The PE Playbook – June 15 Edition

Welcome to the June 2015 Edition of the PE Playbook. The PE Playbook is a review of blog posts over the past month that are specific to Physical Education or Youth Sport. Its about bringing these blog posts into a format that is easy to find, use and share. Hopefully this will result in more PE Teachers (and others) reading them and engaging with them. If you have any feedback about the presentation or content of the PE Playbook then please let me know in the comments section of this post or via @ImSporticus.

If you are a PE Teacher on Twitter then you should be following Mel Hamda an International Middle School PE Teacher and Lynn Hefele a Primary School from the US. Both are thoughtful, thought provoking bloggers, Mel at melhamada.com and Lynn at LEPEinc.com respectively, who are generous with their time. After a discussion on Twitter regarding its purpose and the purpose of blogging for the online PE community, Mel penned her thoughts via Sharing our Failures. That if we were to develop as practitioners then perhaps we need to start to critique each others ideas with gentle challenge rather than the ‘back slapping’ culture we have already. To move to that state she suggested we perhaps get comfortable by sharing our failures, rather than our successes and preceded to do so. I responded in kind with my own and so did Lynn in her reflective post Sharing my failings. It would be beneficial for others in the PE community to do so, that we may then get to a stage where we are comfortable to challenge each others ideas in a positive manner. Carl Hendrick‘s recent post on collaboration, asks the question is collaboration always the best way of learning? The answer it seems that critical dissent can be a powerful driver of not just creativity but also of the volume of ideas.

You may have noticed in my recent posts that I have decided to explore deeper the idea of Physical Literacy and how it may act as a moral purpose for PE that takes it beyond a subject just learn at school. The International Physical Literacy Association is an excellent website for those who which to further develop a better philosophical understanding of Physical Literacy and they regularly produce excellent blogs. This month they have produced a reading list on Philosophy references relevant to embodiment and the value of physical activity probably not to be approached by the faint of heart, this linked nicely with Marget Whithead giving a clear indication of what is meant by Physical Literacy in Unpacking the Concept of Physical Literacy. Len Almond wrote Physical Activity for Life, which challenges that idea that as PE Teachers we can say our aim is to ensure lifelong physical activity in our students, based on that there is no research to back that up, He suggests that we aspire to that aim, but perhaps we should also concentrate on the ‘here and now’ and the inherent value and joy we have in moving. This message was echoed in a recent conversation I had with Chris Horner about spending too much time thinking about over-complicating philosophies and values with regards to PE. That perhaps we (read me) should spend more time on the basics of subject knowledge, behaviour management and building relationships with our students, that hopefully we love teaching. It is good to be challenged by Chris, as he calls a spade a spake, as he makes a valid point. Backing this up with an excellent, no thrills, bread and butter pudding of a blog post called Back to School. It may be an oldie, but it is a goodie, and in may ways echoes Len’s assertions that we perhaps should not forget about making the present the best we can for our pupils and not get caught up in over thinking.

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