Dear Parents, I consider physical education to be one of the most important courses that your child will have during their school years. In PE class your children learn the importance of keeping their bodies healthy. They learn how to move, they learn the science behind the movement, and most importantly they learn exercise is one of the best ways to stay healthy. The curriculum I use to achieve this goal is called Moving Into the Future, National Standards for Physical Education. These standards were first introduced in 1995 by the National Association for Sports and Physical Education (NASPE). The original seven standards were revised in 2004 and two of the standards were combined into one. Why do I use the National Standards? They were written by many top experts in physical education after collaboration with many teachers. They have been tested by thousands of teachers all over the United States and revised. They have grade level benchmarks that are a road map for me to follow. These standards and benchmarks give me goals to set for my students. There are numerous textbooks, also written by experts based on these national standards that are available with lesson and assessment ideas for use in planning and assessing. Most importantly I feel the body of knowledge prescribed in the standards sets high expectations in a wide variety of activities and topics for all students. These are the standards and how I use them in my teaching. Standard 1: A physically educated person demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities. Skill development is the backbone of the Florence Sawyer School physical education program. Students are taught age appropriate skills in a sequential manner. Fun activities are used to learn and practice skills, during which all students can be successful and gain confidence. I use many types of assessments to record and gauge the progress of each student and to drive the lesson planning for the group. I use assessments during skill practice activities, skill use in authentic situations and for older students I assess multiple skill usage in small sided game situations. Standard 2: A physically educated person demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities. I incorporate the understanding of concepts of skill performance into the teaching of an appropriate skill. Force is taught with basketball dribbling, or passing a football to players that are different distances away. Fitness knowledge is incorporated into activities such as aerobic games. I teach children as young as in grade one to feel their carotid pulse after an active game. Older students count the pulse rate and learn about target heart rate. Unfortunately because of the limited time students have physical education class I can only scratch the surface of the knowledge we need to teach our students. I use written tests and work sheets as well as informal questioning to assess student mastery of understanding of some of the concepts. Standard 3: A physically educated person participates regularly in physical activities. I try to show students that I value their participation in physical activity outside of school. One example of this is by asking students to bring in sport photographs to put on the bulletin board. I have also had our school participate in Exercise Across Massachusetts two separate years. It is a program run by the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness that involves recording activity outside of school, and receiving small plastic tokens. I have even called some individual parents to encourage them to find activities outside of school for their child so that they can become more physically fit. These children were not able to keep up in PE class with classmates because of the low fitness levels. I have also run a before school jogging club for second graders. When they arrived at school in the morning they would come to the gym to run laps to music for fun. Standard 4: A physically educated person achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness. Fitness testing is how schools are able to assess student fitness level. I do give my students in grades four through eight a physical fitness test twice a year. My goal is that students understand the components of fitness and how their body measures up. I encourage them to strive to improve their personal performance from test to test. I show students their prior scores so that they can use that as a goal to beat. I explain the importance of each component of the fitness test andteach students activities they can use to improve scores. I also assign class activities that will help improve scores. During the spring when I teach the tumbling unit I focus attention on upper body strength as well as overall stretching to increase flexibility. Standard 5: A physically educated person exhibits responsible personal behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings. Social responsibility is a major part of my curriculum. Students learn to respect each other and the equipment starting on day one in kindergarten. Sportsmanship is integral to every fun or sport like game that is played. By fifth grade students know that top grades are only received if consideration and compassion are shown for less skilled classmates. Proficiency in sports skills is valued but that is not enough, for example in mixed ability game situations strong players are encouraged to pass to less skilled players instead of scoring at every opportunity. I have just this year started using assessments that measure some aspects of respectful behavior. Students fill in a quick questionnaire about their partner’s behavior during the activity. When I assess things I value I know it shows the students that I feel it is important. Standard 6: A physically educated person values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction. One of my main goals is to have all children love to move. Success and confidence are necessary for this. I want my students to love physical education. I want all of my students to say that physical education is their favorite class. I make every effort to make practice activities fun and challenging. Children spend a class with practice activities and because they are fun they do not even realize that they have been working. Children that develop good social skills when working together will have better skills to work together in other activity settings or even in work situations. Adventure activities as well as dance create opportunities for social collaboration. In this day and age of increasing childhood obesity and decreasing daily activity levels of children PE is not just fun and games any more, it is a life saving curriculum that can teach children healthy habits. My goal is to bestow children with the information, skills and habits to live long healthy lives and the NASPE National Physical Education Standards are the key to this goal. Sincerely, Karen Cavaioli Physical Education Teacher Florence Sawyer School