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LEADERSHIP, LEARNING, &  PErsonal Growth

Major Lessons Learned From Our Athletics Unit

5/15/2015

10 Comments

 

Taking time to understand our students genuine thoughts about their PE experience

Athletics is one of my favorite units, but I must admit that it is certainly not one of the easiest to teach.  Every single year, I try  to switch up how I present this unit in an effort to get all students to understand that the most important thing  is to strive for personal excellence and to be the best that we can be. I put a lot of effort into the immersion phase (the initial stage) of the units I teach to try to hit upon these major points, but I'm not always successful. Many students still feel that they are not fast enough,  and cannot throw or jump far enough. A number of students in Athletics simply feel that they are not good enough and have a difficult time dealing with the resulting emotions that stem from these re-occurring thoughts and feelings.  

As their teacher, I  try to impress upon them what I feel to be the most important things in the unit, but for  them, they are experiencing Athletics through their own eyes and their own perspectives. Many  students struggle with  self-confidence and  it's for these students that I try extremely hard to create an learning environment  that is supportive and allows them to achieve some level of success.

I think that I open up my units in a pretty solid way, using powerful provocations  that will hopefully get my students emotionally hooked and ready to  learn. It is my goal to inspire and encourage them to want to learn, but also to get them to want to take part in the unit and do as many activities as possible without fear of being judged as  either good or bad in regards to their level of skill.  I want them to have a go and do their best. 

This unit was set up in a way that allowed them to ultimately decide which events that they wanted to  compete  in during our culminating event which was Sports Day. The students had to choose 2 runs, 2 jumps, and 2 throws, but could add a 7th event of their choice if they wished to do extra.  We felt that giving them this choice was obviously the best direction to go in order to make them feel that what they want matters. 

The Big Day!

After 6 weeks of training, Sports Day was upon us  and, for the most part, the students were as ready as they could be. Of course, more time to prepare would have been ideal,  but the time had come for them to showcase what they had learned.  Sports Day is  an important community event at our school here in Nanjing, so there was no question that they were feeling the pressure. 

As usual, there were some students who were visibly nervous on the morning of Sports Day. I tried to get around to as many  as possible to have little side discussions with them  to help them feel better. I also noticed a few students crying and quite upset before their races. I even had a some parents come up to tell me that their son or daughter had been up very late and unable to sleep because they had been so scared and nervous about  competing the following morning. 

When seeing and hearing these things, thoughts were running through my head like, "Did I not prepare them well enough?" and "Did I not do a good enough job of helping them to understand what's most important in this unit?". I was a bit baffled. Had I not paid close enough attention in previous years to checking in with their emotions, thoughts, and feelings during the Athletics unit?  By the end of Sports Day, I knew that I had to address some of the things that I had seen in order to close the unit off in a meaningful and relevant way. I made it a goal to really get down to the bottom of how they felt and why they felt that way in an effort to see if there is  a better way the Athletics unit can be rolled out next year.  Don't get me wrong, the day was great! But, I know that there is always a better way to deliver the learning that takes place.  I am convinced that there is an improved way  in which the unit can be delivered to help them face the realities that they will face on Sports Day itself.  

The Use of Provocations

Although I use provocations quite effectively during the immersion phase of the units I teach, I decided I was going to hit the students up with some provocations to end the unit. Something I hadn't really done in depth in the past.  

The driving question that I used was simple; What are some genuine thoughts and feelings that you had during Sports Day? I set the students off,   with their peers,   on their 'walk and talk' discussing  how they felt. At first they were not very open,  but after a while they all began to share. The more they shared, the more they opened up. I jotted down many of their answers in my journal. 

Once the students had shared their answers in a group discussion format, I showed them a  video  of Luca Patuelli, an amazing  hip hop dancer from Montreal who happens to be disabled. Many of my students know who Luca is because I shared different videos of him in the past. However, the students had not seen this one. Luca  was born with  arthrogryposis  which  is an  abnormal fibrosis of the muscle tissue causing muscle shortening. Therefore, people with this disease are unable to do passive extension and flexion in the affected joint or joints. Many are unable to walk.  Luca had set a goal for himself to walk 2.5km last summer without the aid of his crutches.  I shared the video of his walk with my students  as a provocation  to help initiate a discussion about  why he  might  have decided to do this. 
My students were very moved by  the video and shared many reasons why Luca may have set such a goal. I also asked my students to think about why I had chosen to show them this video at the end of the Athletics unit.  They began to tune into the fact that we must always remember that  Athletics is about striving for personal excellence and doing the best that we can, regardless of the skills that we have. It's about setting goals and working toward those goals.  

