Thought of the Day: Monday, March 25th

Once again I must turn your attention to a fantastic blogger whose work I follow regularly. She is insightful, creative, innovative, and her blog posts are very thought-provoking. Often times, I use her blog posts to initiate my own thinking within the arena of PE and today is no different, so I would like to share my thought of the day based on one of Sonya ter Borg's recent blog posts (here) and it is all about inspiring action in our students. The pictures of Speak to Inspire Action and the bold text in orange below come directly from Sonya's blog. I was fortunate enough to work with Sonya in the Hague last year on the PYP Sharing Blog project and it is here that I got to know more about her. I now consider her a friend and highly respect her work. 

As the PYP is all about students taking action, as physical educators, we must consider what this looks like in the programs we run. Back in September, a model for inquiry in PE that I had created was published here by the IBO and the final phase of my inquiry cycle dealt specifically with students taking action. 

However, as much as I hope that I can inspire kids to take action in regards to their learning in PE, I must reflect on the fact that outside of PE, I haven't observed this so much. Sonya's blog post on Speak to Inspire Action, got me seriously reflecting on ways that I can better promote action within my own PE program. Specifically, what does action look like outside of PE and how can it be measured? 

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If we are to try and promote action in PE, we must begin to look for ways to see whether or not action is actually taking place once our students leave our gymnasiums and other teaching spaces. We must listen to the conversations of our students in the hallways and out at recess. We must observe them during their play times to be able to see firsthand if action is happening. In my upcoming Athletics unit, I am taking a totally new teaching approach in which I blogged about last week here. I am giving students complete ownership over their learning by allowing them to design all of the activities that they will engage in. The learning engagements will based around the student learning outcomes that will be made clear to them at the beginning of the unit. 

In order for me to assess whether or not true learning is taking place, I must look for action and will do so by taking walks during morning break and at recess to see if any of my grade 3 and 4 students are taking their learning from Athletics and putting it into action during their own time. 

Sonya's blog post has helped me to reflect on action even more, but from the perspective of PE. I will report back on my blog over the next several weeks any action that has taken place. As PE instructors, how to you address action within your programs? I would love to hear back from you. 

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