Presenting and Sharing Information #SpCP13

How can coaches and teachers present their information to young athletes?

This question has always lingered in my mind as to how i would like to present and share information to my PE students.

After study and research i stumbled acroos a website called "Sport Coaching Brain" which outlines 101 coaching tips which i believe is extremely helpful to a teacher as well.

The ideas that caught my attention were:

• plan
• develop communication skills and never stop trying
• learn to use technology
• never stop learning
• be open-minded
• accept criticism
• allocate time
• steal ideas from other sports
• develop coach idependent athletes
• listen with eyes and watch with ears
• coach person not performance
• communicate - clearly, concisely, calmly and constructively
• be willing to share
• be enthusiatic
• be flexible
• do your homework
• inspire your athletes.

This website was influential and I believe a great source to refer to as a beginning coach or teacher entering the sporting industry and stuck with how to present their ideas and share information to their team and class.

Reference:

Sports Coaching Brain. 2013. 101 Coaching Tips. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com/101-coaching-tips/. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Managing Data # SpCP13

As a coach and teacher there are many expectations to be able to manage sporting data. This refers to analysing the athlete or students performance, reseaching and gathering information from primary, secondary and meta sources.
It also involves comparisons from athlete to another, one team to another, and one competition to another. It also consists of the analysis of tactical, physical and technical performance.

What is the easiest and most efficient way of acquiring and representing this data?

I believe the easiest way as a coach/teacher is to break it down into small steps and procedures to increase efficiency and accuracy.
1. Identify what is being measured - skill, physicality, performance, results or technical performance
2. Conduct measurements - comparisons
3. Record measurements
4. Represent measurements in appropriate ways i.e graphs or tables
5. Evaluate the effectivennes, store the data and provide feedback to athletes

I believe these 5 steps are the most basic principles to managing data as a coach or teacher.

Mentoring Programs #SpCP13

I often wonder how we can develop mentoring programs as coaches and teachers. The answer lies within the Australian Sports Commision.

Mentoring is an effective way for coaches and teachers to help, transfer knowledge, connect, support and assist in improvements and problem solving. Mentoring can be formal or informal.
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) provides PDF documents of mentoring case studies, guides and outlines for coaches and teachers to assess.
Here is the link:

http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/coachofficial/presenter/Mentor

One that captured my attention was the file about "Mentoring training programs", which outlined an influential definition of mentoring - "Behind every successful person, there is one elementary truth: somewhere, somehow, someone care about their growth and development. This person was their mentor" - Dr Beverly Kaye 1997.
It highlights the purpose of mentoring which is professional development, accreditation, updating and fast tracking. It outlines the characterisitics of mentees and the mentoring process.

There are many great sources to refer to as coaches and teachers to enhance our mentoring programs in the sporting sector and I believe the ASC is the most useful, understandable and doable.

Reference:

Australian Sports Commission. 2013. Mentor Training. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/coachofficial/presenter/Mentor. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Long-Term Athlete Development #SpCP13

What is Long-term athlete development? What are the benefits?

Several cases of teachers and coaches are unaware or not fully knowledgable about long-term athlete developlment (LTAD). I beleive it should be educated more thoroughly across the PDHPE sector at school and at sporting organisations. I believe more promotion in the media to society is necessary.

Canadian Sports for Life identifies great information about LTAD.
There are 7 stages of LTAD:
1. Active Start - 0-6 years
2. Fundamental - Girls 6-8 Boys 6-9
3. Learn to train - Girls 8-11 Boys 9-12
4. Train to train - Girls 11-15 Boys 12-16
5. Train to compete - Girls 15-21 Boys 16-23
6. Train to win - Girls 18+ Boys 19+
7. Active for life - all ages

Stages 1, 2, and 3 develop physical literacy before puberty so that children have the basic skills to be active for life. Physical literacy provides the foundation for those who choose to persure elite training in one sport or activity after the age of 12.

Stages 4,5, and 6 provide elite training for those who want to specialise in one sport and compete at the highest level, maximising the physical, mental and emotional development of each athlete.
Stage 7 is about living and active life to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Coaches and teachers need to be aware that to optimize the development of athletes, it is important to include elements of sports science and coaching practices into the 10 key factors of LTAD:

• exellence takes time
• fundamentals
• specialisation
• developmental age
• trainability
• physical, mental, cognitive and emotional development
• periodisation
• competition planning
• system alignment and integration
• continuous improvements

When you search Canadian Sports for life there are great visuals to see to help demonstrate the LTAD structure.

