Assessment item 1:

• As a child I participated in lots of different physical activities during Sport and PE. As I grew up in a small country town after school sports were very limited, so during school we played a variety of games and sports that we wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. These games included hockey, tennis, soccer, basketball and my favourite ultimate frizbee. The physical activities which were offered outside school were cricket and swimming in summer and netball and AFL in the winter.

• I chose to play all the sports offered outside school. I played AFL and cricket with the boys up until I was 10. this was influenced by the boys in my class as I was the only girl. Netball later became my choice of sport and this was because of my sister and the limited choices I was given.

• My choice of physical activities changed with age. As I matured I chose to favour the sports that were stereotyped as being feminine. I stopped playing the ‘boy sports’ and started playing games that were more female based.

• Physical activities are a great way for children to meet others who have similar interests. It was a fun and enjoyable way to spend my weekends and was very community minded in my home town.

• Because of these experiences and memories I have as a child, I have a very positive attitude towards physical activities. It is not only a fun way to meet new friend but also helps fight obesity among children.

• As I have a very positive attitudes towards physical activities, I would try to incorporate it into everyday teaching within my classroom. I would like my classroom to experience and be introduced to many different types of physical activities, this is to ensure all students likes are being met. By hopefully fulfilling all the students interests in regards to physical activities, my students will have a positive attitude towards it. By passing on my positive attitude to my students I hope in return that can pass it on to their children in the future to help fight obesity within Australia.

• Ideal PDHPE Teacher Characteristics•Dress

•Like this picture an ideal PDHPE teacher should look sporty – have joggers on, trackies or shorts, t-shirt and a hat

•Accessories•Accessories which I associate with an ideal PDHPE Teacher depends on what activity or sport we are doing that day. The accessories include: stop watch, clip board, sunscreen and a pen.

•Body Type• A body type of an Ideal PDHPE teacher to me is one that is fit looking not overweight. They don’t have to be muscular or extremely skinny, just have the body type of someone who looks as if they can participate within the chosen sport/activity.

How does the Ideal PDHPE Teacher Act• What might they be doing:

– An Ideal PDHPE Teacher would be involved within the sport/activity the class is doing. They would be helping the students which may not be fully understanding the skill base and encouraging them to keep on having a go. They would be challenging the students which are more competent at the sport by tagging or going against them. But most of all the ideal PDHPE teacher would be making the lesson fun and enjoyable for each student. The posture of an Ideal PDHPE teacher would be very warm and inviting to ensure students aren't frighten to ask for a little extra help developing their skill base. They have to be very approachable and interact well with others to ensure all students are getting the most out of very PE or Sport lesson.

• Speech of an Ideal PDHPE Teacher– An Ideal PDHPE Teacher would speak in a voice

which could be heard easily but didn’t have an angry tone to it. An Ideal PDHPE Teacher to me wouldn’t say drop and give me 10 push ups but rather would be a kind person who would offer their help and encourage all students and pushing them to reach their potential. Such things as ‘keep going your doing great,’ ‘wow your really good at this task can you try this one now,’. These would be said to ensure all students feel confident enough within the PDHPE classroom to give anything a go.

• Skills/Abilities– An Ideal PDHPE Teacher should have good sporting

abilities and be well rounded in a few different sports. A student is more likely to take direction off a teacher they have seen do the activity or sport well rather then someone just telling them how to do it from the sideline. A skill that a PDHPE teacher would need is to be able to perform the require skills well in front of the class.

• Knowledge– An Ideal PDHPE teacher should have a wide and sufficient

knowledge of the sport or skill they are teaching their students. A knowledge of the rules for the sport is a must I personally think. This shows the students that are knowledge about the sport and in return would make them listen more as they now knowledge the teacher really knows their sport.

• Activities/Movements– An Ideal PDHPE Teacher would concentrate on one

sport a week roughly. They would break each sport down in to the core skills required and teacher these skills before the students actually play the sport. For example if the chosen sport for the week was tennis, before a game of tennis was played the students would learn the correct way to serve, their grip, forehands and backhands etc. Once majority of the students have the finer skill under control they would then move on to a new skill and finally a actual game. By taking the time on each skill allows those students who may not have played tennis before to get an understanding of what is need and help them to join in, in the game later on.

•Stereotypes of a PE Teacher• Stereotypes of PE teachers exist, these include:

•Big and buff•Male•Authoritative•Angry/mean•Favours students due to sporting abilities

• Stereotypes and self worth– Many students have a negative attitude

towards physical education and it is due to their past experience with their PE Teacher. The different stereotypes also contribute to these negative attitudes. As PE Teachers can be seen as mean and favour students with sporting abilities, these stereotypes would give a student who maybe less sporty then other students to have a negative view on physical activities. As PE Teachers it is our job to overcome these stereotypes to ensure all students have a positive attitude to physical activities to help fight obesity.

I think I am a lot this ideal PDHPE teacher and one of the main reasons is due to my positive experiences with PDHPE which in return give me a positive attitude towards it. I see my self as a very sporty person and have a pretty extensive knowledge base on different sports. I know my knowledge base is limited compared all the over sports out their but in order to be a great PDHPE teacher I would research every sport to ensure I was confident in it before I taught it to my students.

Over all I think I rate reasonably high on the scale of my ideal PDHPE teacher. One of the reason I think I rate high is because of my attitude towards it, my sporting abilities and what I want to achieve with all students. I just don’t want them to be good at sports I want them to have a positive attitude towards physical activity.

I feel very confident about teaching PDHPE in the K-6 context but one of my main concerns is pointed out by Morgan and Bourke (2004), ‘Insufficient time was the most common cited impediment to the delivery of PE programs.’

This is one obstacles that I would need to overcome to ensure that I am fulfilling my obligations in the rest of the KLA’s as well as PE. I would address this problem by cross curriculum teaching. Cross curriculum teaching would allow me to cover two KLA’s in the one time period. I know that successful cross curriculum teaching is hard but I think the time and effort put in to make it successful is worth it. Students need to have PE in their day to day school lives and cross curriculum teaching is the only way to achieve this.

Hastie & Martin 2006 state ‘Teachers feel they lack confidence, training & time to teach PE effectively and subsequently may avoid teaching PE although.’ One attribute that a teacher needs to justify this finding is to have better time management and want to teach PE. Me as a teacher would love to teach PE so I would find time with cross curriculum teaching and seek training or help for the sports and skills I was unsure about. Research in to the sports would not only make the teacher comfortable in teaching them but also show the students that they know what they are taking about.

Hastie & Martin 2006 also found a problem that most PE teachers faced and until reading this article I didn’t know that this would also affect me as a teacher. ‘Teacher’s emphasised the areas of fitness, games & sports skill and organised sport, while the areas of gymnastics, aquatics and adaptive physical education received minimal attention due to the limited expertise of teachers, legal liability issues and time restrictions.’ Such sports as gymnastics and aquatics never crossed my mind and I think a lot of other teachers would be the same. Another problem with these sports is that it would be harder to cross curriculum teach. So in order to teacher PE confidently I would have to make sure I cover all areas and chosen sports of the curriculum, use cross curriculum teaching when I can and ensure all students are enjoying their PE and me as a PE teacher.

Graham 1943 stated ‘the first step is to become aware of our stereotypes.’ and this is correct in PE teaching. By first identifying the stereotypes of PE teachers that the world already has, it now emphasises to me what not to do as a PE teacher. I think the stereotypes of PE teachers don’t need to represented in my PE teaching. This is because the reason we have these stereotypes of PE teachers is because of experiences that have happened to us in the past in PE, and its because of these experiences that people have a negative attitude towards physical activities. So in order for all children to see physical activities and PE in a positive light we have to shed the stereotypes of what a PE teacher is and start from scratch.

http://www.aare.edu.au/04pap/mor04509.pdfP.J. Morgan & S.F. Bourke, 2004 (Accessed 27th March 2012)

Graham, George (1943), Teaching Children Physical Education: Becoming a Master Teacher, 3rd

ed. Pp. 37-39

Hastie, P., & Martin, E. (2006). Teaching elementary physical education. San Francisco: Pearson

Benjamin Cummings.

Webster, Peter John, Teachers’ perceptions of physical education within the K-6 personal

development, health and physical education key learning area, Doctor of Education thesis Faculty

of Education, University of Wollongong, 2001. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/978 (Accessed 27th

March 2012)