You teach PE...virtually!?!

By -

 About me

I am a health and PE teacher and I LOVE it!  I have been teaching for over 10 years now but lately I have been thinking a little out of the box.  As a matter of fact, everything I do now is "out of the box" because I find myself working at Empower Virtual Program in Newnan, GA. 

random person I meet: Wait, you teach PE...virtually? 
me: yep!
random person: So what does that look like? Do you just stand in front of the computer and do jumping jacks?
me: nope
rando: Do you just give them a list of exercises to do? 
me: nope
rando: Well you obviously don't play sports, so what exactly do you do? 
me: I teach kindergarten through 8th grade PE and Health
rando:😖

Let's Talk Standards Baby: 

I have always been a teacher who values meeting standards and indicators!  Whether it is SHAPE America national standards or local Georgia standards. I often find myself reminding "randos" or even fellow teachers and administrators that I am not an aerobics instructor or a team coach during PE class.  I am teaching the general population how to be a physically literate individual for LIFE! 

*Could there be a more important role as a teacher!?!

Yes, even in a virtual setting we can...

  • demonstrate competency in a variety of motor skills and movement pattern
  • apply knowledge of concepts, principals and strategies related to movement
  • demonstrate knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of fitness
  • exhibit responsible personal behavior that respects self and others
  • recognize the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge and self expression

Trial and (mostly) Error: 

Year one teaching virtual PE...DROWNING 😱
My classes are taught live in a google meet and my daily schedule includes both elementary and middle school classes.  ALSO, I have asynchronous assignments posted for middle school students who are on a rotation. 
You PE teachers know that there is not a prepackaged curriculum to purchase that solves all your problems. Needless to say, it took a while and plenty of trial and error to find a system that works for me. (Here is my crude scope and sequence)

DOES NOT work: (elementary)
  1. Demonstrating skills or technique in my meet camera
  2. Explanation without presenting a picture or diagram
  3. Using too much equipment 
  4. Spending more than 4 minutes on one activity or game
  5. Teaching until the end of class time

Works: (elementary)
  1. Use youtube videos to demonstrate skills or technique 
  2. I add everything to a google slide (skill cues, game set-up, equipment needed, etc)
  3. I have a list of 4 required PE equipment items that you can find around the house or at the Dollar Tree.
  4. Imbed YouTube videos in the google slide and use the format tool to start and stop the video. (We will play round 1 & 2 for 3 mins and then later in the lesson we will come back and play round 3 & 4)
  5. End with 2 minutes of mindfulness and allow time for student comments or reflection


CONTENT: (resources) 

Fortunately the Pandemic created some real overachiever PE teachers who drove into Youtube and creating content!  Here are some of my favorites...

Elementary Level

Middle School Level

FITNESSGRAM: is this even possible? 

Oh the FitnessGram, you love it or you hate it as a student... or as a teacher for that matter. 

*Funny story: My first year teaching virtually I made the mistake of asking my middle school students to self administer the 1 mile run as a baseline cardiovascular test. I spent a whole week teaching them how to measure a mile, how to time themselves, how to document results...WHAT WAS I THINKING! 
Upon reading the results and seeing that I had several new "olympic record" times I realized that self administering FitnessGram was just not going to work! 
 
In my current teaching situation I am not required to enter FitnessGram results, I am not required to measure improvement or link it to my professional development. PHEW!  
However, I still teach and administer the FitnessGram tests...virtual style. 
Here is my FitnessGram lesson. 
  • PACER- we use the 20 meter cadence and we do 5 jumping jacks per lap
  • CURL-UPS- we use the same protocol without a mat or line marker
  • PUSH-UPS- we use the same protocol without a chest parker 
  • SIT & REACH- we use a measuring system along the ground

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating Links in Book Creator

By -
Did you know that you can link web addresses or even other pages of a book in your Book Creator creations? You can!  My students were working on making a book about various states in the United States of America and one of my students wanted to find out about this. After some research, we figured out how to make a table of contents with direct links to pages within her book!   Here is a video that demonstrates . . . 
Read more

The Starting Point

By -
Image
       As I prepared for my first year of being an official virtual teacher in our school system's new virtual school, I thought of ways that I can prepare my students for the future, not just academically, but also in equipping them for the innovative society in which we live today. With technology at the forefront of our program, what ways could I utilize technology to teach and enhance their academic growth, yet still make it manageable and age-appropriate?      I personally had never blogged before, but knew that I wanted my students to create their own blogs imbedded into their digital portfolios.  That meant that I needed to play around with it myself so I could also model for them the expectation. I had previously used Kidblog in my face-to-face classroom, but I wasn't crazy about the changes made to the platform. I wanted something that would not be public, but could be shared with families. Since students would be creating digital port...
Read more