Long-term athlete development includes guidelines for training, competition and recovery based on principles of human development and maturation. This procedure considers the best interest of the athlete and I beleive needs to be highlighted and focused on more in our sporting society today.

Reference:

Canadian Sports for Life. 2013. Long-Term Athlete Development. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/coaches. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Performance Reviews #SpCP13

Performance reviews are the most critical sport performance enhancing process to conduct. Performance reviews allow for an opportunity to review and reward positives and to determine what can be improved on to achieve a better athletic performance.

The greatest coaches, teachers and sports people are thos who analyse their strengths and determine the aspects that need further development. As coahces and teachers have the most impact on sporting results it is important that they also conduct performance reviews.

Athletes Assessment outlines ways to conduct a review:

• line of review and time frame: identify who is going to be reviewed and who is the person doing the review.
• recording and conducting of review: each review is to be recorded, one on one discussions, data review, feedback from others, determine the succes and opportunities.

It is important to recognise the legal implications of performance reviews. As the law equires performance reviews to be job-relagted and valid, not bias, and performed by people who have knowledge in the area.

Here is an example of another performance review!
www.sportsscholarshippro.com

I believe performance reviews on both coaches, teaches and athletes can be very beneficial if conducted correctly and is an important aspect in the sporting industry.

Reference:

Athletes Assessment. 2013. Coach Performance Reviews. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.athleteassessments.com/articles/coach_performance_reviews.html. [Accessed 09 May 13]

Reflection #SpCP13

Why is reflection important to PE teachers and students?

Both teachers and students gain substantial advantages through conducting the process reflection. Reflection has the ability to determine the effectiveness of PE teachers methods and practices and evaluation of the students; skills, knowledge and performance. Reflection has the ability to determine the future procedures.

According to Katie Charner-Laird who is a principal at Lincoln-Eliot school in Newton states that encouraging students to pause and think about what they're leaning and why it is relevant to their lives is critical. Katie describles reflection as " the mind's strongest glue for making the connections essential to understanding, regardless of the subject matter".

Teachers can use a variety of media including bogs and audio interviews to encourage and capture reflection. The goal of allowing 5-10 minutes at the end of every lesson for reflection is to encourage students to begin to reflect more frequently and naturally in their day to day lives.

In society today, the advancement of technology allows reflection to be tedious and time intensive. There are many questions teachers can ask PE students during reflection time:
What did you learn?
How do you know you learned it?
What got in the way of your learning?
What helped your learning?
How did you feel?

Taking time to reflect enables students to analyse their perfomance of a particular skill, allows students to determine their positives and negatives and highlights how to improve for the next opportunity. Reflection can assist in increasing student motivation to perform better.

Ultimately, reflection has several benefits to both PE students and teachers and should be implemented in every session whether it is practical or theoretical.

Reference:

What Works in Education. 2013. High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.edutopia.org/student-reflection. [Accessed 09 May 13].

Teaching Good Sportsmanship to Students

"Good sportsmanship is when team mates, opponents, coaches, and officials treat each other with respect" - Kids Health

Students learn the basics of sportsmanship from their coachs, teachers and parents. Students who see adults behaving in a sportsmanlike manner gradually come to understand that the real winners in sports are those who know how to presevere and to behave with dignity whether they win or lose a game.

Teachers can guide their students to understand the concepts of good sportsmanship. Firstly making the sutdents shake hands with opponents before and after a game which displays respectful acknowledgment for opposing players. Teachers need to enforce encouragement and praise no matter the students outcome or results and acknowledge the students efforts. Need to encourage the students to play fair, and have fun whilst developing individual skill.s

Kids Health outlined many suggestions to help teachers, coaches and parents promote good sportsmanship to students.
1. Shout out words of encouragement, not directions from sidelines if not a coach.
2. Do not expect too much of the students. Do not go harder on one child only and do not play favourites.
3. Keep all comments positive.
4.  After a competition, it is important not to dwell on who won or loss. Instead ask "How did you feel druing the game?"
5. Applaud good plays regardless of who made them.
6. Set a good example, with courteous behaviour towards opponents and congratulate them if they win.

