PE Hall of Shame

Dodgeball has always been in the hot seat in a physical education setting. Many who are against it say that it depicts humans as targets, embarrasses a student in front of the class, and eliminating students from participation. In traditional dodgeball they may be right but with a few minor changes the game can be a great workout. Not only can dodgeball provide cardio exercise but it can teach students to dip, duck, dodge, and work on throwing skills along with spacial awareness. In order to make dodgeball more like this you need to modify some of the rules. One way that I found that works well is playing everyone for themselves style game. You use the whole gym and roll out a few foam balls to start and if you get hit then you sit down right where you are and to get back in the game if a loose ball rolls by you and you pick it up and hit someone in the game then they are out and you are in! This makes sure everyone is involved in the game because everyone around you is trying to get you out so you have to be on the look out from all angles. As a teacher some ways to level the playing field for everyone is one, use foam balls so when you get hit it doesn't hurt. Also, get balls of different sizes so it's harder to throw. Another way is as a teacher have some extra balls in hand and roll them to kids who are out every now and then to try and get them back in the game. Also if you have really good athletes in the class then maybe you make them switch hands that they throw with. Another way to get everyone active is if some kids don't want to play than they can be judges and help decide who got hit and who didn't. I really can't understand banning the game completely when there are so many different variations and ways to modify it to make it more enjoyable for everyone. All it ever takes to ruin something is one small thing. And that's just what happened. People will always complain about things they don't like and it is unfortunate that dodgeball is in this category. So I guess for now it's RIP DODGEBALL. Hopefully one day kids will be allowed to play it again because I know as a child I always look forward to playing it in class.