Development of Relationships in Elementary PE

In my third year of teaching, I continued to teach Physical Education but was branching beyond middle years and high school courses into elementary (grades 3 to 6).  The renewed Saskatchewan curricula focuses on 3 main goals in which students will work towards in PE: active living, skillful movement and relationships.  As someone who consistently incorporates Don Hellison's teaching personal and social responsibility (TPSR) into my PE program, I wanted to continue this with the elementary students.  The Saskatchewan curriculum indicates that "relationships" is multifaceted and is used for students to "develop a deeper understanding that will enhance their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual selves through and within movement experiences" (Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, 2010).

To make this understandable to young students and allow them to personally evaluate their social responsibility, I created a quick and easy method known as "Gymnasium Genius".  At the end of each class the students would reflect on their behaviour and actions based on five items:

1. Prepared
• Appropriate gym attire
• On-time & gets ready in a timely fashion
• Ready to learn
• Waiting quietly on 3-point line for class to begin
2. Respectful
• Of yourself, to others, the equipment and the environment
3. Cooperative
• Following instructions
• On-task
• Helpful towards others
4. Open-Minded
• Willing to learn
• Open to new ideas, activities & games
• Positive attitude
5. Excellence
• Putting best efforts forward
• Role model and leader to peers
• Striving to exceed expectations

Throughout class we would constantly be referring to these five items. At the end of class, the students would line up and would be given a star sticker based on his/her behaviour which was then placed on an incentive chart.  Receiving the star was mainly based on my decision in the beginning but those who did not receive a star were asked to stay after class and individually we would discuss what went wrong and how it could be improved for the next class.  Within a month, most students were able to identify positive and negative behaviours. They made their own decision whether or not they were deserving of their star.  The students who did not feel they were a Gymnasium Genius went to the "Get Ready Wall" and then we would discuss improvements for next day and work on ways to solve the problems.  Once students received five stars they then got to choose a prize from the "Star Bucket" which included many things like funky sunglasses, bouncy balls, highlighters, pens, pencils, erasers, bracelets and mini Frisbees.  The video shown are students participating in a technology activity.  We could not be in the gym for class as there was a high school presentation going on, so we remained active in the library.  The students played Just Dance 4 on Nintendo Wii.  Although only 2 remotes could be used at once, all students participated and enjoyed the class!

When completing report cards, it was easy for me to look at where they are with respect to the Relationships goal.  I simply had to look back at my anecdotal notes and also those incentive charts.  It was easy making report card comments and the students were well aware of their relationships within the classroom.

Strengths:

• Students understood expectations and were always aware of their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Easy assessment when it came to report cards.
• Curriculum goals and outcomes are being met.

Improvements:

• Not all students are motivated by prizes (especially students in grade 6) so alternative plans needed to be made for some.  In the future, I will develop a "prize card" which has 5 options on it for the students to choose from once they get their 5 stars.  There would be things like choosing the warm-up activity or 5 minutes extra recess time.  This would be more motivating to older students or students that do not care about "things".
• Integrate ways to intrinsically motivate students as the year goes on so that they are developing relationships because they want to not simply because they get a prize.