new report cards

This week the "specials teachers" met with our interim principal and proposed a new report card format. Typically we give the students grades on listening, attitude and behavior, and sportsmanship, but it's so hard to give 700 students a grade in each of these areas. We also provide the physical fitness scores, so we decided to write that all students are performing proficient in the subject area unless otherwise noted. We think that this will save a lot of time and leave time to write comments to those students who need to work on their behavior, or for those who are performing above expectations. If anyone has any input on elementary PE grading, let me know a system that works well for you!

TGMD-2

Today in Motor Development class we learned about the assessment tool called the Test of Gross Motor Development. It analyzes locomotor movements including: (running, galloping, hopping, leaping, and jumping) and object control tests including (striking a stationary ball, stationary dribble, catching, kicking, overhand throwing, underhand rolling). This seemed to be a tedious tool, but it will be nice to test the students and it will be helpful while writing IEPs. I think that it would be necessary to film the students performing each skill and watch them in slow motion. It was too difficult to judge them live. It seems like there was room for differing opinions on each skill, but overall it seems to be helpful!

Physical Fitness Testing

This week started off on Wednesday because of the storms and our school lost power.. That was a nice little surprise! The rest of the week we spent doing our 1/4-3/4 mile run/walk. I would like to switch to Fitnessgram and do the pacer test, but the Presidential testing is in our curriculum. It always such a disappointing week when I realize how out of shape some of the students are! We incorporate a lot of short sided games and the students are physically active for most of the class period, but for sometimes it's the only physical activity they get and it's just not enough.

Olympic Games

This week at Avonworth we spent two days doing Olympic games during "special time". The computer, art, music and two P.E. classes came to the gym and we did a variety of activities. We had them sing the national anthem as a part of opening ceremonies and then had fun with relays that included spelling games, trivia, drawing, and following rhythm activities. The kids had a really fun time, but WOW- it was a noisy couple of days with 100+ kids in the gym each period!

New

I have never had a blog before and I think this will be a helpful communication method for my students and athletes!