Category: Middle & High School

This category focuses on how to effectively teach middle school, junior high school, and high schoolers. Learn more about how best to connect with and instruct students who are transitioning from childhood to adulthood, and how to motivate them to be physically active and make healthy lifestyle choices.

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Healthy New Year Resolutions

Years ago I stopped making New Year’s resolutions. They became pointless, depressing when unachieved, and as statistics show, nearly all the resolutions made (1 in 3 people apparently resolve to change something), about 75% of them last only one week! Six months into the resolution about 46% are still on target. That number continually declines as times goes on. That’s not to say that resolutions should never be made. Rather we should be more realistic in what it is exactly that we want to change or improve upon. We all know the old mainstays…. try to lose weight, quit smoking, volunteer more time, get in shape, save money, etc. But how about some work related resolutions? I came across some very inspirational articles in the PELinks4U January 2011 archives (Steve Jefferies and Sam Baumgarten, Kleinman, and Amy Sue Hesselgesser). Many good ideas were stressed in all those articles so I will try not to be too repetitive. Here’s my personal list:

  1. Pay more attention to those students who are under the radar
    The kids who are not the athletes are the ones who are probably going to be running our schools and districts in the future. We need to make them feel good about themselves because the fact is, THEY ARE THE MAJORITY. Each day I try to focus on a student I really don’t know or who is so quiet and on the periphery that he or she easily gets lost in the crowd. Some days are so busy and hectic I forget to make a connection. But that doesn’t mean that the resolution ends! Tomorrow is another day and I try again.

  1. Keep yourself fit as a positive role model
    Yes, this is a traditional resolution but for years I’ve been promising myself to join a gym. I believe I’m in “role model” shape but this was about something more intrinsic. Plus, I’d really like to be able to climb the rope a bit higher when I do my demonstration during our “Tumbling/Climbing Unit!” The kids love it when you can do things and share your own story. They can relate better to your own struggles and goals when they’re struggling themselves. It lets them know that even though they may not be able to perform a task today, someday they will succeed if they set their minds to it.
  2. Learn to use a new piece of technology & incorporate it into your lessons
    I used to love technology but it changes so fast now that it’s tempting to simply choose not to keep up. Yes, I have an I-pad (generously donated to me by my sister) but my IPod is a “classic” and my cell phone is a “pay as you go” flip phone. I have played around with some apps and have used Team Shake to make teams in class. I love this app because I like to separate “friends” and when they complain that they’re not on the same team I say, “It’s the computer!” If my district were more liberal with the use of the Wi-Fi code then I would probably use it more but at this point in time I’m fairly limited. I guess this is an item to put on my list for next year. It’s a big-ticket item to get the access complete with a Smart Board so I’m going to file that one away for a future date.
  3. Conduct surveys with your students AND parents
    Surveys are the most underused means of gathering information to improve your program. I think that maybe people are just too afraid of what they’re going to find out. I conducted one last spring and the results were not as harsh as I had expected. In fact, the results were very positive with only a few concerns about a child’s weight and perhaps the fact that our school does not meet the state mandate for time spent in physical education class. Most felt that fitness, social emotional learning, and character education were the most important things their child could learn in my class. This survey encourages me to keep doing what I’m doing, which was nice to know.
  4. Clean out your office and equipment closet!
    I am the “Queen of Keeping” and my colleagues make fun of me. I have documents that I inherited nearly 20 years ago from my predecessor along with records, cassette tapes, floppy discs and lots of broken or deflated equipment. I guess you could say that I’m from the era of “You Never Know When You Can Use It!” Starting at the beginning of this year I started filling the garbage bags and confess that at times it was painful. But as painful as it was, it felt good when it was gone! Now I have less clutter and even discovered a few “new” items that I had hidden away. Two of my favorite books are Junkyard Sports (B. DeKoven) and Creative Physical Activities & Equipment (B. Davison) both from Human Kinetics. I also held onto a few of my deflated basketballs – they work great for passing only activities!
  1. Go through old files and rediscover those great games/activities that you’ve saved
    After you’ve been to a gazillion professional conferences and workshops you tend to “file away” tons of information and then forget to look at it all. Every so often I make it a point to go through all those files and start using those great activities that I thought were so terrific once upon a time. I’ve discovered that what is a good activity for one unit can sometimes be modified and used in another.
  2. Take control of your program!
    I don’t know about you but I’m getting a little tired of the expectation that I’m supposed to incorporate ELA (English Language Arts) or Math or some other “Core” subject into my daily lessons. The fact of the matter is I do try to integrate but it’s in line with Physical Education and Physical Literacy, not as a separate academic subject for which I have not been trained. We need to educate our administrators and make them aware of what our discipline is about and what students learn in our environment. The brain and body connection is so important but my students don’t need paper and pens or pencils to prove it. Don’t get me wrong, learning through movement is a great opportunity and lots can be taught with an interdisciplinary approach but that’s not my job description.
  3. Get at least 1 colleague to join SHAPE America and/or your local State AHPERD
    I’m on the Board of my local state AHPERD Zone and have a passion for professionalism. Not everyone agrees about the importance of supporting our organizations and the excuses of why not to join are varied and endless. If you can get just one person to sign up, that makes us one person stronger! Out of 42 physical education and health teachers in my own district, only 5 are current members of our State AHPERD. I think I’m the only one who belongs to SHAPE America as well. I’m working on 4 more, a bit ambitious but I’m starting with those whose memberships have lapsed and they just need a nudge (or several!) to rejoin.

