A Changed Perspective on Teaching Physical Education
I think that before I can explain how this course has impacted my idea of the kind of Physical Education teacher I will be, I must explore my previous knowledge and experiences that I had leading up to this part of my learning journey. My memory is quite vague when it comes to recalling specific details from my elementary physical education program, but I remember learning many movement skills (sport related), a giant (in the eyes of an elementary student) apparatus to climb on and having a lot of fun. However, when learning skills related to sport we were not given cognitive knowledge and real life applications for the movement. The program revolved around teaching skills, but lacked teaching towards empathy or what it meant to live a healthy lifestyle. While I had a lot of fun and confidence with physical education at this point in my life, that positive attitude towards PE slowly disappeared throughout high school.
The memory that haunts me to this day is the dreaded (for some) beep test within fitness testing. As someone who would be sitting out far before the last person had completed the task, there was a lot of sitting around for majority of the class. The fitness testing assessment seemed to grade each student based on the exact same expectations regardless of their Generic Levels of Skill Proficiency (GLSP). As someone who was not a proficient mover, I felt like I was set up for failure within the class - which discouraged me from pursuing the class when it became optional in grade 10. With these experiences, physical education was the only course I was hesitant (and somewhat dreaded) teaching. My journey throughout EPE 310 not only allowed me to reflect on my previous experiences from a teachers perspective, but has allowed me to understand how I can create a more positive and beneficial physical education program for my future students.
This semester looked a little different than what everyone was used to, but that did not seem to effect the knowledge gained throughout this course. I have learnt many lessons and have gained a better understanding of one of the most important documents for teachers: The Saskatchewan curriculum. Throughout days four and five, my peers and I were asked to participate in a scavenger hunt throughout the Physical Education program. From the Broad Areas of Learning (lifelong learners, sense of self, community. and place, engaged citizens and cross-curricular competencies) to the goals of the K-12 Saskatchewan curriculum (active living goal, skillful movement goal and relationship goal), I have a deep understanding of the curriculum and how to use it. As noted in class, this will be helpful in future interviews - Thanks Alex! The course allowed me to understand how to utilize the curriculum when preparing for future lessons and how to adapt learning activities to include all learners while working towards the outcomes.
My mindset going into this learning journey always had inclusivity in mind, and this class deepened that understanding through examples, advice, and information about learners that may be present in our learning community. While I acknowledge the importance of adapting our lessons and assessment to all of our learners, one suggestions to adapt for religious (or other) beliefs in the classroom stuck out to me: When students beliefs do not allow them to make contact with the opposite sex, use pool noodles to take physical contact out of the learning activity. I saw this in practice when the peer lesson that I assessed used this strategy in their adaptions for the lesson. I had given the suggestion for adding it to their lesson rather than an adaption. I believe this could also help students with spatial awareness and help decrease chance of injury. I was also deeply impacted by the video shown in the lecture on day 18, which I have displayed below. It showed many ways to be adaptive within the physical education learning environment and shared their perspectives as an educator. One teacher had stated, "as long as my entire group/class knows that it doesn't matter what your ability is that we can adapt and that it can be fun regardless of your athletic ability" (Para New Brunswick, 2012, 0:18). This is something that I think of when considering lesson plans, inclusivity of my language and activities, and assessment. While I learnt many lessons throughout my time learning in this class, three topics had stuck out, impacted and gave me confidence in my ability as a future physical education educator: Assessment, generic levels of skill proficiency and appropriate behaviour strategies. I go into detail about each of these below the video.
Generic Levels of Skill Proficiency (GLSP):
Within previous Physical Education courses, I have explored the GLSP without truly understanding how it related to lesson planning. Without the tools to utilize the GLSP, the information seemed to be useless to me as an educator - you may understand what swimming is, but can not swim unless you are practice. This course allowed me to understand that these "provide a way to assess the abilities of entire classes of children" (Stoddart, 2020b, slide 5). One class may possess students of a variety of levels. Further, an individual student may be at different levels for different skills. For example, a student may be in the utilization stage in foot dribbling and entering the control stage of hand dribbling at one time. By understanding how students may experience success at each stage, teachers are able to reflect on that information and create equitable lesson plans satisfying the outcomes listed in the curriculum. It is extremely important to pay attention to the students abilities within tasks as learning tasks are only "appropriate when students are highly successful and seek to continue practicing" (Stoddart, 2020b, slide 24). The knowledge gained about the GLSP gives me a fresh sense of excitement for my future teaching career and confidence in providing an equitable program for my future learners. I had felt that the levels of students were not considered when my past educators considered assessment, which created a feeling of failure towards physical education. I hope that my students never feel discouraged to life a physically active life because my lessons do not consider the unique successes of all my learners. While it is important to recognize the abilities of the students in my future classes when planning the learning activities, it should also be considered when planning for assessment.
