The Best Parts Of My Week - 4/24/17--4/28/17

Hi everyone,

    It was a non-traditional week in a way because I spent a good part of Monday and Tuesday as part of an interview committee.  That experience, however, provided some of the “best parts!”

…..I was asked to be a part of an interview committee that was charged with interviewing candidates for the PE positions available in our district for next year.  One of these positions is of course due to my upcoming retirement.  It was so refreshing to see young passionate professionals eager to get started on their career as I end mine…..

…..As a fourth grade class arrived to PE this week one student came over to me and said:  ”I’m sad you are retiring…”  I replied:  “I’m sad too…..”, at which point another student said:  “Can you stay for maybe…..15 more years???”  I said that if I did they would all be adults by the time I left and they would have to come back and help me because I’ll be old then!  They giggled and agreed that they would come back!

…..My primary students are working on throwing accuracy using underhand and overhand throws.  I had set up a number of targets for them to aim for.  Some of the targets included balloons filled with helium, geometric shapes attached to the wall, hoops hung up against the wall, beach balls on top of cones, and so on. Some of the targets were more challenging than others and students were allowed to choose their level of challenge as they practiced using “freedom with responsibility”.   A second grader was so excited to tell me:  “I got this on the inside of the small circle!  Another student (a kindergartener) told me:  ”I have a super power!” when he threw a ball accurately to knock a whiffle ball off of a stick in a cone.

…..As students were working on their accuracy they were also practicing stepping with opposition.  One of my second grade students repeatedly stepped with the same side as her dominant hand and I was offering her suggestions and corrections so that she could learn to throw correctly.  Finally, she asked:  ”Why do I have to do it like that?”  It was truly a genuine question asked without disrespect.  She just did not understand why it was important to change what she was doing because she thought she was successful doing it the way she was comfortable.  I explained the concept of force and power and how eventually doing it the right way would pay off as she played different sports and games and then she understood.  I was happy that she asked and realized that I should have recognized the need to explain it further.  I took this opportunity as a chance to reflect on my own teaching and so in another class I asked if students knew why it was important to step with opposition while throwing.  A student responded:  “Your weight shifts and you have more power”.  What a great explanation!

…..I guess I was missed while I was gone for some classes while I was doing interviews because of this comment:  ”Yay!  You’re back!”

…..Fitness Frankie to Go is wrapping up his adventures for the year and only has one or two weekends scheduled with students left.  This week a student who brought him back was so eager to share his adventures with Fitness Frankie that he asked for some time during PE class to do just that. I set aside some time at the end of class and gathered the students together.  He was confident as he stood up in front of his classmates and told us all about his healthy adventure of bike riding and eating salad!  I don’t think I could have done that at his age!

…..”Later in the week students were working on batting and catching.  I wanted students to self toss a bean bag and use a scoop to catch in creative ways.  The word “selfie” came to mind so I decided to use that in my explanation.  When I asked students about the meaning of the word “selfie” most immediately struck a pose with a pretend camera in their hand!  It was so cute and really helped me to make students understand that I wanted them to work by themselves on this task.

…...As I work my way from classroom to classroom during Fitness Fridays, I am having fun being a surprise guest!  This week I arrived at a third grade classroom and they smiled and said YAY! when I explained why I was there.  We did some Go Noodle and afterward I encouraged students to have a great day because their brains were now awake and ready to learn!

…..Second grade classrooms are using a Superhero theme this year and I have been having fun making connections in PE where possible.  I arrived to one class on Friday morning to deliver Fitness Frankie for his last weekend adventure and the classroom teachers shared that it was National Superhero Day!  Who knew?  At that point one of the adults said that she had something to show me.  It was a sheet of exercises for Superhero Action Training!  In their superhero online search they found it and planned to do it for Fitness Friday as they celebrated  National Superhero day!  She asked me if I wanted a copy and of course I said YES!  It made me realize the importance of visiting classrooms when possible because you never know the connections until you visit and are a part of the classroom community.

…..We operate on a six day cycle and whenever it is “A!” Day I like to introduce a new warm-up.  Push-up Hockey was the primary warm up that we began this past “A” Day.  It is a fun game that helps students to work on upper body and core strength while playing a game.  Students attempt to score a goal by sliding a bean bag between their partners “push-up hands”.  After the warm-up a second grader came up to me to say:  “I LOVED that!”

