Why it is so important for Physical Educators to be flexible with their time, space, lessons, equipment, teaching strategies and bodies!
Being a second year physical education teacher, I have realized the importance of being a flexible teacher. Our classrooms (aka: the gymnasium) is widely used for a number of different things in our school. A few examples are assemblies, science projects, displaying science fair projects, and storage just to name a few. I understand the limited amount of space that we have to work with in our schools today, so it is very important to have back up lesson plans for different areas such as the outside field, cafeteria or library. As physical educators we need to be prepared for every circumstance, and we need to build our library of lessons as we go through the adaptive process every year.
A key strategy that I have developed is to record everything that I do. I have lessons for every possible situation. Being flexible means that if you are faced to leave your gym, and it is raining outside, you will know where to go and what to do. You will be prepared, and your lesson will still be effective for your students. There is no worst feeling than being unprepared. We have all been there and felt this awkward feeling, but instead of getting angry and upset, we need to learn from these happenings and use them for future plans.
Flexibility also occurs in other ways while being a teacher. I have over 400 students who all learn in their different specific ways, it is vitally important for myself to be a flexible teacher and instruct my classes in many different ways. I have all different types of learners ranging from visual learners, auditory learners, and "hands on" learners. To be an effective teacher I need to understand my students and be able to decide which is the best method to use so I can maximize my students learning potential. 
You can find this picture at: www.nlm.gov/.../ency/imagepages/19391.htm
Lastly, I am doing a new project in my school called "The Selser Gold Rush". Every class gets 2 pedometers to wear everyday and then total the number of steps they achieve every week. Starting in Chicopee, MA, we are traveling through 14 different states and learning about them along the way. The teachers are also involved and we are wearing pedometers too. This past Friday I totaled 12, 700 steps. 2,000 steps=1 mile, so i tallied a little over 6.5 miles in one day. My point is that we need to be in good physical shape to teach effective PE classes. We are moving all day long, and providing quality examples for our students. Stretching is a key component to being healthy and active. I would recommend everyone to stretch every morning and every night, I guarantee your body will feel a lot better during your day to day routine!
And....Nick, going along with your idea about stretching and its importance to how we feel...we all need to be stretched cognitively as well....it really goes along with being flexible as a teacher - we need to keep an open mind - most of the time it is just a matter of learning something new and then trying it out in our context!
ReplyDeleteYou sound like a very devoted teacher and I bet your students love coming to PE - what a fantastic thing that classroom teachers are also involved with the project!
Dr. Lorenzo