Nothing but Net:
An Essay on Teaching Gym Classes for Assessment
Mia Perry
8th Grade
February 27, 2012
Pine Point School
Have you ever thought about what a game of knock out, a badminton match, or even just 20 minutes of playing outside a day can do for your health? I found out the answer to that question during the seven weeks of working on my assessment project, and conducting research about the topic of child physical education. Teaching the physical education classes, better known as P.E. or gym, was a delighting experience filled with basketballs, birdies, and badminton nets. Although this does not sound as if much effort was involved during my assessment, there are many thoughts and much stress that goes into the process and every-day set up for the class.
Finalizing my service site was not an easy or short process. When I first started my assessment, I was volunteering at High Hopes Therapeutic Riding Center. I chose High Hopes because I had not worked with horses before, and I was also interested in helping children with disabilities. I soon discovered that I was not old enough to conduct side walking activities with the children, so I would be cleaning horse stalls instead, which is when I decided that this site was not going to be the best place to volunteer for this particular project. When I decided that
High Hopes was not going to work, I consulted Mr. Salsich for advice on finding a new location. After some discussion about options on Pine Point School’s campus, I decided that being the assistant in the P.E classes with younger children would be a good idea. I talked to Mrs. Davis,
who was glad that I offered to help, and she said that I could work with the 6th and 7th graders during my study hall period. Although I was excited to begin, I was not sure how things would go since I was working with students that were closer to my age. I was expecting students below 3rd grade that were many years younger than I was. I am glad that I was able to work with the classes that I was assigned to, even though they were not as young as I had anticipated. Changing my service site was not easy, but I am satisfied that I stuck with the gym classes.
Although I was doing my volunteer work at Pine Point, there were still challenges and obstacles that I had to work through with the students. Since I knew most of my students well,
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| My 6th Grade Students Warming Up |
they often wanted to have side conversations with me. Because of this, I was often instructing them to do the warm up exercises again, so that I could focus on taking attendance. Sometimes I would be helping one student and another student would try to ask me a question, and over time the students learned that they needed to wait patiently if I was helping another student. On the other hand, some students thought that since I was not their regular teacher, I would not notice the code of conduct lacking in certain areas. For example, one of my students took his shoes off and started fooling around even though there is a gym rule that states that you always need to keep your shoes on, and one of my other students had sports clothes at hand, but did not put them on until I noticed and told him that he needed to change since he had the clothes that were necessary for the class. I solved these problems by not allowing them to play or participate until they followed the rules. Some of my students were not as accomplished at sports as others, and felt discouraged sometimes when they were having trouble. A few of my 6th grade students had difficulties with shooting the basketball, and I spent a fair amount of time in the last two classes helping students with shooting. One of my students was not confident during P.E, so I gave her suggestions on how to improve. Although there were obstacles in my assessment, I was able to overcome them all.
Looking back over all of my assessment visits, I was able to be of assistance to more people than I originally thought. One way is that I helped students gain sports skills. Although
sports are not all that matters in life, I was able to teach some students how to be better basketball athletes. They also learned rules about badminton from me during our badminton season.
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| Badminton Racket, Birdie and Nets (Not At PPS) |
I was an aid to Mr. DeLapp and Mrs. Davis in multiple aspects of the class. I demonstrated activities for different stations, took attendance, and set-up and took down equipment. They had more time to become more organized since they had time not always having to teach the class. What’s more, I helped myself by gaining knowledge on how to deal with children. I was able to calm students down, and get them to listen when they became hyperactive. If students wouldn’t abide by the rules, there would be a penalty for them until they agreed to follow directions. In the end I assisted many people, and also expanded my knowledge of problem solving.
Over the course of my assessment research on child physical education, I learned much about the importance of gym in your life as a student. Physical education is an activity that helps your growth, health or body image. The origin of this activity traces back to China in 2500 B.C. In school systems, as you advance up a grade each year, more activities like badminton and field hockey are added. More on the statistics side, a Center for Disease Control test shows that girls who get 70-300 minutes of physical activity a week consistently score higher on tests and quizzes that are given to them in school. Sadly, schools are cutting gym classes, which could be a factor that can affect girl’s academic achievements. The quality of the class also matters, because you could have P.E. class for an hour and just stand around. With classes being cut from our nation’s school curriculums, there is an increase of time in class for students to not be active, which can increase your weight because you are stressed and will not be burning calories from lunch. Weight is the combination of calories that you eat with the amount of those calories that you burn. Children consume calories, and, since there is less physical movement time in their lives, spend little to no time burning the calories, which can risk obesity. Learning about weight and how movement can help you lead a healthier life has given me useful knowledge that I will hopefully be able to apply to my life as I grow older.