I emphasized that this was Luca's personal race and that he was trying to complete it  to the best of his ability. My students understood that he was trying his very best to finish his own personal race which was simply to complete the walk.  As well, we discussed how lucky we are to be healthy and to have bodies unaffected by disease, sickness, or injury.  

We also re-visited the story of Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Spanish 5000-meter runner who is one of the best in Europe. I shared Ivan's story earlier in the unit. You can read about it here.  The story is all about what demonstrating genuine sportsmanship actually means. It is an inspiring story that my students loved. 

Earlier in the unit, I had also shown the two videos below. We re-visited what these two stories meant and what they taught us about Athletics.  One is the story of a 600-meter runner named 
Heather Dorniden who fell down in a race but managed to get up  and keep running eventually catching the ones in the lead and passing them to win the race.  Another great video to  emphasize the importance of trying our best. 
The last story we revisited was the story of Derek Redmond. It is a video that my students had seen last year, but I hadn't shown it again this year until many students had asked to see it again. They clearly remembered seeing it the year before and wanted to see it again. Derek's story is one of compassion, resilience,  and personal excellence. It's quite moving as well. 
To close the unit off, I had used the most common student answers to create final visuals that captured my students' thoughts and feelings, the reasons for these thoughts and feelings, and what was most important to remember about the Athletics unit. Although I won't be teaching at the school next year, I'm leaving these visuals for the next teacher to use at the  start of the unit  next time around to remind the students about the important ideas related to Athletics.  My students and I definitely had some pretty powerful discussions at the end of the unit and their final reflections indicated that many of them had  grasped on to the big ideas and concepts that I hoped they would grasp on to. 
 
As you can see in the visuals below, we  identified major reasons why they had felt the way that they did. The purpose of doing this was to help them understand that we all experience the same feelings, insecurities, doubts, and fears about our own abilities.  I needed to drive these points home to them in order to get them to understand that we all share the same human experience.  My hope is that when they become more aware of this as they get older, they will remember these discussions and know that the thoughts and feelings that they may have are normal. Everyone experiences similar emotions but often times cover them up and not want other people to know.  Knowing others feel the same way may help to give them the courage and inspiration needed to really go after it, do their best, and see what happens.  I want them to know that what matters most is removing obstacles  that stand in the way of them and success.  We are all capable of personal excellence. This fact has nothing to do with Athletics itself but about life in general.  We need to prepare our learners for a lifetime and not just a moment. 

How do you run your Athletics units? What is most important to you to get your students to understand?  Should all students have to compete in all events or should they be given choice? What does success look like in your Athletics unit? How is success celebrated?  How can we deliver our Athletics unit in a way that has students understand the relevance of the unit and how it applies in their own lives?  How can we get them to  have the courage to really go for it? What type of  learning environment must we create for them to feel free to take the risk to give it their best?  How can we create that all important community feel that supports each and every learner as they strive for personal excellence? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I plan on writing a couple more blog posts about this unit , so I hope you come back to read more. 
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Examples of some of the students thoughts in their final reflection

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"I felt nervous because I was afraid I would fail and wouldn't win anything."
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"Teach kids how to feel happy still if they lost and proud because they did it."
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"I felt scared because it was so scary running when so many people were looking at you."
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"I felt scared to run because I was worried I would lose, but then I realized it's not always about winning."
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I felt nervous when I was running because everybody was watching."
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"Never give up", "Don't let your fears get you down." and 'Don't compare".
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"I was scared at the start of the 800m. I was scared people would make fun of me because I was last. I was proud at the end of the 800m because I wasn't last."
10 Comments
Luisa Meyer
5/15/2015 07:10:24 am

Andy,
Your students are very fortunate to have such a passionate and inspiring teacher! I see some of myself in your class presentations, and wish I could apply more of it. Unfortunately I teach very large classes and I'm not sure how I would be able to carry on those discussions and conversations before and after the events. The only times I can show them videos is when I sneak into an empty classroom with about 90 students to watch some of them, or during rainy days (Derek Redman's video is one of my favorites as well). I also emphasize always the fact that they are competing against themselves, and not against others.
Keep up your hard work. Wherever you end up teaching next, your students will be very fortunate!
Take care!

