorI am a Physical Education teacher starting my 14th school year. I have been at the same school all 14 years. Starting this blog as a new project to share my thoughts and ideas. Archives
August 2019
Categories |