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The ACHPER magazine for Physical Educators, Health Educators, Fitness Leaders + the Generalist Teacher Volume 21:1 2014
PROMOTING ACTIVE + HEALTHY LIVING
Collegiality, vision and our Year 7s:Challenges for HPE Department leaders and their staff
Tablets: The PE Teacher’s Best Resource
Close the Gap: Australia’s largest Indigenous health campaign
KidsMatter Primary is a mental health initiative that provides primary schools with proven methods, tools and support to nurture happy, balanced kids.
It will give your school access to the latest thinking and research on mental health and wellbeing including:
• strategiestohelpyoubuildapositive school community
• socialandemotionallearning resources for use in, and beyond, the classroom
• practicalideasforworkingwithfamilies
• specificguidancetohelpchildren with mental health difficulties.
It is funded by the Australian Government and backed by the expertise of beyondblue,
the Australian Psychological Society and Principals Australia Institute.
To find out how KidsMatter can help your school make a difference to children’s wellbeing and learning visit:
www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary
Join the growing number of schools making student mental health and wellbeing a priority.
Wellbeing is at the heart of good teaching and learning.
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ISSN 1837-7378 (online)
National Executive Officers
President: Mr Graeme Quelch
Vice-Presidents: Mr Douglas Hearne Dr Graham Dodd
National Board Dr L Michaud TomsonMembers: Mr David Keating Dr Jenni Judd Executive Director: Ms Alison Turner
Active & Healthy Magazine
A magazine for Physical Educators, Health Educators, Fitness Leaders and the Generalist Teacher.
Published in March, July & November by the
Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation Inc.
PO Box 304, Hindmarsh, South Australia 5007.
Ph: (08) 8340 3388 • Fax: (08) 8340 3399
Website: www.achper.org.au
Enquiries
Advertising, Publishing, Article Submission Email: [email protected]
Editor Rick Baldock, SA [email protected]
Editorial Natalie McMaster, NTCommittee: [email protected]
Alison King, NSW [email protected]
Ross Williams, WA [email protected]
Sue Whatman, QLD [email protected]
Timothy Lynch, VIC [email protected]
Change Of Details
Notification of change of detail, including e-mail address, is the responsibility of the subscriber.
Written Contributions
Contributions in the form of articles, letters, news and photos are welcome. The views expressed in the Active & Healthy Magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.
Design and Layout: ApplePi Design 0414 847 789
Front Cover Photo
Richard Kendall / Oxfam AUS
Editorial 4
Collegiality, vision and our Year 7s: 5Challenges for HPE Department leaders and their staff Dr. Ken AlexanderBreaking away from traditional junior secondary HPE programs
Tablets: The Physical Education Teacher’s Best Resource 10Jane McPherson & Andy HairTwo Primary School teachers using new technologies to better educate their students
Close the Gap: 13Australia’s largest Indigenous health campaign Annalise De MelAn invitation from Oxfam Australia to work with them on Australia’s largest Indigenous Health campaign
LaunchPad: Time to Move! 16Gymnastics AustraliaA new program to support the teaching and learning of Fundamental Movement Skills in schools
Leading by Example: 19An Effective Motivational Strategy! Brent D. BradfordMotivating your staff to lead active and healthy lives
Netball: Developing game Sense 23Shane Pill & Terry MagiasImproving decision making and movement competency in Netball
Book Review: 27 Teaching Physical Education in Primary School Gaye HendersonA review of Janet Currie’s new resource for Primary Schools
ContentsVolume 21 Number 1 2014
KidsMatter Primary is a mental health initiative that provides primary schools with proven methods, tools and support to nurture happy, balanced kids.
It will give your school access to the latest thinking and research on mental health and wellbeing including:
• strategiestohelpyoubuildapositive school community
• socialandemotionallearning resources for use in, and beyond, the classroom
• practicalideasforworkingwithfamilies
• specificguidancetohelpchildren with mental health difficulties.
It is funded by the Australian Government and backed by the expertise of beyondblue,
the Australian Psychological Society and Principals Australia Institute.
To find out how KidsMatter can help your school make a difference to children’s wellbeing and learning visit:
www.kidsmatter.edu.au/primary
Join the growing number of schools making student mental health and wellbeing a priority.
Wellbeing is at the heart of good teaching and learning.
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Welcome to the first edition of the Active & Healthy Magazine for 2014 and the beginning of an exciting new year in sites, universities and schools. This edition follows the highly successful 28th ACHPER International Conference in Melbourne held in late November 2014. Our hosts, ACHPER Victoria are to be congratulated on not only the quality of the program but also the warm welcome and the fantastic organisation for the largest international conference in recent years. It was great to catch up with colleagues from interstate and overseas and it was wonderful to meet the strong contingent from New Zealand as well as other international attendees.
Dr Ken Alexander from Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, has written the lead article in this edition of the magazine based on a presentation from the Melbourne conference. Ken has written a challenging article about Junior Secondary School Health and Physical Education (HPE) programs. In his article Ken challenges us to consider breaking away from the traditional Multi Activity Program and consider starting afresh with a more welcoming
curricula for students new to secondary school. Ken is keen to hear from educators of Junior Secondary HPE programs and university researchers from around Australia and New Zealand who may have an interest in investigating a fresh approach to this area of schooling.
First time authors for the Active & Healthy Magazine, Jane McPherson and Andy Hair have written about their growing use of technological tools and software to improve their efficiency and effectiveness when teaching Primary School Physical Education. This encouraging article shares a range of software and approaches including iDoceo (for recording assessments to sports day scores), Coaches Eye (a video analysis tool) and their recent use of Google Forms.
Annalise De Mel from Oxfam Australia writes about Oxfam‘s Indigenous health campaign which aims to achieve health equality between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. ACHPER encourages secondary schools to join with Oxfam to demonstrate your support for this issue and remind our political leaders about this matter by participating in National Close the Gap Day.
Gymnastics Australia have recently launched a new program for pre-school and primary school aged children which aims to teach children the movement skills necessary to give them the competence and confidence to participate in sport during their lifetime. This is a great program and most timely for Australian primary and pre-schools.
First time author, Brent Bradford encourages us to take time to physically educate our schools’ administrators and teachers to support staff by leading through example. In this article he discusses the positive effects that he has observed when a PE teacher leads the staff encouraging them to pursue active and healthy lives.
A regular contributor to the Active & Healthy Magazine, Shane Pill joins with first time author Terry Magias to share their work to develop the game sense of netballers. This article outlines the theoretical constructs of their approach and then provides you with practical examples of how to enact this with students.
This edition concludes with a positive review of Janet Currie’s new book by an experienced PE specialist, Gaye Henderson from Queensland. This looks like a great text and one that Gaye found to be both relevant and a must for primary school physical educators.
I trust that the Active & Healthy Magazine along with the ACHPER blog and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport & Physical Education provide you with the tangible support you need to invigorate your practice in 2014.
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The foundation of a career that’s rewarding in every respect.
Become a podiatrist in only 2.5 years with Queensland University of Technology’s new graduate entry pathway into Podiatry.
With 100%* of our recent students employed after graduation, it’s clear that choosing Podiatry at QUT is rewarding in more ways than one.
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Find out more about whether studying Podiatry might be for you. www.qut.edu.au/podiatry
*Source: QUT Graduate Destination Survey 2009-2011 and 2013 data.
Editorial Rick Baldock, Editor
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Collegiality, vision and our Year 7s: Challenges for HPE Department leaders and their staff
Dr. Ken Alexander, School of Education, Edith Cowan University, WA
It’s long been thought that secondary PE teachers have neither the training to develop curricula from scratch – nor any inclination to do so. In this paper, I ask whether school HPE Departments might consider breaking away from their traditional multi-activity programs (MAPs) to consider starting afresh with alternative curricula. And what better place to start than with the first year of high school?
This article outlines the story I tell my HPE teacher education students (pre-service teachers – PSTs) about the state of play in the profession they’re preparing to join. This story may also be of interest to HPE teacher educators who can compare my story with theirs, to practising teachers who can confirm or challenge my version of events or even to PSTs from programs other than my own.
Firstly, though, a little focus. My story is primarily about what is offered to Year 7-9 students as their HPE program. Typically, these are the years when students are a captive audience, having little or no choice about their attendance at HE or PE lessons. My story begins, as most should, with a naked attempt to engage readers/listeners. I assert that many school HPE programs keep three ‘dirty little secrets’ from those outside the profession: They struggle to develop motor skills (when multi-activity programming – MAP – predominates - see Figure 1); they don’t develop game performance (requires a tactical focus uncommon in many MAPs); they don’t develop fitness (often tested but rarely affected by MAPs). But in this article, I assert there’s still another secret: We haven’t recognised how our subject could be offering something much more relevant to students’ lives inside and outside the school gate.
My first assertion is that the multi-activity program (MAP) model for PE that developed in the latter half of the 20th Century has retained a strong foothold in schools. Its shortcomings have been well documented (Ennis, 2000; Kirk, 2004; Locke, 1992;
A PE teacher (Helen) is chatting with her Year 7 son (Pete) and Pete’s mate (Yasir) about how they’ve started the school year. Helen, Pete and Yasir are all at different schools.
Helen: What have you guys been doing in PE this term?
Pete: Mum, you already know this: Fitness tests, swimming trials and a swimming carnival.
Helen: I’m interested in what Yasir’s up to.
Yasir: We don’t have PE – it’s called HPE.
Helen: How often do you have PE, or HPE, each week?
Pete: We have a double period of PE and one period of HE
Yasir: Same – ‘cept it’s all just HPE.
Helen: What do you do in HPE Yasir?
Yasir: Games, challenges, err - problem-solving in groups. It’s s’posed to help us get to know everybody and to learn how to get along. It’s called the ‘Welcome’ program or something.