It is important for teachers, coaches and parents to ensure positive sportsmanship is conducted by students to keep the sporting field respectful, fair and fun.


Being the positive influence will go a long way with encouraging students to be sportsmanlike!

Reference: Kids Health. 2013. Sportsmanship. [ONLINE] Available at: http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/sportsmanship.html#. [Accessed 07 May 13].

Sports, Drugs and Students

If there are many drug inititatives such as Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), why are there still peformance enhancing drugs still available to athletes?

If athletes today are still being repremanded for the usage of performance enhancing drugs, should Australia consider the abolishment of the availability of any type of performance enhancing drug?

what happended to natrual telent, training and development to execute any sporting activity to perfection based on own individual efforts without drug influences?

Many of Australia's athletes have been caught using performance enhancing drugs such as Andrew Johns, Wendall Sailor, Shane Warne and Lance Armstrong, and the latest news with rugby league and AFL clubs  being suspects for the promotion of performance enhancing drugs for their players.

How can teachers promote positive sports when sporting idols and major sporting influences are under the influence of performance enhancing drugs. Peformance enhancing drugs promote unfair disadvantages and not to mention all the negative health risk associate with these drugs, and students shoyld not be taught nor exposed to performance enhancing drugs. Students should be taught that conducting hard work will bring many positive achievements.

The Australian government need to condser the media effects of the performance enhancing release and the dramatic influences it has on young sports people and the negative message it dictates. Students are meant to enjoy sports at school without any negative influences. Maybe eliminating all types of performance enhancing drugs from Australian is a option to consider, to promote postive learning for students about sporting activites and to promote a fair game in Australian sports.

Physical Education and Young People with Learning Disabilities

Have you ever thought of how to teach physical education to students with learning disabilities?

Halyey Fitzgerald wrote a very interesting article, "Stories about Physical education from Young People with Learning Disabilities", which outlined 3 stories of students with learning disabilities (SWLD) in England which highlighted their negative experiences with physical education.

This article brings to our attention as teachers or undergraduate teachers sutdents with learning disabilities perspectives on physical education which highlights to us that maybe our teaching strategies need to change to accompany SWLD.

One student (Dave aged 13) "dreaded pe". This particular student attempted all possible measures to avoid attending school so that he did not have to participate in physical education. He wanted to avoid it because he had difficiculties conducting tasks and felt socially unaccpeted in the class. Another student Adam felt anxiety about revealing physical education reports to his Father as he felt he had to live up to the expectations of his brothers. Lastly Mary emphasises a dilemma in decision making and her concerns regarding the tensions that may emerge with her friends if she opts to do physical education.

How do we as teachers accomodate physical education lesson for students with learning diasbilities?
How do we change these negative thoughts about physical education to become positive ones?
Is it possible to incorporate sporting acitivies that SWLD can complete?

These are many questions that I believe can be answered and done.

We are taught how to plan and conduct lessons for physical education, however there is little or none to refer to help SWLD want to participate in physical education. There is many research including this article that outlines their behaviours and thoughts to particualr aspects, therefore we can consider these behaviours into our teaching lessons.

I believe every student should want to participate, should be sociall accepted and should feel no external pressures. Teachers who have SWLD in their class should change their teaching methods to accomodate for these students and to not ignore them. Networking may be a positive approach to take. Creating a connection between parents, teachers, students, peers, and teachers aide to develop a positive way to alter the negative emotions SWLD have for physical education. This can be done with regular meetings to discuss the positives and negatives of different teaching methods and to identify and progress and success through working as a team.

Reference: Hayley Fitzgerald and Annete Stride (2012): Stories about Physical Education from Young People with Disabilities, International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 59:3, 283-293.

The Expert Pedagogue

The Expert Pedagogue

 

Pedagogy is the interaction between how one learns, how one teaches, what is being taught and the context in which it is being taught.

 

Expert teachers:

·         Develop automaticity and routinisation for repetitive operations

·         Sensitive to task demands

·         More opportunistic and flexible in their teaching

·         Specific to a domain and to particular contexts

·         Patience

·         Daily advances

According to Professor John Loughran, expert teachers make a conscious effort to ensure that their teaching intentions are in accord with the learning expectations they have for their students. He also states that expert teachers are aware of what they are doing; they monitor and adjust their teaching behaviours to bring out the best in their situations.