…..After school on Friday I set up the gymnastics equipment so that we can begin our gymnastics unit on Monday.  Our varsity cheerleading team practices at our building during the season and so their carpeted floor is stored at my school.  We use the flooring for our gymnastics unit and we have a great relationship with the coach and team.  The team came over to school and set up the flooring, for which I was truly grateful.  I actually tried to do it myself years ago and it was not a pretty sight!  In about fifteen minutes the floor was set and I had fun chatting with the girls as I thanked them.  My husband came to help me as well and we worked hard for the next hour or so to set up the equipment.  When most of the heavy equipment was set my husband left and I spent some time cleaning and finishing up.  As I was ready to lock up and leave for the weekend I reminisced about past years since this was the last time that I will be setting all of this equipment up.  There are many “lasts” this year and I am conscious of all of them…….

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.

The Best Parts of My Week - 4/17/17--4/21/17

Hi everyone,    

     After the feeling of being “overbooked” for the last few weeks before vacation, it was nice to have a relatively quiet but enjoyable week! 

…..Students in grades 3-5 are working on the Fitness Gram Physical Fitness Test.  I actually call them “challenges” because of the reaction that I get from students when I say the word “test”.  Early in the week several classes were completing the PACER running challenge.  It was wonderful to see and hear all of the compliments to classmates after their hard work.  Students score for a partner and I ask that they are very quiet so that the runners can hear the beeps.  I know that students want to cheer each other on and, while that is terrific, students can’t hear the beep that tells them when to run.  I encourage students to save all of those kind words and actions until after the group has finished.  Students understand this and inevitably a round of clapping and cheering ensues when the last runner finishes.  This week I saw lots of high fives to partners and fellow runners and one fourth grader said to another:  “That was amazing!”

…..I am always looking for new ideas.  I guess I just can’t help myself!  This week I was creating a warm-up for my primary students using a math activity that a Kindergarten teacher shared with me.  It involves dog picture puzzles and numbers and as a fourth grade class was entering the gym one day I was cutting out the dog pictures.  One of the students asked what I was doing and when I told him he said:  “ Awwwwwww…….that’s so cute!”  Later in the week I saw this same class again and the same student asked me how it went!  I told him I’m still working on it but would definitely let him know how it turns out!

.....Some other new activities I tried this week......

Students worked on underhand and overhand throwing and used the flags as targets.

My version of a "low tech" sport wall.......Students threw underhand and overhand and collected points based on the targets that were hit.

…..My primary students finished up some yoga activities early in the week using a Cosmic Kids Yoga story about an octopus that was nervous about performing a dance in front of her sea creature friends.  I asked classes to pay attention to the important message of this story because I would be asking them to share what they thought at the end of class.  The message, of course, was about having courage and relying on your friends to support you when you feel nervous or anxious about something.  In one particular class there was a second grade student who had read the morning announcements for the school that very morning.  It was his first time doing it and he immediately raised his hand to share what he thought the message of the yoga story was.  I asked him to share his thoughts and he was absolutely correct about the message.  I told him what a great job he did reading the morning announcements and asked him how he felt before he started.  He admitted that he was nervous but was glad he did it.  It was a great teachable moment!   

…..Our monthly Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador meeting was held this week and on the agenda was logging into the student dashboard to enter the details of our Veggie Taste Test Day event.  Students were so proud (as were we) of how many points they have earned!  It has been a great year with our ambassadors.  We planned our next (and last) event of the year, which is a Bike Rodeo and Safety Clinic.  We discussed how this year we are going to have a “Food Art” station as the healthy snack station and we brainstormed a list of different kinds of fruit to be used to create some food art.  I am excited to see the student creations!  Finally, we worked on the School Wellness Investigation and while students knew most of the answers in terms of PE and our school culture of wellness, they were eager to find out the answers needed from our cafeteria manager.  While there is always room for improvement, the investigation showed that we do pretty well when it comes to physical activity, nutrition, and family/community involvement!

…..One of my second graders was excited to tell me:  ”I did Cosmic Kids Yoga at home!”  Isn’t that the best when activities we do at school transfer to home???

.....Since May is just around the corner I worked on getting the Operation Healthy North Park bulletin board ready to go this week.  As I was getting it ready during an afternoon when students had already been dismissed it generated quite a bit of interest from our staff who are excited to begin the project!  