Helen: Does that last a whole term?
Yasir: Yep. We had a kids-parents’ night, just for Yr.7 HPE students. Mums, Dads and the kids all did some of the activities we were doing. Then the HPE teachers explained what they were trying to achieve with us this year.
Helen: What are you going to do next term?
Pete: Dunno!
Yasir: We’re going to join in with another Yr.7 group and learn to play Ultimate – you know – Frisbee. We did some Frisbee at the parent night. We’re
going to have our own teams- you know – a proper competition. The winner plays a teachers’ team.
Helen: Don’t you have any health education?
Pete: Yeah – I said that Mum! – one period a week!
Yasir: No – just HPE.
Helen: What about the rest of the year?
Pete: Dunno.
Yasir: Hmmm! I think the HPE teacher said, at the parent night, we’d be having activities that helped us stay healthy – you know, not get into trouble with drugs, smoking, and stuff. And bullying – how to avoid it. Not sure I can remember it all.
Helen: Anything about Term Four?
Pete: Mum! How long are you going to keep asking these questions?
Helen: Yasir?
Yasir: I think in Term Four the HPE teachers are going to act like personal trainers and help us design our own fitness programs. We’re going to try them out too.
Helen (thinks to self ): I like the sound of Yasir’s program. But I’m not sure it would be welcomed in our HPE Department – too disruptive to what we do. Realistically, we’re unlikely to have the open discussion that might have led to Yasir’s program. Why haven’t we heard about this idea? We do pride ourselves on doing our best for our kids. But, to be honest, we don’t often go looking for new ideas. Don’t think anyone of us has been to an ACHPER day for years. Hmm!
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Siedentop, 1977). Its technically focused, short duration sports units often only keep students ‘busy, happy and good’ (Placek, 1983). And this is not a recent development. In an article entitled ‘Changing Secondary School Physical Education’, Larry Locke (1992) began this way:
Evidence suggests that many secondary school physical education programs fail to achieve their objectives. A disturbing number of students report associating required attendance with strong negative feelings about the class, physical activity and themselves. Teachers report that workplace conditions do not allow any serious effort to provide instruction. The nature of these problems is such that neither improving instruction nor upgrading the present curriculum will suffice. I argue that replacing the dominant program model is the only course of action that can save a place for physical education in secondary schools. (p.361)
Twenty years later, scores of my PSTs consistently report that their practica have overwhelmingly been conducted in secondary school HPE Departments using multi-activity programming.
My second assertion is that, despite the availability of several alternative
curriculum models such as Sport Education (Alexander & Taggart, 1995) and its Teaching Games for Understanding variant – the Clinic-Game-Day model (Alexander & Penney, 2005), these alternatives have been unsuccessful in establishing a secure foothold in schools.
But this story I relate to my undergraduates is only a part of the broader argument I’d like to make. I begin with a story about why the profession they’re preparing for clings to the (MAP) as the dominant method for delivering secondary school physical education, why that program struggles to engage students and why alternative programs are seldom adopted. I conclude by suggesting why something more radical seems needed and what action a peak professional body like ACHPER might take to help.
According to Lawson and Lawson (2013) recent thinking about engagement has highlighted the need to look at the socio-ecological dimensions of kids’ lives. Thinking this way would see school HPE Departments:
develop improvement models that provide a more expansive, engagement-focused reach into students’ family, peer, and neighbourhood ecologies. (Lawson & Lawson, 2013, p.433)
It is within such broadened conceptualisations of engagement that curriculum ‘improvement models’, such as the alternatives to the MAP I’m addressing in this article, need to be put under the microscope. If they are to stand a real chance of engaging young people they must offer learning experiences that engender meaning, purpose, enjoyment and justice in the minds of students (Tinning, Kirk & Evans, 1990), connecting them to significant and valued others inside and outside the school gate. Broader conceptualisations of engagement invite us to examine the quality of the interpersonal connections alternative curriculum models may foster.
By recognising the socio-ecological, i.e., connectedness dimensions of engagement, we can readily see a glaring shortcoming of the MAP. Within the constraints of lessons where students’ choices and responsibilities are usually limited, connectedness is often confined to incidental interactions among classmates. Educators need to appreciate how more sustained social affiliations (e.g., McPhail, Kirk & Kinchin, 2004) may set the conditions for deeper and more lasting engagement beyond just one lesson.
One reality of everyday life in many HPE Departments committed to MAPs seems to be that there is little need to engage in professional discussion of program options or, more generally, for much ‘joint work’ at all (Little, 1990). Such a workplace can render the soil in which new approaches to teaching might germinate somewhat infertile. In ‘The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers’ Professional Relations’, Little (1990) questions the significance of the term ‘collegiality’ in teachers’ work, suggesting that references to collegiality sound positive but often don’t amount to much:
Teachers’ collaborations sometimes serve the purposes of well-conceived change, but the assumed link between increased collegial contact and improvement-oriented change does not seem to be warranted:
Generic Multi-activity Program (MAP)Term/Year Group Year 7’s Year 8’s Year 9’s
Term OneFitness Testing
Swimming Trials/Sports
Fitness Testing
Swimming Trials/Sports
Fitness Testing
Swimming Trials/Sports
Term TwoAthletics
[Carnival]
Athletics
[Carnival]
Athletics
[Carnival]
Term ThreeVolleyball
Basketball
Badminton
Touch
Cricket
Hockey
Term FourNetball
Softball
Tennis
SofcrosseRec Options
Figure 1: Typical Multi-activity Program
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Closely bound groups are instruments both for promoting change and for conserving the present. Changes, indeed, may prove substantial or trivial. (p. 509-510)
Judith Little’s work on collegiality may hold a clue to the kinds of program change initiatives that could be robust enough to surmount the inertia of existing regularities in school HPE departments. By taking account of her call for ‘joint work’, and Lawson and Lawson’s (2013) call to develop ‘improvement models’ that provide a more socio-ecological reach (through peers/families/neighbourhoods/communities) into students’ engagements with school, we get an inkling as to the kinds of proposals that may have some prospects for germination and growth.
Following a November 2013 ACHPER International Conference presentation to teachers about the need to work collegially on more engaging HPE programs (Alexander, 2013), especially for students beginning secondary school, some teachers have begun the kinds of collegial discussions and joint work that is seldom required when MAPs dominate the day-to-day, term-to-term routines of HPE Departments.
A working title for the first year of high school vision is the ‘Welcome Curriculum’ (see Figure 2).
There are questions that will naturally arise when teachers begin to examine their current practices with the MAP. Among them are:
• What’s HE and what’s PE?
• Does it make sense to have separate HE and PE every term?
• How could we run a term of work if every session was just called HPE?
• What would Term One of the Welcome Curriculum look like?
• Term One looks like an integrated ‘HPE’ approach while Term Two and Term Four look very ‘PE’ focused (‘SE’ and ‘Fitness’). Could that work?
• Could/should we run a whole term three of HE with a ‘resilience’ focus? If we did, what would the ‘phys-edders’ do?
• Does our Department have the leadership and collegiality to work through such matters?
• If the vision is attractive, how much of it could we make work?
• Do we have the knowledge and expertise to select/design/deliver a range of ‘Welcome’ activities for Year 7s?
• What do we already do that we could re-package to suit such a vision and that fits the circumstances in which we work?
• What are we supposed to do in the following year and beyond?
Given sound leadership and shared vision, these questions are more than capable of being addressed by any group of HPE professionals. Teachers reading this article will naturally engage in their own cost-benefit analyses of the ideas. In relation to the program beyond the first year of high school, I have every confidence that HPE teachers, whose investment in their students has paid dividends due to their collegiality and vision, will be precisely the ones who are best placed to engage those same students as they progress through secondary school. My view is that it is collegiality and vision that will bring success – not an outsider who designs a detailed program that will undoubtedly struggle to suit the wide range of school contexts for HPE.
As I have argued elsewhere (Alexander, 2008), considerable scope for creativity exists where HPE departments are persuaded to abandon much of their multi-activity programming,
Year 7 ‘Welcome’ CurriculumA caring/connectedness pedagogy (CP) for year 7 PE
Term One: ‘WELCOME’. HPE department welcomes students (and families) to secondary school with a range of challenges, initiatives and games that primarily target attitudes, values and interpersonal skills. Particular activities/events invite families to the school while some activities also occur in community settings.
Term Two: ‘SEPEP’. Building on Term One’s success with interpersonal skills, students engage in a term of a sport with lifestyle crossover potency, such as Ultimate. [SEPEP or CGD pedagogies develop skills for physical activity].
Term Three: ‘RESILIENCE’. Focus on health education: Decisions facing 12-13 year olds (e.g., relationships; drugs; bullying; nutrition etc.) are pursued with peer, family and community involvement. Real, relevant and right now!
Term Four: ‘HALS’. Healthy Active Lifestyles program. Students are offered a choice between moderate or vigorous health-related fitness programs. Four weeks of developing the knowledge and understanding to self-manage a 24/7 (i.e., connectedness) program is followed by a four-week teacher-facilitated and self-evaluated trial of each student’s personally-designed program.
Figure 2: The Welcome Curriculum
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replacing it with activities that develop connections among peers, with the school community and beyond (e.g., families; neighbourhoods). A key plank of a broad new narrative could be a ‘Welcome Curriculum’ for Year 7 students entering their first term of secondary school HPE (see Figure 2). Other ‘connectedness’ models like sport education could follow. Such a curriculum would steadfastly pursue the socio-ecological connections inherent in Lawson and Lawson’s (2013) conceptualisation of engagement. By pursuing outcomes like interpersonal and self-management skills, and values and attitudes with cooperative games, challenges and initiatives commonly found in materials like ‘Silver Bullets’, ‘Cowtails and Cobras’ and ‘Quicksilver’ (Rohnke,1984; 1989; 1995), HPE departments could lay claim to a greater centrality (versus marginality) in the school pantheon. The HPE Department could become a key player in welcoming new students and families, many of whom would have come from a number of different primary schools, and who would benefit from the HPE Department’s efforts in creating a sense of community.