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Deliberate Practice Helps Improve Sport Skills

This November I was asked to present at the New York State AHPERD conference in Verona, NY about Plyometrics and Agility Drills.  I provided a similar presentation last March for the Western Zone conference held at Canisius College and the dozen or so participants seemed to really enjoy hearing the information and participating in the activities.  This month, I decided that sharing the principles and practice from this presentation might also interest PHE America readers.

More than two decades ago Anders Ericsson wrote in an article titled The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance that, “The view that merely engaging in a sufficient amount of practice, regardless of the structure of that practice, leads to maximal performance has a long and contested history.” It is my view that many coaches allow this concept to dominate their practices and diminish their most earnest attempts at improving the skill set of their players. The idea that players should get better simply by “putting in the reps” has driven one hard whistling coach after another to force unrelated and disconnected drills on players since before I started playing. The purpose of my presentation, and Ericson’s article, is to enlighten coaches about what drills to consider keeping and dropping in the face of Deliberate Practice principles. Ericsson persisted further in his article:

In contrast to play, deliberate practice is a highly structured activity, the explicit goal of which is to improve performance. Specific tasks are invented to overcome weaknesses, and performance is carefully monitored to provide cues for ways to improve it further. We claim that deliberate practice requires effort and is not inherently enjoyable. Individuals are motivated to practice because practice improves performance. In addition, engaging in deliberate practice generates no immediate monetary rewards and generates costs associated with access to teachers and training environments. Thus, an understanding of the long-term consequences of deliberate practice is important.¹

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Improve Your Sport Skills: Five Strategies to Successfully Engage in Imagery

Imagery is a psychological performance enhancement technique that allows you to use your senses to “recreate previous positive experiences or picture new events to prepare yourself mentally for performance” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011, p. 294). This technique can help athletes learn new physical and/or mental skills and strategies or improve upon previously attained ones. In addition, it can help an athlete improve self-confidence levels. Research indicates that imagery is a commonly used performance enhancement strategy by successful athletes (Vealey & Greenleaf, 2010). For example, golfer Jack Nicklaus discussed the use and impact of imagery on his preparation for success when he shared:

Before every shot I go to the movies inside my head. Here is what I see. First, I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then, I see the ball going there; its path and trajectory and even its behavior on landing. The next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous image into reality. These home movies are a key to my concentration and to my positive approach to every shot (Weinberg & Gould, 2011, p. 293).

Creating effective imagery takes time and effort. Below is a list of five recommended strategies to consider:

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Promoting Your Physical Education Program

This article is the first part of a two part series. The second segment will be published in the next issue of PHE America.

