So I have been discussing with a lot of physical educators how they are implementing their standards through distance learning, whether it be Ontario, SHAPE America, district..etc. And I am going to be the first to say to that this is difficult and you may be missing out on some disciplines or some essential standards. Now the environmental/context model of The Ontario HPE curriculum is something you should definitely focus on. The focus of on self and spirit that with the categories of learning and application through cognitive, social, environmental, and physical aspects of their daily lives, but more important here is the focus I want to focus on below:
This is a perfect graphic for how to focus on the literacy of health and wellness and home.
Relationships
So we are missing that human connection at the moment but that does not mean we cannot recreate that in our live HPE lessons. Every day we have a moment to discuss what was positive about yesterday, what was not so hot about yesterday and how did that make you feel? Just creating discussion topics just really allows the students to vibe off one another and have that interaction that is missing. More importantly, we are showing empathy and as a unit trying to come up with solutions together to celebrate what has been going well and work on ways to overcome obstacles.
SELF/THINKING
This section is crucial because, in a time of isolation, students need to know how to really take care of themselves. I want you to focus on gravity and not in a literal sense, I want you to picture what keeps you grounded through difficult times. So what we have been doing is having students turn off screens an hour before bed at least once a week. Instead, they are journaling with a piece of paper, and then reflect on "what I did today and totally crushed it. I am very proud of this aspect of my day". On top of that, "what would I change about today? What could I have done differently to make my day that would bring more happiness, more of a sense of accomplishment?" The other benefit of this is that they have some mental time without staring at a screen that promotes a solid night of sleep.
EMOTIONS/COPING/MOTIVATION
I want to let you know that a lot of these activities are linked in some shape or form. So with emotions, I create physical activity skits that emulate different emotions and how that would play out in body language and how one would cope with that specific emotion or situation. For example, if someone is frustrated we use a sock as the ball of frustration and they throw it at the wall. Then the student reflects on how they let frustration take over and how they could do it differently, then that student says what can I do with this ball of frustration and turn it into a positive activity. Some have used it as a shooting activity which when they make the sock into a basket that ball of frustration has transformed into a ball of excitement, gratitude, and celebration. In turn, this promotes the students to find motivation in order to turn a difficult situation into something engaging and enjoyable and they are motivated to gain complete control over that sock of frustration for example.
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