Initiatives like a Welcome Curriculum could contain the seeds of a school leadership team’s re-examination of the roles the HPE Department might play in the life of the school. The ‘creative breakout’ inherent in such a proposal would lie in the abandonment of commonly seen
first-term programs in which new students fleetingly encounter fitness testing, swimming trials, cricket, netball or other sports comprising the MAP. A socio-ecologically conceived curriculum would focus, not only on students’ connections within lessons and units, but also extend its reach – its relevance – to peers, families and neighbourhoods/communities beyond the school gate. However, unless connected to a broader narrative about what a vibrant HPE Department could offer young people (and, politically, to the reputation of a school) the disparate and loosely-
coupled sports comprising the MAP are destined to remain part of the problem rather than the solution.
A new narrative is needed in the school communities our profession serves – one in which discussions about HPE’s contributions could be more enlightened. The second element in this radical proposal is to challenge ACHPER, as the agent for our profession, to act in the role of ‘positive deviant’. The mission is to recognise that years of ‘quality PE’ advocacy have been ineffective. PE teacher education programs, continuing professional development and new State and National curricula have not budged the MAP. I am proposing that ACHPER acts as a ‘positive deviant’ by selling its broad narrative directly to school communities - developing a new literacy and seeking a new dialogue regarding the contributions HPE could make to the lives of young people. In particular, the story of what could be offered by HPE professionals needs to be told directly to Principals, to school leadership teams, to other staff, to parents and parent groups and to the students themselves. Arguably, these groups often have little understanding of the HPE learning area and what
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it could be offering. Ignorance is the enemy of enlightenment.
ACHPER, in conjunction with teacher training institutions and leading teachers, should strike out beyond the well-crafted but disparate collection of position statements that currently reside on its website. I envisage presentations to Principals’ groups, professional associations, Student Councils and Parents and Friends associations. Admittedly, in such ‘positive deviance’, there is some delicacy. School communities may begin to ask when they can have a Welcome Curriculum for their new students – creating some pressures on their own HPE Departments to respond. But this is a matter for a peak professional body to address – to ensure that initiatives are pursued inclusively and non-judgmentally but, nevertheless, steadfastly. A new literacy of engagement with our students is needed. Not just within our profession but within our school communities as well.
In bringing this story to a close for my students, I suggest that what appears to be missing in our profession is a strong narrative that can guide our mission. Well crafted and coherent state and national curricula can underpin such a narrative, but a more engaging story is needed – one around and within which HPE professionals can find vision and commitment. We need a story that can be understood by, and excite, school communities.
One that is told within our own profession and without - to all our constituents. One that can galvanise disparate and fragmented MAP-based HPE curricula. Such a narrative should provide school communities with a clear picture of the key features of quality health and physical education in schools. Let me be clear. I’m not advocating the promotion of some kind of ‘best practice’ that assumes particular initiatives are so robust and universally sound that they should and will take root and blossom in any soil (any school). But I am questioning whether school communities – Principals, teachers, students and Parents and Friends Associations – have any real sense of the meaningful, purposeful, enjoyable, just and engaging programs enlightened and collegial departments of HPE could be providing. I’m proposing that it become the role of ACHPER, and teachers who comprise its membership, to co-construct and co-deliver such a broad narrative for their profession.
ReferencesAlexander, K. (2008, January). Is there a role
for tactical and sport education models in school physical education. Keynote Address, First Asia-Pacific Sport in Education Conference, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Alexander, K. (2013). Some seed fell on stony ground: Three models – three strikes. In J. Quay & A. Mooney (Eds.) A defining time in Health and Physical education: proceedings of the 28th ACHPER International Conference, (pp.1-8). Melbourne, November 27-29,
2013. Retrieved February 7 2014, from http://www.achper.org.au/sb_cache/associationnews/id/159/f/ACHPER%202013%20Conference%20Proceedings.pdf
Alexander, K. & Taggart, A. (1995). Sport Education in Physical Education Program (SEPEP). Canberra, Australian Sports Commission.
Alexander, K. & Penney, D. (2005). Teaching under the influence: Feeding Games for Understanding into the Sport Education development-refinement cycle. Sport, Education and Society, 10, 287-301.
Ennis, C. D. (2000). Canaries in the coal mine: Responding to disengaged students using theme-based curricula. Quest, 52, 119-130.
Kirk, D. (2004). Framing quality physical education: The elite sport model or Sport Education? Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 9, 185-195.
Lawson, M. & Lawson, H. (2013). New conceptual frameworks for engagement research policy, research and practice. Review of Educational Research, 83, 432-479.
Little, J. W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations. Teachers College Record, 91, 4, 509-536.
Locke, L (1992). Changing secondary school physical education. Quest, 44, 361-372.
McPhail, A., Kirk, D. & Kinchin, G. (2004). Sport education: Promoting team affiliation through physical education. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 23, 106-122.
Placek, J. (1983). Conceptions of success in teaching: Busy, happy and good? In Templin, T. and Olson, J. (Eds.). Teaching in Physical Education, Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.
Rohnke, K. (1984). Silver Bullets: A guide to initiative problems, adventure games, stunts and trust activities. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt.
Rohnke, K. (1989). Cowstails and cobras II: A guide to games, initiatives, ropes courses and adventure curriculum. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt.
Rohnke, K. (1995). Quicksilver: Adventure games, trust activities, and a guide to effective leadership. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt.
Siedentop, D. (1977). Physical education: Introductory analysis (2nd ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.
Tinning, R. Kirk, D. & Evans, J. (1990). Learning to teach physical education. Erskinville: Prentice-Hall.
About the AuthorDr Ken Alexander is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. He can be contacted via email [email protected].
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Tablets: The Physical Education Teacher’s Best Resource
Jane McPherson, Templestowe Valley Primary School, VIC Andy Hair, Leopold Primary School, VIC
Clipboard and Assessment book in hand. Whistle, stopwatch and keys hanging around your neck. Scramble for a pen before ducking out of the staffroom. Sound familiar? With no desk in sight you need to have everything in hand once you are out in the middle of the oval. It doesn’t need to be this elaborate. What if you could reduce this to your whistle, keys and iPad?
My iPad has replaced my clipboard, assessment book, work program, stop watch, calendar, reminders, emails, notepad, video camera, scoreboard, attendance record and more.
Prior to classes starting the iPad allows me to check emails while on the go and read, edit and print documents such as permission notices. I am able to check for anything that needs printing in time for class, send it to print then head to class with my keys and whistle, the only other resources that I need.
My preparation for the 2014 school year has changed from previous years. I now use iDoceo to record everything from sporting events to assessment in class. With students in station activities, or whole class individual activities I have been able to record snippets of their performances and can track their improvement over the semester. When it came to our Swimming Carnival I had a teacher enter the students’ race times directly into iDoceo. For Phys Ed teachers on the go I find it has a clear user interface that allows you to enter, alter and customize information quickly and efficiently.
iDoceo, to use the company’s phrase, ‘You’ll forget your old gradebook forever’ ( http://www.idoceo.net/ ) was kindly shared by a friend. I have explored the apps options and to put it simply, I am loving it! This app has become everything for me. Being able to import my 20 classes into the app from Excel files, create a schedule, fortnightly if required, that links to each grade at the touch of finger and record all relevant information while backing up to Dropbox has made life so much easier!
Each student entry can include their photo making it easier to remember them when you are writing reports! You can customize the columns, add video, photos, audio, files and URLs. Take notes, add symbols, create marking criteria’s at a touch. If you have specific details you want to add like what House they are in, what year they were born for sporting events, you can create that simply in an Excel spreadsheet and then import them to your class list. The ability to export all your assessment is just as easy, exporting to files such as Excel, PDF and more. And this is only the beginning!
During lessons I can check any key tasks for the lessons on my plans tucked away in Dropbox.
The students use the stopwatch and scoreboard apps to keep track of our game because they know I never remember! I spend some time videoing students’ skills, recording achievements and taking notes on their development. I even use a dice app for fitness activities.
Coach’s Eye is one of the many video analysis apps you can use to get the students to see what they are doing during their performance. The app now gives the user the ability to compare two video clips. My students have used this to compare performances in sprinting, an overarm throw or a two handed strike. They can slow the clip down, draw on the clip to pin point the key components we are working on and see where they need to improve.
I can show them the layout of the games court or field and show them where a player could move to on the iPad. We can discuss and check rules on an app or search Google to clarify. Whilst Google doesn’t always provide the answers it often sparks valuable discussion about the game.
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This is a very basic overview of what a single iPad can do in a classroom. In an ideal world every student would have their own, opening up endless possibilities. Possibilities include:
• Recording goals
• Keeping fitness testing
• Taking their own video and analyzing it
• Using stats from our class activities and games in Numeracy
• Taking photos of sport to write reviews for the school website
• Recording their times and distances and comparing them over time
• Giving them access to worksheets that they can complete and send back to me in class without the use of paper
• Creating graphs of their exercising heart rates.
The list is endless. Empowerment of students leading to self-directed learning through the use of an iPad becomes simpler and more attainable with each day and each new application.
Beyond the classroom the iPad has even more on offer. On Sport Days, for example, I have started to use the iPad for recording purposes. It makes it easier to decipher the results later as I don’t have to try and guess what a helper has written. Last year for my school’s Athletics Day I used the iPads to record the results for all 260
students. Each event had an iPad with the app Numbers on it. I loaded the list of students for each group into a spreadsheet and from there was able to create a pro-forma to make it simpler for the helper to enter the results.
