"Just Move Those Beautiful Bodies of Yours"

Today we had a guest speaker, Anne Roberts and she was a really colorful person.  We had to do an activity were we could only let in 8 of 13 people outside of our bomb shelter.  It was really hard to decide with our group because we all had different views and opinions on who we should let in.  I wanted to let the body builder in for his strength were other group members wanted to let in the science teacher or the minister.

She gave a little personal speech toward the end of her activity that we need to expand peoples "file folder" on PE teachers and that if some one would have taken the time to really work with her as a kid that she wouldn't of had such a bad experience with gym and people.  That we all have the power to influence kids to be active and not to judge them just based off of their body size and skill sets.  

We also had two read along's in class and one was based in Virginia on Halloween I really liked it because it referenced different scary creatures from different towns in Virginia. The other book was about bringing different pets to the library and it was funny because none of them could happen but imagining them happening was fun and would of been a great book to read to kids.

Why Yoga Pants Are Incredibly Dangerous to Today's Youth... LOL

http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/why-yoga-pants-are-incredibly-dangerous-to-today-s-youth/article_be9fb59b-9bcd-596e-bbab-5d13d6d3988e.html

I found this article while just scrolling through Facebook and it really appealed to me not only because I love my yoga pants but because I really agree with what she is saying and because I feel like I can really relate to how she felt in high school.  We are teaching  girls that they are asking for it if they wear certain clothes, that when they wear certain things they are taking away from boys "learning environments".  Instead we should be teaching boys to respect women and their bodies and that "boys will be boys" is not a valid excuse for anything.  After reading this article I felt like I had be a victim of this brain wash our society is calling a norm.  I have vivid flashbacks to being publicly humiliated for wearing a skirt to school and if that was punishment enough I was sent home or given lunch detention for the week.  This article made me look back and think about my learning environment, by my junior year of high school I was wearing sweats every other day just to avoid being punished and avoid comments from teacher and the opposite sex.  It brought back a lot of emotions but I loved reading what she had to say and I definitely thought this was worth sharing.

September 23

Today in class we talked about different technology we can use in school settings a little bit.  I really liked the app that Mrs. Phillips used in her elementary school called Aurasma which let the students create videos and share them with other classmates by putting the camera on a picture.  I really like the idea of using technology in the school setting because it's important to teach kids not only how to use them but use them safely and also to make sure the teachers know how to use them as well.

September 16

 Today in class we first got to choose a book to read and share it with the class, I choose the book skeleton all about bones, which talked about all the different bones in your body and even though it was worded for little kids I still learned a lot about our skeleton.

Then Brandon shared his read aloud with the class called "my friend rabbit" he choose a really good book that had all types of animals in it.

We then watched a video about ELL also known as English language learner, it was very interesting to see how students can go from not knowing any English to reading and speaking in fluent sentences.  A couple things that PE teachers can do to help ELL students can be including some of their native languages in posters and handouts in the gym and in class.

Cutting PE Could Hurt Grades

Ashley Ferrara

EDRE 415

How Cutting Physical Education in Schools Could Hurt Grades

A hot topic going around the physical education world is cutting down or cutting out completely gym class in the secondary and possibly primary setting.  The argument is that programs like physical education, music and art can be cut in order to allow for more time in the academic classroom.  While most people see why this could improve test score, studies have actually showed the opposite.  In a study of 48 students at a primary age students who had more physical fitness time actually scored higher on academic mental tests.  That being said, kids in the top 30% of kids their age group for aerobic activity where able to learn and recall much better than those in the lower 30% range of aerobic activity.

I agree that some middle and high school gym programs are doing our children a disservice and not providing them with educational lesson plans and just "rolling out the ball and pulling in the pay check".  This gives our programs a back reputation and it is our job as the up and coming physical educators to break this mold.  Even at a high school level we should still be focusing on teaching fitness and lifetime skills so that our kids will want to keep fitness in their life even when they don't have gym class.  Our goal is to teach physical activity to where kids value it and want it in their everyday life.

Sifferlin, A. (2013, September 11). How Cutting Physical Education in Schools Could Hurt Grades.  Retrieved 9/8/2014 from The Time: http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/11/how-cutting-physical-education-in-schools-could-hurt-grades/

September 2

The first day of tryouts is today and I am excited to see who all came to try out.