This past week we completed 5 Presidential Fitness
challenges. Each student was asked
to give their best effort to obtain results that we can use to construct
personal fitness plans. While a
small group of students were called to test, the remainder of the class
participated in one of a number of self-directed activities available to
them.
Harmless, right?
I thought so, until I overheard a young lady speaking to a
colleague of mine. She explained
to him that she and her mother think that the fitness challenges are dumb and
do nothing but embarrass kids. Isn’t it unfortunate that we almost have to
battle parents more than students to get their kids to buy-in to school? Shouldn’t this be a team game?
It was one of those times as an educator that you have to
bite your tongue and do your very best to remember that this is a 12-year-old
speaking and nothing that you say right now is going to register because this it
is likely coming straight from mom or dad. I didn’t step in and comment because it wasn’t my
conversation, but it certainly did get me thinking. Was she saying this
because it is Phys Ed and not Science?
Was she saying this because she has been unsuccessful? Was she saying this because….
My keyword/ theme this year for my instruction is
purpose. I want students to recognize
that everything we do in class has value to them as I attempt to better their
understanding of how they can live a healthier lifestyle. Every activity that we do, every
project they complete, and every instruction that I give I want the students to
be identifying the purpose. For
example, lets say we spend a few days on a basketball unit. I want students to understand that the
purpose is to learn how participating in basketball can benefit them. I want them to know that it is a great
cardio activity, burns tons of calories, is a sport you can participate in
recreationally, and so on. The
purpose is not to make you LeBron, but to give you the necessary skills and
understanding so that you can use basketball as a means of living a healthy
lifestyle.
Back to my story…
This young lady has obviously mixed up her understanding of why we do
the fitness testing. It certainly
is not to embarrass anyone. We do
the testing multiple times during the year, and this initial group of tests
allows us to establish a result that we can build upon. With each test we discuss the component
of physical fitness that the test assesses, and we also discuss activities the
students can do to improve their scores in each test. Each student will then take their results and will work on
setting goals for themselves within each fitness concept to achieve before the
next round of testing. With these
goals, the student and I will sit down and discuss an action plan that will
help keep them on track to achieving their goal. So, in the end, the testing is less about the actual test,
and more about learning how to set goals, create action plans, track their
progress, and engage in purposeful activities to improve a certain physical
fitness component. I
hope the only thing close to embarrassment that they’ll experience is that they
smiled too big, or celebrated like a little kid when they do a pull-up when
they could barely even hang from the bar in September.
I believe this scenario is valuable to all educators. No matter if you are in PE, music,
social studies, science, or any other subject, we as educators should be
prepared to back-up anything and everything we do with reasoning and
purpose. Whether it is a student
that is a non-believer, a parent that speaks poorly of our classes, a colleague
that just wants to know more about your lessons, or an administrator looking to
support you, make sure that everything you do in your classroom or assign for
homework has a well-defined purpose.
Also, do not be afraid to communicate the value of the assignment up
front (begin with the end in mind!!!).
Just like I’ll be teaching my classes next week about
defining a goal and working towards it… defining a purpose from the start will help
to keep us on track, to constantly evaluate our progress, and to cherish the
reward of achievement in the end.
Take care,
Coach Mo
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