This worked perfectly as iPads have the ability to save to themselves. The aim of the day was to use the iCloud system to drag the information off the iPads back to the recording desk. A small glitch was that iCloud decided to do maintenance on this day however when I got back to school I uploaded all the spreadsheets to the iCloud and downloaded them to my laptop. Then it was just a matter of hitting the ‘sort’ button in Numbers and it gave me my 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. So simple!
Last year I decided that life needed to be made easier for recording the race winners in our schools Cross Country event. So I chose the QR code as a solution. I created a QR code for all my students, I then mail merged it to a Word document and printed them on stickers. Each student was then scanned via a QR code reader on an iPad or an iPhone as they crossed the line. By the time I got back to school I had a spreadsheet of each race that gave me the order in which the students crossed the line. The QR code here supplies you with a link to a free app reader for the iPhone/iPad, QRafter and QRafter Pro. QRafter Pro allows you to link to Dropbox and export the history.
Of course both events were run with
the cooperation of very supportive colleagues. They have always given my ideas a go and in the long run saved us a lot of hassle.
Using Google Docs to collate information has changed the way we do things in PE. Logging into your Google Drive unlocks a world of online documents that can be used in unlimited ways. As a PE teacher we are forever creating sign up sheets to gather interested students to try out for different teams. I remember re typing hand written names and trying to determine grades from these lists. The interschool sport sign up sheets often took up to a week to collect in full and then another week to type up the names and distribute this information to team coaches. Well all of this is now in the past with the help of Google Forms. Within your Google Drive you will find a tab to create your own Google Form. With this form you can collect the information you require within a few minutes. The Google Form creates a link which is able to be shared to all users via email, tagged to website or as a saved app on your tablet. The students fill in their details, name, grade, email and preferences or answers to set questions. As soon as they press submit the results will appear on your responses page linked to the original Google Form page. From here you can manipulate this spreadsheet and sort the data anyway you like. One of the things I love to do with the results is to AUTOCRAT the responses. Simply put this takes the responses given by individual students and merges them into a pre loaded document to create a certificate. These documents can either be saved individually or emailed directly to the students.
Thinking laterally about Google Forms and Autocrat in 2014 I am setting up an iPad tent at sporting carnivals. When students have finished their events for the day they are able to visit the tent and use one of the iPads located within. Students will see a pre set screen that will have the Google Form for the carnival ready for filling in. It will contain: Name, School, email address, Event/Performance 1, Event/Performance 2 etc. Once students
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press submit it will merge this information to a pre set certificate and email them directly. Students can then use this certificate to attach it to their Portfolios back at school or just as a record of their achievements.
Feel free to view a sample Google Form for Interschool Sport Sign by following this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XjcYB1 nRzQEGb5QXflwGmNzUQ7-Rbhg_SDdCwZql18A/viewform
Finding applications that are right for you takes time and a willingness to experiment but asking others what they use and recommend is the best shortcut to take. I’ve been through a few and by the time I have determined the value of each one there’s another new one to consider. Don’t be held back by what you don’t know. It hasn’t been a smooth ride, I’ve hit speed humps along the way, I just kept trying until I found a digital solution that worked! Jump in, explore and see what you can do to improve your efficiency and your students’ engagement and outcomes.
So get rid of your clipboard and start exploring the possibilities a hand-held device holds for you.
About the AuthorsJane McPherson is a PE Teacher at Templestowe Valley Primary School in Victoria, and also an ACHPER Victoria Board Member. She can be contacted via email: [email protected]
Andy hair has been a PE Teacher for 20 years, and is currently teaching at Leopold Primary School in Victoria. He can be contacted via email: [email protected]
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Close the GapAustralia’s largest Indigenous health campaign Annalise De Mel,
Oxfam Australia
Since 2006, Australia’s peak Indigenous and non-Indigenous health bodies, NGOs and human rights organisations have worked together to achieve health equality for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) peoples, through the Close the Gap campaign.
Close the Gap is Australia’s largest Indigenous health campaign, an Indigenous-led campaign which aims to achieve health equality between ATSI and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.
National Close the Gap Day (NCTGD) is a way for secondary school students and all Australians across the country to join together to demonstrate their support for this issue and to remind our political leaders of their commitments, and to show them Australians care about Australia’s Indigenous peoples and their health.
As the number of supporters grows in the community, so does the pressure on all governments to keep Indigenous health equality as a top priority and put into action its commitments to close the life expectancy gap.
By joining our efforts we can make sure that by 2030 any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child born in this country has the same opportunity as other Australian children to live a long, healthy and happy life.
What is ‘The Gap’, and why does it need closing?
Statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that on average, Indigenous Australians die a decade earlier than non-Indigenous Australians1.
ATSI adults are 12 times more likely to go blind from cataracts than non-Indigenous adults, but rates of cataract surgery are seven times lower.
Cataracts cause 32% of blindness in ATSI adults and 27% of low vision. The good news is that up to 94% of vision loss for ATSI people is preventable or treatable2, but only 65% of those with vision loss caused by cataracts have received surgery. 3
Since the commencement of the national effort to Close the Gap in July 2009, reductions in smoking rates and maternal and child health outcomes in particular have been demonstrated, providing some evidence and encouragement that the national effort to Close the Gap is working, that generational change is possible and that it’s possible to Close the Gap by 2030.4
The support of schools around Australia is really important. Why? Because we are trying to change a problem that has been around for decades and it’s going to take a lot of public pressure to keep the Government focused on a long-term commitment to Close the Gap.
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In 2008, the Australian Government announced a $1.6 billion commitment to improve Indigenous health, the biggest ever injection of new funding for Indigenous health. This is significant short-term funding received, but a commitment to long-term funding is still needed.
How can schools get involved? Resources are targeted to secondary school students of all levels. With more than 181,000 students and teachers from almost 900 secondary schools across Australia participating in the past three years, schools like yours have helped make NCTGD the largest ATSI health campaign in Australia’s history.
Register your school: Register at www.oxfam.org.au/ctgschools to receive a free resource pack full of all kinds of goodies help your students learn about the gap in health between ASTI and non-
Indigenous Australians, including a DVD, student kit, posters, wristbands, stickers, balloons, a t-shirt and more.
Hold an event:The downloadable Student Kit, Action Guide and Activities Ideas are easy to use and inspire inquiry-led and creative ways to generate action and discussion —from sport to art, music to debate. Activities could involve a class group, year level or the whole school. Speakers from Oxfam are also available to speak to students at your school, on request.
Take the 30 for 2030 Challenge: Encourage students and members of your school community to collect 30 signatures from family, friends and community members, to send a strong message to our political leaders that Australians still care about health equality.
Instagram Student Photo Challenge:During March 17-21, students who post photos on Instagram that reflect five NCTGD themes will be in the running to win great prizes! Follow @closethegapcampaign on Instagram, and keep your eye out for more information.
Activity Ideas for HPE
‘Move it Mob Style’:Check out www.moveitmobstyle.com.au and use the videos to run dance classes, host a dance concert or create a Close the Gap flash mob.
Host a Close the Gap themed football, netball, soccer of any sport match:We can even send you Close the Gap sports tape for players to wear on their arms.
The 2014 National Close the Gap Day video and worksheet:Explore health issues impacting Indigenous peoples and services and programs that are helping to close the gap.
Student resourcesOxfam Australia acknowledges that students often feel overwhelmed by and disconnected from national issues. Therefore, all resources created for students for NCTGD are designed to ensure problems presented are supported by solutions, and actions they can take that will make a difference.
Students are supported to build their confidence and capacity to make ethical, sustainable and informed choices to help shape solutions to problems at a local, national or global level.
NCTGD in schools is designed to be inquiry-based and student-led. Students are supported to build their confidence and capacity to explore the
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issue of Indigenous health inequality however it is relevant to them and their communities – be it engaging with local elders, web-based videos and stories, creating artwork and photographs, story writing, theater or debate, and of course sport and dance.
Resources are available online as a PDF, for students to easily access themselves, and include:
Student kitA step-by-step step guide for students looking to create and hold their own event at school, including tip and a how-to action plan and checklist.
Action GuideExplores three actions students can take to support Close the Gap, whether they have three minutes, three days or three weeks!
Pledge formsEssential print-outs to assist with the 30 for 2030 Challenge.
Activity ideasA range of activity ideas for students and teachers alike, to inspire events and activities that are meaningful to them and their community.
Teacher resourcesAs a member of the Close the Gap coalition, Oxfam Australia is uniquely placed to provide materials for study that present authentic and credible voices to explore the issue of closing the gap.
The resources are aligned to the new Australian Curriculum cross-curricular priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, and mapping is available on the website.
Materials include a short video on Closing the Gap (available as a DVD and on YouTube) and accompanying worksheet examining the health issues facing Indigenous community members and health programs and services working to close the gap, animations, articles, useful links and images for student-led research, infographics, statistics, stories from the field and more. Learning resources created by teachers who have participated in NCTGD in the past are also available.
Feedback from participantsTeachers and principals have reported positive impacts of running NCTGD activities, observing students develop a greater understanding of wellbeing, social justice and equity, as well as developing values and attitudes such as empathy, connectedness and responsibility.
More infoPlease visit www.oxfam.org.au/ctgschools to register your school, download student and teacher materials, and find out more info on NCTGD and the Close the Gap campaign.
References1 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Life
Tables for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2010–2012, (cat. no. 3302.0.55.003), 2013. URL: www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/
BD51C922BFB7C6C1CA257C230011C97F/ $File/3302055003_2010-2012.pdf (Accessed 14 January 2014).