Reply
andyvasily@staff.nanjing-school.com link
5/17/2015 02:01:22 pm

Thanks Luisa for reading the blog post and commenting. I appreciate you taking the time and energy. Sounds like you are in a tough position with so many kids to teach at once, but you are no doubt thinking about best ways to deal with this.

I'm be moving over to full-time consulting next school year to pursue long time goal of becoming a teacher trainer, so I won't be teaching at another school. Going to miss my students. Thanks again.

Reply
Mike Krsul
5/15/2015 08:45:19 am

Andy,

Great use of inspirational videos! That 600m race is one of the guttiest performances of have ever seen in sport. There should be a video of you putting this unit together to inspire your fellow colleagues...don't worry though...Im inspired!!

Reply
andyvasily@staff.nanjing-school.com link
5/17/2015 02:02:33 pm

Hey Mike, thanks for the comment man. I love those videos too. Gutsy performances for sure. Maybe I'll see you this summer back in Mississauga!

Reply
Dom link
5/15/2015 10:38:47 pm

Andy, another great blog. I have just started our athletics unit. So far we have looked at sprinting. I decided our Key concept to be 'Change' and related concept 'refinement'. They will change over the unit as they develop their skills by refining them as they learn new techniques. I am trying to have the unit student driven by asking a variety of inquiry questions as well as allowing them to ask questions so they guide the direction of their learning. My students have got better at doing this during the year.

I do try to guide their learning so they understand that they will achieve through individual improvement and not how well they do against others. I feel athletics really lends itself to individual pursuits. Students can hopefully find a path within this unit in which they can be successful. I plan to do sprinting (50m and 100m) as well as middle distance (200m and 400m). We will also cover long jump and a throwing skill (probably Shot putt).

The students will reflect on each lesson by putting together a 30 second Vlog. At the end of the unit they will put their Vlogs together to make one video. The will have to reflect on their performance and strategies to enhance their performance.

I will Blog and maybe Vlog myself on this either during or after the unit.

We will not do athletics events during our sports day this year for various reasons but I plan to put it in next year.

Thanks again for the ideas and videos, which I will use

Reply
andyvasily@staff.nanjing-school.com link
5/17/2015 02:03:40 pm

Hey Dom, thanks for taking the time to comment. Love hearing about what you did in your unit. Thanks for sharing. Great ideas! See you in October at Chadwick!

Reply
Chris C.
5/17/2015 10:33:15 am

I'm simply blown away at the level of preparedness and the thorough examination of how students learn in your class. You are a world class teacher, and judging by what I just read, a world class person as well. You are a credit to our profession and you inspire me to improve my teaching everyday. Thank you for always being above the bar.

Reply
andyvasily@staff.nanjing-school.com link
5/17/2015 01:59:05 pm

Chris, thanks very much for your comments. I take what I do very seriously as do many other professionals in our field. I guess the more years that pass, I realize just how important it is to honor the thoughts and feelings of those who we teach. At the very heart of it, getting to understand why our students feel and think the way that they do allows us to address things we may have never thought necessary otherwise.

I work hard to figure out how I can better create conditions for them to thrive in a subject area I absolutely love. Helping them to find intrinsic motivation and joy for being physically active is key to me in my program. Thanks again for comments. Much appreciated.

Reply
Edward Smith
6/9/2015 09:11:31 pm

Hey Andy
thanks again for your blogs, the videos are inspirational and I come here usually to get a little inspiration (mission accomplished). Currently doing my individual pursuits unit with G1 and 4, and find the unit is often disrupted by end of school trips and parties but functions well enough. I try to incorporate mathematics and data collection into my lessons where I can so I link with class room units in some way. The emphasis is on setting goals and finding ways to improve. I have not used iPads as yet to do this but that is the plan. Thanks again Andy, all the best.

Reply
Patrick
8/31/2015 05:13:47 am

Andy, do you have a list of the events? What are the choices you give them in each category of running, throwing and jumping?

Thanks!

Reply



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Helping Kids to Achieve Their Best
  • Welcome
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  • Good Teaching is L.I.F.E
  • The Sportfolio
  • Example Assessment Tasks
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