This is the month to celebrate physical education and sport. As a part of the celebration, I wanted to discuss how much influence we have on children and youth. Physical educators are in a rare position of being one of the few teachers who can implement lessons to develop the "whole" child. Many physical educators include psychomotor and affective domains in their lesson planning. Much of this page will be dedicated to including the cognitive domain to improve thinking skills.

I look forward to your comments and ideas. We can all accomplish more if we share and work together.

Debby Mitchell
Technology Section Editor

A child's favorite teacher often is the physical education teacher. We can be a positive role model, and influence the learning of our students. To capitalize on our position in physical education we need to be teaching the "whole" child. That means developing the psychomotor, affective, and cognitive domains. Teaching to the "whole" child gives more creditability to our program, reinforces academics and learning, and may ensure our place as an important part of the curriculum. It reinforces the philosophy of mind, body, and spirit.

The psychomotor domain deals with physical and motor development. It is the main goal of physical educators. In the psychomotor domain we are providing opportunities to develop balance, eye-hand coordination, agility, flexibility, strength, and other components of the domain.

The affective is the emotional and social domain. In the affective domain we can plan lessons to include cooperation, how to be a good sport, character building activities, etc.

The cognitive domain deals with the intellect and obtaining knowledge. This domain involves information processing, critical thinking, problem solving, and research.

The following information was submitted by Phil Lawler, PE4LIFE Institute Director. Thanks so much for your contribution.

Physical educators need to look at interactive video games that cause kids to move. We are not going to change the interest level that kids have with video games, and until recently the video industry was the enemy to the fitness world. We can use children's interest to our advantage.

Dance Dance Revolution - this is very popular with our students. I know there are several companies that now make products for Dance Dance Revolution. We just happen to use redoctane. Another great game to play on Dance Dance Revolution pads is Athens Olympics. It works great. Also, see the section on the Secondary page titled 'Motivating to Move!' for more info.

CYBEX Trazer® - This is a new product. Keep an eye on this product...it has great potential. We have been working with the development of this product, and it is much more than an interactive video game. It has potential to be used in athletics, PE, and cross curricular - developing both mind and body.

VCycling - By far the most expensive product, but it is fun to where technology is going in the fitness world. I have seen this product demonstrated, and it will be in schools in the near future.

Powergrid - This is a new product I just discovered. What makes it unique is that every other product listed above provides a cardiovascular workout using video concepts. Powergrid is an interactive video game that improves strength.

We need to let our communities and the general public know what we can accomplish in our curriculum by newsletters, announcements, demonstrations, and other various means of marketing our programs.

Canadian Website - This is the month for celebrating physical education and sport. Canada has a great web site where you can download resources. These might provide models to use in your area: Public Service Announcements, Lesson Plans, Posters, Newsletters, & Brochures.