Sorry, for the long breaks; being a teacher can be very time demanding. This will be a shorty. I attended HPEC (Health and Physical Education Council) earlier this month. It is a collection of workshops for professional development in the fields of health and physical education. I've attended a similar conference in Nova Scotia, but this was my first one in Alberta. This conference are great for someone like me because not only do I get to expand on my knowledge, but it is a great spot for networking. I get to meet other individuals in my field where we can share ideas, experiences, working conditions, etc. It's great to hear how others are doing elsewhere.
Michael 'Pinball' Clemons was the keynote speaker at the conference. He had lots of great comments to make with a focus on teamwork and the people behind the scenes of success. I attended four sessions in total; fitness circuits, PE games with no equipment, basketball shooting games and yoga.
The fitness circuits was neat. There were a variety of different skills addressed, from gymnastics to core strength to foot-eye coordination and control. The one station we did that stuck out most to me was a reaction drill. One partner would hold out one balloon on each side of their body. Their partner would be a set distance away from them. The partner with the balloons would drop one and the other partner would have to catch it before it hit the ground. I immediately thought it would be a great drill for sprinters to work on in their release from the blocks. A great drill for football players. Volleyball players for defense. Basically any activity where you need quick reactions. I've already done it with my track and field runners at practice.
The PE with no equipment was a good session. One of the main reasons why I took this workshop was because my grade nine second semester project is for students to lead a class where they do activities with no more than one piece of equipment. This gives me a little more resources for demonstrations and ideas for my students. A lot of rock, paper, scissors games, tag games, etc. I don't do enough of these activities in my own PE classes, so this was a good PD (Professional Development) session.
The basketball games workshop was great. I wanted to do it to develop my own knowledge since I've been coaching some basketball (which I thoroughly enjoy, but is not my specialty). I actually got more ideas for phys ed. There were some fun shooting games that I've already done with my class with success. My students really love 'Bump' so these were good to mix it up. One was called 'Hot Seat' where you have multiple teams at multiple baskets. Everyone lines up at the foul line (or further for more experienced players). An individual shoots and if they get it in, they go back to the back of the line. If they miss, they go in the `hot seat`(I use a hula hoop) where if the next person behind them gets it in, they have to leave the team and join the other basket team (or rotate clockwise). If the person behind them misses, then the shooter goes in the hot seat and the person who was originally there gets to join back in the line. Another game was called `Money in the Bank`. Similar set up. The difference this time is that when a shooter gets a basket, it counts as a point (1 point in the bank). If the following shooter makes their basket, the bank moves up to two points. if they miss, they accumulate all the points in the bank at the time (1 point). So if three people get a basket in a row and the fourth misses, then the fourth shooter gets three points towards his/her score. Like golf, you do not want points. Once a shooter gets 'x' number of points, they rotate to a different team. If a shooter misses when there are zero points in the bank, then they get zero.
Yoga was a good session, but it was more of a personal class then actually learning new stuff. By all means, it felt good, especially after some long days, but i didn't take as much out of it as I would have hoped for.
The social was a blast. Met lots of people, got dressed up in costumes and danced for hours (felt it afterwards for days!) Overall a great conference, I learned lots and I look forward to doing similar conference in future years! (Yikes, it does seem like I can blabber on for a while. So much for a short blog)