2 Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee for Indigenous Health, Progress and priorities report 2014, Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, 2014, p. 9. URL: https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ctgshadowreport2014.pdf (Accessed 12 February 2014).
3 Taylor H., Anjou M., Boudville A., McNeil R., The Roadmap to Close the Gap for Vision: Full Report, The University of Melbourne, 2012. URL: http://iehu.unimelb.edu.au/publications/?a=538656 (Accessed 14 January 2014).
4 Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee for Indigenous Health, Progress and priorities report 2014, Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, 2014, p. 25. URL: https://www.oxfam.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ctgshadowreport2014.pdf (Accessed 12 February 2014).
About the AuthorAnnalise De Mel is the Schools Program Coordinator at Oxfam Australia. She can be contacted via email [email protected] and on Twitter at @anna_dee_em
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LaunchPad Time to Move!Created for primary school children, as well as children in early childhood learning environments, LaunchPad is designed to address the need for fundamental movement programs in schools.
LaunchPad is all about movement. The Australian Sports Commission, funding partner of LaunchPad, describes the program as “a national initiative which aims to teach children aged between 0 – 12 years the critical movement skills to give them the competence to participate in sport for life.”
Teaching children how to move, and move well, is fundamental – fundamental to a physically active life; fundamental to developing learning potential; fundamental to developing emotional, social and cognitive skills valuable for all aspects of life.
At the official opening of LaunchPad, then Minister for Sport Kate Lundy said,
“LaunchPad is about giving our kids a strong foundation to support participation in sport for life.
“I am confident this campaign will inspire more kids to get involved in gymnastics and hopefully instil in them a love of sport that will continue through their teenage years and into adulthood.
“For many of our successful Aussie athletes, gymnastics was where it all started - from junior participation they developed a love of sport that gave them a strong foundation to achieve international success.”
A few of these success stories include aerial skiers Lydia Lassila and David Morris, diver Matthew Mitcham and hurdler Sally Pearson.
Three programs are used to deliver LaunchPad – KinderGym, for preschool children; GymFun, for children aged 5-8 years; GymSkills, for children aged 8-12 years. These age divisions are suggested only, with teachers able to borrow activities from all programs to deliver sessions most suited to their school equipment and values. LaunchPad’s programs outline safe, fun activities that challenge participants relative to their abilities and stage of development.
Teaching resources have been developed for each program, allowing for easy implementation in a school environment. The teaching resources include lesson plans and
accompanying activity cards. The activities are structured to become more complex as the lessons progress, challenging participants while ensuring the element of fun. The activity cards are produced using high quality, non-tear stock, so that they can be positioned around the activity space to prompt both students and teachers.
Here are a couple of Challenges, outlined in Gymskills 1.1 and 1.7 respectively. Stand Up! Try them for yourself …
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• Stand on one foot, draw a circle with the big toe on your other foot while also writing your name in the air with your hand
• Touch your nose with your right hand and your right ear with your left hand. Swap hands and ear. From ‘Thinking on your Feet’ by Jean Blaydes.
Did you have fun? Did they challenge your brain, your balance and coordination while making you smile? Now try them with your eyes closed! Such Challenges can be incorporated into a physical education class, as a transition from one subject to another, or as a quick and motivating classroom energiser.
Why should I adopt LaunchPad?
LauchPad is important for your children. • LaunchPad will develop confidence
and competence in fundamental movement, while ensuring children experience enjoyment, setting the foundation for future sporting success and/or lifelong, active and healthy participation in physical activity.
LaunchPad is easy to implement.
• Resources are available to help teachers design lessons, develop confidence, and gain an appreciation for the value of fundamental movement.
• Resources are time-saving with ready-to-use lesson plans and activity cards.
• The LaunchPad programs can be delivered with minimal equipment.
LaunchPad will help deliver your Gymnastics curriculum outcomes.• LaunchPad is an initiative of
Gymnastics Australia.
• LaunchPad incorporates the Gymnastics for All (GfA) principles of Fun, Fitness, Friendship and Fundamentals.
• Kindergym, Gymfun and Gymskills programs are also used by gymnastics coaches around Australia in the delivery of GfA classes (sometimes referred to as recreational gymnastics). The activities outlined in the program resources are recognised gymnastics movements, and are often building blocks for more complex gymnastics skills.
How can I access LaunchPad?
http://www.launch-pad.org.au/
• Register Your Interest via the Contact page on the official LaunchPad website. You will receive an automated reply acknowledging your registration. Your expression of interest will then be followed up by your State Gymnastics Association representative. Yes, human contact!
• Your State Gymnastics Association will be able to offer you professional development. Some states conduct LaunchPad: Ignite! Workshops for teachers. Other forms of professional development are also available.
• Kindergym, Gymfun and Gymskills lesson plans and activity cards can be purchased via the Resources page on the official LaunchPad website.
• Approximately 100 gymnastics clubs in Australia are accredited LaunchPad clubs. Use the LaunchPad Locator, on the Contact page on the official LaunchPad website, to see if there is a LaunchPad club near your school. An accredited LaunchPad club will have coaches trained to deliver LaunchPad sessions, and may open the club during week days for school visits. Partnering with a LaunchPad club can be a win-win arrangement. You can gain valuable support to deliver LaunchPad, and the club gains exposure encouraging children to consider extracurricular gymnastics.
• Victorian schools have an exciting opportunity to participate in a LaunchPad activity session at the 2014 Australian Gymnastics Championships.
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Victorian Schools at the 2014 Australian Gymnastics Championships
When? Wednesday 21st – Friday 23rd May, & Wednesday 28th – Friday 30th May. Sessions available 9.00am, 9.45am, 10.30am, 11.15am, 12.00pm, 12.45pm, 1.30pm, 2.15pm
Where?Hisense Arena at Melbourne Park
What?30 minute LaunchPad session;Supervised by a qualified gymnastics coach;Up to 30 students per session;Teachers and caregivers are encouraged to participate. (A LaunchPad session can be tailored for Secondary School students too.)
PLUS+
Admission to a session of the 2014 Australian Gymnastics Championships, where you and your students can witness the incredible feats of Australia’s best gymnasts!
Cost?$5 per student; teachers at no cost
How Can I Book?Contact Gymnastics Australia on 03 8698 9700 or [email protected]
Will LaunchPad actually make a difference? Research tells us that children who master fundamental movement skills are far more likely to participate in sport and physical activity throughout life.
Gymnastics Australia believes LaunchPad will improve your students’ fundamental movement skills, motivate your students to want to undertake physical activity, and create a culture of vibrancy throughout your school. Gymnastics Australia also knows that schools want evidence before investing in new programs, so… With the support of the Australian Sports Commission, Gymnastics Australia has partnered with Victoria University and the Australian Institute of Sport to start gathering an evidence base, to prove that LaunchPad delivers.
Sporting Success is the name of the research project. This longitudinal study of over 600 students, within a number of Melbourne schools, is well underway. Visit the Sporting Success website to read more about this project, and see images of children involved in LaunchPad. http://www.sportingsuccess.com.au/
And now, It’s Time to Move!To help you on your way, here’s an activity taken from Gymskills 2.7 to use in your school’s LaunchPad sessions.
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Leading by Example: An Effective Motivational Strategy!
Brent D. Bradford, University of Alberta: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Physically active and healthy life choices are essential facets in our lives. Although this statement is quite understandable, there continues to be soaring reports of sedentary and other unhealthy life choices everywhere. From television news reports to educational journals to newspaper columns and beyond, increasing awareness is being noted daily. So, how is it that people are not behaving in more health promoting ways at a more rapid pace?
In a time when alarming rates of chronic illnesses due to physical inactivity and unhealthy life choices are being discussed, it seems to be the perfect time for us, as teachers of physical and health education, to “step forward” while continuing to be truly effective educators within our schools. For example, while physically educating our students (Hickson, 2003), let’s also take time to physically educate our schools’ administrators, teachers and support staff! I do not mean “let’s stand in front of our colleagues and point to more numbers.” I mean “let’s lead by example!”
ATTENTION TEACHERS OF PHYSICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION! Let’s be the change! Let’s lead by example in our own schools!
The purpose of this article is to discuss the positive effects that I observed “leading by example” can have on a school staff. During a decade of teaching in schools, I was fortunate to observe colleagues significantly increasing their levels of physical activity. Led by strong administration teams and willing staff members, the development of physically active and healthy staffs did not occur overnight. Weeks, months and years were required for physically active and healthy life choices to become a “way of life” for the school staff members. Eventually, change did occur! However, it all seemed to begin through the simple strategy of “leading by example!”
If change is what we’re truly after, let’s take one more “step forward!”
The following article explains a few tried, tested and proven strategies which we, as teachers of physical and health education, can use to help staff members gain a deeper level of knowledge and experience toward choosing to be more physically active and lead healthy lives. The strategies include the (1) Staff AM Walking Group, (2) Staff Teambuilding Activities, (3) Staff Activity Evenings, in addition to “supporting” and “educating” staff members. However, what makes the strategies successful is “consistency.” Whichever strategy is used, consistency is required, as opposed to being used “once in a while,” if levels of physically active and healthy life choices are to increase throughout school staffs.
Based upon personal experiences, “consistency” leads to change!
In addition to each strategy identified in the following sections will be an explanation of benefits and strategies to overcome the barriers for active participation by staff members in physically active and health promoting initiatives.
1. Staff AM Walking GroupThe only thing better than a morning walk is a morning walk with staff members! Since the beginning of my teaching career, one of my ultimate school initiatives was to help spread awareness of physically active and healthy life choices. In fact, one of my earliest endeavours was the creation
of the Staff AM Walking Group. All staff members were invited to join the Staff AM Walking Group near the school’s front doors one hour prior to the morning bell. The morning walks would be 30 minutes long!
