| Author |
Message |
Susan Pilarski (Smp41)
Junior Member
Username: Smp41
Post Number: 9
Registered: 8-2008
| | Posted on Sunday, November 09, 2008 - 4:58 pm: |       |
We are ready to completely revamp our program at the high school. We already have the principal on board and the guidance counselors. If anyone has ever completely redone their PE program before, any advice or tidbits of information would be extremely helpful! Also, who was all included in the process? Did you have a "team" of people? Was it an individual? Did you redo the entire district, or just at the building level? |
Joe Herzog (Bigfish344)
Intermediate Member
Username: Bigfish344
Post Number: 42
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 - 4:21 pm: | |
Susan: I worked in a highly disfunctional HS setting and a terrific middle school program. The MS program included a wealth of outdoor education units as well as a number of non-traditional or adapted units. For HS, I would recommend: 9th grade: International games/team sports, but everything in modified fashion so that there is no standing around. Smaller teams, more balls in play, everyone runs the bases; that sort of thing.
One outdoor unit: orienteering is easy and a good starting point. Aquatics, if available and certified instructors are on hand. Basic fitness: Learn the fitness tests, record keeping, graphing improvement throughtout the year. 10th grade: Dance and rhythms to be sure. Weight training is popular, but I scrapped it and wrote a unit in plyometric exercise which was really popular and helped jump our fitness scores, a bunch. Focus on individual and dual activities: badminton/tennis, inline skating or cycling, golf, played in all fashions because the math lessons are great. (frisbee golf), Archery, geo-cashing, camping/fishing/hunting (make friends with a local sporting good store.) Next level fitness: Have kids plan for the next 12 or 24 months. Talk about practical fitness. Dance and rhythms....move from country line/folk to swing/jazz. We used fencing as our combative and it was very popular. It's very co-ed and we made all of our own equipment except for eye guards, which we already had.
For 11th and 12th graders, I prefer longer units and done on an elective basis. Aquatics, dance (Latin/African/Greek, etc.),Weights or plyometrics, or if the unit is long enough, combine both elements, cycling or some "wheeled" activity, Recreational games (croquet/bowling/bocci/horseshoes, etc.) Power walking/jogging (can they meet at a local park once a week?) Can you have a local fly fisher come in and teach fly fishing? Lifetime fitness that develops realistic fitness plans for 1-3-5 years down the road. Teach kids how to fit their fitness into their lives. By the end of their HS career, they should have a written fitness program that they can take with them.
Some of our schools employ parts of this program, but each is on it's own in terms of curriculum development. For the first time we have a "Director of Physical Education", for the district, so we are beginning to see more consistency.
We actually started an elective program in the 7th grade, in a very challenging school and the kids bought into it 99.9%. Giving them choices and decisions helps them buy into the program, emotionally, which is very important.
This is pretty basic stuff, but perhaps will give you a start.
Joe Herzog, Fresno CA
bigfish344@hotmail.com |
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