Philosophy of Physical Education

II. Physical Education

    As a professional physical educator I believe that there are three major ideas that frame what I do and value in the field.  These ideas are building physically competent/proficient students, developing an understanding of why physical education is important, and implementing life long fitness into students lives. Teaching a child to become physically competent, showing them the numerous benefits of physical education, and ‘giving them the tools to keep up activity for a lifetime are the basis of my philosophy in physical education.

            Within physical education I would like to expose students to a diverse array of activities. In doing so we will find an activity that a student is competent in, and could build up to become proficient in. Also by showing students a variety of physical activities from many parts of the world students are becoming more well rounded and open minded about other cultures and countries activities. While trying to build competent students, it is important to keep in mind that students have varying ability. I would like to set students up for success. In order to ensure students improvement and build toward competency and proficiency, I will implement various levels of tasks and progress from the level a child is at, upward and onwards.

            I also believe it is very important to not only express to our students why physical education is important, but to all of society. I will push to make sure students understand the benefits of physical education. My students will know that being physically active and eating healthy will not only better their bodies, but it will also allow their minds to thrive and build even better academic students. I will show students information about childhood obesity and its increase in the recent years. While presenting all of this information about how positive physical education is, I will not scare the children. The point of discussing how important physical education is in school is to get students motivated and interested in moving their bodies.

            Lifelong fitness is an ever growing aspect of physical education. I believe life long fitness is one of the most important things you can teach to your students within the curriculum. In traditional PE there is a lot of team sports, such as basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Although I do value some aspects learned through team sports, you cannot play these sports for a lifetime. I want my students to have the tools to keep them fit for their whole lives, not just for when they walk into my classroom. Some activities I would like students to get into are activities they can do on their own, for their lifetime. These activities include dance, yoga, Pilates, hiking, canoeing, biking, ice skating, rollerblading, and skiing. There are plenty more activities than those listed, and I would like to implement as many lifetime activities into my PE curriculum as possible. Exposing students to these new activities may be just the jump they need to become passionate about being physically active.