I started Whole Brain Teaching in the spring of last year when I was teaching science. Even my husband noticed I came home in better moods!

This year, I was granted my transfer request to Physical Education. We teach two 3 week Health Units in the classroom, so I'm doing bare bones WBT to keep order and sanity for 3 weeks. Since they have responded so well in just 4 days, I want to keep using it when we go back to the gym. I have some rather attitudinally challenged students who need this positive peer pressure to keep it in check. However, six classes line up for roll call in gym, girls on one side, boys on the other, and we stretch & warm up all together. Then, each teacher takes her class of boys & girls off to do whatever activity we are teaching for that 3 weeks.

I can carry a clipboard around to keep score, and I can come up with exercises or drills to use instead of homework. Does anyone else have any experience with trying Whole Brain Teaching in Physical Education? Hints? Suggestions?

I have 2 more weeks in Health to plan how to use it in Physical Education, and I'll post how it's going.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer,

Colleen

I have no suggestions, I just want to applaud you for trying Whole Brain Teaching in a Physical Education course! Good Luck!

Colleen
Some of my earliest success with Whole Brain Teaching was in coaching girls middle school basketball. Our techniques adapt superbly to sports and physical education. Use your portable scoreboard to keep track of the minutes of extra exercise or game time that students "earn" during class. Instead of "class!," you should say, "team!" They respond, "Yes, coach!" If they are not loud enough, oh no! One more minute of drill at the end of class. When you shout "Huddle!," they should shout, "Yes, coach!" and sprint as hard as they can from wherever they are to stand in front of you. Tell them they need to be cheering and clapping as they sprint to encourage each other to run hard. If you hear lots of cheering and clapping, then oh yeah! One more minute of game time! Very effective with large groups is a duck call or a whistle. One loud blast of either is the equivalent of a "Team!" to which they shout, "Yes, coach!" ... two loud blasts is the equivalent of a "Huddle!"

Run several practices sessions of the above, so that your kids get the idea of what you are looking for.

Now, here is my favorite penalty drill. You shout, "Chair!" They shout "Oh, no!," the Mighty Groan and then they all bend their knees as if they are siting in an invisible chair. This causes quite a bit of discomfort, fairly quickly. Explain that if they are all saying things like, "Sorry, coach! We'll do better coach! Just give us one more chance, coach!" very loudly, as they sit in their invisible chair you are more likely to say the magic words, "Team!" to which they shout, "Yes, coach!" and stand up.

To turn this up one more notch, you could say, while they are seated in the invisible chair, "Oh, goodness me. It looks like my shoe is untied. Do you think I should take some time right now and slowly, slowly tie it?" They will shout, "No! No!" Make ti all like a game and you'll have them working hard and having a wonderful time.