Mighty Microblog May

Throughout the month of May Andy Milne seeks bitesize blog posts from contributors around the world. These posts cover a whole manner of things depending on what the contributor would like to reflect on or share! This was the fourth year of microblog May and the third year I contributed. To learn more about the month (especially if you are keen to contribute next year!) check out this post.

The microblog posts I have written: - Classrooms should be safe places, right?: A prompt for teachers to consider what their physical classrooms look like and the impact this has on the general vibe of the room as well as the success of the students - Outside of Your Comfort Zone: I discussed my experiences leaping into the unknown to move to Australia and why it's important to be comfortable with the uncomfortable - From Unprecedented to Familiar: I described some of the positive impacts on my teaching that came from the last few years

In addition to the 3 microblogs for Microblog May, I have also been a guest blogger for Andy twice on his #slowchathealth website.

- Te Whare Tapa Whā: A brief description of the Māori wellbeing model based on the concept of a house with four walls

- Mental Health ≠ Mental Illness: Hopefully a helpful explanation of the difference between mental health and mental illness and strategies to support with mental health

I enjoy reading the short posts while I have 5-10 mins to kill or during break times. Much more interesting and beneficial than some of the mindless scrolling I can find myself doing! Here are my favourite posts from this year with a quote from each of them. 

- Finding Their Swish (Judy LoBianco): "We want students to internalise the joy of physical activity and to do that they must feel a level of personal success".
- Informed Decisions (Sarah Hawkins): "The STI National Strategic Plan from the U.S. Department of Human Services shares that 15-24 year-olds account for around 50% of the 20 million new STI cases in the United States each year".
- A More Engaging Pre-Test (Shelby Hosmer): "A written pretest is not my jam".
- Know Your Why (Cara Grant): "Sometimes by changing schools or positions our Why can look different, and still maintain fidelity and feed our intrinsic values as we persevere through difficult times".
- Walking Away From The Stigma (Donn Tobin): "If we are to truly change the notoriety of physical education, we need to continuously address what is considered best practice. Demonstrate what exceptional teaching looks like, how it can be highlighted, celebrated, and keep those to a higher expectation teaching it".
- The Joy of Eating (Nadia Moya): "Food is one of the great joys in life that we can all share. I want students to walk away from health class with excitement and curiosity about eating, and the skills to build a healthy relationship with food".
- Embrace the Goblin (Michelle Rawcliffe): "Goblin mode is when we transition from treading water to floating. In other words, our body and brain pin us down and force our head back on the pillow".

I would encourage you to get amongst Microblog month next year, even if you don't contribute there are heaps of great posts to peruse!

Apparently I Have Learnt A Thing Or Two!

One of my ex students from Orewa is currently studying to become a HPE teacher. One of her papers required her to think about HPE as a subject, teaching HPE and behaviour management strategies. She created a survey to gather information and thoughts from practicing teachers to inform her assignment (and develop her teaching). This naturally made me reflect on my practice and made me realise how far I have actually come! 

Below are my answers to her questions. Although not an exhaustive list, I thought these may help others too (and I wrote my answers while travelling to go on holiday so it was very impromptu!). 

Strategies for creating lessons that are inclusive and socially just:
- Student Choice
- Don't base everything around ''physical ability"
- Don't split by sex EVER
- Include a variety of resources/games/terms from around the world
- Encourage challenge by choice
- Peer teaching

What methods do you use to reflect on teaching?
- Discussions with colleagues
- Blogging
- Student feedback
- Reflecting on my drive home

How do you ensure your teaching is culturally responsive?
- Include opportunities for students to share
- Create a classroom culture that encourages students to step out of their comfort zone
- Include language/customs/traditions from various cultures
- Challenge stereotypes and assumptions
- Have high expectations for all students

What are some of your key behaviour management strategies?
- Play music and if this stops I need the kids' attention
- "If you have a ball, hold it still"
- "Stand still, pause where you are" (When I want to give a short instruction or piece of info but not get them to come in close)
- Getting everyone into a circle when I want to give instructions or explain a concept or have a discussion (circles are also great so everyone can see each other)
- 3 strikes for forgetting gear and then students choose their consequence
- Tone of voice: I try to remain quiet and naturally the kids become quiet (or I literally say, I feel like I'm getting louder because you are getting louder)
- "The sooner we are in, the sooner we play!"

How do you create classroom environments that are safe and meet the needs of all students?
- Set clear and consistent expectations with regard to inclusion, respect, diversity and the importance of "failing"
- Encouraging students to struggle / find learning challenging (so they step out of their comfort zone)

Do you believe it's important to educate the "whole child'? If so, what strategies do you use to ensure their wellbeing and educational needs are met?
Yes!!! I feel by creating that environment aforementioned, students are more likely to be honest about how they are feeling, what is happening in their lives and when they need help/are struggling (personally and/or academically). Establishing that environment and relationships will directly impact on their day-to-day interactions. My students (hopefully) know that if they are having a bad day/week/month then to let me know and things will be adjusted to suit them and their needs (because I say this frequently!).

How do you understand your role as a teacher and implement this into practice? What pedagogies guide your methods - if any?
My role as a teacher is to facilitate learning. To guide students to discover, practice, challenge things in the world around them! Differentiation, guided discovery, scaffolding, flow between lessons, opportunities to review learning, scenario based tasks, student choice in tasks/activities, mixture of audio/video/hands on activities, open ended questions, reflective tasks/activities

Is there a "gap" in contemporary HPE? What is the subject missing?
Only thing that comes to mind is greater aquatics education. Basic swimming yes, but more so water safety and awareness of water risks (especially at secondary school).

What does contemporary HPE need in order to add value to the subject?
- Outdoor Education is a large part of our curriculum area, but is not even in the name!
- There also needs to be more education for all teachers around the importance of the subjects (to reduce misconceptions about them).
- Greater integration of the subjects, rather than generally being segregated.
- Health should be compulsory until the end of high school - as it's a subject about life and being a positive contributing citizen to society

What's important in HPE? What values/subject matter are most of value?
Everything is important!! But everything should be tailored to the students that are in front of you - their interests, their challenges, and what is topical/relevant in that community. 

What resources/knowledge (that you don't have at the moment) would aid in expanding your teaching/the subject area?
- Greater understanding of the other curriculum areas and how we can blend/integrate more
- More time with the students!
- Greater access to facilities (and more facilities)
- Greater funding for EOTC

HPE is often regulated in school subject hierarchies far beneath the likes of English/Mathematics etc. How do you suggest we work to remove the negative stigma around the subject?
- Make HPE compulsory for all year levels
- Needs to have equitable time on the timetable
- Could include a course during university for all students (across all sectors) educating around the importance of the curriculum area
- Create more inter-curriculum courses to show the learning can be applied across many areas
- DON'T MAKE KIDS RUN AS A 'WARMUP' OR PUNISHMENT
- Don't test kids on their physical ability (unless of course it is part of a specific course analysing performance improvement or similar)

If you are specifically looking for blogposts about behaviour management, I have written a few over the years! Overall though, being asked to complete this survey for Hannah was a great little reminder of the things that I do know and have learnt/adapted/added to my toolkit throughout my teaching journey. Sometimes when the days are tough or I feel like lessons haven't gone well, I forget how much I have achieved.