Wow

I have been teaching at the same school for the last three years. Today, I finally looked at was inside this black box that has been sitting in the same spot at the high school. When I opened it, I found Rebock Heart Rate monitors. I am excited, because I was looking to order them and I had some the entire time. So, all in all, it has been a pretty good day.

pedometers

I have been using pedometers for the last 2 years. I like using them and found that the information that we talked about on Saturday was very intersting. I know that the one company they mentioned was walk4life and was just wondering if anyone had any other companies that they ordered from. I also want to start a walking club and didn't know if anyone knows if anybody is giving away free pedometers, so that way the kids can take them home.

interactive power point

I have a nutrition exam to give next week, and I am thinking about using the interactive power point that we created in technology. I think it will be fun, and that the kids will be interested in the process and even might want to create their own. I liked creating the slides and think that for now on I will use this technique in my P.E. classes. I usually give my 6th and 7th graders a quiz on some things that we are working on, and I think this method would be a lot faster and easier, than having them sit on the floor. Just wondering if anyone has used this in class and whether or not it had a positive outcome.

Recess duty

During the week I have recess duty 2 times. Which isn't bad, but what I don't like is when they put you on recess duty and leave you there to take care of things, just because you are the "gym" teacher. During recess, they let the kids play kickball, dodgeball, and football. I don't agree with some of these things, but I am only covering 2 times a week and each time I am at a different school. I told them that the kids should not be playing some of these games, but they said the kids like to play dodgeball and they are just going to let them go. Well a fight broke out over someone hitting someone else in the chest, so the other girl took the ball and threw it at the other one's face. Well, this made me mad and I took the dodgeballs and locked them up and said not more dodgeball. Now the teachers and parents are upset that I took it away from them. I don't think I am being unfair, but some people said I took it too far. Just wondering if anyone has recess duty and has come across any games or activities that the kids are playing that you don't agree with, and how you might have handled it?

brochures

In health class I assigned the students to chose an eating disorder and to complete a computer generated brochure on it. The students have all had computre classes and I thought that this would be a fun, creative project. I gave them one library class to complete it and save it to a disk and they are to finish and turn it in on Tuesday. Well, easier said then done. I don't understand how these kids can text and play video games, but they can't figure out how to use a template. I don't know if they are really that lazy, or if they just feel that nothing new is worth learning.

TV's, VCR's, and DVD's

My 4th through 6th graders are completing a fitness unit and they are doing things, like step aerobics, yoga, tabeo, and hip hop. I like teaching the unit, but I am starting to run into problems with finding TV's, VCR's, and DVD's. When I started looking for these things, I thought it would be easy to find a cart and push it into the gym. What I have found is that they teachers now have all their TV's as a fixture in the classroom and there are no longer carts to transport things. When I asked why one wasn't kept for the PE Department, they told me that they didn't think it would matter. So, now I am in a situation where I don't know if I should change my plans, or just learn what the video had and try to teach it myself. Some things I think I am good at, but I think some things are better taught by using the TV. Does anyone else have this problem in their district??

So many units

Traveling from school to school can be difficult, but it really got difficult when I had to transfer equipment 3 times a week. I have found it easier to complete different units and to change up the rotation of how I do things. Right now I am teaching step aerobics, hockey, and locomotor. We only have enough steps for 25 kids, so once I am done with them at one school, they get taken up to the next school for the other teachers to use. It sounds like a good system, but I am always feeling so rushed to get through a unit. I only see the kids once a week and instead of maybe finishing out the unit, I always cut it a week short to make sure the mantaince guys can get the equipment up to the next facility before I need it again.

Grading

For Physical Eudcation class in elementary school, the students are graded with an "o," "G," "S," and so on, and only get graded every other term. With my school merger with Center I am looking for a way to change the grading scale to "A," "B," and "C's", and get a grade every term. I think that this way the children will take the class more serious and it can become more than just another "special." If there is anyone out there with a grading system that they are working with and like, please let me know. I think that with this merger, the district should take out all of the old p.e. and start to look at the new p.e.

health

I teach health and physed, while traveling from school to school and classroom to classroom. We have been working on a design for the fitness center and one idea that I have had was to add a room on the the side of the center. There is a room already there, but outside lawn equipment is stored there. I think that if I found a way to get that room, that I would be able to have a new health room. The idea is to have a complete lab in the classroom, so the students in fitness and phys ed could use it too. Then in the fitness center, I wanted to set up pods, kind of like station, so that the students could rotate to each one, and in the future more equipment could be added. Just wondering if anyone out there has a set up that they think would work. Let me know, I would appriciate it.