Promoting PE - Yes, it's JUST as important as every other subject you learn in school!

Yesterday, I gave you the background to how I got to where I'm at today - teaching PYP PE. Some days, I miss the classroom incredibly. I miss the special bond you grow with one (lucky :P) group of students. I miss the time you spend getting to know everything about them. I miss the interaction with the parents. I miss the value that the parents place on me as an educator and as a powerful influence of their child's lives. This year, I've gotten some great feedback from a handful of parents about how much they value me and how much their children love PE so that's definitely a plus...but there are still a lot of parents who I feel under value PE and its importance in not only education, but life. I also feel that schools can also influence this lack of understanding of parents by not placing more value on the subject in cutting it out or limiting it in the curriculum, but also in 'simplifying' and not placing greater emphasis on it in reports or other communication to parents and the community. I know I've already written about this in a similar post but hey, it's got me itching again.

I have completed my portfolio pieces for another year - hooray! These pieces, which have taken a while to complete, include reflections, goal settings and feedback, as well as photographs, of the students in action in PE. I've mentioned in my last post that the amount of time they consume was worth it as they are my way of promoting PE and getting discussion rolling about the subject when students browse their portfolios at home but also during Student Led Conferences (ours are happening on Friday!). I thought it'd be worthwhile to share a glimpse of what parents can expect in their portfolios from PE at MIS this year but also give any PE teachers out there some ideas as to what portfolio pieces could look like and/or include:

While portfolios offer a great glimpse into student learning and progress over the year, it wouldn't be enough of an opportunity in itself to highlight PE. At the beginning of a new unit (I have to do a new one next week!), I work with my PE Team to create PE Newsletters to be sent home to the parents. These newsletters include blurbs about what's going on in each grade level or class, as well as lots of photos of students in action. This is another means of promoting the subject so parents are given information on what's happening without asking and it's in the same format that they receive information from classroom teachers about what's happening in the classroom:

At an International School, diversity and intercultural awareness are things that are fostered, valued and are ideally the focal point of the school. I'm on a committee that quests to find ways to promote diversity and intercultural awareness so I made it a point to use PE as a stage to do this. Back in February, we made a really awesome link to Asian culture in our PE lessons. My goal was to get students talking about a culture they knew but were far away from (home) or about a culture they didn't know much (or anything) about...and it worked! Students partook in games that came from Asia or that were influenced by Asian cultures to celebrate the Lunar New Year; the last page of the PE newsletter I posted above, shows some of these events which I can go into more detail about in a later post. In short, we can promote Physical Education by setting a stage that puts the values underlying the foundations of the schools we work in, in the spotlight!

Another fantastic outlet for promotion presents itself with linking to classroom units. In this way, student learning in the classroom can be consolidated as they're putting learning into action and making connections. Unfortunately, it's not always possible to do this in a large school with limited space...but when it can happen, the results can be powerful. Ideally, it'd be awesome for a Unit of Inquiry to begin or end with formative or summative assessment tasks that happen in PE - instead of a publishing party, we could do something physical! This is something I'm working towards achieving (with at least one unit in the school!) and I'll keep you posted on that! :)

Finally, we have Student Led Conferences - like portfolios, they're a showcase of student learning and progress BUT it's live...LIVE! AND actually happening...in the flesh...physically happening. JUST like PE! This is the most powerful means of promoting our subject and I'll share with you how students in Junior School at MIS go about showcasing their PE skills at Student Led Conferences in my next post! :)