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Transition year – HS PE and Leadership
I have finally graduated to HS! With some recruiting challenges at ISB, and issues around Visas and travel, I agreed to move into HS PE this year to fill a role working 40% with Grade 9 as well as 60% working in the Office of Learning leading up our school’s re-accreditation process. I have been super pumped about both of these opportunities, but still took the time to check in with my two HS children, as I felt it was important not to cramp their style… and my MS daughter, who was sad that I wasn’t there for her to drop in on in MS PE but is still able…
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Online learning May 2022 – Challenge
My professional practice this year has been shaped by Meaningful PE tenets and reflections which are also underpinned by Dr Kretchmar’s work. I am also using the Tripod 7Cs as part of our school’s focus on professional growth and learning practices. I have focused on the concept Challenge with my PE classes this last Semester and as our school moves back to synchronous learning through technology – it has been good to continue our theme through different lenses. PE classes (online) for our students focus on: Taking Responsibility – I come to PE class prepared for learning. I am checking my communication channels regularly and taking responsibility to work with my…
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Identity
This blog is featured on Mr Andrew Milne’s amazing blog for Health Educators – Slow Chat Health. You can find it as one of many Micro-blogs for the month of May 2022. https://slowchathealth.com/2022/05/29/identity/ In writing this blog and sharing it, I know that I am speaking to friends and like-minded teachers and educators and probably athletes and/or movement activists who are already converted. Preaching to the choir, so to speak. We identify with the importance of education, we have committed our lives to work with young people and we subscribe to the philosophy of ‘do no harm’. We are (hopefully) one of many adults supporting great teaching and learning moments as our students…
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Focus on Challenge
Challenge can be a difficult word or concept to explain and model in a PE classroom. What we find challenging is very personal and could be the same as another in our class but we can also find that we are alone in ways we feel challenged and learning to personalise and better understand ourselves is all wrapped up in how we can help others to learn about ‘challenge’. This year I have been focused on looking at Challenge with my students. I began this blog post and have been looking at ways to unpack and try and offer learning opportunities over the past few months that have centred on…
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Individual Pursuits Part 2 – Climbing Unit
If you have come to this page without reading Part 1 – please take a moment to read the process that has gone into this unit. It is important that you know that this is not a stand-alone Climbing unit, but is one of a range of units offered for students to choose from. It is entirely possible to teach this unit as a stand-alone unit, but you may wonder why the assessment rubric is designed the way it is rather than to possibly be more Climbing specific. Quick Introduction At ISB we offer some Choice units to our G7-8 classes. We have evolved this practice to allow student choice…
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Searching for Student Choice – Individual Pursuits
In our Middle School PE program, we have always tried to offer our G7-8 students the opportunity to make some choices around what they might like to do as part of the curriculum. We know that choice gives some ownership and some opportunity to either try something new or to add on to something they already feel confident in. We also know that students at this age are very invested in their friends/peers and that this may help them to create a group or team that they can collaborate with that they have chosen across PE classes. We have talked a lot about Learner Agency at ISB, (see pic…
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Challenge in PE
Recently, our PE Department offered Choice Units to our Grade 7-8 population. We have themed these options around a central focus – this time it was Individual Pursuit – and we offered a range of opportunities for student choice. I intend to blog about my units in a separate post, but I was able to offer Running and Climbing as two of the choices to my different classes. We have three or four teachers in the same block, allowing us to offer 3 or 4 options to students as part of Choice. The feedback from several of my Runners and Climbers is that they felt motivated by choosing something that…
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Finding Meaning through Choice PE
We begin school in person (not online) on Monday and our department have been discussing what we might like to do in PE with our students together in our learning spaces. A novel concept. When polled, our students would like to do many things, so it is hard to prioritize what we should focus on and how to move on without actually seeing our students in person (I haven’t taught in person to students since Jan 2020 – so it will be a very different week for me next week!) I have blogged and done a lot of reading and thinking about the Meaningful PE framework – I love the…