Active@Home: Tips for High School PE Activities [Interactive]

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This podcast will look at the some of the things that are stressing teachers and students out during this at-home learning experience. In addition, some helpful tips to help minimize some of these stressors.

[0:03] Who would have ever imagined we would be forced to teach PE from our home because of a quarantine from a worldwide pandemic? Well, certainly not me.

[0:32]  Let me first start by saying that I hope this finds you and your family healthy and free of this virus. I wanted to take this opportunity to do this podcast to share with you some of the stresses that I’ve had as a teacher, as a PE teacher. In regards to how the heck am I going to teach PE from home to my students and maybe share a little bit about what I think the students may be experiencing at this time as well. I would also like to discuss some things that I think can maybe help minimize some of our stresses and anxieties during this time of uncertainty. I get our whole world has been turned upside down and our profession is is pretty much rocked right now. Mainly because we’re a hands-on profession. We do everything moving and jumping and running and now we find ourselves teaching remotely.

How Can We Teach Virtual PE?

[1:31] So let’s talk about some of the things that I’m pretty sure we’re all sharing at the same time. Some of the questions I had right when this started was how the heck can I teach PE from home? How will I know if my students are being active? How will they be able to communicate with me? How do I communicate with them? How do I even use technology to teach PE and I know this is probably only scratching the surface on a few of the things that you may be feeling at this time.

This is Not the New Norm!

[2:02] One of the things that has really helped me to kind of keep everything into perspective is I just had to take a deep breath, take a step, step back and say, Look, I know that this is temporary, this is not the new norm. This is not the wave of the future. This is not how we, as PE professionals are going to be teaching from here on out. And another thing we might want to consider is, do we really want to come up with something so awesome and so great that sometime down the line when there’s budget cuts that the powers that be may go, Well, hey, they did it from home, we guess we really don’t need any PE teachers or art or music. You know, we don’t want to make ourselves expendable.

What is Our Role as PE Teachers?

[2:53] So the big question is what is our role as the PE teacher from home, I kind of think that we need to one, assure the students that we’re going to get through this okay that this is temporary and the main thing is that they’re safe and happy and with their family.

Focus on Wellness

[3:11] Next, I think this is a perfect opportunity to kind of take a step back from what we normally teach in our everyday curriculum. And let’s look at wellness. Let’s look at hygiene. Let’s look at lifelong fitness and physical activity you know, pretty much probably what I think you guys are all seeing in your area all over the country. I bet you’re seeing like I am more walking with family, walking dogs, going to the park, playing with siblings, just getting some fresh air getting outside. That is being active that is PE. So, you know, we kind of have it easy compared to some of these academic teachers, in my opinion. We just need to communicate with ours students. Give them some ideas and let’s take a look at maybe the formative assessments as opposed to the summative.

What Activity Will Students Do At Home?

[4:08] For example, in addition to posting daily workout suggestions as a resource, I’m also going to have the students start journaling a little bit during this time. For example, on a certain little form, they can put their start and end time of any activity that they did, whether it be outside or inside, they can choose their own activity, which I love. I love student choice at this point in their lives and – to get them to start thinking about that as they become adults and they can maybe for the assessment piece, just jot down their heart rate.

[4:44] One last thing to alleviate some of the stresses for yourself and your students is keep whatever you’re putting online, keep it short, keep it simple, keep it doable, meaning have them go outside like six times throughout the day for only 10 minutes at a time, we all know that once they’re out there, they’ll probably spend more time than 10 minutes, but I think if we overwhelm them with these super hard workouts to do throughout the week or throughout the day, they’re just not going to do it and the accountability pieces is impossible and I think just letting them know we’re here. We’re promoting physical activity, we’re promoting wellness, stay safe, get some fresh air, move a little bit. I think we’re gonna ride this out pretty well and I think it’s the best thing that we can do with our profession to just help aid in this very difficult time.

So thanks for listening. Stay safe, and hopefully we can all get through this pretty quickly. All right, take care.

 

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