by Lynn Hefele on November 26, 2013

    Think about your favorite restaurant.  What is it about that particular restaurant that makes it your favorite?  Chances are it is the combination of a quality product, good service, and the ambiance that keeps you coming back for more.  If any one of these three areas were below standard, you might not return and probably wouldn’t recommend the restaurant to your friends.

Now think about your physical education program.  While your students don’t have a choice whether or not to frequent your establishment, if you are trying to promote your program, then a satisfied customer is your first order of business. 

First, take a look at your product.  Do you have a quality physical education program that has a variety of skills on the menu?  While students will say they always want to play a certain game, they only know what they have experienced.  Continually changing and using a variety of techniques, technology and differentiating the instruction will keep students from getting bored and keep them moving with purpose.  Furthermore, a student that finds your class intellectually, as well as, physically challenging, will be more likely to talk about, “what they did in gym, today,” to their parents.

Next, how is the service in your gymnasium?  Teachers have a variety of classroom management techniques, and while safety and order should be taken into consideration when developing a routine, the focus of the class needs to be about meeting your student’s social, emotional, physical and cognitive needs.  Take a moment to virtually step into your own classroom as a student.  Now, ask yourself if you would want to be taught or disciplined with the language and tone of voice you use.  A student that feels safe from verbal and physical harm in your classroom will sing your praises for the rest of their life.

How about the ambiance?  While this may sound silly, students, parents, other teachers, and administrators will think that you are a fabulous teacher simply because when they walk by the gym the decor is visually pleasing.  Posters, word walls, colorful equipment and a fun variety of music, create a welcoming setting for your fabulous cuisine.

Realistically, there are very few restaurants that become successful by just opening their doors for breakfast and closing them after dinner.  Getting patrons through the door takes many different types of marketing.  If you are trying to promote your program to parents and administrators, then you are going to have to go the extra mile.  Not to mention the fact that just because your students are not in your classroom, doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to provide them with learning opportunities they can access at other times of their day.

For example, do you have a website?  If so, what’s on it?  Any successful business in today’s market has a website to advertise their product.  Your website should have your students’ schedules and the class expectations so that parents know when they need to be prepared for class.  Likewise, if your curriculum and grading policies are clearly defined and available, parents can support your lessons at home while you are teaching a unit in class.  Provide a web page for students with enrichment links and activities and provide a page for parents with links to supporting leagues, programs and educational information that they can explore.  Also, continually posting photos and videos will keep them coming back to your site.

Old school advertising can be as effective as new technology.  Take ownership of a bulletin board in a hallway and/or the cafeteria.  Anywhere that students, parents, and administrators will see it.  Make sure to change your bulletin board at least bi-monthly.  A bulletin board that is faded with torn pictures is worse than no bulletin board at all.  Display pictures of students in action and have educational information in large age appropriate text. 

Does your school put out a newsletter or any regularly scheduled communication to parents?  In your newsletter article, you can focus on a different grade level, class, lesson, educational topic, or event.  Have it proof read for spelling and grammar.  One spelling mistake takes the focus off your program and onto your credibility as a teacher.

Specials!!!  Every restaurant will have specials that give their menu some added punch.  It’s never a meatloaf or a pot roast but a Bouillabaisse or Crème Brule.  What is your specialty?  Advertise it!  Whether the event takes place during or after the school day, inviting parents to your class to see what you’re teaching and how much their children are learning is invaluable.  Use all the bells and whistles: decorations, music, and student ambassadors to seat or serve the parents are just a few ways to make the event special.  Don’t feel like you have to do this on your own.  Partner with a school, community, or charity organization to increase your exposure.  High school clubs like the National Honor Society and Key Clubs are required to do community service.  Join with other teachers to do cross curriculum events or the PTA to do family events.  Jump Rope for Heart and other charities are always eager to sponsor events in the schools.

