The Best Parts of My (Short...) Week - 11/23/15--11/24/15

Hi everyone,
     It was a very short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday and report card conferences.  Students were only in attendance for two half days this week.  Regardless of the brevity of the week, there were still a few "Best Parts" to share!

.....Our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador group has been working hard to create posters advertising the program.  This week several of the posters were turned in and I had the pleasure of hanging them up in the hallway for everyone to enjoy!  

.....I mentioned in last week's blog that I had the opportunity to attend and present at the CTAHPERD and NYSAHPERD conferences last week.  A very good friend of mine always said that it was important to "learn one new thing" every time you attend any kind of professional development.  I am happy to say that I learned more than one new thing but this week I had the chance to try one of those new things out.  I learned about an app for my iPad called "Decide Now".  It is basically a colorful wheel that spins and stops on one of the sections of the wheel.  It comes pre-populated with particular wheels that have nothing to do with PE but it allows you to create your own wheels.  I created a Wheel of Fitness (I used the low tech version on my whiteboard in a previous week.) and I projected it on my whiteboard.  While my students loved the low tech version, they were so excited to use the high tech version too!  They had great fun exercising and spinning the wheel!

.....We are coming to the end of our cooperative activities unit and the culminating activity is rock wall climbing using our traverse rock wall.  Students begin by practicing trust leans and then are required to spot their climbing partner in a safe and responsible manner.  When I introduced the trust leans this week I asked for a volunteer who trusted me with their safety so that we could demonstrate the trust lean.  I got goosebumps as I saw all of the hands that went up immediately.......I responded that I was so happy that so many students trusted me.......  Students were so responsible and safe with the trust leans that when they were ready to use the rock wall I was confident that they would indeed keep their partners safe on the wall.  I am so thankful that we have a beautiful rock wall to use as a culminating activity.  We have had the wall for several years but there were many more years without it so I constantly remind myself and my students that we are fortunate to have such amazing and exciting opportunities......

Well, they do say "short but sweet" so I think that about covers this week!   I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week"!  Visit my website:  North Park Physical Education to find out more about our Physical Education program.  

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