Assessment:
Going into this course, I had rarely touched on assessment in my previous learnings. From my experience, assessment seemed to be a guide that all students successes were judged upon. I felt that this type of practice was wrong, but did not have much experience in any other forms of grading within my high school years (I do not remember what assessment looked/felt like within my elementary years). However, this course allowed me to understand that "assessment is meaningful" (stoddart, 2020a, slide 16). Assessment should be for learning, while supporting the needs of the students and encouraging their participation and learning. The activities and expectations that should take place in physical education should be compatible with the the GLSP of the class. I am excited to create a physical education environment where all students have the ability to succeed. One of the biggest takeaways from this class was that "different learners [need] different assessments" (Stoddart, 2020a, slide 10). The realization that just like lesson plans, assessment strategies should be flexible and reflective of the individual students of the class has completely changed my perspective on how I will assess my students and ensure their success in the course. A huge part of being able to do this is becoming a reflective teacher, as we must always reflect on the classes skill levels, the success they are achieving in the plans that are taking place and if the students are enjoying the physical activity they are engaging in. This same mindset needs to be carried over when considering adaptations for learning activities to ensure an inclusive learning environment for all learners, including those that have physical restrictions, inappropriate behavioural tendencies and so on.
Appropriate Behaviour
As assessment needs to be "clearly communicated, understood and transparent" (PHE Canada, 2020, p. 3), our expectations for participation and behaviour needs to be stated in the same way. Going into any learning environment, whether it be mathematics or physical education, I will communicate my expectations with my students at the beginning of our time together. I will express what behaviours I expect them to show within the class, while giving them a chance to tell me what they expect out of myself and the class. I will give the students plenty of time to critically think about what they need to successful learners in physical education and return back to the classroom expectation conversation throughout our time together. I became encouraged when I realized how many ways you can correct the behaviour of a class without it taking up class time, singling out/embarrassing children or causing a conflict/disruption. As discussed in the class, we want to focus on encouraging appropriate behaviour, but will resort to the focus being on decreasing inappropriate behaviour if our previous strategies failed. Educators can encourage positive behaviour by focusing on the students acting in appropriate ways. This can be done with genuine praise, but the "child actually needs to display appropriate behaviour" (Stoddart, 2020c, slide 13). The expectations that was created by the whole class could be used to prompt students to act appropriately throughout learning activities. However, students are only human like us teachers and make mistakes. When students display a behaviour that is not ideal within the classroom, simple reminders can be very beneficial for student and educator. Minor issues within the class can be dealt with in many non-verbal ways, like standing close to the student or simply giving students a look. I am still working on my teaching glare so my future students will know when I mean business. With this in mind, it is important to "be seen and heard by all students" (Stoddart, 2020c, slide 19) in the class. This will allow you to reach all students and have a better sense of class management. There are many strategies I am excited to use to manage my classroom that was learnt through this course, but there will be times that the strategies I use are not sufficient for the situation. Luckily, my peers and I were given the tools to deal with situations like these in the future. Some methods on how to decrease inappropriate behaviour we explored include time-outs, desists (asking a student to stop the behaviour they are portraying) and including parents or the principle for more severe behaviours. One method that stuck out to me as not only a way to decrease inappropriate behaviour, but to create a bond/relationship with a student was the behaviour contract. This is a "formal agreement between student and teacher" (Stoddart, 2020c, slide 16). Working on a solution alongside the student and giving them a chance to be a part of their own learning journey could create trust between teacher and student, rather than discipline that create embarrassment harming the relationship. A discussion about discipline and appropriate behaviour has given me new ideas on classroom management that show respect for both myself (the educator) and the student.