Finally, networking is the single most important way to promote your program.  Most people will walk by your gym and see children having fun (at best) or organized chaos (at worst).  Without you speaking out about what to expect from a quality PE program, your program will be viewed as little more than an extension of recess.  Take every opportunity to speak about what’s new in your program.  Ask to speak at back-to-school night, PTA, and faculty meetings.  Get to know the parents of your students by being available and visible at parent/teacher conferences and attend other special events.  For the truly advanced tech savvy teacher, you might want to check out www.Edmodo.com.  It is a social networking site for teachers, students, and parents.  You can connect with your students online as though they were in your classroom.  Parents can view their students work through a parent portal.  You can also connect with other physical education teacher groups.  Also for the techie, the Coach’s Eye is a videotaping app that allows you to send video clips of student performance to parents.  For the not so tech friendly, send home positive notes and certificates and make “Sunshine Calls” to highlight exceptional skills and behaviors.

Marketing your program is work but if you are passionate about what you do and truly believe that you make a difference in a child’s life, it is well worth the effort.  So next time you are at your favorite, restaurant/clothing store/sports club/social event,  take a closer look at how the advertise and figure out if it will work for you!  

by Lynn Hefele on September 5, 20131 

Physical Education or Recreation
 
My mom is a leopard, the kind that can't change her spots.  She lives in the moment, says what comes to her mind, and doesn't look back.  It’s history, over and done with.  I am my father’s daughter, every sentence measured and every action reflected upon.  My reflections often border on rumination, obsessing over the smallest misstatement for hours, days, or even years.  
So this article is my latest rumination, more a sharing of questions than an article for information.  
Recently, a colleague made a statement to the effect that the majority of physical education teachers are no more than recreation directors.  My immediate, uncharacteristically, defensive response was, “I am not a recreation director.”  Of course, later, I reflected on the moment and analyzed the statement.  
Here are the definitions, as simply stated as I could find, without  minimizing either profession.
A recreation director, as defined by ehow.com, is a person who plans, organizes and schedules activities for organizations and groups. Recreation directors work at places such as recreational facilities, camps, nursing homes, playgrounds and schools. The primary responsibility of a Recreation Director is to keep the group entertained, enthusiastic and, most of all, active. Most promote healthy living and exercise through their programs.
A physical education teacher as defined by Resume-Resource.com must:
Develop effective lesson plans to teach physical education appropriate to the age or grade level
Teach cognitive concepts about motor skills and fitness
Observe and inform students of corrective measures necessary for skill and improvement
Instruct students on importance of regular amounts of appropriate physical activity now and throughout life
Assess the skill level of students and provide differentiated instruction for various ability groupings
Offer alternatives during classes to accommodate different levels of fitness
Explain and enforce safety rules governing sports, recreational activities, and the use of sports and exercise equipment
Maintain order among students
Document attendance, grades and other records
Confer with parents or guardians, teacher and administrators to report on students’ progress
So there you have it, physical educator and recreation director, two professions that are concerned with providing physical activity to groups of people.  Yet, they are fundamentally different in their purpose.  One is primarily concerned with the entertainment of a group and the other focused on the physical, cognitive and emotional education of the individual.  
So here are the questions I asked myself:
Am I developing lessons or am I simply choosing games?  
Are my lessons age appropriate or am I playing the same game with all of the students without modifying it to meet grade level expectations?
Do I actually teach the cognitive concepts related to motor skill acquisition and fitness components or do I simply state the rules of the game?
Am I observing and informing students about their individual skill development and fitness needs or am I refereeing and keeping score of a game.
Do I educate students on the importance of regular, livelong health and fitness concepts? 
Am I assessing student learning and then modifying how and what I am teaching to meet the needs of my students? Or am I simply exposing students to different games to provide physical activity?
Am I differentiating instruction to meet the needs of individuals within each class or am I using the one size fits all method because set up and take down is easier?
Do I make accommodations for students with special needs or do I expect all children to “keep up?”
Do I explain the safety rules?
Do I maintain order, teach sportsmanship, character and conflict resolution?
Do I conference with parents?
Do I confer with other teachers and administrators about student progress?
My conclusion, I am a physical education teacher.  Not a perfect one, yet!  However, as long as I don't become the old dog that can't learn new tricks, I will keep reflecting and changing like a chameleon to meet the educational needs of my students.  How about you?