BenefitsI have found several benefits result from taking morning walks with staff members (Bradford, 2013), such as;
• morning physical activity
• morning staff meetings
• staff teambuilding
BarriersPrior to starting the Staff AM Walking Group, I understood that it may take a little time for staff members to break through any barriers that may limit participation. As I reflect on the beginning stages of the walking group, it is not difficult to recall a few of the major barriers that needed to be broken down. A few examples include staff members stating;
• “My planning time will be disrupted.”
• “I will need to pack extra clothes.”
• “I will be tired after the walk which will affect my teaching.”
• “There are neighbourhood issues.”
• “There are weather issues.”
Strategies to Overcome the BarriersIn order to eliminate the barriers listed above, a few strategies seemed to help overcome any apprehensions from joining the walking group.
“My planning time will be disrupted.” Discussing with staff members about
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“planning ahead” and preparing for the teaching day sooner than one hour prior to teaching worked well for the majority. However, I did understand that there are those who were set in their ways of preparing and going over lessons within this time frame. I observed, though, that sharing the “planning ahead” strategy worked well for those who joined the group, especially as they became healthier, more physically active and fulfilled from the morning walks! This barrier was eliminated for several staff members through alternate planning times!
“I will need to pack extra clothes.” Teachers began to store a pair of walking shoes, and any other articles of clothing, in their classrooms at the beginning of the week. By doing this, they found that this barrier did not even exist anymore!
“I will be tired after the walk which will affect my teaching.” After hearing from colleagues how energetic they felt following the thirty minute walks, several new “walkers” found that they had more energy as opposed to less energy after the morning walks! This barrier is one that the individuals needed to experience in order to be “proven incorrect!”
“There are neighbourhood issues.” Without a doubt, there are schools located in neighbourhoods where walking may not be safe. In these cases, the Staff AM Walking Group could map out a course through the school hallways, around the outer boundaries in the gymnasium, or around the playing field. Although walking may not be possible around the neighbourhood, alternate locations are available. Be innovative!
“There are weather issues.” Specific days of the year present barriers to walking outside. During times when the weather becomes a barrier (e.g., rain, snow), staff members can still walk together! Alternate courses throughout the school hallways or in the gymnasium can still promote excellent walking experiences! Again, be innovative!
Turn your school’s neighbourhood streets into a “walking course to enhanced levels of staff health and physical activity” … through “leading by example!”
2. Staff Teambuilding ActivitiesThroughout the school year, try to dedicate some of your school’s Professional Development time for staff teambuilding activities! Staff teambuilding activities can promote cooperation, collaboration, teaching, learning, enjoyment and much more for staff members while providing challenging physical activity experiences in a group format. Staff teambuilding activities can take place in a local park, at a staff member’s holiday house or at a nearby retreat center.
BenefitsI have found that benefits from staff teambuilding are plentiful, including;
• staff members learning more about themselves
• staff members learning more about their colleagues
BarriersBefore any staff teambuilding day, I have always heard some colleagues state they will “watch” but “not try” the activities! Several barriers exist when staff members are asked to participate in teambuilding activities, which can usually include activities never experienced before. A few of the barriers include;
• unwillingness to try new activities
• low self-efficacy
• nervousness around others
As I reflect on a variety of staff teambuilding days, it is quite simple to recall situations where staff members became highly involved when initially reluctant. For example;
Staff members learned more about themselves. Through activities, such as cooperative-type activities/games, staff members gained elevated levels of self-efficacy in several skill areas (e.g., throwing, catching, running, communicating). After they had opportunities to try the activities in a group format, their initial reluctance seemed to diminish. However, in some cases, extra “leading by example” on my part was required to help with some of the reluctance! In the end, I have always observed others learning more about themselves and, specifically, their skill levels!
Staff members learned more about their colleagues. Teambuilding activities afford opportunities for staff members to work together in a setting outside the normal classroom environment. Staff members learn more about each other through teamwork. Teambuilding activities require the whole group (of any size) to be successful together. Therefore, I have observed, repeatedly during teambuilding activities, staff members working together and learning about each other and their specific skill levels and interests.
Strategies to Overcome the BarriersIn order to eliminate the barriers listed above, the strategies that seemed to help overcome any apprehensions from participating in staff teambuilding activities were “leading
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by example” and getting everyone involved; ensuring all staff members understood their importance in the teambuilding activities! Even though different levels of participation took place during the activities, it was understood that every single individual was part of the success (e.g., staff pyramid)!
Get the staff involved … help motivate them to be physically active … and ensure you are willing to “lead by example” … even if it means supporting the Staff Pyramid!
3. Staff Activity Evenings
Organizing School Activity Evenings for staff members (e.g., every 3rd Friday of the month) allows for enjoyable and innovative opportunities for the staff to mingle and to play a variety of games (e.g., volleyball) in a non-competitive environment. During Staff Activity Evenings, the organizing committee can arrange modified games that can be played by everyone without worrying about skill levels. The goal of these evenings is for the “whole staff” to experience enjoyment and a modest level of challenge while discovering the vast array of benefits from physical activity!
BenefitsI have found that benefits from Staff Activity Evenings have included;
• physical activity
• teamwork
• community building (e.g., staff families)
BarriersPrior to any Staff Activity Evening, there seems to be some barriers that
keep staff members from attending. Barriers have included;
• family babysitting
• reluctance to participate in games
• time issues
Strategies to Overcome the BarriersIn order to eliminate the barriers listed above, a few strategies seemed to help overcome any reluctance from participating in Staff Activity Evenings.
Family babysitting. The strategy to overcome this barrier is simple; families are welcome! Throughout my experiences organizing Staff Activity Evenings, the most successful, enjoyable, and physically active were the ones when staff members brought their families along. Organizing a variety of games for different skill levels can be done easily and allowing for all to engage in games is an excellent way to spend a night out … together.
Reluctance to participate in games. In order to get staff members involved in game situations, games can be modified to attend to a variety of skill levels. For example, exchanging a volleyball with a beach ball is an excellent modification to a game that so many enjoy! Do not worry about who wins or loses during Staff Activity Evenings. Enjoy observing the wide ranges of physical activity being experienced!
Staff Activity Evenings have helped colleagues decide to sign up for community sports leagues and other activities that they would have never tried before!
Time issues. Time issues are a part of life! That is fully understood. However, if staff members know that every third Friday of the month, for example, is a Staff Activity Evening, then arrangements can be made more easily as opposed to simply letting colleagues know a couple days in advance. Communicating and organizing Staff Activity Evenings well in advance has been an effective strategy in the success of this physically active initiative.
Barriers Overcome! Several barriers were eliminated through various strategies, including the ones listed in the previous sections. For example, during the first year the walking group was organized, three staff members made up the group. The group then grew to 10 to 15 staff members in a few months, and the numbers continued to climb. Although it took a little time for staff members to discover, appreciate and benefit from walking thirty minutes together prior to the morning bell, the Staff AM Walking Group became part of the school culture almost instantaneously! Staff teambuilding activities provided several of my colleagues with opportunities to develop more self-awareness while engaging in innovative and cooperative-type activities. Staff activity evenings provided opportunities to enhance skill levels while including family members, which I observed built a community of families!
Two Final StrategiesWhichever physically active initiative a school staff engages in, two final strategies I wish to suggest are simply to “support staff members” during times when they may require an extra friendly push to get started and “educate staff members.”
Support Staff Members. In order for any of us to have started something new, we have needed, at one time or another, a “friendly” push and some guidance for increased levels of self-efficacy! When it comes to helping colleagues learn more about the benefits of physically active and healthy life choices, we, as teachers of physical and health education, must continue to offer support in the most innovative ways. After all, it is worth it for everyone involved!
Throughout the school year, let’s “lead by example” … let’s help motivate our staff!
Educate Staff Members. A collection of materials pertaining to physically active and health topics can assist in the development of staff members’ physically active and healthy life
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choices. For example, information on the benefits of physical activity, healthy eating and proper stretches can be presented to staff members during “Staff AM Walks,” “Staff Teambuilding Activities,” and “Staff Activity Evenings.” Below is a list of some excellent websites that provide information for staff walking groups, some of which I have used in the past. I believe you should have no difficulty finding many effective websites for health-promoting organizations closer to your home locations. Share and educate!
• Apple Schools: www.appleschools.ca
• Ever Active Schools: everactive.org
• Healthy U: healthyalberta.com
• Physical & Health Education Canada (PHE): www.phecanada.ca
One Size Does Not Fit All! Innovate! Although the strategies shared throughout this article have worked extremely well throughout my teaching years, there are countless innovative strategies that have not yet been created! Therefore, it is hoped that during the school year, you take some time to try some listed in this article and also discover new ways to help your colleagues understand the positive effects of physically active and healthy life choices! Just remember to “lead by example!”
Concluding ThoughtsIt is imperative that physically active and healthy life choices continue
to be hot topics of discussion in schools. We must continue to discover strategies to help reduce sedentary and unhealthy life choices. In addition to offering quality physical and health education programs for students, there are effective strategies that can help staff members develop physically active and healthy life choices. The organization of (1) Staff AM Walking Groups, (2) Staff Teambuilding Activities, (3) Staff Activity Evenings as well as “supporting” and “educating” staff members has been found to help elevate levels of physical activity, healthy life choices, self-efficacy and much more.
Although there is an array of additional strategies that will work just as well, the most important message I wish to share with you is, “lead by example!” As teachers of physical and health education, we are in a ‘terrific’ position to help motivate colleagues to choose enhanced levels of physically active and healthy lives! The result from “leading by example” cannot only build stronger staffs, I believe it can also build more physically active and healthy school communities!
As you “lead by example” and help motivate your school staff throughout the school year, you may be surprised who will show up to join you!
ReferencesBradford, B. (November 2013). The Staff AM
Walking Group: Begin the School Day in a Physically Active Way. Canadian Teacher Magazine. (Issue: November/December 2013). p. 24-25.
Hickson, C. (2003). Putting education back into P.E. International Journal of Learning. 10.
About the AuthorBrent D. Bradford has taught at both the Elementary and Junior High school levels. After a decade of being a school teacher, he returned to the University of Alberta to pursue graduate work. He is currently working towards a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. While doing so, Brent teaches curriculum methods courses as a Teacher Educator. In 2011, he was recognized as an award-winning Teacher Educator at the University of Alberta.
He can be contacted via email [email protected]
Have a wonderful year teaching, learning, motivating and “leading by example” in your “Physically Active and Healthy” School!
I look forward to hearing about your experiences using this approach.
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NetballDeveloping player game sense
Shane Pill and Terry Magias, Flinders University, SA
The traditional approach to skill learning involved breaking the skill down into its parts and then progressively reassembling the movement pattern beginning with highly simplified movements performed under controlled, or “closed”, training conditions. This skill and drill directive approach to sport skill learning separated the performance of the skill as technique from the game play. Game play generally occurred only after extensive practice.
Game Sense is the decision making and motor competency to execute the decision for a successful outcome in a game situation (Pill, 2007). In other words, “Technique + Game Context = Skill” (Den Duyn, 1997, p.6), where skill is defined as the performance of a technique in a game to produce a successful game outcome. The game performance cycle explained by Hopper (2003) helps understand Game Sense. During a game players must continuously:
READ the situation to make appropriate decisions
RESPOND to the situation
REACT with skilful movement execution
RECOVER from the skill execution to prepare for the next game involvement
This requires four capacities:
1. Technical skill;
2. Attention to relevant information in the game environment;
3. Tactical game appreciation; and
4. Experience.
The primary and secondary rules of Netball develop player understanding of the “logic of the game. To introduce netball to beginners we suggest starting with primary rules that assist players’ development of fundamental sport skills; such as dodging, receiving, passing, jumping, running, with the principles of play common to invasion games. For example, how do you work as a team to keep possession of the ball?
At the 2013 28th ACHPER International Conference in Melbourne, delegates came up with the following list of primary rules for netball.
• Teams gain points by getting the ball into a goal
• Player movement is restricted to defined parts of the court based on the position allocated
• Players are not permitted to travel when in possession of the ball
• A player with the ball is provided time and space to make a pass upon gaining possession
• Defenders are not permitted to contact the player with the ball
• If the ball goes out of court the team to touch it last gives possession to the other team to re-start play.
• After a score, the scoring team gives the re-start of play to the other team
With these primary rules in mind, the following secondary rules were negotiated with the understanding
that small-sided game play maximises engagement and opportunity for individual player on-the-ball and off-the-ball game action, and thus small-sided game play advantages skill development.
• One defender and one attacking player, identified by a sash, are permitted in the scoring zone (illustrated by the dotted line in Figure 1)
• Points are scored by the designated attacking player getting the ball into the goals (a plastic rubbish bin)
• Each team has 5 players (There were 35 active participants in the workshop so we created 7 teams. At any one time 6 teams would participate in three concurrent games and the 7th team would be the duty team allocated umpiring, scoring and time-keeping roles)
• After a score the re-start occurs from the centre of the court
The set-up for the three games is illustrated in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. 5v5 netball for novice players
5v5 5v5 5v5
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The non-game active workshop participants agreed that a casual observer would believe participants were playing netball, even though the games were not like the “full rules” netball; much the same as a casual observer would see a group of children kicking a squashed can along the ground in a game on the street would comment that they were playing soccer.
This initial game of netball couples sport specific skill learning within the context of play so that players develop the information-movement coupling that leads eventually to “skilled” netball performance. The focus is on guiding players to understand the game and to appreciate its tactical complexity, while providing the opportunity to develop and then refine the movement competencies necessary to successfully meet the challenges presented within the game. Over time the game is evolved from this simple representation of netball to progressively more complex and complete versions of the game as players tactical and body management skills develop.
When do we teach “technique”?In a game sense sport teaching/coaching approach it is recognised that game play needs to be supplemented with other teaching strategies to develop specific movement (tactical and technical body control) skills to progress players ability. Keep the Ball Alive (Figure 2) was used during the workshop to illustrate the type of activity suitable for novice player passing skill development. Corner Spry (Figure 3) was used to illustrate player passing skill development for players that had moved beyond the stage of developing coordination and control to the stage of refining their netball specific movement skill. The 3v1 Play Practice (Figure 4) was used to illustrate game-like practice of specific offense running and ball movement patterns.
Figure 2
KEEP THE BALL ALIVEAIM:• To keep the ball off the ground.
INSTRUCTIONS:• Each group creates an 8m x 8m grid
with a hoop in the centre of the grid.• Each player collects a ball (one ball
per person).• In groups of 5-6, players throw
and catch the ball, passing the ball between each other.
• Any player who drops the ball must pick the ball up and put it in the hoop, and then return to the game.
• One point is allocated for each ball not in the hoop when time is called.
Figure 3
MODIFY TO 3v2 CORNER SPRY3 Players attempt to keep possession of thr ball by movong between the corners of a square - only one player allowed at one corner at a time. The 2 defenders attempt to intercept the ball.
CHANGE IT:• Experiment with different types of
passes.
Figure 4
EXAMPLE 63V1 GOAL SHOOTING PRACTICEAIM:• To beat the defensive action and
score a goal.
INSTRUCTIONS:• GS starts with the ball outside the D,
and passes to the centre (C) on a 45° angle outside the D. GA has set up on the opposite 45° angle just inside the D.
• After passing the ball, the GS runs around the C in an “L-cut” to the ring.
• C passes to GA, who then passes to GS near the ring to shoot at goal.
• After rehearsing this pattern, add a defender who plays inside the D to attempt to prevent a shot at goal. That is, create a 3v1.
CHANGE IT:• Alter the movement pattern,
attempting to isolate either the GA or GS to receive the ball close to the ring.
GA
Move toreceive
pass
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Netball skill assessmentThe final aspect of the workshop was netball skill assessment. We set up two games of 5v5 half-court netball and the off-court duty teams first carried out peer assessment of passing using a skill checklist from Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense (ACHPER Australia) (Figure 5). This tool was used to illustrate the type of data collection that could be used to validate student achievement of content descriptions related to control and coordination of specific netball technical skills.
Duty teams next carried out a game performance assessment based on the GPAI tools developed by Griffin, Mitchell and Oslin (1997) in their Tactical Games text (Figure 6). This tool was used to illustrate the type of data collection that could be used to validate student achievement of content descriptions related to tactical and body control performance in the “real” context of game play. Delegates highlighted the value of this type of peer observation of performance as learning through assessment as the bench coaches took the assessment ideas into their own game play after providing the feedback to their peer.
A Game Sense approach combines technical movement skills, tactical understanding, game appreciation, physical conditioning and concentration into one age and developmentally appropriate “package” to develop the information-movement coupling that leads to “thinking”, or intelligent players. The path to the development of players with high “game IQ” begins with a coherent, systematic development of game-centred tactical and technical learning from when young players start to explore, experiment and then refine their movement performance. This is not a ‘roll out the ball’ approach, but a structured environment of play with purpose.
* the activities illustrated in this article come from Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense
About the AuthorsShane Pill has worked for 18 years as a science and physical education teacher in schools in Perth and Adelaide; holding leadership positions including HPE Coordinator, Sport Coordinator, Year Level Coordinator, Director of School Administration and Deputy Principal. At Flinders University he lectures in curriculum studies, physical education and sport studies. His research interests include curriculum design and enactment, pedagogy and instructional strategies for games and sport teaching, sport coaching and curriculum leadership. Shane is the author of four books on game sense teaching and coaching, and he is internationally recognised for his research into sport teaching and coaching. He can be contacted via email [email protected].
Terry Magias is an Associate Lecturer in Physical Education at Flinders University. He can be contacted via email [email protected].
SKILL: PASSING Always Sometimes Rarely
Obs
erva
tion
Chec
klis
t
Eyes are focussed on the target throughout the throw
Holds ball with two hands sides of the netball
Bends knees when ready to pass
Holds ball near chest before passing (Chest pass)
Holds ball directly above head before passing (Overhead Pass)
Steps forward with one leg prior to passing the ball
The ball bounces off the floor 2/3 of the way to partner (Bounce Pass)
Ball is released with a “snapping” wrist movement leading to palms facing outward and thumbs down
Comment:
Figure 5
ISBN: 978-0992341503
9 7 8 0 9 9 2 3 4 1 5 0 3
Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense provides useful guidelines and effectively demonstrates how the Australian Curriculum- Health and Physical Education could be implemented through the teaching and learning processes in our subject area. It develops the three sub-strands of Movement and Physical Activity, through the foundations of play, developing confidence and competence in students. It also demonstrates to students and teachers how techniques and strategies can be developed in Netball. Most importantly the text advocates for learning through movement, developing communication, decision-making, problem solving, critical and creative thinking and cooperation. The activities illustrate links with a range of focus areas, including active play and minor games, fundamental movement skills and games and sports.
This resource is applicable to all levels of Netball play - from beginners to expert players across all age ranges. It provides a useful approach for students studying our subject in senior years as well. The activities in this resource develop thinking players, as well as highly skilled players.
Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense is a ‘must have’ resource for teachers’ professional
libraries.
Glenn Amezdroz Head of Department, Health and Physical Education All Hallows’ School, Brisbane, Queensland.
Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense provides a tailored resource that coincides directly with the importance of teaching for learning through play with purpose. Key questions provided throughout this resource offers teachers a smooth adaptation from the rational into a practical use on a court. This resource is the blending of theory and practice into one easy to follow text. A publication which will assist all teachers in developing a range of students across a range of educational sites.
Emma RushtonHead of Health & Physical EducationSacred Heart College, Somerton Park, South Australia.
Developing Netball Game Sense
teaching movementand tactical skills
Shane Pill
From fundamental sport skills to games that develop attack
and defence structures
Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense focuses on a game-centred Game Sense approach to teaching Netball. Author Shane Pill presents a long term development model for Game Sense sport teaching for novice-beginners through to experienced netball players. It will enhance netball players game development at all stages of the players game learning. The resource emphasises learning of the strategies and skills required to participate more confidently and in a ‘thinking’ way.
Key Features• Relevance for teachers and coaches from primary aged
children to youth and adult netball.• Game Sense as a coaching objective and sport teaching
approach is explained.• Divided into 7 parts to guide clubs and school physical
education through the Game Sense progression.• More than 40 successful, modified and lead up games
structured with a particular focus and maximum participation.
• Examples of Key Questions at each level of game development.
• Examples of game modifications to challenge or further develop skill learning.
• Games flow from ‘fundamental sport skills’ to ‘developing a game plan’.
For more ideas….Play with Purpose: Developing Netball Game Sense by Shane Pill.
Available from the ACHPER Bookshop: http:// bookshop.achper.org.au/email: [email protected]: 08 8340 3388
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Figure 6. Netball game performance assessment tool
2. GAME PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT FOR NETBALL
Observation Dates
a) b) c) d) e)
Levels of Performance
4 = Very Effective Performance: almost always observable
3 = Effective Performance: usually observable
2 = Moderately Effective Performance: observable in more than half of the player’s attempts
1 = Weak Performance: observable in less than half of the player’s attempts
Game Components
1(a). Passing Skill Execution: The player passes the ball accurately (ball reaches the intended target).
1(b). Passing Skill Execution: The player passes the ball accurately (ball reaches the intended target).
2. Ball Control: The player takes possession of the ball cleanly (consistently with control).
3. Decision Making: The player makes appropriate skill choices according to the game situation.
4. Support: The player attempts to move into position to provide a passing option to the team-mate with the ball by moving to support forward of the play, to the side of the player or behind the player.
During the observation period, for each game component mark the performance as either Appropriate (A) or Inappropriate (I)
After the observation period, give each player a score from 1-4 on each game component.
Game Involvement Score = Total Appropriate (A) and Inappropriate (I) actions: Total A + Total I
Category Efficiency Score = Total (category) Appropriate (A)/ Total (category) Inappropriate (I)
Game Efficiency Score = Total (all categories) Appropriate (A)/ Total (all categories) Inappropriate (I)
Adapted from Mitchell, S., Oslin, J., & Griffin, L. (2006) Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical games approach. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics
Passing Skill Execution Ball Control Decision Making Support
Team/Players A I A I A I A I
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This is a ‘must read’ for all Primary Physical Education Specialists, Principals and those intending to become a Physical Education Specialist. It truly states the full role of our position and contains a wonderful ‘pat-on-the-back’ to all who teach P.E. As I read the first few chapters my thoughts were “yes, that’s right, uh huh, wow – here is someone who really understands the job we do”. Nowhere else have I ever recalled such a complete summary and perspective from ‘our side’ of education!
Currie writes to confirm that we really do foster and develop the whole child. We enhance and encourage competence, control, success and good emotions while providing safe, age-appropriate and inclusive programs. She acknowledges that we have to have happy and safe environments for students to try new movements, make mistakes, try again and in turn, gain confidence through every positive situation we present. Our lessons provide development with students being able to understand how to co-operate, be tolerant, respect each other, how to resolve conflicts and display virtues of honesty, respect, fairness and understanding in so many different areas. Every person needs to learn how to win and lose gracefully. This is all part of our day’s work and we all plan to do this for every student in our lessons every week.
The content is relevant for beginner to experienced P.E. Specialists and
principals and classroom teachers would also gain much from reading this book. Every chapter is thorough with a logical, consistent structure to follow. Every introduction leads well into the following relevant information, wrapped up with a concise conclusion and helpful reflective questions and further reading. This enables easy and clear reading for everyone.
Useful topics include understanding the needs of children and how to consider these in our P.E. Programs. Health topics dealing with obesity, asthma and other childhood medical conditions are discussed as well. The overview of knowledge on each illness, management for each and suggested teaching considerations are excellent in assisting us all to understand more about and manage our teaching with these conditions.
The sections on skill development and effective instructions and feedback are discussed in a manner for all to gain something useful. Apart from ensuring all students attain the basic skills of balance, running, jumping, catching, kicking, P.E. teachers also need to combine these skills into sequences to obtain a mastery of complicated routines to include them in games of netball, soccer (football), athletics and gymnastics to name a few. Currie takes the reader progressively through the Cognitive (beginner, introductory), Associative (intermediate) and Autonomous (automatic, mastery)
phases of skill learning and performance, using relevant examples and applications wherever possible.
Our Duty of Care as P.E. teachers is surrounded by legal issues and safe planning. The concepts and steps for risk assessment and management are well covered. This useful chapter lends a reminder for all P.E. Specialists to read and ‘brush up’ on this relevant area. Class management and helpful tips around maintaining discipline and teacher control revolves around essential principles about the ways we should communicate with our students. Again, Currie gives great examples to assist with many issues we encounter on a day to day basis.
A useful chapter for refreshing our awareness for our students is Chapter 6, Sports injury prevention and basic sports first aid. This is a reminder that we are responsible for many areas in our role and a heightened awareness in injury knowledge is worth our
BOOK REVIEWTeaching Physical Education in Primary School
Gaye HendersonSouthport State School, QLD
Teaching Physical Education in Primary School. An Integrated Health Perspective by Janet L Currie Victoria, ACER Press, 2013, $39.95, ISBN: 9781742860923
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attention. Even though we do not have x-ray eyes, we do consider we present super-human abilities to be respected Physical Education Specialists by our peers, students and school community. This chapter gives us a reminder to be aware and alert with all injuries presented.
Within all teaching environments we need to implement inclusive strategies in our classes. Areas covering low motor ability, behavioural challenges, disinterested, or unmotivated students, gender issues, gifted and talented, varied intellectual capacities and understanding levels are all included as part of our day. Currie’s information and tips listed here are worthwhile.
Something that I would have thought could be considered is a section explaining the Australian School Sport program for Primary students and staff. Interschool sport is the next step for many students from their learning experiences in Physical Education. We teach the children not only basic motor skills, but sport skills, match skills, tactics and leadership. Students take these to Interschool Sport at the District level and upon selection can represent their Region and State. As teachers, we too can progress through our sport specific representative areas as officials. Managers, Coaches and Convenors at each level are a major asset for our schools and students. The times spent at District,
Regional and State Championships are wonderful opportunities for personal development and networking with peers. And regardless of our aspirations to be district or regional officials, the workload of coordinating interschool sport usually falls on the P.E. Specialist.
Health and Physical Education Specialists do have varied expectations. Some are required only to teach the skills and games component and others are required to include the full health curriculum. Nutrition and how the whole school implements this can be dealt with in an integrated or ‘stand alone’ way. Chapters 8 and 9 definitely give each reader plenty of guidance on how to approach nutrition within your school. Take time to read the information and present an effective and positive model to your students and staff.
This is a wonderful book which will give each reader knowledge and insight into the role and expectations
You can purchase this book from the ACHPER Bookshop – visit http://bookshop.achper.org.au/ and search under ‘Teacher Education’.
Alternatively contact us at [email protected] or phone 08 8340 3388.
as a Primary Physical Education Specialist. It is well written and takes you on a pleasant journey to understand that our role is a special one for us as teachers, for every student and, not to forget, for our peers and the school community. As I remember, and as do from others I have spoken to – if you ask any adult to recall a memorable event from their Primary school years – they will most likely recall something involving a sporting event. With this in mind, Janet L Currie has included just about everything you will need to ensure that every P.E. lesson is special for every child you teach.
Every Primary Physical Education Specialist should purchase 3 copies. One for you to read, another to present to your Principal and the third, to be presented to the next Physical Education Practice Teacher you have in your school. This book should be recommended reading for all to truly appreciate and understand the role we have as Physical Education Specialists.
2014/15Health & PE CatalogueN OW AVAI L AB LELooking for new resources to reinvigorate your teaching in 2014?
The ACHPER Bookshop’s 2014/15 HPE Catalogue highlights the most popular titles currently available in the areas of primary, secondary. self-development teacher education, sport and dance.
Go to…
www.achper.org.au/bookshop/catalogues-order-forms/ 201415-health-pe-catalogue
to view the electronic copy or request a complimentary print copy.
Health & PE Catalogue
2014/15
www.achper.org.au
BOOKSHOP
PRIMARYBullying 1Charts/Posters 1Fitness 1Games 1Health & Physical Education 3Nutrition and the Body 7Self-esteem 7Yoga 8
SECONDARYAdolescence 9Charts/Posters 9Community & Family Studies 9Food Technology 9Health & Human Development 11Outdoor Education 13Physical Education 14
DANCE Folk/Bush/Social 16Primary 16Secondary/Specialist 17
SPORT Sports A - Z 18
Order Form Back Cover
National & International Mail Order Specialists
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$46.95 E-book also
available for $25.00
ACHPER Bookshop 321 Port Road
HINDMARSH SA 5007 Ph: (08) 8340 3388 Fax: (08) 8340 3399
Email: [email protected] Web: www.achper.org.au
$37.95
$37.95
Prices above include GST. Postage and Handling applies.
Less 10% for ACHPER
Members
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