H. Watts

PE equipment

2008-11-10T14:02:00.001-08:00

Today was one of the most frustrating days in my short three year career as a pe teacher. I got the highmark grant three weeks ago and am beginning to get shipments. Now the Athletic Director just had a meltdown and said he does not want to turn a "UNUSED" equipment room for football into our new technology gaming room. We now have to store the equipment and take it all out to set up every day. With the weight and number of pieces of equipment we will not be able to use the equipment to its full potential. This really, shall i say nicely, made me extremely mad.

SRU program

2008-10-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am just wondering how many of you out there are going all the way through the sru program. I am in need of 24 credits for perminant certification. Obviously the program is 30 so i do not need to take all the classes. The pay difference is only about $400 a year for a master's degree. My question is how many of you are not going through the whole program? I am up in the air about what i am going to do. Just wanted some feedback from those of you in the same situation.

Grant Approval

2008-10-23T14:30:00.001-07:00

Today is a great day. I just got the call that the Highmark grant is approved. Our middle school is going to receive $9,400 dollars towards a interactive gamebike/DDR fitness center. We will have 4 bikes and 4 DDR stations. I am so excited to get this grant. I encourage all of you to apply. I sent the grant in two weeks ago and already got the go ahead response.

NO FITNESS CENTER

2008-10-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I am a teacher at Moon Area School District. The district is building a new high school and has no plans on building a fitness center. PE is always the first to be overlooked and i cant understand how this school could do this. We are just as big as neighboring schools and probably have higher taxes but we somehow cant afford a fitness center at a new high school spending 60 million dollars. This district does not have any kind of fitness equipment besides the five pieces at the middle school. Is this happening to anyone else out their?

Rollerblades

2008-10-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today we finally got our shipment of rollerblades from skate in school. They are really nice quality. If anyone is in search for a good product and cheap they are who to go through. My question to all of you is, How do you store all the helmets, wrist guards, knee pads, arm pads, and skates? Just curious to find another way than just rubbermaid crates.
Any suggestions would be great.

New Aditions to the Watts Family

2008-10-14T17:56:00.001-07:00

These are some pics of my new nephews Jack and Jesse, Born Tuesday October 14th at 10:04 and 10:09 am. The last picture is my nephew Aiden with his new "Im the Big Brother" Shirt.

Handheld Computer

2008-10-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of possibly purchasing a handheld computer for my classes. Does anyone have any suggestions about the type they may use?

FitnessGram Testing

2008-10-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

How long do all of you take to fitness test your students? I am trying to get a comparison to the amount of time we spend to other schools. As of now we are on an A-Day, B-Day schedule. What we complete on the A day we do again on the B day.
We spend one day on all of the following.
Mile
Pacer
Curl-ups
Sit-ups
Flexed arm-hang and/or Pull-ups and Sit and Reach

The unit ends up being to long for the middle school students and becomes boring to even me. Any suggestions to enhancing student involvment? Any activities you do other than these tests?

Highmark Grant Writing

2008-10-01T16:46:00.001-07:00

I just finished writing the grant for highmark. The process was easy just time consuming. If anyone is interested feel free to contact me and i can give you any help you need. The grant is for any amount between $3,000 and $10,000 dollars. It is very easy to write so if you are in the need for any equipment go to http://www.highmarkhealthyhigh5.org/index.shtml
The best thing is if you write it for 2008 you are eligable for another grant in January of 2009!

Fitness Testing

2008-09-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of starting our fitness testing for 7th and 8th grade. We currently use fitnessgram but the program does not work when we go to the computer lab in health class. It is very frustrating and the fitnessgram people have been extremely uncooperative. Does anyone else experience these problems? What type of testing do you do at this level? Is anyone moving toward all online scoring?

Technology

2008-09-25T16:01:00.001-07:00

Hey anyone out their using new technology in PE? I am writing a grant for our 6-8 pe program. I am looking for something different. We have DDR and we are purchasing a Wii in a few weeks. I am thinking about the Interactive bikes that plug into a Playstation and you can challenge other classmates. Does anyone have this? Does it work well? Are they still working well after purchased? Any info would be appriciated.

This is what i do on my spare time after class? Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

2008-09-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

Grant

2008-09-24T16:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all. I am starting the process of writing the grant for Highmark. Do any of you have any suggestions or comments? If you can let me know some ideas that u have put in for so that i can see what you all are doing out there. Thanks.

Loss of DARE

2008-09-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

I am a teacher out at Moon Area Middle School. We have just lost our DARE program in 6th grade. Is this happening to anyone else? If so how are you implementing the standards needed without the DARE program?

Interactive Video Games

2008-09-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

The invention of the interactive video games like DDR and the Wii are great items to incorporate into a curriculum. How do you keep other students involved with only two people being able to play the game? Any tips?

Traditional Sport vs. New Activities

2008-09-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

Do you think that Physical Education should be going in the direction of new activities (Tchoukball, Wii, DDR) or traditional sport(Football, Basketball, soccer)?

The Start of Class

2008-09-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Technology of PE is an exciting class to be involved in. Some projects have been stressful but in the end they seem to be extremely useful. Overall I am excited to continue through the class with an open mind.