by Lynn Hefele on September 5, 2013


Embracing the Common Core Standards for Math in PE

I love a challenge and I hate boredom! So when the expectation of incorporating the ELA and Math Common Core Standards into PE was thrown at us; my immediate response was- Bring it on!  I love the Common Core Standards.  Yes, love them!  I began writing fictional stories to introduce lessons before the Common Core ELA Standards were introduced (see Literature Enhanced Physical Education @ LEPEinc.com).  So after reading the ELA standards, I found that I was already addressing many of the reading literature, reading for informational text, and listening and speaking standards.

Math, on the other hand, was new to me and my mission was to figure out how to use math in PE without compromising my PE lessons.  Over the past eight months, I have found that math and PE are like peanut butter and jelly.  They go together perfectly!  Numbers are all over our curriculum!  We just have to bring them to our student’s attention and manipulate them to make them meaningful.

My biggest ah-ha moment was realizing that I didn’t have to count by ones! My favorite and most successful implementation of the Math Standards is to skip count during warm-ups.  My 1st grade class can count by 2’s, 3’s and 5’s.  My fourth graders are up to 11’s.  The week before the Math ELA’s I asked the class, “How do you feel about the upcoming test?”  One of the students said, “I feel great because of you!”  I can’t tell you how great that felt.

The students have not only embraced math concepts in PE but are constantly asking me if they can count for me.

Here is how I set up my skip counting warm-ups:

1.       Print out numbers on card stock for each multiplication table.

2.       Hang a pocket chart on your wall behind where you lead warm-ups.

3.       Place the cards in order in the chart (3, 6, 9, 12, etc.)

4.       Perform your first warm-up/exercise counting by 3’s with everyone counting.

5.       Systematically, start turning around numbers so that the students can’t see some of the numbers.

6.       By the end of warm-ups, all the numbers are turned and the students are counting on their own.

7.       Set up challenges- just this half of the gym count; just that half of the gym; just those born in Jan.; just the boys; etc.  They love to count louder than their peers.

I spent about three weeks on each number with my 4th graders beginning in September.  The classroom teachers are amazed and very grateful.  I give out stickers at the end of class for students that can skip count the entire number group on their own. (This is done while we wait for the teacher to pick up so no PE time is lost)

Here are some of the other ideas I have come up with:

1.  Check out MathandMovement.com for great instructional materials for the gym.

2.  Skip count during warm-ups: For example, post the multiples of three on a wall, count by three's for one exercise.  For the next exercise turn one number over so that the students can't see it and count again.  With each exercise turn over another number until they have them all memorized. 

3.  Whenever you need to make groups, ask the students to do the math, i.e. if we have 5 stations and 32 students, how many students will be at each station?

4.  When playing scoring games, never have a score count as one point.  Make the students think by making 6 point goals!

5.  Transition using the times table, i.e. Hop 12 times to the next station, counting by 3's.

6.  The kindergarten common core standards require counting to one hundred and to be able to count starting from a number other than one.  If you are counting with kindergarten students keep this in mind.

7.  Within the same game, give different point values to different scoring options.  For example, if you knock over the pin it is worth 4 pts.   If you tip over the bucket you get 7.  Do the math at the end of the round.  Present it as a word problem, "If you knocked over 4 pins and 2 buckets, what is your score?"

8.  When keeping score, try starting from 100 (or any other number) and subtract points.  Lowest score wins instead of highest.

