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Teacher Tips—What Works!

Teacher tips are tried and true teaching strategies developed by health education teachers around the country. Take a look at some classroom activities that really work, then share some of your own!

Physical Education Without the Gym? The Benefits of Online Physical Education

Sheila Peterson, M.S., Physical Education/ Boost Up Instructor, Huron Middle School, South Dakota

Consider this: What is our main goal as physical educators? Is it to create professional athletes, or is it to create knowledgeable students who understand physical fitness and continue physical activity after the school years?

In recent years, physical education has undergone a paradigm shift from a sports orientation to a fitness orientation, incorporating health-related as well as skill-related fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being. Online physical education provides a focus that gives students a chance to achieve overall wellness no matter what their fitness level is.

An online physical education curriculum allows the instructor to become a facilitator of learning rather than master in command. Online curriculums contain several elements that lead to reflection and student self-monitoring. Web logs, discussion boards, fitness calculators, and online record keeping allows each student to design a program that best fits his or her needs. Students are able to record data, monitor their progress, and reflect on their accomplishments.

Through Web logs and discussion boards, the student is encouraged to record the emotional aspects of health. As students progress, they can monitor and reflect on their emotional changes. Students often notice the changes themselves as the semester progresses. For example, one student wrote in her blog on day one, "I think this class will help me get on track, while it seems like it may be a lot of work I am sure this will help me out."

One month later, the same student noted, "Wow, I really like this class. The first day seemed overwhelming and I didn't know if I was going to benefit from the modules and data tracking of myself. I am really surprised, my jeans are all getting loose and I couldn't run one whole mile without stopping at the beginning of this class, now my new goal is to run a mile under eight minutes."

The self-tracking and blogging illustrate how physical activity is affecting this student. Instead of the instructor forcing change, students are encouraged to change as they can see the benefits with their own eyes. After all, seeing is believing!

Discussion boards allow students to share progress and provide support to one another. Online fitness calculators aid students in tracking their heart rate, body mass index, caloric intake, and caloric expenditure. Finally, data forms provide students with organized tracking of their personal progress. Overall, online physical education allows the learner to create a fitness behavior and pattern through understanding the components of fitness.

See related articles in this issue: What You can Do and Incorporating Fitness into the Classroom.

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