Fjeldheim,+Jill,+Inclusion+Strategies+in+Physical+Education

== Hello and welcome to my Wiki! My name is Jill Fjeldheim and I am in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Southern Oregon University with the goal of becoming a licensed elementary school teacher. ==

I spent many years performing and teaching mime, physical comedy, and circus arts. This profession took me to many places in the world including Japan, where I met my husband, Daryl, who is a musician. We have lived in the Rogue Valley for the past 15 years and have a beautiful (of course!) daughter named Lily, who is almost eleven. She loves to sing and dance and also studies music. Our family loves to teach, play and perform together.

I have always loved teaching and am excited to teach in public elementary schools. I love the challenge of creating lesson plans that are engaging, kinesthetic and cooperative. Lessons that are both interactive, physically, emotionally and artistically engaging bring me great joy. I love to see children having fun learning, not just academic content, but also social awareness and wisdom. Besides music and movement, creating (just about anything) and being out in nature also bring me great joy. I hope to incorporate all these elements into my teaching.

I was born with a temperament that feels emotions rush through me, quickly, and in great magnitude. Although this temperament has served me well as a performer, my biggest fear as a teacher, is that I will become too emotional with my students. I will continue to practice strategies and mindsets that help me to keep my cool and stay even keeled.

Taking the Education Technology class was extremely difficult for me this past summer. I hadn’t been back to school for 25 years and I felt overwhelmed. When I asked two different teachers who I could go to for tech support, I was given a phone number to call. In search of a face to face human, I inquired at the SOU library. I was so relieved to find that there was a staff person PAID to do nothing but offer tech support! Finally, there was someone to help me who I didn’t feel like I was bothering or burdening.

I am surprised that I had to find this wonderful resource at the library on my own. I had to be very tenacious to find help. I don’t know if I would have had that tenacity when I was a younger, less confident student. This experience makes me want to make sure that, as a teacher, I am aware of ALL the resources available to help and support students and that I clearly and proactively inform students and their parents about them. I also want to make sure that I don’t ever make a student or parent feel like they are burdening me, or inconveniencing me by asking for help.

In this course, I want to learn practical inclusion strategies for all types of students, in all subject areas. I am excited to observe some of this first hand when I visit schools, and to also learn from Ms. Crum’s wealth of experience and other students’ wikis.

= Inclusion Strategies in Physical Education =

I chose this topic because I think physical education is very important for students, and I wanted to learn strategies to include students with special needs to the fullest extent possible. PE is not only important for physical exercise, but it also provides excellent opportunities to develop social skills and build community.
 * Introduction**

1) It is important to know your students with special needs well. "Knowing your learners is critically important in successful lesson planning and arrangement of the learning environment, including grouping strategies." 2) Have a wide variety of skill level within activities. By differentiating instruction, students are taught to their strengths. 3) It is important to have a bond of trust with your students with special needs. 4) It is important to always find something for your students with special needs to do that they will have success with. 5) I found that there are many resources that provide many great ideas for adaptations for all types of disabilities.
 * The Top 5 Things I Learned While Researching**

This is a wonderful website called PE Central. It is my top resource because it is so comprehensive. This link takes you directly to the page that is a rich resource for "those responsible for educating students with various disabilities." It offers everything from lesson ideas, to tips on how to create an effective IEP for adaptive PE, to an "ask our adapted expert" which is an online question/answer forum. It also offer lists of PE activities with suggested adaptations, as well as books, videos, and online courses. http://www.pecentral.org/adapted/adaptedmenu.html **Rating: 5**
 * Top Resource**

1) This website is called American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation. When you click on this homepage, find the list under "learn more about" and click on "adapted physical education resource manual". I clicked on Chapter 7 and found an extensive list of books that look fabulous. Rating: 4 http://www.aahperd.org/aapar/careers/adapted-physical-education.cfm
 * 9 Additional Resources**