 

The professor brings to our attention our complex the teaching industry actually is, because it revolves around decision making. Teachers are constantly making decisions about a range of ideas, events, student behaviour, homework and assessment.

 

Expert teaching involves accumulation of technical skills of how to conduct teaching and referring to Professor John Loughran, I can conclude by saying expert teaching is vital as a teacher.

 

Professor John Loughran. 2011. What makes a Teacher an Expert Teacher?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/what-makes-a-teacher-an-expert-teacher. [Accessed 07 April 13].

Mentoring #SpCP13

Mentoring

 

“Mentoring is transferring knowledge, understanding, wisdom, skills, insight, vision and expertise” – Fred Childs

 

Mentoring is when someone more experienced is willing to help someone less experienced.

I believe a teacher is a constant mentor to the students they teach. As teachers need to possess qualities such as respectful, committed, ethical, visionary, tolerant, a good listener, expert, consistent, available, a role model, clear, and patient. These qualities can also be seen as mentoring qualities.

 

Students who receive mentoring at school are subjected to many benefits:

·         Encouragement

·         Education

·         Supportiveness

·         Gained knowledge

 

The NSW Department of Education and Training states that, “student/mentor relationships are a powerful influence in a student’s life”.

Effective mentoring seeks to provide presence by establishing a trusting relationship between student and a mentor that:

·         Focuses on the need of the student

·         Models and fosters caring a supportive relationships to increase self-confidence and positive attitudes

·         Develops active community partnerships.

 

The NSW Department of Education and Training outlines the key elements of successful mentoring programs. These elements include; approval of principal, student agreement to be involved, informed consent of parents, realistic expectations of what the program can achieve, regular and formalised meetings with documentation of objectives and outcomes, record keeping, consistent monitoring, evaluation, and start with a small/manageable program.

 

Teachers as constant mentors in the school environment have several benefits for students and teachers.

 

“Mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires” – William Arthur Ward.

 

Sharing and Presenting Information

Sharing and Presenting Information

 

As teachers a prime role is presenting information to a PDHPE class. The Ausport Government outlines how teachers present relevant PDHPE information to the class.

Message – Did you get the message across, and achieve session outcomes?

Organisation – Planning; people, time and resources

Approach – Be positive, confident and in control

Review – Reflect on how the session went and review what to change for the next time

Question – Did you use questions?

 

Teachers can present information through:

·         Facilitated discussion

·         Practical

·         Role

·         Web based

·         Videos

·         Mentoring

·         Presentations

 

When presenting information in a classroom, teachers need to account for cultural and generational differences, and hearing/vision impairments.

 

However, how does a teacher ensure the right voice projection, connections, sharing, and demonstrations?

 

I believe no resource will accurately answer this question.  Yes they give guidance and their ideas based on their experiences. Teachers need to learn for themselves, “trial and error” from their own experiences to determine what works and doesn’t work in their classroom, as every student reacts differently to different approaches and therefore, PE teachers need to evaluate their own presenting of information and the techniques to do so

Observation and Augmented Information #SpCP13

Observation and Augmented Information

 

How does observation affect our teaching methods and abilities?

 

Observation is the ability to watch what happens in the classroom, which includes listening. It is believed observation is the most effective way to see what people do and to hear what they say. Teachers may gain more accurate information by watching students than by asking them (Robson, C 2002 Real World Research)

 

Robson (2002) outline two ways observation can be conducted in the classroom.

1.    Participant observation

2.    Structured observation

 

Classroom observations can provide an objective method for measuring progress towards these goals and provide a framework for giving constructive and focused feedback that helps teachers incorporate higher levels of desired behaviours into their interactions with students in the classroom.

 

After reading many sources, I can conclude that observations should focus on the nature and quality of teacher practices within three broad areas:

·         Social/emotional support

·         Management/organisation support

·         Instructional support

 

According to Scott Thompson (2013), the teacher being the observer will check the classroom temperature, lighting and other factors which are comfortable for students to learn without distractions. The observer needs to note whether positive interactions between the teacher and students occur more than negative interactions. Lastly the observe needs to check whether the teacher uses hand signals as communication.