…...I had decided earlier in the year that I would wait to announce my retirement to my students until after Spring Break.  This was the week…….I knew that it would be emotional but I did not realize that the discussions would be so interesting!  I started by asking students how many knew what the word retirement meant.  Most of the older students knew and one said that retirement is when you can’t do your job anymore because it is too hard for you or your tired!  I assured the students that this is not the case with me but it is time to move on to something else.  A fifth grader added that when you retire some people get a pension.  It surprised me that he even knew what a pension was!  Next, I asked students if they knew that several adults at North Park are retiring this year and most everyone knew that.  Finally, I asked if they knew that I was retiring at the end of this year.  There were a wide variety of responses to this question for sure.  Some knew, others were surprised, and some were absolutely shocked!  Then the questions began:  “Do you have to retire?....Who will be our PE teacher?  Will we still do Student Ambassadors? Will you come back to visit?”  After the first few classes I anticipated these questions and answered them before they were asked which seemed to help the discussion.  Since our fifth grade class is moving on to the middle school next year I commented that in fact we are all leaving and there was a cute non-verbal reaction to this statement.  One student drew his hand across his forehead in a silent “WHEW!” 

I also mentioned to students that I have been teaching at North Park for a really long time and remarked that some of their parents were my students when they were in elementary school.  The quizzical looks on some of their faces were adorable as they tried to fathom this in their brains!  When I asked a second grade class how long they thought I have been at North Park one student raised her hand and responded:  “Since my DAD was here!”  I smiled and agreed that yes, I was her dad’s PE teacher.  A fourth grade student said:  “You have been here for generations!”  I never thought of it that way but I guess I have!  People often say the phrase:  “It seems like yesterday” but in this case it really does!

…..The week wrapped up on Friday with a Fitness Friday surprise visit to a 3rd grade class.  This class is hosting Basketball Betty and with all of the events of the last few weeks I have not seen her very much.  She was happy to participate on the desk of a third grade friend as we did some Go Noodle activities.  Despite some technical difficulties with a slow connection, students had fun and earned their Fitness Friday mile.  They were so patient!  I saw this same class later in the morning for PE class and they were excited to learn that because they attended PE on Fitness Friday as well they earned a second mile! Basketball Betty had fun with Uno Fitness during PE!  

…..A comment that ended my week with a smile:  ”I’m glad we are in PE today.  It’s my favorite special because it’s the only special where you get to relax!”  This particular student is always incredibly motivated and excited to participate and I am so glad that he realizes the benefits of physical activity! 

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.

The Best Parts of My Week - 4/3/17--4/7/17 (and a bit more!)

Hi everyone,

      I am a bit behind on posting this entry because I have been enjoying Spring Break!  I guess that is a pretty good reason for the delay.  It is my last official Spring Break since I am retiring at the end of this school year so it holds some special meaning for sure.  Fitness Frankie came with us on our trip and we had lots of fun snapping some photos for his blog…..more on that later!  So, on with the "Best Parts!"  

.....One of my students was very excited to show me a shirt he was wearing on Monday morning.  I saw him in the hallway and he said:  “I found two Fuel Up to Play 60 shirts at Goodwill!”. He wore one on Monday and one on Tuesday!

…..A 2nd grader asked me:  “When do we do Fuel Up to Play 60?” I was so glad that he was interested!  I explained that we are a Fuel Up to Play 60 school and that we do it all the time!  I think he was really asking about our Student Ambassador program so I explained that we start that in third grade.  I think he might just be in our next ambassador group!  

…...I had planned some Yoga lessons this week and I always love the reactions from my students when they see the Yoga mats set up in the gym.  A second grader said:  “I love Yoga!  It’s so calming!”  

…..A fifth grader walked into PE class this week with cool new sneakers.  He said:  “This is the first time I’m wearing my new sneakers for PE!” Remember when you got new sneakers as a child?  I remember the feeling and I always thought I could run faster in mone!  How about you?

…..Fitness Frankie to Go came back this week after having some wonderful and healthy adventures with one of my second grade friends.  He showed me the journal entry and it included a story and pictures about how they went to the Walkway Over the Hudson and ate healthy snacks.  He was proud of his efforts and I still get excited when I see that this project accomplishes the goal of continuing the message of the importance of healthy choices at home…….

…..At the end of our Yoga lessons for second grade students I asked them to write down one word that best described how doing Yoga makes them feel.  Their work will become part of their portfolio.  These were some of the words they wrote and shared with me:  relaxed, happy, calm, good, fantastic!  Fitness Frankie was doing Yoga with us as well and in another class I placed a slip of paper and pencil with him too.  I asked students to share what words Fitness Frankie might use to tell us how Yoga makes him feel.  Students were so cute when they saw that he was doing Yoga with us!  They concluded that he would say the following words: calm, relaxed, strong, confident……

…...A kindergarten class arrived to PE class and saw the Yoga mats set up for a second time. They all smiled and were excited to continue Yoga but one student shouted out:  “Namastep!”  :-)

…..We were following along with a Cosmic Kids Yoga story and one of the moves involved stretching forward while pretending to butter some bread.  One of the students looked at me and said:  “Who puts that much butter on a sandwich?”