There are also themes and motifs in To Kill a Mockingbird that relate to my assessment work. The first motif that relates to my assessment work was games. We engaged in many activities such as knock out, king of the court, and other games during the classes. In the book, Jem, Dill and Scout play games such as impersonating the Radley family or running to touch Boo Radley’s house. Also, my work relates to the theme of expectations. Students are usually expected to be great athletes or at least good at sports. The expectations that you have for the students in class are similar to the ones that Aunt Alexandra set for Scout. The last theme that relates to my work was do not judge. When some students weren’t as talented at badminton or basketball, or had difficulty with the sport, no one judged them. This reminded me of how Tom Robinson was judged by people just because of his skin color, and how that is not what should matter to people. I was surprised that I could relate the themes that I found in To Kill a Mockingbird could relate to my assessment work.
There are some changes that I would make if I had to do my assessment project over again. I could have saved time in each class if I did not have to explain the rules multiple times. I would have quieted the children down when they weren’t paying attention. If I had taken the time during demonstrations, they most likely would have listened closer and not had questions. I also would have tried to be more helpful to the students when they had questions. I was often vague when I explained the games so they generated even more questions. Sometimes they would be having difficulties without asking for help, and I should have stepped in to help them even if they didn’t need my help. Lastly, I would have taken more opportunities to encourage the students. When some of the children got out of the game, I sometimes forgot to congratulate them for doing a good job. Some of the children were discouraged when they missed or lost, and I could have made them feel better. Even though I had a successful experience, there were changes that I could have made to my assessment work.
I have been changed by this assessment project work in three ways. First, I have a slightly better idea of knowing how to deal with issues. I know what to say to calm down children, somewhat like how Atticus deals with Jem and Scout. Next, I know the students better. Before the assessment project started, I didn’t know any of the new 6th grade students. For the children that I still don’t know, I left a good reputation and now they know who I am. Lastly, I gained appreciation for my gym teachers and knowledge about P.E. classes. There are large amounts of effort that must be put into preparing and teaching a class. Now I know how to set-up the nets and stations and take attendance. As I have said, I was changed by the assessment project even though they are small changes.
I wonder if mockingbirds ever exercise. Maybe the older birds teach them, like I taught the classes for the 6th and 7th graders. Although we are different, birds may have similar lives. I greatly enjoyed helping Mr. D and Mrs. Davis teach the P.E. classes, and I hope that they had the same satisfactory experience as I did.
There are also themes and motifs in To Kill a Mockingbird that relate to my assessment work. The first motif that relates to my assessment work was games. We engaged in many activities such as knock out, king of the court, and other games during the classes. In the book, Jem, Dill and Scout play games such as impersonating the Radley family or running to touch Boo Radley’s house. Also, my work relates to the theme of expectations. Students are usually expected to be great athletes or at least good at sports. The expectations that you have for the students in class are similar to the ones that Aunt Alexandra set for Scout. The last theme that relates to my work was do not judge. When some students weren’t as talented at badminton or basketball, or had difficulty with the sport, no one judged them. This reminded me of how Tom Robinson was judged by people just because of his skin color, and how that is not what should matter to people. I was surprised that I could relate the themes that I found in To Kill a Mockingbird could relate to my assessment work.
There are some changes that I would make if I had to do my assessment project over again. I could have saved time in each class if I did not have to explain the rules multiple times. I would have quieted the children down when they weren’t paying attention. If I had taken the time during demonstrations, they most likely would have listened closer and not had questions. I also would have tried to be more helpful to the students when they had questions. I was often vague when I explained the games so they generated even more questions. Sometimes they would be having difficulties without asking for help, and I should have stepped in to help them even if they didn’t need my help. Lastly, I would have taken more opportunities to encourage the students. When some of the children got out of the game, I sometimes forgot to congratulate them for doing a good job. Some of the children were discouraged when they missed or lost, and I could have made them feel better. Even though I had a successful experience, there were changes that I could have made to my assessment work.
I have been changed by this assessment project work in three ways. First, I have a slightly better idea of knowing how to deal with issues. I know what to say to calm down children, somewhat like how Atticus deals with Jem and Scout. Next, I know the students better. Before the assessment project started, I didn’t know any of the new 6th grade students. For the children that I still don’t know, I left a good reputation and now they know who I am. Lastly, I gained appreciation for my gym teachers and knowledge about P.E. classes. There are large amounts of effort that must be put into preparing and teaching a class. Now I know how to set-up the nets and stations and take attendance. As I have said, I was changed by the assessment project even though they are small changes.
I wonder if mockingbirds ever exercise. Maybe the older birds teach them, like I taught the classes for the 6th and 7th graders. Although we are different, birds may have similar lives. I greatly enjoyed helping Mr. D and Mrs. Davis teach the P.E. classes, and I hope that they had the same satisfactory experience as I did.