9.  Use the whisper and shout technique to teach multiplication tables.  Whisper the non-multiple and shout the multiple.  For example- hop (whisper 1), step (whisper 2), jump (shout 3) , hop (whisper 4), step (whisper 5), jump (shout 6). Repeat pattern until 3 X 12.  This is a www.Mathandmovement,com idea!

10.  Give students their assignment in an equation.  For example- We are going to do 10 sets of 10 dribbles alternating right hand and left hand.  How many dribbles will you have done by the end?

11.  Have students keep a tally score on a dry erase board.  At the end of each round of play, give the students the MAGIC MULTIPLIER NUMBER.  This is the number that each tally mark is worth. The students need to multiply their tally score with the multiplier to get their final score. (Karen Fischer- Jefferson Primary, Huntington, NY)

12.  Teaching bowling- 1st graders- have them determine the number of pins knocked down by the number of pins left standing (Subtraction- 10 pins minus the number of pins standing equals the number knocked down.)

These Math ideas and other ELA ideas can be found athttp://www.lepeinc.com/common-core-standard-ideas/. The lists are updated when I come up with a new idea.  If you have any ideas and would like me to share them on my website, please send them to me at lynn.hefele@gmail.com

Motivating and Educating Students through Their Imagination

The Evolution of Literature Enhanced Physical Education


BACK IN THE DAY
Think back to a time before organized competitive sport entered your life.  Now, think of all the reasons you moved with enjoyment and purpose during that time.  As physical education teachers, my guess is that many of you were like me, pretending that you were a professional athlete beating the buzzer to win a national championship. 

Having grown up a tomboy in Massachusetts, I emulated Bobby Orr of the 1969 Boston Bruins.  So in the streets, on the ponds or in the neighbor’s driveway, on any given Sunday, I could be seen acting out Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Wayne Cashman and Gerry Cheevers winning the Stanley Cup.  Of course in the summer, my friends and I would become Freddy Lynn and Jim Rice or Carl Yaztremski of the Boston Red Sox.  I look back now and realize how unfortunate we were not to have a hoop in the neighborhood.  The many opportunities to enjoy the fame of the Boston Celtics were lost to us.

Additionally, while my neighborhood friends were, generally speaking, a sport oriented crew, I must confess to the occasional foray into the world of superheroes and detective series.  Batman and Robin, were an option, but never Batgirl because I thought she was lame.  However, I will admit that Charlie’s Angels provided us with some valuable storylines.  I will even admit that I would have preferred to be Farah Fawcett with the perfect hair than the intelligent but cute Kate Jackson.

THE AH-HA MOMENT
Fast forward fifteen years: I became a young, tenure-less teacher, just out of college and relegated to a newly formed Kindergarten Center.  Teaching eight, half hour classes of 25- five year olds every day was a daunting task in the beginning.  It wasn’t until I rediscovered the magic of a child’s imagination that all the anxiety of trying to teach and control a “herd of cats” day in and day out disappeared. 

Did I mention that at this time, I would go home to my own five and three year old children after a day of teaching 200 five year olds!  While at times this threatened my sanity it also strengthened my teaching.  My home became my classroom and my children became my professors, introducing me to the names of the Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, as well as the timeless, and endless, Disney characters.

I found that all children became motivated when one spoke their language.  When fitness exercises became Power Ranger training and dinosaurs played tag, non-movers and movers alike began to sweat!  For the next nine years as Kindergarten Cop, educating, controlling, and motivating children to move was enjoyable and entertaining. 

The dismantling of the Kindergarten Center coincided with the debut of Harry Potter.  In my new primary school that featured K-3 students, Quidditch became all the rage.  Sitting in a chair reading an except from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the children were given the scenario for what would become the throwing unit complete with Harry Potter balloons and foam ball Golden Snitches. Having graduated from Springfield College in Massachusetts, where the philosophy of the school is Spirit, Mind, and Body it seemed to be a perfect lesson.  Motivating children to move by using literature to engage their spirit truly embodied the inverted triangle that depicts a balance of the disciplines with no one area of study as the base.

