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Triple A Learning IB Blogs
Physical Education
Welcome to the Triple A Learning blog for MYP Physical Education. The most recent blog posts are listed below and you can access the blog archive by following the appropriate link in the panel on the left.
November 24, 2011
November 4, 2011
New Year, New Units
It is already nearly November and I have been meaning to share some of the new units that we are working on at my school. I have been fortunate to have a young and dynamic new teacher join our small department. He is from New Zealand (yes a huge rugby fan) and after a small discussion on how to approach movement composition with our year 5 boys (many have only had one or two years of PE in their lives and most have the same amount of experience at creating movement), we decided that their first task would be to create their own Haka. Three lessons in, the boys love it and as I saw many of the students come into the PE office to watch the Haka of last week’s World Cup final, I knew that a great cultural learning experience was taking place as many of the boys had probably never viewed a rugby game before.
After inspiration from an OCC discussion, for our grade 8s, we are starting to develop a movement unit based on Martial Arts. As one of our goals is to enhance relationships with the local community, we hope to invite local teachers from various disciplines to introduce the way their sport combines movement.
June 23, 2011
Game Sense makes MYP Sense
Using inquiry to teach games goes back to Mosston (1966) and has been evolving for over 40 years through the Teaching Games for Understanding approach (Bunker and Thorpe 1982) to the Games Sense/ game-centred approaches that came out in the nineties.
I became a loyal follower of TGfU at university after finally ‘getting’ volleyball and being a strong believer that performance, a love of physical activity and conceptual understanding are all intrinsically interrelated, I recently bought the book ‘Play with Purpose’ by Shane Pill (2010) for some summer inspiration. What struck me when reading through the argument for using the game-centred approach, was that the rhetoric was straight out of From Principles into Practice. ‘Open-ended questions, challenging students to problem-solve, inquiry, inclusive of learner needs and learning styles, transfer of knowledge, student ownership, long term learning through problem-solving, conceptual learning’ the list goes on and highlights how the constructivist movement in PE since the 1960s away from traditional games teaching has been a great fit for MYP PE.
June 16, 2011
Playing fields of Eton?
I have been a big fan of swim coach legend Bill Sweetenham for around 30 years, and enjoyed reading his article on how he uses the principles of war to shape his coaching philosophies.
May 29, 2011
Criterion D, is it an afterthought sometimes?
I don’t know where the last few months have gone, but it has been busy times, as it always is at this time of year. The year is almost over and the end of year reports are on my mind. As I’m deciding on the final level for criterion D, questions come to mind on how this criterion will be considered at the next curriculum review for MYP PE, starting at the end of the year.
Discussing criterion D with a class yesterday, a girl rightly so asked what does it mean to ‘respect yourself?’ I was stumped. It is easy to elaborate on respecting others and your physical environment, but how can she show respect for herself in the basketball unit? A better question, how did I teach this over the six week unit? Then more questions came to mind on how I am actually planning to teach objective D and the realization set in that I have perhaps neglected this criterion. I had spent so much thought on how to develop their understanding of the game and development of the fundamentals that criterion D was an afterthought at the end of the unit.
March 2, 2011
Thinking ahead to London 2012
The next Olympic Games always come up fast and it would be good to put something in place in the PE curriculum before they actually start.
Opening day is July 27, 2012. An athletics unit is always a good unit to highlight the games. I am presently working on an interdisciplinary unit with Humanities on Conflict (concept taught through Ancient Civilizations and the concept for our movement unit) and am thinking for next year that there is a golden opportunity for PE and Humanities to promote the spirit of the Games through Ancient Greece.
January 10, 2011
IB-approved MYP online workshops
Triple A Learning is an IB-approved provider of MYP online workshops. Our cost-effective workshops count towards a school’s IB authorization process and are also fully recognized as part of a school’s IB programme evaluation.
Registration for the following workshops in all 8 MYP subject groups is now open
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December 23, 2010
A digital nativity story
Everyone at Triple A Learning wishes you a peaceful and merry Christmas period and a Happy New Year and we hope you will enjoy a relaxing vacation. We think you will enjoy this updated digital nativity story:
December 18, 2010
Inquire, Compose and Move!
For many students, the movement task is their favorite unit of the year, just like for many students, soccer is the favorite. But for many teachers, design of movement tasks can be problematic. I have just done a session at school on designing good summative tasks and as I am also thinking about my movement tasks for the year, I thought I would jot down some tips on coming up with a good task for movement composition. It is a great example of an inquiry task in physical education and the design of the task is the most important aspect of the planning as the task drives the inquiry each lesson.
So, how do we develop exemplar tasks for criterion B?
December 8, 2010
How much can technology improve our performance?
Whilst completing the annual order of resources, I am quite amazed by the range of tech resources in our subject and the mass industry that is technology in PE. From the exergaming phenomenon to Smart Boards, the amount of stuff out there is rapidly changing the way we teach our subject. A Smart Board in the gym definitely revolutionizes the way we teach strategic play.
Then last week I joined a Facebook group on Technology and PE that I found by accident when searching for software for PE. This group makes me think that I am stuck in the stone age when I see what people are doing out there, especially in the US. I am lucky to have great tech support at my school which I need to utilize more to enhance my teaching and learning in the classroom. A half hour meeting with my tech guy in October led to my year 4 students presenting a video analysis/skill design criterion A task in Garage Band, iMovie, Photo Booth as well as Word and Power Point.
