The Effects of the Pandemic on Physical Education School-Aged Children

The global pandemic has wreaked havoc on academics, classrooms, and physical education. There is no doubt physical education and the physical development of children during their developmental years were greatly affected by the pandemic. Physical education is a field in which physical distancing, wearing masks, and avoiding close contact is extremely difficult. The importance of physical education for a child’s social, emotional, and physical well-being has been shown for decades (Bailey, 2006). As the country slowly comes out of the pandemic restrictions, interest in how physical education classes were affected during a pandemic should be studied.

Screen Shot 2022-09-13 at 6.23.46 PM

During the early 2022 school semester, 13 graduate students (currently full-time teachers in the school system), who were taking an online Masters of Physical Education degree at Canisius College, provided insight into how the pandemic affected their physical education classes. The teachers reflected on their experiences teaching physical education during the 2021 school year from January to December. The classes the 13 teachers taught ranged from K to grade 12. The teachers were from different parts of the United States with one teacher (from the United States) teaching in Indonesia. The first question addressed to the students was: How much physical education time did their students receive during the pandemic? The results indicated a 65% drop in physical education time across the 13 teachers surveyed. The total time taking physical education classes dropped from an average of just under 110 minutes per week to just under 40 minutes per week during the 2021 year.

Read More

Coding Pathways with Ozobots in PE

IMG_4772

I love finding creative ways to incorporate S.T.E.A.M into Physical Education. S.T.E.A.M stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. I was at my daughter’s Open House for her enrichment class in Bayport where she was showing me how her class was using Ozobots to practice coding.  I was immediately intrigued by these little coding robots. I immediately noticed how the students’ faces lit up with excitement as they explained to their parents all the functions you could perform with them. Immediately I thought: what if we combine fitness activities with coding? What a great way to relate to the student’s interests and get them excited about fitness!

Y_Ties_Banner_2

If you are not familiar with Ozobots, they are little robots with sensors that allow you to program behaviors you want the Ozobots to perform. Ozobots move by detecting the color of the line underneath it. They follow lines using a back-and-forth motion. The Ozobots also detect a combination of colors which are programmed for more complex commands such as “turn around,” “turbo speed,” “backward walk,” etc. Check here for more info on Ozobots.

Read More

Protecting Athlete Wellness in the Hyper-Competitive World of Sports

Sport is captivating. Engaging in it elicits strong emotions for many people, like passion, excitement, and love. Sport is so central to many people’s lives that it impacts choices participants and spectators make about how they live. For example, practice and game schedules often determine how one’s days, weeks, and even vacations are planned. In addition, great value is placed on the role of sport in our lives. Sport is argued to be a place where people can learn and practice socially valued behaviors like teamwork, perseverance, and hard work; all characteristics also used to describe valued employees and community members. However, sport can also encourage behaviors that can be negative and damaging. For example, the culture of power and performance sports encourages athletes to play through pain and injury. Those who make that choice are often rewarded through adulation which reinforces their decision. Certain behaviors, including playing through injury, striving for distinction, accepting no obstacles in the pursuit of success, and always putting the game first, combine to create the Sport Ethic, a phenomenon that supports and reaffirms one’s identity as an athlete (Coakley, 2021).

logo_world

The elements of the Sport Ethic may read to some like a roadmap to building the perfect athlete. Subscribers to the phenomenon may well be aggressive, obedient, and fiercely committed to the team and sport, perhaps to a fault. “They will have to drag me off the field.” “All I want is all you got.” “Softball is life.” “Leave it all on the field.” These and similar statements are common affirmations of the Sport Ethic with each communicating that we, as coaches and parents, expect student-athletes to place the game before their well-being, relationships with others, and their future. That is really the core of the Sport Ethic; interrelated behaviors and ways of thinking exhibited in our actions and communications that encourage one to put the sport first. However, overuse injuries and dysfunctional work and personal relationships are potential consequences to the adoption of and over-conformity to the Sport Ethic, where the risk of serious injury is predictable in those who ignore minor injuries (Coakley, 2021).

Read More

The 2022 National Conference on Child Health and Well-Being

Screen Shot 2022-10-18 at 9.54.17 AM

The 2022 National Conference on Child Health and Well-Being is just around the corner on November 2-4 in Chicago! This conference focuses on best practices for districts, schools, and families to support sustainable solutions for children’s health. Attend to learn about school health best practices and to network with other school staff, parents/caregivers, and community members. Check out the conference schedule and register here.

2019-AFHK-Logo

Read More

Show and Tell: A Teaching Strategy

Do you remember Show and Tell events when you were in elementary school?  More than likely you brought a special object to school and showed your classmates how it worked or what was unique about it. Maybe you explained a bit of history about your particular item or why it was important to you.

From an educational standpoint, the purpose of Show and Tell was to help children developed their public speaking skills. The concept of Show and Tell can be also be applied to teaching and coaching when using demonstrations during a lesson or practice.  There has been a wealth of motor learning research over the years on the use and value of demonstrations (show) and verbal instructions (tell) to facilitate learning a new task (Magill and Anderson, 2017; Schmidt and Lee, 2014; SHAPE America 2014; Wulf, 2013). When embracing the Social Learning Theory framework, demonstrating a skill or task creates a mental image that students can identify with as they attempt to reproduce the movement or activity (Magill & Anderson, 2017). The concept, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” emphasizes the importance of demonstrating skill techniques and activities when teaching and coaching. Adding verbal instruction, along with a demonstration, further helps students assimilate the task being taught.

It has been my experience that teacher preparation candidates find it much easier to use verbal explanations than demonstrations during instruction. In fact, they are really good at telling. Students in teacher/coach preparation programs often have acquired a high level of content knowledge, especially in those sports or activities they have played. As such, they tend to explain everything they know when teaching a skill. The overload of information provided becomes too much for learners to effectively process and remember. Plus, excessive talking during the explanation takes up too much time within a lesson or practice and reduces the amount of time available for practice and play opportunities.

Read More

Family PE Week

Screen Shot 2022-09-28 at 11.58.43 AM

Active Schools invites you to participate in “Family PE Week” which is officially held the first week in October. However, this event can be celebrated at any time throughout the year. The goal of Family PE Week is to help families, schools and communities understand the importance of physical education.

Active Schools has partnered with OPEN to provide teachers and schools a variety of tools and resources. There are many ways to celebrate and promote this event, which can be found HERE. Families can also participate in the Active Family Challenge and discover creative ways to incorporate PE at home as a family.

Read More