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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

How Should PE be Taught?

Coming into the great debate, there was no doubt that that my group was going to make a strong impression on the board of educators.  The great debate was based on three different types of focuses in the classroom.  These focuses were teaching, lifelong sports, skill fundamentals, and stick sports.  After hearing all the great arguments and points each group presented, it was clear in my mind, how physical education should be taught.  I was supporting the lifelong sports group; I believe it is important to get involved with a sport or activity you can carry out through your older years, something that can help you maintain that healthy lifestyle and ultimately allow you to live longer and happier.  To get to that point however, you do need a small bit of skill fundamentals.  However, that is not and should not be the primary focus for students throughout their years in high school and then some.  Teaching the skill fundamentals can only allow a student to grow so far in the physical education world, and I feel they may get bored with repeating the same basic movements over and over.  You should start off students with these skills and teach them through elementary school and maybe into middle school.  After a certain point in their physical development, they know how to hop, skip, jump, shuffle, etc. and that no longer becomes a primary focus.  I feel at that point is when they may find an interest in a lifelong sport like skiing, running, swimming, or tennis.  Again, in all of these lifelong sports, there are fundamentals that are taught within them in order to carry out the sport.  Coordination, and basic locomotor movements are essential in performing almost any activity, it is just a matter of how to chop up when a physical educator should introduce these aspects in a school setting.  

As a future physical educator myself, I plan on using the fundamentals in the lower grades of schools and introducing how to go about these basic skill fundamentals, but I at the same time, will introduce some lifelong and team sports that incorporate these skills to reinforce the movements and muscle memory.  Once the students enter a middle school setting, I would then stop with having a primary focus on these fundamentals and really get into how to stay fit and apply those skills throughout a lifetime.  Without the use of both skill fundamentals, and lifelong sports, I feel as though you can not operate a beneficial and consistently exciting environment for your students to learn and grow, which is essential in order for them to retain what they learn.  

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