Take Time to Evaluate

written by Isobel Kleinman

I hope this finds you enjoying a change of pace, freedom from bells, and some quality time to do something frivolous. I also hope that you can take a look back to evaluate your program, decide what needs changing, figure out what "got your goat" during the school year, and come up with some realistic ideas so you do not have to endure frustration in the coming one. After all, we are professionals and in many ways self-improvement is what being professional is about.

Let's identify the important issues facing the generation we teach, understand and explain why some change is necessary, and have some thoughts about credible solutions. And yes, let us use some of the summer - with the emotional distance it allows us - to get the creative juices flowing.

I believe the biggest issue of the day - no pun intended - is obesity, not just in children but in their parents and many of their role models. Face it. Kids eat too many empty calories and do nothing to burn them off. What is worse, if they "diet," research shows that for most the diet will not succeed over the long term. We watch kids become more and more sedentary, and watch school districts compound the problem by not mandating daily physical education. The long and the short of it is that we must get the kids moving, and we must get them to love moving. We must get them to have gross motor movement as part of their everyday routine, and help them to change destructive patterns of inactivity.

Questions worth asking:

• Are our kids enjoying their time with us? If not, why?
• Do kids prefer to sit out? Why? What can we do about it?
• Should we re-evaluate the dress code? How we deal with it? How we explain the reason for it? Or, should we modify the rules by having kids keep an extra set of clothing in school at all times in case the clothes they wear for gym get soiled, torn, or for whatever reason need changing once class is over? If we do that, the dreaded need to change might alleviate most of the problem.
• Are there departmental inconsistencies, and if so can we reduce them?
• Are there problems in the locker room, and how can we eliminate them?
• What can we do to get rid of the feeling of staleness?
• How should we respond to poor sportsmanship, bad language, and bullying?
• How can we develop and promote student leadership?
• What can we include in our program that is new?
• How can make our program respond to the issues of the day?

Solutions

You need to be consistent and so must your colleagues. The best ways to get there is to draw up a student contract that includes expectations for attendance, preparation, participation, excuses (medical or parental) and grading policy, and have the entire department agree to its terms. Then, post it on the web, distribute it in the summer mailing, go over it the first day of school, and have your students bring it home so that the parents can see it. To make sure that they do, have the parents sign it and keep a file of signed contracts.

Think about the kids' issues. Find ways to help or empathize. These were my students':

• They hated having so little time to dress.
• They liked to learn, but they also wanted to have fun.
• They didn’t like feeling belittled or intimidated by classmates (or teachers).
• They liked to do more than play games and compete.
• They wanted a sense of self-worth.
• They wanted to feel important to classmates and their teacher.
• They wanted to have access to equipment the minute they came to class.

Don't underestimate the need to begin the year with good organization.

• Locker room organization and safety really count! If you don’t believe me read Too Dangerous to Teach, a non-fiction novel about a physical education teacher. It gives insight into locker room problems (both funny and infuriating). Kids need to lock things securely. When they forget combinations, or put locks on a wrong locker, they will need your help.
  • Keep a good filing system - one for their name, one for the serial number on their lock, and one for the locker - and keep them in class sets until you are able to file them.
  • Make sure the kids fill out the cards properly and that they record the information in something they are likely to have with them daily. (Memo pad, etc.)
  • Have the kids who are using combination locks for the first time practice opening them, repeatedly, so that they memorize the number sequence and are confident they can open the locker before they lock their things inside.
  • Set up a central Lost and Found.
• Collect pictures to post on your bulletin board that synchronize with your teaching units. They should make the activity exciting looking, and be examples of proper form for every new unit.
• Identify students who need help and those who can give it. Encourage cooperative behavior in class, and be personally available to help the needy and encourage the high achiever to do the same.
• Get students used to your class routine early on.
  • What to do out of the locker room,
  • how to take and return equipment,
  • how to take and return equipment,
  • and how to conclude each lesson.

Think about your responses to the typical negative things kids do and, instead of doing the usual (giving zeros, detention, calling home, removing kids from activity and/or class) come up with unique ways to turn them around.

• Try using praise when you're not angry, then build on that relationship.
• Admit to needing help, and put a difficult kid in charge of something.
• Conspire with parents to withhold Christmas or birthday or presents or allowances if the kids don't turn around.
• Do not tolerate bullying, bad sportsmanship, foul language, or unsafe behavior. Stop the student from playing until he or she apologizes to you and the class.
• When behavior is not acceptable and occurs repeatedly, have the student write a report on what they should have done.
• Ask colleagues to share the ploys they used successfully for changing bad situations.

Examine your curriculum, year by year, and make sure that by the time the kids graduate they have had a variety of experiences in individual and dual sports, self-testing activities, team sports, creative activities, dance - all kinds - and if possible, aquatics.

Attack the biggest personal problem of our time - obesity - by using every possible minute to keep the kids moving, as well as teaching them to understand the necessity of being physical and to maintain their correct body mass. That means spending some summer time thinking about how to make the mechanic aspects of class organization a lot more fluid so that the organizational part of class doesn't detract from the objective of keeping your class moving.

I know, as you do, that we have a difficult task addressing the issues we believe important, especially in the political environment we are teaching in, but that doesn't make it impossible. So think ahead, plan ahead, and reach for what is best for education.

Hope this has helped and that you have had a great summer.

Isobel Kleinman
Author of Complete Physical Education Plans for Grades 5-12

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