Hi everyone,
As I looked at my “Best Parts” notes, it is hard to believe that I actually only worked for two and a half days this week due to MLK day, a 2 hour delay, and a sick day!
…..I’m not absent from school all that often so on Wednesday morning I smiled when a kindergarten student smiled and exclaimed: “You’re back!”
…..Fitness Frankie to Go had a healthy hiking adventure this week! The pictures were great and the student who took care of him was proud to share!
…...I have bus duty this month and my job is to supervise students in the gymnasium who are being picked up at dismissal. This week one of my students was waiting to be picked up and looked at the hanging pocket on the door that contains our exit question and answer choices. All of a sudden he said: “Those are emoji’s!” Now, I have been using this exit assessment for many years and created them using clip art well before the word emoji even existed! It was so funny to me that I never even considered them to be emojis that I laughed out loud!
…..We held our winter concert this week and students in the various musical groups always perform for our school as a dress rehearsal for the evening performance. I am always impressed with the talent and hard work of our students and our music department and this concert did not disappoint. However, one moment stuck out and brought about so much emotion during the concert. Our chorus sang a song in tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and included the refrain: “I have a dream…….” It was a beautiful tribute and was sung with beautiful voices. As I looked at the very large group I was struck by the amazing diversity of the group and thought that this tribute would have made Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proud…….
…..One of my second grade classes was working on a writing activity and a few of the students chose to write about PE and Jump Rope for Heart! They brought me their finished work and were so proud to share! I asked if I could make a copy to keep for myself and they were pleased to say yes! When anything that is taught in PE transfers to the classroom and beyond I feel like I have made a difference……..Aren’t these fantastic!
…..It is always a challenge to have all students remember to wear sneakers during this time of year. Students often wear boots for recess and don’t always pack sneakers to change into for PE. This week one of my students arrived to PE and said: “Look what I have on my feet!” He finally remembered to wear sneakers and we were both happy about it! I gave him a double high five!
…..As we get ready for our annual Jump Rope for Heart event, students are practicing many different jumping and rope jumping activities. As I took a moment to step back and observe my classes this week I noticed boys and girls jumping rope together and boys enjoying the challenge of the activities just as much as the girls. I was reminded of my experiences many years ago when I first started to introduce the skills of jumping rope. Back then there was some resistance because it was traditionally seen as a “girls only” activity (yes I am that old…..) I remember that I had to explain the benefits and talk about how many athletes - male and female - jump rope for fitness, timing, and rhythm. I will never forget one moment in particular. As we began a lesson on how to jump rope a third grade boy started crying. I asked him what was wrong and through his tears he said that boys don’t jump rope, only girls do. Of course I explained to him why that was not true but he was not buying into those theories. Finally, I realized that he was having trouble with the skill itself and I offered him the chance to borrow a jump rope and practice at home. He accepted the offer and as his skill improved so did his attitude about boys and girls participating! Times have certainly changed! ALL of my students love learning how to jump rope and do rope tricks, despite the frustration of the difficulty of the task. It has been a pleasure to see the barriers and stereotypes being broken down over the years. We still have work to do but I am happy to say that the progress in my career has been positive! Full steam ahead!
…..One of my students was fixing his pedometer clip before trying a partner rope trick. I was getting ready to help them with the trick. My student then said: “I support safety. I see you do too by the looks of your pin!” Of course, he is correct!
….A comment from a 3rd grader regarding his ability to jump rope as he left PE with a red sweaty face on Friday: “I’m getting better!”
…..I received a Jump Rope for Heart poster from a student on Friday afternoon. It had some wonderful messages about working together and helping others!
…...As we worked on partner rope tricks this week it was wonderful to see the excitement from students as they were successful at learning the tricks! Click here to see some videos!
…..Physical Eddie is being hosted by a first grade class that I do not see for PE class this year. On Friday I was getting ready to go to lunch as my colleague was getting ready to teach this class. As I walked across the gym a student brought Physical Eddie to me with a proud smile on her face. We decided to put him in the frog pond so that he could practice his jumping!
…..Every Friday is Fitness Friday at my school and this week our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador group was debuting a video that we made as our “Physical Activity Play” for the program. Students worked in pairs and small groups to do an exercise that could be done in the classroom for a Fitness Friday activity. I recorded the segments and then put them together in a short movie that was shared with all of the classroom teachers and the families of our Student Ambassadors. We are so fortunate because each classroom has a smart board and teachers played the video so that students could exercise along with our Student Ambassadors! We had many positive comments from families, principal, and teachers! I went around to various classrooms as the video was being played and heard great comments from the students as they were exercising such as: “That’s my book buddy!” and “She’s on my bus!” One teacher even said that she could play it again for exercise on other days and one class did it twice already! I saw many of our Student Ambassadors during the day and told them how proud I was of their leadership and willingness to be a part of the video. I asked them if they felt like rock stars and many said YES!, and smiled. I guess it was their 15 minutes of fame!
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.
