Author: Laura Zavatto

What I Learned Today!

You can always teach an old dog new tricks and I for one, (sigh,… Am I really becoming an old dog?), love to continuously learn both personally and professionally. “Life is a great school” is one of my mantras and just the other day while teaching, I had one of those “ah-ha” moments and it has changed how I plan to move forward with my teaching.

Now, for many of you this might be obvious, but for some reason I had never asked my students the simple question, “What did you learn today?” Now, I always ask some basic questions at the closure of my lessons, such as, “Who can tell me what strategy you used in the game today?” or “What was this activity really about?” or “Who do you think was a good leader in your group and why?”

Although I always get a few raised hands and hear some great responses, the other day I had a class that kept looking at me kind of quizzically as I fired off my questions until I finally asked, “What did you learn about today?” So many hands shot up and answers came flying out of their mouths! “I learned how to work with my group,” “I learned how to help solve a problem,” “I learned how to balance my (pool) noodle.” I was thrilled! This simple yet very specific question personalized the answer from each student.

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Preparing for the New School Year

As I write this, it is the end of the school year and summer’s fair breezes are flowing through my window. My mind is far away from prep work for the upcoming year, which is my topic to write about this month; I am still trying to digest and review what has occurred these past nine months. But, it’s all a bit of a continuous loop of reflection of the past as well as planning for the future. They are symbiotic though I do need to take a mental break and simply dive into my garden and commune with the birds, the bees, my lovely flowers, and all forty of my vegetable plants for several weeks without a thought of work!

What I do know about my upcoming year is that I will be working yet again with a new partner who will split his time between the middle school and my elementary school. There will also be a third person coming just two days a week for one class each day. A positive is that I like both of these colleagues and foresee an amicable work relationship with each. Another plus is that each will bring new ideas to the table. I love to try new things as well as see how someone else teaches. I believe they too feel the same way so this will be a win-win for all of us.

For the past two years, I’ve worked with someone who is ready to retire and who has been teaching solely at the high school for the past fifteen years. I did most of the teaching of class content when we were together; he usually oversaw the warm-ups. He was appreciative of this as his pedagogy at the elementary level was pretty rusty. During his second year with me he was a bit more comfortable which was good because he had several classes on his own. I noticed that when we did not teach together at the beginning of the week due to vacations or whatever else, he would basically shoot from the hip with his single class. It was very helpful for him to see the lesson taught in the beginning of the week when we were teamed together, and then he would simply mimic the lesson on his own for his solo classes. He seemed to respect my style of teaching, which pleased and flattered me especially when I would hear my own words during his classes. In the past, I used to harbor resentment towards colleagues who “copied” me because I felt they were being lazy. As a more seasoned professional, I now realize that copying is perhaps one of the greatest compliments.

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Healthy New Year Resolutions

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:

  1. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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!
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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Celebrating PE & Sport

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month and May 1-7 celebrates National Physical Education and Sport Week. My feelings are many on celebrating PE and sports. After nearly twenty-five years of teaching and coaching, my emotions have run the gamut from excited to disheartened, energized to deflated, motivated to total despair. I’ve worked for administrators who knew the value and importance of physical health and wellness as well as those who looked upon “gym” as the irksome and intrusive mandated break in between “real” teaching blocks. I wish I had a quarter for every time a classroom teacher or administrator has said on a bright sunny day, “Why aren’t you outside? It’s so beautiful out! Just take them out and run them!” – I’d be a zillionaire, and probably very tanned!

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The reality is, it can be very hard to celebrate PE and sports when you don’t feel you have the support or positive attitudes necessary to feel relevant and appreciated. For me, it’s the students that keep me going, the occasional parent who lets me know how much I’ve made a difference in her child’s life, the student teacher who tells me that the many other programs that he or she has observed don’t offer what I do, or the colleague who once gave me a backhanded compliment by saying, “You work too hard and do too much.”

How To Celebrate

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Celebrating Healthy Hearts in PE

February is the month I like to focus on rope jumping skills with my elementary students and the unit culminates with a Jump Rope for Heart event. People will often ask me, “How can you do rope jumping for an entire month?” The answer to that is simple. With my physical education classes meeting only two times per week for all the grade levels (I have 1st through 5th grades), each child actually attends only six classes (and that’s if they’re not sick or on vacation!). More often than not, I find that six classes is insufficient for this unit as there is so much you can do with rope jumping!

As a general rule (modifications apply for the younger students who are just learning versus the older students who are more advanced), the first week is spent on individual jumping skills (two classes worth); the second week is for partner jumping one day and long jump ropes the next; the third week is jumping stations (two classes). Our Jump Rope for Heart event is scheduled after school the last day of the unit. Tying in the heart with the high level activity of jumping rope is a great way to get more in-depth about the heart and how we can keep our bodies healthy through moderate to vigorous exercise. In years past I have also done a heart obstacle course, which is also fun. There are many examples of how to do this. One such example can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FoucFF9lDo? (also shown below).

For the stations, I include a jumping obstacle course that includes broad jump, leaping, low vaulting, plyometrics, hopscotch, and timed zigzag skier jumps. Other station areas include pogo sticks & mini-trampolines, long jump ropes, and short jump ropes (the students can work on their Kangaroo Club sheets here -full description follows!). My unit begins with an overview of how the heart works and why exercise is good for us. If you are a Jump Rope for Heart coordinator you know that there are many terrific resources available in the coordinator kit. The American Heart Association has excellent DVD’s with many jump rope skills (individual, partner, and long jump rope) that come with your coordinator kit if you decide to do a Jump Rope for Heart event. You can just google “Jump Rope Skills” for a wealth of resources but here are a couple of websites that show images of tricks:

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Teaching Conflict Resolution and other Social and Emotional Skills in Elementary School Physical Education

Fall is a time for creating a sense of community with your students so that the rest of the school year goes along smoothly. Programs for “Social Emotional Learning” (SEL) and “Character Education” focus on creating positive environments so that no matter what unit you teach your students will benefit in ways beyond the basic acquisition of physical skills. As physical educators, we are ideally positioned to foster a climate for learning via SEL and good character building.

Collaborative for Academic, Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL) is one organization that “works to advance the science and evidence-based practice of social and emotional learning.” Their scientifically rigorous studies of adolescents between ages 5 – 18 show that SEL programs:

  • Are effective in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioral and emotional problems.
  • Are effective for racially and ethnically diverse students from urban, rural, and suburban settings across the K-12 grade range.
  • Improve students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, and positive social behavior. They also reduce conduct problems and emotional distress.
  • Improve students’ achievement test scores by 11 percentile points.
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