| Author |
Message |
Steve Jefferies (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 12
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 3:29 pm: |       |
A change we need to make in physical education is the view that getting kids in shape necessitates lap running and mind-numbing calisthenics. Forcing fitness on people of any age never really works - they just quit when participation becomes optional! More effective, is to encourage youth to try activities that are fun, physically active, and leave participants wanting more. These "physically educated" students then become adults who are skillful, physically fit, and lead healthy, active lifestyles. We risk turning kids off of physical education when we always start lessons off with running or exercises. It's time for a change.
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Brian Barrett
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 3:30 pm: | |
I agree with Steve Jefferies. I have been teaching elementary PE for 22 years and have gone through several philosophical changes. For years I had children running laps, circuit training (pre-programmed pauses in the audio music tape to signal a switch),lifting small weights, dyna bands, bench stepping, etc etc. For the past 10 years I have been using very carefully selected, created, and modified low organized games to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of my students. I use games for warm-ups, games for cardio, games for strength, games for flexibility. I use no traditional ADULT type exercises. My kids have never had so much fun and gotten such a great workout at the same time. Least you think that fitness is all my PE program is about I use games to develop 1)perceptual motor skills, 2)listening skills, 3) social skills, 4) the ability to focus, concentrate and persevere, 5) thinking skills, 6) physical abilities, and 7) the relaese of stress and excess energy. Often times these other objectives and the fitness objectives can be accomplished together in the same game.
Brian at http://hometown.aol.com/fitplay/index.html
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Lori
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 3:30 pm: | |
I also agree. One of my goals in my programs have always tried to make it fun for everyone. Modifying when necessary so that success can be achieved. Challenging? I have never heard a student say it wasn't. But, they did it and had fun doing it. What I have found though is that when kids feel they can do something or they can improve they have more fun when they succeed.
You might try this little experiment when you are working on that mile run requirement.
As a coach I know as many of you do, that we can not do something once a week and expect great changes. Yet, many programs still require the kids to run the mile once a week, timed, and if they do not pass it in a certain amount of time they fail. Well, it was my classes turn. About 70 percent would walk, 20 percent would walk/run, and maybe 10 percent would jog the entire mile. After the first trimester I told my students that we were going to try something a little bit different. We would only test in the mile once a month. We would run 1 lap each day for a month. Many of them thought, "I could do that." For those kids who were overweight or perhaps PE was the first experience in any physical activity they saw a little light in the tunnle. At the end of the first month everyone improved. Times were better, kids who walked the mile jogged half or the entire mile. The second month we did 2 laps. Times continued to improve. Best of all the fear of the mile wasn't there.
A little change to our games, a few twists in our norms, and we have some fun and improved programs that our kids enjoy doing and help us to get out of the rut of being boring and old.
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Kenneth Clark
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, March 15, 2004 - 3:31 pm: | |
I also believe there needs to be a change in the way we incorporate physical fitness in the physical education program. If children do not like the activity that they are participating in, then they are not going to want to do it and they certainly arenāt going to do it out side of the class room. I like the idea of playing games for the warm up. I am still in college, but when I was observing a physical education class the instructor had the children go into instant activity as soon as they entered the classroom. Not only did it save time but it also was fun for the children. Another thing I believe we need to do is educate the older children on fitness. When I was in high school no one taught me how easy it was to be physically fit. I didnāt realize how easy it was to stay healthy until I took a Lifetime Fitness course in college. If you took a brisk thirty minute walk three times a week it would greatly lower your risk for cardiovascular disease. You could even break it up into ten minute increments throughout the day. If we could somehow integrate this type of information into our classrooms, then I feel the children would make a conscious effort to stay fit.
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Mark Anderson (Anderbad)
New member
Username: Anderbad
Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, May 02, 2005 - 12:40 pm: | |
A great way to emphasize health-related fitness concepts is to use the Physical Best Activity Guides. These K-12 lessons were developed by teachers and help students have fun, be physically active, and leave class wanting more. |
Dawn R.Davis (Ddavis)
New member
Username: Ddavis
Post Number: 1
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:22 am: | |
This is for Mark Anderson - WHere do you get the Physical Best Activity Guides? Dawn |
Paula Summit (Summit5)
Junior Member
Username: Summit5
Post Number: 20
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 9:26 pm: | |
Human Kinetics
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showproduct. cfm?isbn=0736048030
Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com also have the books available. |
JiJi Jonas (Jiji)
Junior Member
Username: Jiji
Post Number: 3
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2005 - 1:06 pm: | |
Hi,
More about Physical Best. The updated version of the Physical Best guide is out now and it has really fun fitness activities for students. Everyone is right in that children don't enjoy and in fact running laps can turn kids off to getting in shape. A quick story- In May I was out on the track with my adapted physical eduCation student and we were flying a kite. One of my student's friends was having to walk laps on the track which you could tell he hated. He came by us and asked if he could fly the kite. I let him take the kite. He ran all over the grassy areas with the kite. He got more exercise with the kite than he ever would just slowly walking thE track. I let him keep the kite. It made me cry to see how happy he was. If you make the fitness activites fun and explain about the benefits of fitness the students will get so much more from the activity.
Alittle more aobut Physical Best. You can buy the guides plus you can become certified Physical Best specialist by attending a workshop and passing an open book test. it is well worth looking into.
JiJi |
Trina Robertson (Trina)
New member
Username: Trina
Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2005 - 8:47 am: | |
Hello,
We've created an online tool to allow teens to identify their current physical activity level and provide tailored messages to help motivate them to make improvements using Stages of Change theory. This interactive tool, called the Personal Fitness Planner, will be updated by year end. It would be great to have feedback on what is missing in the tool to make it more appropriate for teens to encourage them to increase their activity level. Here is the link to this free tool that takes only five minutes to complete:
http://www.dairycouncilofca.org/activities/pfp/pfp _main.htm
Any suggestions are encouraged to be posted here emailed to me. Thanks! |
Erik David Forssen (Edfskins)
New member
Username: Edfskins
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 11:44 am: | |
Great to hear that I'm not the only one utilizing highly aerobic, super fun, challenging, games and skill building activities to instill a "joy of movement" in the students we teach. |
Miranda J. Orr
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 11:44 pm: | |
I strongly agree that fitness activities should not be forced on students, because for some people, including myself I become stubborn when I am told to do something, even if it includes working out. My goal as a future Physical Education teacher is to make each day productive and fun for every student. By allowing the students to choose which activities they want to do for that unit, helps them to stay active by doing the activities that are comfortable for them. |
Robert H Childs Jr (Jerseyrob8)
New member
Username: Jerseyrob8
Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 04, 2006 - 6:45 am: | |
It is a great thing to do, trying to make fitness run. I know for years, I did not like to run, specially when you are forced to by the High School Football Coach!! Teaching people that there is more to running is great and students learning to enjoy it is even better. It was not until my Junior year at Slippery Rock University, til I began to enjoy it. Keep up the great work!! |
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