 

With this information, I am able to answer the opening question. Through observations teachers are able to plan learning experiences, evaluate and improve. This means teachers can observe the classroom environment which includes; relationships, behaviours and learning experiences.

 

Scott Thompson. 2013. Teacher Observation & Classroom Management Skills. [ONLINE] Available at: http://work.chron.com/teacher-observation-classroom-management-skills-11345.html. [Accessed 07 April 13].

Personal Develpment Pathways #SpCP13

I believe personal development pathways need to be considered as a teacher teaching physical education. Teachers themselves need to recognise their own development pathways first before considering the students pathways.

 

Teachers need to consider their long and short term goals of teaching. Teachers always need to look for improvements to develop more efficient skills in their teaching programs. Teachers need to develop quality communication to interact with students, that its, the ability to present knowledge, ideas, and opinions effectively. I also believe teachers need to ensure they acquire and develop appropriate analysis skills to have the ability to gather information and situations in a creative way in a physical education class. Another personal development aspect teachers need to acquire is problem solving skills, as teachers need to learn the ability to identify and analyse problems and result with an appropriate solutions in the classroom. To acquire these important skills, I believe teachers need to prepare goals for development within themselves.

 

The National Coaching Foundation (2011) supports my belief, it provides a guide of Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP) process, this provides many benefits for teachers such as:

·         Provides clarity of teachers goals

·         Helps to raise current and future development needs in order to support the desired goals (for example, formal training or informal development opportunities).

 

1^st Step – Goal Setting

Teachers need to set their personal long-term development goals through using the SMART checklist.

Specific – precise, what is it that you as a teacher want to achieve?

Measurable – can the teacher monitor progress?

Achievable – is it achievable within the time frame?

Realistic – is the goal challenging while still practical?

Time – make it time-framed

 

2^nd Step – TNA Process

·         Setting the framework for the TNA

·         Identify what knowledge, skills, and attributes are needed to achieve the personal long-term development goals

·         Self-reflect on current strengths and areas for development.

·         Rating of knowledge, skills, and attributes.

 

3^rd Step – Understanding PDP Process

·         Set or review long-term development goals

·         TNA based on current and future needs

·         Development plan – current teaching and future teaching needs

·         Ongoing teaching practice

·         Reviewing of development

·         Appraisal.

 

I believe this resource supports my belief of the necessary action to conduct development programs to ensure that the teaching is the most effective and improving at all stages.

 

“Know who you are, and be it. Know what you want, and go out and get it” – Caroll Bryant.

 

Sports Coach UK. 2013. A Guide to using Training Needs Analysis and Personal Development Plans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sportscoachuk.org/sites/default/files/TNA-PDP-Guide.pdf. [Accessed 07 April 13].

High Schools Cutting Physical Education #SpCP13

http://www.achperqld.org.au/__files/f/26274/Trost_WhyWeShouldNotCutPE.pdf

After doing some reading, it has come to my attention that high schools are sacrificing physical education to provide more time for academics.
It is only 2.1% of high schools that offer students daily physical education. A reduction in physical activity creates risks in a student's health, as it keeps students active decreasing the risk of obesity which is one of the mostr serious health issues.

It is disappointing to see that physical education is viewd as a non-essential and needed and schools are reducing the time allocated to physical education to 30 minutes per day.
It has been proven that academic performance is not affected by the time allocated for physical education, therefore, why cut it down?

Researchers in Australia studied 350 5th graders in seven schools throughout the country. They increased instructional time for physical education for some studen by 210 minutes per week. After 14 weeks, there was no significant differences in maths or reading skills between studends who recieved additional physical education and those who contribute to 30 minutes per week.

It is believed that being physically active and fit youth are more likely to have better grades and test score than the inactive students. Aerobic exercise can improve memory and executive functioning in school-age youth and especially those who are overweight.
Physical education significantly improves perceptual skills, concentration, memory and achievement, and giving students a break for physical education throughout the school day increases on-task behvaiour.

Given all the benefits proven with students involvement in physical education and no proven results to say that physical activiy harms academic achievements, then why are school curiculum's cutting down physical education times in school? There is no proof or reason behind it?
I believe it serves many benefits and is enjoyed by many students and stimulates the mind and should not be cut down as it is as equal as important as maths.