Middle School Forum:

1
Middle School Forum Creating an Effective
Classroom Environment CA Content Standard 5
Baringer 9/20/11, 9/22/11
2
Welcome Middle School Teachers!

• Please sign in, take the handouts, and sit at one
  of the round tables
• What is one REALLY awesome strategy/activity you
  used to welcome your 6th, 7th, or 8th grade
  students to your class this September?
• Table talk Share with a partner

3
How safe is your classroom?

• Lets take a pulse

4
Establishing a Safe Physical Environment

• Do you provide adequate supervision?
• Are you always in the immediate vicinity of the
  students (within sight and sound)?
• Do you anticipate foreseeable risks and warn
  students of any inherent risks?
• Do you establish visible boundaries? (e.g.,
  cones, etc.)
• Do you ensure the activity is suitable for ALL
  students?
• Students with special needs, high achievers, low
  achievers
• Do you ensure the activity takes place in a
  learning environment free from obstacles?
• Do you post and reinforce safety rules?

5
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

• Facilities, equipment, emergency prep, class
  size, student size (mixed grade level classes),
  communication plan (w/ colleagues, front office,
  nurse), first aid supplies, safety rules,
  adequate supervision, systematic procedures and
  routines, visible boundaries, student attire,
  appropriate teaching credentials

6
Establishing a Safe Psychological Environment

• Do you provide for students emotional and social
  safety?
• Call students by first name learn all students
  names
• Encourage put-ups and discourage put-downs
• Enforce an O.U.C.H. policy Our Ugly Comments
  Hurt
• Do you create a class culture of caring and
  concern?
• Create a bully safe zone
• Ignoring bullying enables bullying!
• Right to Safe Schools 1982
• It is your moral and legal responsibility to
  ensure that no individual student or group of
  students is targeted for discrimination,
  humiliation or bullying

7

• An effective class-management system sets the
  stage for high-quality physical education
  instruction by providing the time and opportunity
  for learning to take place.
• -CA Physical Education Framework

8
Class Management

• Preventive class management
• Use proactive vs. reactive strategies to maintain
  a positive, predictable, task-oriented class
  climate
• Devote minimal time to managerial tasks to
  optimize time for instructional tasks
• Set high expectations
• And remember, the best classroom management plan
  isa strong instructional plan!

9
Strong Instruction Strong Management

• The primary management tool for teachers is the
  physical education curriculum itself. When
  students are engaged in focused, rigorous, and
  challenging physical education activities, fewer
  opportunities for inappropriate behavior arise.
• -CA Physical Education Framework

10
Class Rules

• Establish, teach and reinforce your rules
• Keep them simple and few
• Respect yourself, respect others, respect the
  learning environment, respect the equipment
• Dress appropriately, arrive on time, use active
  listening skills, respect yourself and others,
  use equipment responsibly
• State them positively tell kids what you want
  vs. what you dont want
• Make them public!
• Post in locker room, on whiteboard, etc.
• Communicate them to students and their parents

11
Partner Talk

• Turn to a partner and share with him or her the
  rules you are currently using in your classroom
• How are they communicated with students? With
  parents?
• Are they effective? Why or why not?
• Give each other feedback

12
Effective Management Practices

• All students engaged in learning activity
• Seamless equipment distribution/collection plan
• Transitions managed with clear and audible
  signals
• Students positioned away from distractions and
  sun during instruction
• Teacher constantly monitors student behavior
• Exercise never used as punishment
• Severity of punishment matches infraction

13
Supervision

• Failure to provide adequate supervision is the
  most common allegation of negligence (van der
  Smissen, 1990)
• Adequate supervision includes
• Ratio of teachers to students
• Teacher training (appropriate PE credential)
• Physical distance b/t teacher and students
• Establishment/implementation of safety rules

14
Is this your class?

• Accomplished teachers of physical education
  create and sustain a welcoming, safe and
  challenging environment in which students engage
  in and enjoy physical activity.
• -National Board for Professional Teaching
  Standards

15
Got Ethics?

• Can you take this ethics pledge?
• Would you be comfortable giving this Bill of
  Rights to your students?

16
(No Transcript)
17
4 Instructional Models

• Social Skills Program
• Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility
  (TPSR)
• Project Adventure (P.A.)
• Character Development

18
Social Skills

• Actively teach social skills
• Physical education is the perfect vehicle through
  which to teach life/social skills
• Suggested pro-social skills for middle school
  students are
• Compliment, compromise, courtesy, encouragement,
  helpfulness, kindness, active listening, sharing,
  positive disagreement, respect

19
Step by Step

• Introduce the social skill
• Ask students to identify what the skill looks
  like, sounds like and feels like
• Looks like (smiles, thumbs up, nods)
• Sounds like (good try, clapping, way to go)
• Feels like (acceptance, happy, sense of
  belonging)
• Instruct students to demonstrate the social skill
  concurrently with the motor skill they are
  learning
• Provide feedback to the students