2) When I began my research, I had a difficult time finding information, so I decided to create my own resource by interviewing Brian McKinnis who has been teaching PE at Talent Elementary School for the past 20 years. I think you will find wisdom, empathy, and practical advice in this short but potent interview! Rating: 5 3) This link takes you right to the product page from the Humankinetics website. The product they are selling is a book called //Inclusion in Physical Education.// //"Inclusion in Physical Education// is a practical, easy-to-use guide filled with inclusion strategies that focus on developing the physical and social skills and fitness of students with disabilities. And these strategies do not involve extended planning or setup time or extra equipment." **If there is one book I would buy, it would be this one**, It looks as useful and as practical as the PRIM manual. (Although not as extensive.) Check it out! Rating: 5 []

4) This link takes you directly to a nice article on differentiated instruction in a PE class. It gives you very practical, concrete ideas for adaptations for students not only with a variety of disabilities, but simply for students who are diverse learners. I find that the article is presented in a very sensitive manner. It focuses on knowing the learner, assessing the learner, and grouping students for learning. This one is a keeper! Rating: 5 http://www.palaestra.com/

5) This video shows a variety of students with special needs, ages preschool through H.S., participating mostly in general Ed. PE classes. It is not real instructive, but gives some ideas, particularly for a student who is vision impaired. Rating: 4 media type="youtube" key="R5hTa3X4u1A" height="322" width="428" align="center"

6) This video is not instructive, but shows a neat idea. All the students are riding on something with wheels, whether it is 1,2,3,or 4 wheels. They ride in patterns which require individual and team work. I think this is a great universal design for the class. Rating: 3 media type="youtube" key="6W5NBsEjj4E" height="315" width="420"

7) This video is of a workshop where a presenter teaches loads of fun PE games with all kinds of adaptive ideas that she explains along the way. Rating: 5 media type="youtube" key="j65bARcKmU0" height="315" width="560" align="center"

8) This video is not instructive, but shows the idea of putting all the students in office roller chairs to play basketball in a general ed. PE class. The video showed one student who was in the game in an electric wheelchair. This is another interesting idea for a universal design. I wonder what other designs would work? Rating: 3 media type="youtube" key="6TzNLDXrgC8" height="315" width="420" align="center"

9) Here is a book that has a nice chapter on adaptive P.E. __Elementary Classroom Teachers as Movement Educators__ - Third Edition By Kovar, Combs, Campbell, Napper-Owen, Worrell See Chapter Five "Planning for Children with Diverse and Special Needs"

