CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP CALENDAR

I just love this time of year. I am always so full of hope, anticipating what the new school year will bring. What will I learn this year? What is this 'first year student' class like? As a coach, how successful will our team be? What will be remembered as a successful moment? Who will say, "I got it, thanks Mrs. Castelli?" The slate is clean, we are all refreshed, and we have a positive attitude and a sense of readiness. I kind of think of it like this. As kid, summer meant catching fire flies (lightening bugs). Just as the sun went down, we would go out to the field and catch the fire flies, placing them in a jar that had perfectly sized holes (The preparation of finding just the right jar and putting holes in the cover was just as exciting as the catch). An old mayonnaise jar usually made for the best lantern. When the bugs are first placed in the jar their light shined brightly, but as time passed their glow began to dim and ultimately you were faced with a choice; set them free or let them die. We would set ours free, so we could try to catch them again the next night. The school year is like that summer time story. We start the year fresh, bright, and energized, but with time that fades. Take a few moments and reflect about how you could maintain that enthusiasm throughout the year. I suggest selecting one new thing to add to your physical education program this year; a new unit, a lesson, a piece of technology, a rubric, a questionnaire...just one thing. Keep the fire burning throughout the year by planning a new challenge today. This issue is full of things to try. Darla Castelli Section Editor

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Volleyball Tactics & Skill

Deception: Volleyball Tactics & Skill By Anthony Mulline Deception is a game involving both strategy and skills relating to volleyball. Four teams of five players are involved in a fast paced, multi-court game. Periods are divided by the score, and rules are similar to volleyball. The use of quality motor skills, team work, and communication are a must to be successful. Equipment can be modified to play this game, or it soon can be purchased. Tony has posted the game on the web for you to visit. There are great diagrams with set up and detailed instructions to get you and your students started. Any further questions about the game can be answered directly by the inventor himself; Tonym@cbt.net

Lunch Packing Advice by Carol Gnojewski If you're a busy parent like me, the planning and preparation of school lunches can fall pretty low on your to-do list. Many of us don't have the time, energy, or temperament to poach or roast our own meat for cold cuts, or to whip up fresh sandwiches, soups, salads, or breads on a daily basis as our parents may have done for us. When I think of the tasty homemade lunches my mother lovingly (yet laboriously) created for me, I sometimes feel guilty about the meals I hastily pack for my son Conrad. I have accepted, however, that the pace of my life is very different from that of my mom when she was my age. While I may not make everything myself, my son's lunches are no less tasty, healthy, or lovingly put together. Whether you spend an hour or ten minutes assembling your child's lunch, whether you prepare everything fresh or buy it all prepacked from a store or a restaurant, the end product should still be the same: a nutritious, kid-friendly meal. A successful lunch is one packed with healthy food combinations your child will eat. If your style of lunch-making leans toward convenience, one of the best strategies is to take stock of the convenience food items available in your area. Read the rest of this article, and the excellent nutritional advice that Carol has to offer.

