If you are a climbing wall instructor or physical educator with climbing as part of your program, you know firsthand that some people are natural climbers. They instinctively put their bodies in the optimal positions to get across or up the climbing wall, while others need direct instruction.
In order to help climbers progress, it’s good to know what to look for so that you can help your climbers improve over time. In the early stages, climbers should work to master the following basic climbing technique.
Adapted physical education is not intended solely for students with disabilities. Adapted physical education is physical education that has been adapted specifically for an individual. To teach adapted physical education is to differentiate your instruction. In other content area classes, teachers are expected to differentiate their teaching. All students are expected to learn the same content, but how they are expected to learn that content is up to the teacher.
When teaching a general physical education class, you will have students who excel, students who struggle, and students, often the majority, who fall somewhere in the middle. This is the same for all content areas, that is why there is a need for differentiation; differentiation helps all students learn while being challenged. You are meeting your students where they are at, rather than teaching the same information to everyone and hoping they learn.
I wonder how many people within the work of physical education can admit what they are doing isn’t working. Kids can say it (Edwards, 2019). Parents can say it. Academics who perhaps used to teach can say it. But can people in the field say it? And if they can say it, what is the result of this confession? Frustration? Blame? Who is open and willing and free enough to utilize this acknowledgment as a means to do things differently?
The schools have done it (and continue to do it) by replacing physical education with physical activity. They don’t need a teacher, they need space and equipment, and supervision. The purpose and success of recess don’t get questioned as PE does. Its benefits are known and agreed upon — it releases energy, encourages play, offers socialization, and doesn’t have an expectation of an outcome. A kid can just sit in the grass and be left alone without worry or concern that something specific should be achieved or accomplished.
Whitehead (2013, p.29) defines physical literacy as “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activity throughout the life course.” As a concept, physical literacy underpins the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America) National Standards and Grade level outcomes for K-12 Physical Education (2021). SHAPE America, as an organization, offers support, networking, and educational resources for health and physical educators throughout the United States. At present, the concept of physical literacy offers an opportunity for physical educators to embrace a practical and actionable platform that will advocate for quality physical education in the school setting and opportunities for all-age physical activity throughout the community. The following are three actionable strategies physical educators at all grade levels can adopt to establish and maintain a physically literate community.
Without a doubt, physical education has had a tough go, just like every aspect of life within the past 18 months. While the school year lent itself to many challenges, there are two big takeaways from this past everchanging school year that I will use to improve my teaching practice as education returns to normal, hopefully very quickly…
(1) Student Choice Was Key Whether it was full virtual instruction, hybrid, or full in-person instruction the best adjustment I could’ve made to our classes was giving students the choice of which workout they could do. As local restrictions heavily limited what we could do in class; the bulk of activity in PE classes was bodyweight exercises. Students definitely missed the cooperative games along with competition and made no reservations letting me know that. In order to create some buy-in to the class activities, I went to a choice model (Shawley, 2014). While fully online Students could choose between workout A or workout B for each day of the week, upon returning to the building, when the entire class was completing the same Bodyweight workout, I would give students 4-5 slots to perform an exercise of their choice. This allowed students some individual freedom that they weren’t really able to have throughout the full virtual or even hybrid experience.
I never make New Year’s resolutions. Though when 2021 started, I knew I needed to make one change, I vowed to not log onto Strava at all during the year. Like other physical activity trackers, Strava connects humans from around the world through their movement journeys. Strava provides all the details of the activity from the mileage, elevation gain, and even digital maps to allow others to chase the top spot on leaderboards. In the age of GPS (Global Positioning System) watches, one can synchronize their watches to their phone to upload all their fitness data from their watch directly to Strava. In seconds, one can know all the objective details from their run.
In an effort to learn more about the training philosophies of some of the best trail and mountain runners in the world, I thought I would investigate just how much elevation gain said athletes run during an average week. Even though my intention was to use Strava as a tool, the more time I spent on Strava, the more toxic the application became for my wellbeing. I started comparing myself to my competitors. I felt a desire to look at Strava daily even though seeing everyone else’s activities further decreased my confidence in myself. I realized I did not run as much elevation, mileage, or even run on the trails as much during the week as my competitors, which made me question my coach and training philosophy.
The irony was that in 2020 I was the fittest I have ever been. I was spending more time on the trails than ever before and yet my confidence was nonexistent. Through reflection, I believe my newfound obsession with checking and comparing myself on Strava is what caused my confidence to absolutely plummet. I had no reason in the past to question or compare myself but now I was more focused on everyone else’s journey instead of being present for mine.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a professional runner and qualify for the Olympics. I viewed professional athletes’ lifestyles as the quintessential life on repeat: running, eating, running some more, and sleeping; I mean how could one not want to solely focus on the sport they loved? Since I began my post-collegiate running journey, I have always been juggling chaos. From teaching a philosophy of human movement class, helping coach a collegiate cross country and track team, working on my doctorate, sometimes working at a café, and running; life is busy. In the past, my friends and family have asked if I should consider solely focusing on running. Logically, if I had more time to recover, sleep, and reduce the stress in my life, my running might improve. I seriously considered moving back to my hometown in Colorado because living with the Rocky Mountains as my playground would allow me to truly focus on running. I would find a part-time job and run. However, as many people experienced, the COVID-19 pandemic provided the time for reflection to determine what was meaningful in my life.
The pandemic forced many aspects of society to shut down, which meant collegiate sports were not happening and the café I worked at closed temporarily. Due to the situation, I was finally living the professional athlete life I had always envisioned. From March through August of 2020 I was focused solely on running. I was just running, eating, and sleeping on repeat. Initially, I was excited for the extra time to focus on myself and improve some of the areas of my training that are neglected due to the normal chaos of life. My stress was nonexistent, and I was consistently sleeping more than I ever had, even taking naps during the day, which were benefitting my training. I drove to the local mountain weekly and sought out soft surfaces daily, which I was unable to do pre-COVID-19 due to time constraints. I used to solely run from my apartment for easy runs and workouts. I was only able to drive to soft surfaces on the weekends when I had more time.
