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.

Gotham City Takes Over St.Mary's

Today at St. Mary's we did a superhero theme and the children responded very well to it. The minute we walked in with costumes of superheros on the kids were engaged and couldn't get enough of it. I worked with the pre-k kids and when we were outside we played different tag games for the whole time because that's what they love to do. I wore a Batman shirt and tried to play off the superhero theme and told the kids I had super powers. Then they too wanted to have special powers so we can up with some fun ones for them. When I was playing tag and was about to tag them they always touched something and claimed it was safe so they never got caught, then when they tried to get me I would do the same but I should have known they have different rules for the "college kids" as they like to call us. The one group I was playing with the one child, Andrew, wanted to be Spiderman so every time he wanted to tag someone he had to put his hand out and and spray his web just like the real superhero does. The other three girls in the group wanted their special power to be fire to they would throw fire balls. The kids always love just running around and having fun and it's nice to interact with them and know you can put a smile on their face.