Inquiry: When Teachers Are the One's Asking Questions What do we really know about our students? What do they like, dislike? How fit are they? What activities are of most interest and are motivating to them? I think sometimes we get so busy trying to do our jobs well, that we forget to communicate with our students. The beginning of the school year is a perfect time to inquire. The process of inquiry is a fancy term, meaning "teachers asking questions." It is kind of a role reversal. Instead of students saying, "Is this going to be on the test?" or saying, "Why do I have to run the mile?" the teachers are asking questions of the students. As a teacher, I am sure that you have asked questions of students in the past, but these questions have a different purpose; to give meaning to what we do everyday in physical education. The answers are not used for grading, but to better understand our students and our program. As I continue my work regarding educational change, I sometimes fail to keep the number one reason why I teach in mind; the students. In this article I am going to suggest ways in which we can allow the student voice to be heard. 1. As a regional high school, we know very little about our students who come to us from several different middle schools. Their experience in physical education, or in any physical activity is a mystery. During the first weeks of school, while we are issuing lockers, reading policies, discussing procedures, and waiting to see what add/drop will bring, we could find out more about our students. • Create an interest survey. Provide a list of activities that you do in your program, and ask the students to rank the activities in order of interest. Maybe put a couple of activities, like skateboarding, on the list just to see where it ranks among all of the others. • Have students write you a letter describing themselves to you. • Use "ice breaker" activities. For example, have all the students who like swimming to "please stand up." Remember to be mindful of the peer pressure issues when you are doing these activities. • Ask students to work in pairs and design the "Perfect P.E.Class." 2. Interests, and student choice, are not the only thing that you could "inquire" about. Identifying student experience in certain activities could make you better prepared to meet their needs. • Create a 5 question survey about their experience in different physical activities. • Have students describe what they typically do when they go home from school everyday. Use these repsonses to help encourage physical activity. • Students could design a comic strip illustrating themselves particpating in a physical activity. If students are picturing themselves as unsuccessful, then you can use this information to provide support and encouragement to that student. 3. Get a baseline of fitness levels, record them, set goals, and retest at the end of the physical education experience or every nine weeks, depending on how your program is set up. If you do not know what the fitness level of your students is, than how can you improve it? These examples are ways in which we can "inquire" about our students. Research suggests that if we, as teachers, inquire about our students, we are more likely to provide a positive, meaningful experience for each of them. In this day and age of accountability, this is another way to confirm that you are attempting to identify and meet the needs of individual students. How you choose to use the information is what is most important! Merely creating statistics (50% of the students like football) is not what I had in mind. Using the information to change the way that you instruct, and how you get students to meet a standard, is what I was describing.

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Tennis Affective Rubric by Rob Smith, Student University of South Carolina Holding students accountable for the affective domain (their behaviors) is an important part of physical education. A goal of our programs should be to help promote an atmosphere of social responsibility. Here is a sample rubric for you to try. Level 3: Consistently (75% or more of the time) demonstrates good sportsmanship1 during game play and practice (Love 40). Level 2: Usually (50-74% of the time) demonstrates good sportsmanship1 during game play and practice (Love-30). Level 1: Sometimes (15-49% of the time) demonstrates good sportsmanship1 during game play and practice (Love-15). Level 0: Rarely (<15% of the time) demonstrates good sportsmanship1 during game play and practice (Love-Love). 1Good sportsmanship includes care for equipment, respectful behaviors, and compliance with game and class rules. Here is a four step process to help you make this work with a secondary physical education class during a tennis unit. 1. On a posterboard create a picture of a tennis court. Add the above text in each of the service court areas. Place a piece of velcro (one side sticky, the other velcro) in each of those service areas. Also add at the top of the paper, the words Game Point with a piece of velcro (This area represents when the entire class has demonstrated sportsmanlike behaviors). 2. On the first day of the unit explain that the class, as a whole or individually, will be assessed on their sportsmanlike behavior. At the end of each class a tennis ball (one of those used with the velcro catching devices) will be placed in the area where the most students scored. Once you get the hang of this, you may even want to add a double fault for days where things just do not go well. You could also allow students to score themselves once or twice. 3. This is the important part! Be sure that if you state you are going to do it every day, that you actually do it. It is the only way that it will mean something to the students. Keep records of the students daily performance. I put the results right in my gradebook, next to the attendance. I knew that a 3-2-1-0 meant the affective score for the day. 4. Include all this information as part of the grade that you give the student. Instead of saying the student got an "A" for effort, you actually now have a daily score for their social responsibility in your gradebook. Rob Smith, now a teacher in Ohio, actually puts his daily scores into a Handspring Visor Deluxe database and prints the results for the students and parents.

Miscellaneous

Back to School Guide for Teachers Education World has surfed deep into the Web to pull together this Back-to-School Guide for the Beginning Teacher; a virtual survival guide for educators about to begin their first year in the classroom, or for classroom veterans who are always looking for fresh ideas!