One of the great things about technology is how its created more ways for us to communicate with each other. Face-to-face meetings may be more effective and enjoyable, but for many reasons we unfortunately can’t always get together at the same time and place. So this month, I’m pleased to be able to share with you a free online presentation that you might find interesting.
Time differences of course make it hard to join many presentations live. Fortunately, GOPHER Sport has recorded and archived its free monthly webinars online. It’s been doing this for more than a year. Take a look. I think you’ll be impressed by the topics and presenters – http://www.gophersport.com/webinar-recordings.
My recent presentation focused on where I think physical education should be going in the future. Since my participation in NASPE’s PE 2020 initiative a few years ago, I’ve become very interested in the future and especially in what it may hold for physical education.
I’ve found that the best way to make New Year plans and resolutions is to think back to my last year’s resolutions. Did I stick with my resolutions or somehow seem to forget them? I start my asking my wife who is a retired principal a simple question, “Is there something you suggest for all teachers?” Typically, she responds with the suggestion to ponder the question, “What will your students remember after they leave your school and graduate?” My wife isn’t a PE person, but she has guided me in many decisions by sharing her administrative perspective. One resolution that I used for many years was don’t tell me what you do, but show me results. Not games, nor gimmicks. Just prove to me what you do and show me the evidence.
Health and PE teachers hold the key to student success. Students should know about their body and how to take care of it, and as health or PE teachers we can help them with this. This includes using heart rate monitors, prescribing fitness regimens, teaching nutrition and doing all that we can to help our students stay healthy for a lifetime. Our role is to guide them on the path of discovery to making healthy choices, staying active, choosing to join gyms, and participating in their communities as citizens of the world. Through their behaviors our students should display an important message to the health care system.
Today, more than ever before, we can help fight the obesity dilemma and show the value of physical education. It’s our time to step on the soapbox and pound the steps of state legislators and show others what we as physical educators can do. My personal resolution is to continue to remain as an advocate for all we do as physical education teachers and explore all possible avenues to garner support. And we need to go beyond recognizing the hundreds of awesome teachers on Facebook and thousands of top notch teachers across the country: It is our job to help change the behaviors of those teachers who don’t understand what quality PE is, and others who are either lazy or don’t care.
Usually teachers think about fresh ideas before the school year begins, but since this is New Year’s Resolution time, rethinking and re-evaluation is in order. After all, it’s always good to reflect how well you are meeting the professional goals you set for the current school year.
I always wanted to get my kids participating in heart pumping physical activity for most of their class time while doing something they might feel motivated to do on their own when not in school. I was determined to give each student a chance to participate fully, during the course of the school year – in as many physical education units that they LOVED or at the very least, that they would value for its health benefits.
Unless you’ve known your students for years this is difficult to evaluate midstream, but by this time in the school year you should be able to identify the students who are in need of something different in order to get their heart and head involved in physical education. That’s why the start of the New Year is a great time to ask yourself whether you are meeting the needs of all of your students. These include those who are:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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:
