Lab 1: Class Management and Organization

Teach class management skills in a manner similar to physical skills ( Pangrazi, 2001, p. 81).
Class management and effective teaching go hand in hand. Research shows that effective teachers introduce class rules, management routines, class procedures, etc. during the first week of class and help students practice or rehearse these rules and class routines the first several weeks of school and consistently throughout the year. Be sure to consult veteran teachers about their class rules and management practices. You may wish to have your students help create the class rules for physical education. Academic Language: self-space general space body control personal and social responsibility response latency goal setting withitness Important Concepts: Create a safe environment for children. Teach class rules during the first class; then practice and review the rules throughout the school year. Introduce personal and general space concepts to help students practice body control. Practice signal response and reduce response latency Organize your classes into squads for ease of organization and quick transitions. Help children learn to move with appropriate body control. Example Class Rules: 1. Be On Time! 2. Silence Please While The Teacher or Another Student Is Talking. 3. Dress In Shorts, T-Shirt, and Tennis Shoes. 4. No Arguing or Fighting. 5. Help Your Neighbor At All Times. 6. Stop, Look & Listen On The Signal. 7. Do Your Personal Best & Have Fun. What will you say to your students on the first day of class of a new school year or on the first day of student teaching? Here are some tips to help you and your students get off to a good start. Introduce yourself to the class, kneel to their level, use your easy name, describe the letter home, explain the class rules, encourage students to give their personal best, and get the class active as soon as possible in the following management activities. 4

Introductory Management Activities The following management activities are designed to enhance cardio-respiratory endurance as well as challenge your students to think and respond to your signal and directions. Activities of this nature are also crucial for helping your students practice sound body control as well as differentiate between self-space and personal space. The introduction of squads as a way of organizing and managing your students is also included. 1. Freeze On Signal Each class will need practice responding to your signal for attention or stop, look, listen. Your goal is to reduce response latency. Dont confuse your students. Consistently use one signal for stopping and one signal for starting. 2. Reduce Run Downs When your give your signal to stop look and listen you will undoubtedly hear students footsteps following the signal. These footsteps are called rundowns. Help your students reduce rundowns by bending knees, extending the arms out from the sides and keeping the head up. This is the athletic position. Cues include: Shock Absorbers (bent knees), Balanced Body (extend arms), Be Alert (head up). Similar to athletic stance. 3. Scat Each student has a bean bag and finds their own personal space. Have them place their bean bags on the floor at their feet. Make sure spacing between students is safe. Remind students to recall their bean bags color and location on the floor. Invite students to walk, skip, etc. away from their bean bags. On your signal Scat students must move through general space, maintaining body control and avoiding collisions to return safely to their own bean bag. The goal of this activity is body control not competition. 4. Bean Bag Annie/Andy Use the same formation as above, but this time remove one childs bean bag. Use that childs name such as bean bag Jill or bean bag Jim; he/she is looking for a new bean bag home. Provide students with a signal and a locomotor movement to move away from their bean bags. When you call out the students name without a bean bag, that student will find a new bean bag home as the other students return to their own bean bags. Again, stress body control and use of personal space through general space, not competition. 5. Body Parts On A Bean Bag & World Record This is a self-testing activity that helps students exercise, count with numbers and set personal goals. Use a scattered formation with one bean bag per child. Each child must leave his/her bean bag on the floor. On your signal have students place, one at a time, as many different body parts on his/her bean bag as possible. They must count the number of body parts they touch to the bean bag within fifteen to twenty seconds. Let students report their world record and encourage them to set a new personal best goal. 6. Magic String This activity helps students identify and recall different body parts. Help students by reviewing body parts as needed. Ask them to imagine a beautiful, floating magic string of any color they choose. Have students move within a prescribed area and 5

call out a body part. Have the child imagine that the string attaches to that body part and pulls them through space. Switch body parts often and prescribe the space to move in that is developmentally appropriate for the class. Less space to move in is more challenging while more space to move in requires less body control and is less challenging. 7. The Magic Door Let students know that you are going to test their body control and their ability to move their personal space through general space. Stand at one end of a basketball court and extend your arms toward each side wall. Let students know that you are the magic door. Walk slowly down the center of the court reducing the general space that students can move through. Students must stay in front of the magic door and within the boundaries of the basketball court while constantly moving using a locomotor pattern of their choice. Praise students for maintaining their personal space while moving through reduced general space. 8. Buddies Game Have students meet and shake hands with a student they do not know. Ask them to exchange information on interests and hobbies, etc. This new friend is their physical education buddy. Ask students to wave goodbye to their buddy and move through general space using a prescribed locomotor movement. When the teacher calls buddies students must find their buddy as fast as possible, shake hands and sit down. 9. Clap Groups This activity builds on Buddies. Students stand in a scattered formation. The teacher issues a number of hand claps and students must form groups according to the number of claps the class heard. A group is formed with the proper number of students and the group must sit down. A group may select any standing student for their group just by taping them. Any student that is already seated in a group may not be selected. This activity requires decision making and communication. 10. Squad Challenge: Teacher vs Class The teacher will use the clap group activity to form four equal groups of students and organize the four groups in a squad square formation designated by the placement of four cones on the floor. The teacher must make sure that each squad is as gender and skill equal as possible. Squad members should introduce themselves and select a squad leader and a squad name. The teacher can then challenge the class to a signal contest. At the teachers signal go students may leave their squad and move throughout the gym using the designated locomotor movement. When the teacher blows the whistle once, the class must stop, look, and listen within three seconds. If the class can do this they earn a point. If a student is still moving after three seconds, the teachers earns a point. If the teacher blows the whistle two times the students have seven seconds to return to a seated position in their squads. If the class can do so within seven seconds they earn a point. If they cant assemble in seven seconds the teacher earns a point. 11. Additional Activity 12. Additional Activity 6

Application and Assessment 1. Why do class management and effective teaching go hand in hand throughout every day of teaching? 2. Why should your list of class rules be short and positive? Create an elementary (K-6) poster you can use in your elementary placement. Use color and pictures. 3. List three reasons why students enjoy the squad square structure as well as three reasons why teachers benefit from employing the squad square structure for management. 4. What common elements do all of the activities in this management lab share? 5. How is the affective domain addressed in this lesson? How is the psychomotor domain addressed in this lesson? How is the cognitive domain addressed in this lesson? 6. Can you think of an introductory activity you have experienced that you can use with elementary age children during the first week? Be Prepared! It is extremely important to be well prepared for your first year of teaching. Getting off to a good start during the first week of a new school year will help ensure success throughout the year. Well before classes begin you should attend to the following: Review the physical education curriculum and begin planning appropriate units of instruction and lessons. Make your gymnasium bright and colorful with instructional posters, shapes, colors, key physical education words, motivational sayings, etc. Display the New York State Learning Standards, NASPE Learning Standards, And New York Conceptual Framework For Physical Education. Prepare a brief letter to be sent home to the parents of your students explaining the goals of your program and pertinent information on dress requirements, etc. Make sure this letter is perfect and have it approved by your principal before sending it. Develop and post your set of class rules. Consult veteran teachers as needed. Review class rosters and practice pronouncing student names. Plan lessons for the first week that utilize the organizational and management activities in this lab. Pay a brief visit to each of the teachers in your school to introduce yourself and let them know you look forward to working with them. These are just a few of the things you will need to do to establish a foundation for a successful year. Notes