…..Family Fitness Night was held on Thursday night and we had an amazing time! Of course, Fitness Frankie did too!  This year, in addition to parents and my amazing colleagues, we had some volunteers from our high school who are members of the National Honor Society and earn hours by doing community service.  They were fantastic and had so much fun playing with the students and families!  As I was running around during the evening making sure that everything was going smoothly I did take a step back to enjoy the sight of families exercising and playing together.  There were parents spotting their children while climbing our rock wall, families enjoying a trivia game about health and PE, families playing together and cheering on their children during four square and striker sheet games and so much more!  In fact, it was pretty hard to end the evening!  We gathered together and I thanked everyone involved and then our principal mentioned that this was my last Family Fitness Night.  While some of the parents know that I am retiring, I am just beginning to share the news with students.  One of the students thought that I was not coming back after Spring Break and kept returning to me for one more hug!  I finally realized what was happening and explained that we still had the rest of the year together.  That helped!  

…..As everyone started to leave Family Fitness Night the clean up began and it was fantastic to have so much help from all of our volunteers!  I got to the gym and all of our high school volunteers and a few families were engrossed in a Striker Sheet game!  They were having so much fun I hated to stop them.  The pure joy on the faces of everyone involved was beautiful to watch.  It was getting late however, and I still needed to get home and be a part of a Teacher Training Day on Friday so I got out my stopwatch and said:  “Ok, it’s time for a 2 minute championship round!”  The game ended and while everyone was sad to leave, they finished the clean up and were on their way.  I was exhausted but so pleased at the success of the night!  

…..The next day the students were off but staff was involved in a training day.  Our PE staff was looking forward to being together for the entire day as we participated in a professional development day by Aaron Hart of OPEN (Online Physical Education Network).  Our K-12 PE staff rarely has the opportunity to spend an entire day together and this day was a real gift.  I love the learning and curriculum opportunities provided by OPEN and I was excited that the rest of our staff would be learning about it was well.  We had so much fun!  Laughter and learning were the words of the day and I am so thankful to our staff for embracing the day and for Aaron of OPEN for providing a wonderful learning experience!  

…...As I was walking out to my car at lunch time I ran into one of the parents from my school.  He is a teacher at our high school and he brought his family to our Family Fitness Night the evening before.  He stopped to tell me what a great time he and his family at at our event.  He couldn’t say enough about how much fun they all had together and thanked me for organizing the evening.  Needless to say I was grateful for his kind words…….

…..As I said earlier, I have been on Spring Break this week and my husband and I have been enjoying a trip to Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.  Fitness Frankie loves an adventure, as you know, and we often take him with us on our trips.  We went to the American History Museum at the Smithsonian and found an exhibit on the evolution of food.  It was right up our alley of course and there were some great photo opportunities!  What do you think?  More pictures of his adventure can be found soon on his picture blog at:  Fitness Frankie and Friends.

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.

The Best Parts of My Week - 3/27/17--3/31/17

Hi everyone,

This week was all about celebrating March as National Nutrition Month! It was a busy week but despite feeling a bit overbooked I feel like I accomplished a great deal and hope I made an impact......

…..On Monday morning one of my second grade friends brought Fitness Frankie to Go back.  I was in my office and she walked in with the pack.  I thanked her for bringing him back on time and she explained that she had fun with him and showed me pictures of her healthy weekend adventure.  All of a sudden she noticed another Fitness Frankie on my desk.  She stopped mid-sentence and said:  “You have another Fitness Frankie!!!!”  I explained that there are a few of them (I affectionately call them the “stunt doubles” because years ago I bought a few extra in case something happened to the original....) so that each second grade class can participate in the Fitness Frankie to Go program.   Then she asked:  “Please can I have him for one more day??  Please?  Please?  Please?”  She was so persistent I almost said yes but did not want to get into that habit with all students.  I told her he needed a bath to get ready for his next adventure!  She reluctantly understood and went off on her merry way back to class!

…..This week’s PE Password was Nutrients.  As part of the discussion I asked students to share what they had for breakfast that day.  It was very interesting to listen to what students had for breakfast.  It was nice to see so many hands go up to share!  Some of the breakfast items were: oatmeal, bagel, strawberries, and a few sugary cereals that made everyone think twice….  Those who had the sugary cereals hesitated to share and then realized that maybe they should be having something else for breakfast.  I think it was a good thing that saying it out loud made them think!  