Very few books, however, lend themselves so perfectly to motivating students as does Harry Potter.  Likewise, while the story creates a fun and competitive scenario with motivational objectives, it does little actual educating in physical education terms.

That’s when it dawned on me that if I were to create my own stories, then not only would the children be able to pretend, but I could also imbed verbal cues into the storyline and include visual cues in the illustrations, essentially creating physical education specific literature to enhance my lessons. 

LEPE


Starting with the physical and cognitive outcomes being targeted, developing lessons to achieve them, and creating fantasy around the lessons is the premise behind Literature Enhanced Physical Education (LEPE).

Clean Up Your Backyard
Clean Up Your Backyard, the first book released in 2009, is based on the popular PE activity of the same name.  The book includes a whimsical story about two neighboring families attempting to clean up their yard by tossing their garbage over the neighbor’s fence. It includes verbal cues to help children remember to step in opposition and illustrations depicting the phases of overhand throwing.  Additionally, this teacher resource includes lesson plans, creative equipment ideas and rubrics for teaching throwing and throwing for accuracy.  While I have been very happy with this book in its present state, I am also amazed how quickly children can take a story and make it their own.  Since the first reading of the book, the children have invented scenarios that have improved, not only the storyline, but also provided imaginative cues that increase safety and team development.  Once again, the children are becoming the teachers and I the student.  Given an educational objective, the children will come up with an imaginative solution that fits their needs and my goals.

To Read or Not to Read?
Huntington Union Free School District in Huntington, NY is one of the few districts on Long Island in which K-6 students receive PE 3 X week for 40 minutes.  So, to take 5 minutes a month to read in order to gain quality movement minutes by all students, especially the typically non-moving students, is worth it to me.  I do, however, understand that in most schools across the country, quality physical education is difficult to administer given the minimal time allocations. Therefore, I understand that for some, taking the time to read is either unrealistic or undesirable.  While I believe that the physical education teacher is the best teacher to convey the story, point out the visual cues, and ask the questions for reflection; I also believe that most primary school teachers would be more than happy to take the five minutes necessary to read to the students before coming to the gym.  Likewise, promoting extra credit writing assignments and drawing contests based on the stories is a great way to promote PE as interdisciplinary without impacting upon teaching time.

 ELA STANDARDS?
Having already won over the audience that counted, it was time to invite the principal and superintendent of curriculum into the gym.  The children had given their two thumbs up, and the Director of Physical Education was on board but what would academia think?  To my surprise they responded with “What a rich vocabulary you have used!” and “The story provides a text to self experience.”  To which I responded, “Really? and What?”  So I pulled out the NYS ELA Standards and took a look.  To my surprise and delight Clean Up Your Backyard meets ELA Standards One and Two.  

More specifically, children are:

l  Learning movement and other vocabulary

l  Learning cues for movement

l  Applying verbal cues to physical movements

l  Interpreting the book version of the game and generalizing it to a physical education activity

l  Predicting outcomes

l  Relating text to their own performance

l  Using the story for self expression and artistic creation

Meeting Children Where They Are
I have been both applauded and chastised for bringing literature into the gymnasium.  My response to both is the same.  Literature Enhanced Physical Education is not about teaching literature in the gym but about using literature to motivate and educate children to move.  Literature Enhanced Physical Education (LEPE) is trying to meet all children where they are educationally and allowing them to use one of the greatest gifts they have: an imagination.  As educators, being able to guide a child’s imagination into meaningful learning in the gymnasium could be the key to building a foundation for all children to become successful, intrinsically motivated movers at an early age. 

Take the LEPE
If you would like to take the LEPE into Literature Enhanced Physical Education, check outwww.LEPEinc.com or e-mail me @ LEPEinc@gmail.com, join LEPEinc on Facebook and follow LynnHefele on Twitter.