**Community Based Learning Project**
My community based learning project was to observe Ms. Rachel Berry working with students at Talent Elementary School. Ms. Berry is a special education teacher who teaches students with special needs in a self- contained classroom. She has 12 students and three aides. Although her classroom is designed for students with special needs only, there was still tremendous developmental diversity within. Observing her teach to this diversity gave me much insight into how I can accommodate students with special needs even though my future classroom will be a general education one. I observed this class for 2 hours from 10:00 AM to 12:00. In that time, we covered the daily schedule, social learning, snack/ recess, and math. Ms. Berry then asked two volunteers to act out a scene with her. She took about 10 seconds to whisper something in their ears. They sat in chairs and she said to the class, “I am the teacher and these are my students. We are going to act out a story.” Then she said, “OK students, it’s time to put away your games and go to your math stations.” The students complained with groans, heads shaking, and continued to pantomime playing a game. Then they all stopped and looked at the class with big smiles and Ms. Berry said, “Put your thumbs up if you think they were in control, and your thumbs down if you think they were out of control.” Most of the class responded. She continued acting out various scenes, with her being the teacher, and using different students, telling her students what their scenario was. Then she asked the class to think of a scenario and share it. One boy suggested that one student show another student his good grade on a worksheet. The student responds by ripping it up. About four students shared, and they acted out those scenes, sometimes with Ms. Berry acting in it, sometimes not. Then she paired students together, moved them to different pockets of the room so they could all work at the same time, and asked them to create a scenario, choose roles and act it out, first being out of control, then being in control. The aides quickly moved towards the groups they felt needed assistance. Nobody performed for anybody else but just did it at the same time in various spaces in the classroom. After about 5 minutes, Ms. Berry called everyone back to the carpet. In order for them to be released for recess/snack, each student had to tell Ms. Berry “I will be in control during (__for example: recess.__)” Ms. Berry had a large jar labeled “Good Choices Jar” in large print, and a tub filled with little objects next to it. After the students sat back on the carpet after their role playing, she put a handful of those objects into the jar saying, “everyone went back to the carpet quickly and quietly.” Half the class had recess and half had snack time. After about 10 minutes, the two groups switched. At snack, students sat at a table in the classroom and ate a provided snack. Aides and Ms. Berry did not interact with them unless they asked for assistance. Ms. Berry stayed in the classroom and the aides left, some to go on break and some to attend to those outside for recess. (The students are monitored by Ms. Berry or one of her aids for every single activity at school.) The students who had recess had a choice to go outside, or stay inside and play games, because it was very cold that day. The students who chose to stay inside sat at a table and played games, again, with no assistance from aides unless they requested it. During this time, there was a boy student who appeared to be very upset. He was sitting at a table alone, banging on the table and rocking noisily back and forth. Ms. Berry talked to him about every five minutes and told him that if he could calm down he could go out to recess. When he did not change his behavior, she told him he might go up another “level.” He became calmer and got to talk on the phone to (who I later found out) was his mother. After recess, the children gathered back on the carpet and were each handed a paper that listed their math work stations. They independently circulated four different stations. Three stations had math worksheets with accompanying manipulatives and one work station had an aide who did tutoring/assessment. When they finished at one station, they checked it off on their paper and put the paper in a box marked “finished papers”. Here is where I observed a variety of skill levels. Some students whizzed through some of the stations while others did it slowly, while one seemed to be concentrating, but could not figure it out. Some students focused independently, and four or five needed help focusing. Focusing devices included: “personal offices” which were three sided stiff boards (like a giant horse’s blinder) that they could place in front of them at their table. Some of these students got these offices on their own initiative, and some got them at the suggestion of Ms. Berry. Some students had timers that the teacher would set next to them that would go off at a designated time. “Skip to the ones you know” was a frequent vocal prompt. Teachers would not correct the problems until the worksheet was fully completed. A boy and girl continually squabbled about sharing the manipulatives. Ms. Berry told them to work at separate tables, but they always ended up back at the same table. Most students rotated all four stations within the hour, and those who finished early were allowed to have free choice playing games. Four students were able to do this. I noticed that one boy did half a sheet at two stations, and the boy and girl squabbling did not finish all four stations. Math lasted for one hour. The students gathered back on the carpet to prepare for lunch. Ms. Berry asked all students to hand her their completely checked off math list. The boy who had squabbled hadn’t finished his list and she told him he couldn’t go to lunch until it was finished. The boy began to cry and an aide helped him figure out which sheet he needed to finish and stayed with him while he did it. He completed it in about 2 minutes. Ms. Berry asked individual students who they would like their buddy to be for lunch. When they told her, she would excuse the pair to line up. They all left as a group for lunch and my observation was done!
 * Observations:**
 * The daily schedule** was presented in a variety of ways: As a large poster with the time, the written activity, and a picture. This was the main one in front of the class when they were sitting in the carpet area. It was also written, same style smaller version, by the door. There was another version without the pictures but with different colored ink for each activity on the opposite side of the room. And finally, it was simply printed, no pictures or color, on an 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper that one student carried with him. Students sat on the carpet and as Ms. Berry asked students what was next on the schedule, students would raise their hands to answer. She reminded them repeatedly about a non- routine event, which was a jazz assembly that afternoon.
 * Social Learning** was a lesson in what it means to be //in control// or //out of control//. She wrote “in control” and “out of control” on the board and wrote a few examples under each category, such as, “fighting” and “mean words” for out of control and “doing your job” for in control. She asked students to pair and share about examples for these two categories and then asked students to raise their hands to tell her and she wrote them on the board. