The great Dr. Will Deyamport III runs #beyouEDU. This month’s subject is swagger. In his video he defines swagger as your essence and what you bring to the table. This is a great topic for me because my swagger was a little shaken earlier this month. I started to question myself and my use of social media. I need this blog post to remind me of where my swagger comes from.

My swagger comes from the undying faith that I will be able to achieve whatever goal I set for myself. I will learn what I need to learn, do what I need to do, go where I need to go in order to accomplish my aim. My swagger comes from my life’s experiences in school and sports. I succeeded because I was willing to work hard and learn. My swagger comes from two parents who loved and supported me in any endeavor I was willing to entertain. My swagger comes from accomplishing what I wanted time and time again. My swagger comes from learning that don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. My swagger comes from finding someone that loves and supports me. I bring my swagger with me in all walks of life.

Why did I think I was able to raise children? I had never changed a diaper before. I didn’t know the first thing about newborns or infants. I relied on my ability to get things done. I had undying faith in myself. I would conquer being a parent. Swagger.

Another goal of mine was to become a teacher. What makes me think that students should listen to what I have to say? Why am I the best person chosen to teach physical education and health? I am the finest person because I care about my students and my job enough to keep improving. I won’t settle for being good when I can continue to chase great. Swagger.

I earned my master’s degree in administration. I want to lead a school made up of leaders. What makes me think that I am good enough to help great people do their jobs? My undying faith that I will do whatever it takes to succeed in whatever job or position that I hold. The knowledge that I will read as many books or articles about leadership and improve my ability to lead. What makes me want to attain a position I have no experience in yet? Swagger.

When I walk into a room I know that I will be able to contribute to the conversation in some way shape or form. I know this because I read everything and anything I can constantly. I know this because I am socially aware enough to realize what to say and when to say it. I realize this because I am smart enough to ask questions when I need clarification without worrying about how I will be perceived by others in the room. At least one other person had the same question in their head but might not have had the confidence to ask it for fear of being looked down upon. Swagger.

If you read my Twitter bio it says I will change the world. How do I have the cojones to think that I will change the world? Because I don’t aim small. It is not enough to be a parent. I want to be the best parent I can be. It is not enough to be a teacher. I want to be the best teacher I can be. It is not enough to be an administrator. I want to be the best administrator I can be. It is not enough to live. I want to change the world I live in. Swagger.

Q1: Where did you get your swagger from? #slowchatpe

Q2: Did anything ever shake your swagger? What was it? #slowchatpe

Q3: How do we allow our ss to find their swagger? #slowchatpe

Q4: Does your swagger help or hurt you? #slowchatpe

Q5: Who do you know in education has the most swagger? #slowchatpe

I just finished reading Sandy King’s blog post about the 12 things that administrators should remember when they jump from teacher to administrator.  She made many valid points about flipping meetings, supporting teachers, being accessible, and understanding that teachers are doing their very best to do a great job.  This made me think about my own life.

I have started my journey into administration. It is the scariest thing I have ever done in my life.  I know very little about it.  I have worked in elementary schools my whole life and interacted with my administrators regularly; however, I have done very little administrative work on my own. I have sat in on one evaluation and have never scheduled a whole school year worth of events and classes.  I have interacted with parents of many students during school events and had to make tough calls home before but never with the regularity that an administrator has to.

I am used to getting guaranteed preps and breaks to catch my breath and get my mind back on track. Administrators don’t get to pick and choose their breaks. If there is a crisis or a meeting needs to be planned during their designated lunch period they lose that period.  They have to be extremely flexible in everything they do.  That is much harder than it sounds. My time will no longer be my own.

All these things worry me. The fear of the unknown worries me. Leaving my little bubble where I am the king of the gymnasium, the guy who students stand up to fist bump at lunch, the teacher who makes kids want to come to school, is a scary proposition. Turning my back on a job that is so rewarding is brutal.  I wake up every work day and am happy that I have the job I have.  Why am I pursuing a job that I know nothing about where I could fail? Why am I leaving the comfort of my little pond? Is it right? Am I ready? I still have so far to go in my teaching to become a master and now I am going to be judging other teachers? These questions keep me up at night.

The answer to these questions is that I can make a broader impact being an administrator. I can be a role model to many more students at a high school than I can at a single elementary school.  I also feel like I can make a longer lasting change at a high school.  I remember my high school teachers so much more vividly than my elementary school teachers.

It is time for administrators and teachers to come together.  We need to create a culture and climate where teachers don’t think they are being targeted or looking to be caught doing something wrong.  They need to feel that no matter what the situation is they will get the backing of their administration. Administration and teachers need to work together so that people want to come to work every day. I can help make that happen.

There has to be trust created. I do not need a master’s degree to create trust.  All that is needed for trust to bloom is time and consistency.  I feel confident in my ability to work with parents, students, teachers, and other staff in a way that people are comfortable coming to me.  I know that I am able to create relationships with other people in a way that is genuine.

For all the fear and trepidation that I have there is more excitement and positivity running through my body.  This will be a new journey that forces me to use everything I have ever learned in life as well as test my ability to learn on the fly.  I will fall but I will not fail.  I learned from @mathneil that failure only occurs when you stop trying.  I will not stop.

Q1. What is the worst trait an administrator could possess? #slowchatpe

Q2. What is a trait an administrator must possess to succeed? #slowchatpe

Q3. What is your relationship like with your admin? #slowchatpe

Q4. How could administration improve their relationship with staff? #slowchatpe

Q5. What is the scariest thing you will be facing this year? #slowchatpe

I am going to start out with the Gold Nugget of the Week.  This will be an addition to my blog where I will share something fantastic that I have come across. This week we have Vicky Goodyear’s VLOG. Watch if you want great pd on physical education. #slowchatpe APPROVED! (need I say more?)

I have just had the pleasure of watching @doug_Gleddie keynote at the IAHPERD CONVENTION thanks to @bulliskari and periscope.  His keynote had several aspects to it that made it outstanding.  The first thing he did was use research to make sure he kept his audience’s engagement.  He accomplished this by getting the whole crowd up and participating in a song of Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic which he stole from the Girl Scouts.  The song had the crowd singing, clapping, and moving with the moves from Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  After the song he even commented that he had their attention for 17 more minutes.  That was a great way of reinforcing what we already know. Getting humans up and moving refocuses their attention. It does about 20 other great things for our body, but for educators we need to remember our students (our audience) simply shouldn’t be sitting for long periods of time. It doesn’t matter the level of engagement or empowerment of the students.

The second part of his keynote that I enjoyed was his use of humor. Humor helps students learn.   “In other words, if you’re listening just auditorily in a classroom, one small part of the brain lights up, but humor maximizes learning and strengthens memories.” People listen when you use humor. We all know the dangers of sarcasm and humor that can be taken the wrong way, but we also know that humor breaks down barriers and makes things more fun. Learning should be fun. Why wouldn’t we use humor?

The final takeaway that everyone should know is that physical literacy is a journey.  It is an ever changing unquantifiable concept that will differ for every individual. Phecanada.ca defines it as, “Individuals who are physically literate move with competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities in multiple environments that benefit the healthy development of the whole person.” You can see why it would be so hard to say I have arrived at physical literacy. What we can do is keep that goal in mind. The greatest line of his keynote was, “”We are all physical literacy travel agents.”

This concept of being a physical literacy travel agent makes sense to me. Physical education teachers point their students in the direction of movement. We then combine movement with various other physical, social, emotional, and cognitive skills to help students on their own road to physical literacy. We can’t teach physical literacy. We can’t force students to engage in movement outside our classes. What we can do is show them the why, the how, the when, and the where.  We start them on the journey in primary school and continue to guide them throughout the rest of their school years. We wear a million hats as a teacher.  Add travel agent to the list!

Q1: What are your views on physical literacy? #slowchatpe

Q2: How do you use humor to keep your audience engaged? #slowchatpe

Q3: What brain boosts do you use to keep your audience refocused?

Q4: What is the best way to assess a student’s physical literacy journey? #slowchatpe

Q5: What are the best resources for physical literacy? #slowchatpe

This week the guest blogger is Mr. Adam Llevo (@mradampe).  Adam is a groundbreaking physical education teacher originally from England and now works at an international school in Saudi Arabia.  He will be presenting at the National PE Institute in North Carolina this summer.  Adam takes technology to an entirely new education level.  If you want to learn more about him visit www.mradampe.com.

His blog post:

I have wanted to write this post for a while, but never seemed to get around to writing it.  From the age of ten I have wanted to become a Physical Education Teacher and everything in my career so far has been done to achieve this goal. I remember my first PE lecture at Edge Hill University where Dr Graham Smith told us “teaching is one big stage and you are the actors, so make this act a good one”.  I will never forget this, as it is so true, once you step inside school then your personal life stays at the front door and you become a professional actor! When I say actor I do not mean you dress up in costume for your lessons (well not everyday!) but you do become a positive influence over the young people you inspire.  I was directed to this book (Link) at the early stages of my career and should be a must read for all teachers both old and new to the profession, as the best teachers never stop learning.  It gives some great ideas on how to get the best out of your students.  Everyones teaching and learning journeys will be different on how they came to where they are now, but one thing I have learnt is that relationships are crucial.  Not only with students, but other teachers, admin, parents who help to create the learning environment for all to achieve.  Now I am a very positive person and always look for the positives out of each situation.

I have mentored both old and new teachers and this has helped to see a lot of amazing lessons, but also a lot of not so amazing lessons.  I have always been personally very open to feedback, though I have mentored some who are not so. I have a very open door policy when it comes to teaching as I have nothing to hide, but I know some teachers who have to have a months notice before an observation is allowed.

So what is my point?

I have never really found it hard to strike up conversation with anyone of any age, and this may be down to my life experiences so far.  I have found that by being a positive individual it helps with creating that positive environment in which students are not afraid to FAIL.

This year especially I have observed individuals social skills and how they interact with people their own age and students in their classroom.  I have been lucky enough to work with a variety of ages throughout my career either in teaching or coaching and know how important it is to get you point across using a variety of methods. Dr Graham Smith use to tell us that as a teacher you need to have a variety of hats on as a teacher and have all these different skills that allow you to become all of these different occupations (Teacher Hats).  Teaching is not how it use to be where teachers walked into the classroom, lectured, students listened and then did a test to see how clever they are.  Teaching has evolved and you need to have a variety of different skills, but communication should be high on that list.

The way people speak to one another, or don’t as the only communicate through email, can be frustrating.   I have always been very patient with people and been told I am a good listener, which helps me to think about how I am going to respond to different scenarios.  I have had the pleasure this year of working with a member of admin who has shown me how important it is to have good positive relationships both in and outside of the classroom to allow others to achieve.  He has shown that by having these positive relationships there is little to no behaviour problems, homework is handed in on time, and students respect the member of staff.  I cannot say that for everyone.  So what does it come down to ? In my opinion it is communication and a mutual respect.

According to the American Psychology Association (link) to develop positive relationships with your students the following needs to take place:

• “Show your pleasure and enjoyment of students.
• Interact with students in a responsive and respectful manner.
• Offer students help (e.g., answering questions in timely manner, offering support that matches students’ needs) in achieving academic and social objectives.
• Help students reflect on their thinking and learning skills.
• Know and demonstrate knowledge about individual students’ backgrounds, interests, emotional strengths and academic levels.
• Avoid showing irritability or aggravation toward students.
• Acknowledge the importance of peers in schools by encouraging students to be caring and respectful to one another.”

So if this is not happening in your classroom, maybe it should be worth thinking about during your summer break.

“You improve your classroom climate by modeling positive, supportive communications skills and by teaching these skills to students. The great majority of interactions in classrooms are among students. You can influence and encourage respect in these interactions by teaching positive skills. Lessons in listening actively, using “I” messages, and negotiating conflicts show students how to treat each other with respect.”

Campbell, 2014 (link)

A task I use to use with my Sports Coaching students would be to ask them:

“What makes a good coach?”

They would then have to draw one animal part that represented each characteristic and then explain the whole animal and what each part means to them. This could be done for teaching at the start of the year to show what your classes think is important to them.   Some of their ideas were amazing.

I would like to finish with a video that had a positive effect of me. Everyone in your class should feel respected and that they are worth something as they come to school to feel amazing.

1. What does your classroom environment look like? What is important to you? #slowchatpe

2. What strategies have you found to be successful in creating your classroom environment? #slowchatpe

3. What is most important to you and why in the classroom? #slowchatpe

4. What hats do you wear and how does that impact your teaching? #slowchatpe

5. What is the most important hat to your students and why? #slowchatpe

I watched the greatest video of two physical education teachers (@MrHairPhysEd @andyvasily) explaining how they unpack invasion games. What? Unpacking? I had no idea they had even moved! This made me really question my pedagogy.  Am I going deep enough for my students?  How is my teaching the most efficient?  Are students really understanding concepts and the skills that I am teaching them?  Come with me as I explore my pedagogy and identify where I can improve my teaching.

The first term we hear about is Game Based Learning.  “Game based learning describes an approach to teaching, where students explore relevant aspect of games in a learning context designed by teachers. Teachers and students collaborate in order to add depth and perspective to the experience of playing the game.” (source)  My students do explore aspects of games that I design in a learning context.  I use small sided games to keep the action moving and give the opportunity for as many students as possible to be engaged and empowered.  Students play the games I design and then we stop so the students can improve the game that I have created. We then play this new game that has taken a direction that I may not have anticipated but I am still comfortable with the knowledge that we are mastering a grade level outcome that was predetermined.

Do I gamefy my class? Is my class set up for gamification?  No.  “While similar, to game based learning, gamification is a different breed of learning experience. Gamification takes game elements (such as points, badges, leaderboards, competition, achievements) and applies them to a non-game setting. It has the potential to turn routine, mundane tasks into refreshing, motivating experiences.” (source)  I do not care about competition, badges, leaderboards or any other type of external motivations in my class. My sales pitch to the students is simple.  Physical literacy and nutrition are the basic building blocks of happiness. If we can master moving and eating, our lives happiness is just the blink of an eye away.  Every dimension of wellness and Gardner’s intelligences can be enhanced by physical literacy and nutrition.

So does my pedagogy include Inquiry Based Learning?  “Inquiry” is defined as “a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge — seeking information by questioning.” Individuals carry on the process of inquiry from the time they are born until they die. This is true even though they might not reflect upon the process. Infants begin to make sense of the world by inquiring. From birth, babies observe faces that come near, they grasp objects, they put things in their mouths, and they turn toward voices. The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses — seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.” (source) Yes. Yes I do. I don’t do it because I was taught that way or I fully understand what Inquiry Based Learning is.  I do it because children have a natural desire to explore.  My first real planned foray into IBL was when I asked the students to help me figure out how to efficiently switch my jump rope from backwards to forward when I turned 180 degrees. I could see the wheels turning! Little did they know that @PE4Life_Spencer has the greatest jump rope videos that show 27 different videos on how to jump rope!

“Inquiry is an umbrella term that covers a number of other approaches to teaching and learning. Teaching practices that utilize a disposition of inquiry learning include:

problem-based learning: learning that starts with an ill-structured problem or case-studyproject-based learning: students create a project or presentation as a demonstration of their understanding

design-based learning: learning through the working design of a solution to a complex problem”

I need to really to reflect on my pedagogy and decide how I can change to make me an even more effective teacher.  I am not well versed  enough in TGFU, Solo Taxonomy, Inquiry Based Learning, Primary Years Program, or any other specific pedagogy of teaching.  I do know that this summer I will be well enough versed to change the way I teach to become a more efficient and effective teacher.

Nick Spencer shared a great resource for Physical Education teachers to really reflect on their pedagogy.

Q1. What style of teaching do you use? #slowchatpe

Q2. Did college teach you pedagogy? If so what did they teach? #slowchatpe

Q3. What would make you change your pedagogy? #slowchatpe

Q4. Have you ever taught against the way you thought best? Y? #slowchatpe

Q5. What are some resources that people can use to find new pedagogy resources? #slowchatpe

How I use social media in professional development using the SAMR model.

SAMR:

1- Substitution
Social media acts as a direct professional development substitute with no functional change.

2- Augmentation
Social media acts as a direct professional development substitute, with functional improvements

3-Modification
Social media allows for significant direct professional development design

4- Redefinition
Social media allows for the creation of new direct professional development tasks, previously inconceivable.
This model is one of the models that show teachers the different levels of incorporating technology in class. I am going to walk you through how I use the SAMR model using social media for professional development. The most basic level is level of SAMR is substitution.  The best example of this would be listening to podcasts or watching webinars after they are completed.  I can sit in a room and listen to a speaker or I can sit in my basement and listen to a speaker.  Either way social media is not changing my pd. I am replacing face to face interaction with a computer screen or a speaker. This is a great way of getting professional development on your own time.  Just like using SAMR in the classroom, substitution is not always a negative thing.  Webinars and podcasts allow me to learn from people all over the world and on my own time.

The next level of SAMR is augmentation.  The greatest example of augmentation would be Google Hangouts Live.  I can watch the speaker, be in the hangout live, and backchannel during the event with people from all over the world.  This not only uses social media as a substitute for being in a lecture, it allows people to interact who would not previously have the opportunity to before social media.  Social media acts as a direct tool to substitute for sit and get professional development with functional improvements.

Twitter and Voxer are the sm tools u use to reach the level of modification in terms of professional development.  Twitter and Voxer chats allow me to reach experts in various fields.  Now we have multiple education experts involved in professional development.  I can learn best practices from multiple people at one time and using a new medium.  I am not sitting in front of a computer or in a room. I can participate anywhere in the world.  I am not getting information from just one lecturer I am interacting with multiple experts and can ask insightful or clarifying questions.  Professional development has now undergone significant task design.

The final level of the SAMR model is the one that really changed how my professional development was undertaken.  The first example of this was using Voxer to create the National Lesson Plan Creator.  This website drove my professional development by forcing me to understand the national physical education standards and create the perfect lesson plan template creator.  The second example redefinition was the creation of So You Think You Can Balance and So You Think You Are Fit.  @mradampe, @nicholasendlich, and I used Voxer, Twitter, and Google Hangouts to create a brand new way to exercise and balance in classrooms anywhere in the world.  The final way that I social media for redefinition is through a Voxer podcast.  This was a chat that physical education teachers had with Mike Kuczala.  Mike is a co-author of The Kinesthetic Classroom Teacing.  We watched his TED talk and discussed it with him during an hour Voxer chat.  Jorge Rodriguez cut and spliced the audio to make a podcast.  All three of the examples listed above uses social media for the creation of new tasks that was previously inconceivable.
My question to you is how are you using social media to reach the modification and redefinition level of the SAMR model?  Are you using it to just replace sitting in a room or are you using it to create new professional development and growth opportunities for you and your colleagues?

Q1. How do you use social media to substitute for old school pd?

Q2.  How do you use social media augment old school sit and get pd?

Q3. How do you use social media to modify your pd?

Q4. How do you use social media to redefine your pd?

Q5. What are the best examples of redefinition using social media you have saw?

Today is Mother’s Day and I had come across this tweet from one of #educrushes Dr. Amanda Stanec.  (educrushes know no gender or age ie Charles Cooper)

Dr. Stanec is one of those people in my PLN that carries weight.  I will tweet her questions about best practices in physical education, gender questions, and general life questions.  Her answer really does shape the way I view things.  There was little surprise to me that she would continue to expand my views with her tweets.

I have become more and more aware that I see things as I want to see them instead of from various viewpoints.  This is why my PLN is so varied.  Check out who I follow. You will see all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations and people from all walks of education.  I follow lawyers, teachers, administrators, Tim Ferris, advocate groups, Board of Education members, and parents.  I follow people who will interact with me or expand my thinking.

The reason I follow this variety of people is that I want to fight against group think.  Echo chambers where everyone pats everyone on the back and talks about how great everyone is bothers me.  It bothers me because this does not make me better.  It inflates my ego which as most of you know doesn’t need much massaging.  Some of the most popular chats seem this way to me. I jump in their chats and see superficial answers to superficial questions.  I want the hard hitting questions.  I want the tweets that make me go, “Wow I never thought of that!”

It is not easy to follow people and groups that you may disagree with.  It is even harder to interact with them.  This does not make them wrong though. It makes you question yourself and them.  The biggest question is why does this bother me?  If you can reflect on that you can achieve personal growth.

The final thought I want to leave with you is how I handle my Twitter feed. I keep my followers small.  I want to interact with you and know what you think and why.  I want to see your tweets and read them.  I want to click on your links and see why you felt it was important to share that out with me.  Your part of the bargain in this Twitter relationship is to interact back with me.  If I tag you in something I want you to read it. If I ask for your help I want you to help me not just retweet it.  If I unfollow you it is because I don’t feel that you are living up to your part of the bargain.  I will click on your links, read your blogs, or listen to your podcasts because you are part of my PERSONAL Learning Network.  I would expect you to unfollow me as well if I am not upholding my part of the relationship.

Thank you to everyone who doesn’t let me speak without challenging me. Who says hey think about this. For those that care about my growth as well as their own. Thank you for helping me become better at my job and life in general.

Q1. Retweet and tag #slowchatpe something you read recently that really made you think.

Q2. What book have you read that changed you views on the world?

Q3. What podcast expanded your mind?

Q4. What band/singer makes you think when listening to their music?

Q5. How do you deal with stress?

What subject is the Rodney Dangerfield of the education world? What subject has more to offer across a wider spectrum of the curriculum than any other class?  What teacher is told that they are getting no money for their budget? What area is given more and more students until their class size reaches an unimaginable size of 125 students? The answer is physical education.

This week on Voxer the question came up of what is your class size.  I heard numbers that topped out at 125!  How can this be considered best practices?  I am expected to assess every student during every lesson.  How does an administrator expect this to happen when there is only one certified physical education teacher in the class?  The message you are sending that teacher and the profession as a whole is that we don’t matter. We will heap more students on you because you can supervise them on an open field.  The issue here isn’t the ability of the teacher to supervise, it is the ability of the teacher to teach, assess, and give corrective feedback to 125 students every class.  The worst part of this is these numbers are at elementary schools! Can you imagine having to teach 125 kindergartners how to do anything? The class must be constantly interrupted with bathroom requests and shoe tying breaks.

Other physical education teachers tell me they get no budgets at all. No budgets. As in $0.00. In addition to being unable to purchase equipment those same teachers are unable to attend professional developments.  The teachers have to take personal days and pay their own money to attend workshops.  What kind of message is administration sending to those teachers?  We don’t value you or your subject. That is the message.

The 21^st physical education community is ahead of education in every way shape and form.  They are using technology at much higher levels than anyone else in education.  Are you ready to disagree? Tell me the last teacher that used a drone to get footage of your class during an activity! You can’t. It is being done in Texas.  Tell me the last time a non-physical education teacher used qr codes, augmented reality, and Google Forms in one lesson. You can’t.  It is being done in Pennsylvania.  Tell me the last time a teacher used math, science, literacy, music, and movement in a lesson. I will tell you it is being done in physical education classes all over the country and the world.

We hear about people of color getting suspended and being in more trouble at a higher rate than their white counterparts for the same behavior. (http://goo.gl/NNHzVX)   I guarantee you if you did the research you would not find this inequity happening in physical education.  Physical education classes are set up so all students can succeed. Most children, regardless of race, come into physical education with the love and appreciation of movement.  This is because we are biologically programmed to move.  We think better standing then sitting. (http://goo.gl/WqrpJr) Our brains are more active during and after exercise than sitting. (http://goo.gl/i8Fxim)  Physical education is the great educational equalizer.  Physical education teachers know how to engage and empower students of all shapes, sizes, races, religions, genders and any other identifying characteristic.

The evidence shouts that physical education is the gum under education’s shoe.  Why is this so? I believe that it is because people think you don’t have to have a skill to teach physical education.  Art teachers are artistic, music teachers are musical, and shop teachers are good with their hands. Every special besides physical education has a skill that is clear to an observer.  The art teacher paints, the music teacher gives lessons, or the shop teacher fixes engines.  Most physical education teachers don’t work out with their classes every day.  (some do)

The skill we possess is the ability to connect every subject to ours while teaching physical literacy and lifetime fitness and wellness. This skill is just as important as any other teacher’s skill if not more. What is the point of being college and career ready if you have poor nutrition and aren’t active.  You are a disease waiting to happen.  Research shows over and over and over again that nutrition and exercise are the two of the greatest things you can do to prevent disease. (not smoking is number 1 which you learn in physical education class as well!)  Where are students learning how to be active and healthy? In physical education class.  Where are students learning not to smoke?  In physical education class.  Where are students understanding how to move and why it is important to?  In physical education class.  If you care about students and you care more about them being happy and healthy than what they score on a test you will support you physical education teacher having a budget, normal class sizes (20-30), and make them feel that they are an equal part of your staff.

Q1. What is the largest class size you had? #slowchatpe

Q2. Is your budget the same, equal, or better than your peer’s (comparable area)? #slowchatpe

Q3. How is your subject valued in your school? How do you know? #slowchatpe
Q4. What do you do to show your staff that you are an intricate part of the school? #slowchatpe

Q5. What do you do to show your stakeholders that your subject is a necessity? #slowchatpe

DODGE BALL IS WRONG AND SHOULD NOT BE PLAYED in PHYSICAL EDUCATION! Now that we all understand that let’s talk about using human targets in physical eduation. Should ALL human target activities be eliminated in physical education?  I am always questioning and refining my teaching practices. The subject of human targets is one that really needs to be talked about.

What is a human target? If we define a human as a person, and a target as “a person, object, or place selected as the aim of an attack”, we come to the conclusion that a human target is a person that is the aim of an attack.  This is important because now this includes tag games into the human target conversation.

There is a growing sentiment that human targets in physical education class are wrong and should be eliminated. The same people who believe this are ok with tag games though.  Let’s take a look and see if we can differentiate the two and find out why.  The human target games that are not tag usually involve throwing a projectile at another person.  This could be done by rolling it or using the overhand throw.  A tag game involves being hit or touched by a part of the body or an extension of the body (think pool noodle) by another person.

Both activities can hurt a student if the force is not controlled when the contact of the object or body part is made. Both games use human targets to aim or attack. What is the difference? The difference, in my opinion, is that tag is psychologically safer than throwing something at someone.  A student is much more apt to make a mistake in accuracy throwing something than tagging someone.  Tagging force is also much easier to judge for the offensive person than throwing force. There is a big difference between tagging games and human targets.

The next argument I heard against using human targets is when will you throw something at someone when we graduate from school? My counter to that argument is when are you going to sit on a scooter when we graduate school? Do we eliminate the use of scooters?  I don’t think the “will we use it later in life” argument is valid here. We will use tag in a baseball or softball game so there is a legitimate argument for it.

Another argument that I have heard is what is the grade level outcome that an activity using a human target would be tied to?  My answer to that would be you could tie it to: Throws underhand to a partner or target with reasonable accuracy. (S1.E13.3) Another outcome would be: Throws overarm to a partner or at a target with accuracy at a reasonable distance. (S1.E14.4b)  Both of those outcomes could be met using another game or activity though. So why do you need to use a human target if there are other more acceptable ways to accomplish those grade level outcomes?

To answer the above question let’s look at what dodging is.  Dodging is “avoiding (someone or something) by a sudden quick movement.”  No one can argue that dodging won’t help students become more physically literate.  This conversation revolves around dodging objects purposefully being propelled at a student.  One physical education teacher noticed that her students dodging ability dramatically decreased when she eliminated dodgeball.  This raises the question is there a need to work on dodging a moving object in open space? That is a valid question that needs to answered.

Let me reiterate DODGE BALL IS WRONG AND SHOULD NOT BE PLAYED IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION! My question to you is where is the research saying human targets are wrong? I have looked all over for studies on human targets and haven’t found any.  I have found why dodgeball is wrong and agree with them. Those talk about elimination or the damage a ball hitting you in the face or groin can cause.  Can this be extrapolated to include all human targets where the groin and face will not be hit? Where are the facts that tell me if I slide a bean bag on the ground or roll a ball at another person that it will psychologically harm them in the long run?  I want to use best practices in my class. We hear all about student voice and student choice in education.  The students love human target games.  I am fine telling them they are not allowed to do this in my class because it isn’t best practices.  My question to you is how do you prove that human targets are not utilizing best practices?

Q1: How do you refine your teaching practices? #slowchatpe

Q2: Who in your PLN’s word is gospel? #slowchatpe

Q3: What is something that your area says is wrong you disagree with? Y? #slowchatpe

Q4: Where do you go to find the newest research in ur field? #slowchatpe

Q5: What should become best practice in ur area that isn’t? #slowchatpe