20
Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility

• Value-based instructional model
• Commonly known as TPSR
• Developed by Don Hellison for working with
  underserved, urban youth
• Check out Hellisons book Teaching
  Responsibility Through Physical Activity

21
TPSR Themes

• Integration responsibility integrated into
  physical activity
• Transfer connections to life skills in other
  settings
• Empowerment teacher shares responsibility with
  students
• Teacher-Student Relationship students are
  treated as individuals deserving respect, choice,
  and voice

22
TPSR Goals

• Respect the rights and feelings of others
• Self-control Include everyone
• Self-motivation
• Effort Participation
• Self-direction
• Goal setting Decision making
• Caring/Leadership
• Support/encourage others Peer teaching/modeling
• Transfer outside the gym
• Classroom Neighborhood Home

23
TPSR Class Format

• Relational time
• Awareness talk
• Physical activity (integrating responsibility)
• Group meeting
• Reflection time

24
Basic TPSR Teaching Strategies

• Model Respect Teacher models respectful
  communication
• Set High Expectations Teacher explains or refers
  to explicit behavioral expectations
• Provide Opportunities for Success Teacher
  structures lesson so that all students have the
  opportunity to successfully participate and be
  included regardless of individual differences
• Foster Social Interaction Teacher structures
  activities that foster positive social
  interaction (i.e., partner talk)
• Assign Roles Teacher assigns specific
  responsibilities or tasks (other than leadership)
  that facilitate the organization of the program
  or a specific activity

25
Project Adventure

• Full Value Contract (FVC)
• A structure for creating appropriate conduct
  standards that everyone in the class agrees to
  follow and that everyone in the class agrees to
  work on maintaining throughout the life of the
  class
• Be here Be safe Be honest Have fun
• Challenge by Choice
• Creates a group culture that genuinely respects
  the right of an individual to choose the degree
  of participation that is right for him or
  her. Can be used to help reinforce the message
  that an individual is to exert and take personal
  responsibility for choosing his/her behaviors and
  actions. 

26
Character Development

• Affective domain is most difficult to assess
• Character traits must be explicitly taught
• Criteria for success must be clearly spelled out
  for students (e.g., rubric)
• Most effective if program is adopted school-wide
• Example Character Counts!

27
Character Counts!

• The Six Pillars of Character
• Trustworthiness
• Be honest Dont deceive, cheat, or steal Be
  reliable do what you say youll do Have the
  courage to do the right thing Build a good
  reputation Be loyal stand by your family,
  friends, and country
• Respect
• Treat others with respect follow the Golden Rule
  Be tolerant and accepting of differences Use
  good manners, not bad language Be considerate
  of the feelings of others Dont threaten, hit
  or hurt anyone Deal peacefully with anger,
  insults, and disagreements

28
CC Continued

• Responsibility
• Do what you are supposed to do Plan ahead
  Persevere keep on trying! Always do your best
  Use self-control Be self-disciplined Think
  before you act consider the consequences Be
  accountable for your words, actions, and
  attitudes Set a good example for others
• Fairness
• Play by the rules Take turns and share Be
  open-minded listen to others Dont take
  advantage of others Dont blame others
  carelessly Treat all people fairly

29
CC Continued

• Caring
• Be kind Be compassionate and show you care
  Express gratitude Forgive others Help people
  in need
• Citizenship
• Do your share to make your school and community
  better Cooperate Get involved in community
  affairs Stay informed vote Be a good
  neighbor Obey laws and rules Respect
  authority Protect the environment Volunteer

30
CA Content Standard 5Grades 6-7-8

• Students demonstrate and utilize knowledge of
  psychological and sociological concepts,
  principles, and strategies that apply to the
  learning and performance of physical activity.
• -CA Physical Education Framework

31
Lets Try It On

• Traffic Jam Activity grade 6
• CA Physical Education Framework p. 92
• What evidence of learning might you collect
  around standard 5 at the grade level you teach?
  Have a discussion at your table.

32
Some Final Thoughts

• Give students a voice and a choice
• Keep the learning student-centered
• Vary your instructional strategies
• Involve students in creating rules and rubrics
• Communicate your expectations with parents
• Talk with students as though their parents are
  standing behind them?
• Always de-brief your cooperative games thats
  where the true learning takes place
• Capture the evidence of learning!

33
Why?

• Because nice matters!
• and
• As goes physical education, so goes the school!

34
Want More?

• Read Nell Noddings, The Challenge to Care in
  Schools

35
Standard 5 Resources

• Bullying Proactive Physical Educators
  Contribution to School-Wide Prevention, JOPERD
  (Sept., 2010)
• http//charactercounts.org/sixpillars.html
• Physical Education Framework for California
  Public Schools
• Teaching Middle School Physical Education by
  Bonnie Mohnsen
• Silver Bullets by Karl Rohnke
• Teaching Responsibility through Physical Activity
  by Don Hellison