Do you ever feel that as a PE teacher you are the “best kept secret” around? You know that what you do and what you can offer children is vital. It’s hard to believe that others don’t really know or understand what you are really all about. If only they would listen!

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Well guess what? Why wait? Why not take it upon yourself to explain to others the importance of what you do? But here’s the key: To be effective you have to do it in the context of how you fit into what they are trying to do, whether they be kids, staff or parents.

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We are a Culture in Crisis: How PE can Begin Changing the Next Generation?

Ready or not, here it comes!  New teacher evaluations, high stakes student assessments, and common core standards have been implemented whether educators are ready or willing.  While most teachers out there are plenty able, the real question is whether or not we have the ability to find the time to figure out how to implement the new content, collect enough evidence, differentiate various artifacts, and decipher between SLOs, GLEs, EALRS, EOCs, CBAs, and any other acronym I may have missed!  These days it seems as though there is so much more to learn and do ourselves we may actually forget our true task at hand – teaching.  Honestly, when do you have the time to stop, collaborate, and listen? Wait, I mean to collaborate, collect, plan, assess, communicate, and analyze? What time is left for the actual teaching itself?

Teens across the country are feeling extremely high levels of stress with some studies reporting this is the most stressed generation. Stressors include school, friends, work, extra-curricular activities and family. And stress continues to show up in studies as an underlying cause of many diseases. So what can physical and health educators do to help this generation of youth? The most obvious, which we know well, is to get our students involved in vigorous exercise, particularly cardiovascular exercise. Below is a short list of the benefits of exercise:

▸ Builds BRAIN cells

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What Should Be the Main Focus of Today’s PE Teacher?

“Believing we can improve schooling with more tests is like believing you can make yourself grow taller by measuring your height” (Robert Schaeffer).

Physical education teachers juggle their time between instructing, assessing skills and fitness levels, managing space, organizing equipment, monitoring behaviors, and much more. I confess I’m confused and frustrated. As educators shouldn’t our main focus be on addressing the students’ current needs and serving as a resource to their future learning rather than constantly testing? In my experience the teachers that end up being more of an influence on students’ pursuit of lifelong fitness are the ones who devote huge amounts of time creating additional physical activity opportunities and experiences in and beyond the school community.

When I was in elementary school, my PE teacher offered softball practice after school hours to students who were interested in extra physical activity. I used these skills later in adult league games. Our classes were also offered swimming at Timberline High School located across the road. Mr. Myers created additional chances for his students to improve important life skills. His focus was more on giving opportunities rather than assessments.

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PE Plus: Ways to Make a Difference when Students Leave the Gymnasium

I was recently asked what the biggest challenge that PE teachers face today, and if I had a super power how would I fix it? My response was immediate – time was the problem and if I had a super power I would stop the clocks during PE class. As Physical Educators we know what quality programs look like and we know what it takes to impact health and fitness in a positive way, but very often we are not given enough time to accomplish all that we know is possible. While I consider myself fortunate compared to some because I see my primary students three times in a six-day cycle, I often feel rushed because I only see my upper elementary students twice in that same cycle. During my thirty-year career I have often lobbied for more time, but at some point I realized that more PE class time was a luxury that I might never see. In response, I began to look for ways to make a difference beyond PE class time. My goal was to increase activity time and focus on healthy choices. I divided my efforts into three segments: (1) classroom activity and healthy choices; (2) special events in school, and (3) student and family activity outside of school.

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Classroom Activity and Healthy Choices

In considering ways to increase activity time and healthy choices in the classroom, I first took into account that classroom teachers are overwhelmed and don’t have enough time to accomplish all that is required. The new Common Core Standards have only increased these expectations. Adding to their work was not a realistic goal so I sought to provide opportunities that would be fun, quick, and easy. Wellness Wednesday and Fitness Friday were born as a result of a school-wide wellness committee plan. Every Wednesday announcements remind students that, “Today is Wellness Wednesday. Eat a healthy snack.” Incentives as part of our Healthy Highway program allow students to “earn miles” when healthy snacks are eaten. This simple reminder puts the focus on healthy snacks and continues the conversation about the importance of good nutrition. Often students stop me in the hall to tell me what they had for a healthy snack!

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