…..Since March is National Nutrition Month I teach several lessons to students that help teach the value of good nutrition in an active and fun way.  This week students were learning to “Eat a Rainbow” and I asked students to tell me about different colored foods using the colors of the rainbow.  When we got to the color purple someone mentioned an eggplant.  One of the kindergarten students was so interested what an eggplant looks like.  He had never seen one and was so excited when I was able to show him a picture!

…..I have one particular second grade class this year that sees the joy in just about everything and very often they are reduced to giggles when they find something funny.  This week we had some exercise leaders in the middle of the gym for a warm-up.  Students could follow either leader and the leaders were facing in opposite directions.  They giggled so much when both of the leaders picked the same exercise without seeing each other that it made me giggle too!  

…..Another nutrition activity that I teach students involves balancing out healthy and unhealthy foods with exercise.  We participate in Healthy Highway as a school-wide program.  In this activity students pick cards from the center of the gym and exercise for different repetitions based on whether the food is a Red (Stop and think), Yellow (Slow down and think), or Green (Go) Light food.   Of course, the red light foods required more exercise than the green light foods and when students picked the Green light foods they all exclaimed “YAY!”

…..Another Healthy Highway game is called “Fill Up Your Tank”.  This game involves food as fuel and as part of the game students exchange unhealthy food for healthy food by sneaking it on other students’ plates.  I overheard one student say “I don’t want a brownie!” when he returned to his plate to find one there!  I love teaching the value of good nutrition because I think it helps students to think and then make connections to balance their plate. We always tell students that treats are fine but that it is always good to think about foods that you choose.  This week I saw a great Cheerios commercial.  The basic message was that healthy hearts start young.  When I saw the commercial I said “YES!” to myself and felt good that in Physical Education we are helping to make that happen!

www.healthy-highway.com

…..During one of my third grade classes this week a pedometer cover came off and a student needed help with putting it back on.  A few other students noticed and were fascinated by the inner workings of a pedometer.  One student said:  “Oh….so THAT’s what it looks like!”  Another said:  “That’s so cool!”

…..During my duty supervising students who were being picked up this week a student was leaving and on her way out she took the time to say:  “Tag was fun in PE today!”  She was talking about a game that we played that I made up and called “My Plate food tag”.  It made me smile to know that she enjoyed it!

…..As we continued to celebrate National Nutrition Month I mentioned food labels to a fourth grade class.  I had an example on my goal chart and explained the different sections.  They told me about a project they did in class using food labels that involved predicting which food would be the healthiest.  At the end of PE class I told the classroom teachers and they were so happy that they remembered!  I was happy about the connection and the transfer!

…..I asked a Kindergarten class about healthy and unhealthy foods.  Each student got a chance to speak and share one kind of food in each category.  This was in preparation for a tag game during which they would need to tell tagger a healthy food in order to continue the game after being tagged.  They were very correct in their food choices!  I was impressed that they already know the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods at 6 years old!

…..One of our assistants who works in a primary class came down to me this week with an empty package of apple slices from the cafeteria.  She told me that the students wanted me to see it because they noticed that the My Plate symbol was on the back of the package and they remembered it from PE class this week!  The next time I saw this class I told them how proud I was that they noticed and remembered!  

…..This year I have been making my way around the building visiting different classes on Fitness Friday.  Each week I pick a different classroom to visit and do some activity to start the day and help classes earn a Fitness Friday mile.  This week I visited a 1st grade class.  Most often the teachers know that I am coming, (I ask permission ahead of time) but my arrival is a surprise for students.  When I walked into the first grade class and the teacher explained why I was there they all smiled and said “YAY!!!”  It was a wonderful way to start the day and warmed my heart……..

…..I am a proud member of NYS AHPERD and our zone (Southeastern) hosts an annual Elementary/Middle School Award ceremony.  Outstanding students are nominated by PE teachers and are given the award during a wonderful ceremony in May.  This week I had the pleasure of sending letters home with students who are receiving the awards for this year.  When I arrived at their classroom doors and asked to see them in the hallway they were curious and a bit anxious it seemed.  I smiled and said to them:  “You are not in trouble!”  That helped!  

…..At the end of the week I brought out some vegetable puppets as props for a nutrition activity.  “Broccoli Brad” and “Erica Eggplant” are part of a series called Super Sprowtz.  As you may know by now I love stuffed animals in general so I had great fun with Broccoli Brad and Erica Eggplant!  Students loved them too and wanted to know more about them!

…..My husband loves a good joke so on Friday he reminded me that I should say the following to my students:  “You must be tired!  Why?  You just finished a 31 day March!”  I did just that to a fifth grade class.  Most of the students thought it was hilarious!  A few students needed the joke explained, and one said:    “That’s a knee slapper!”  

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.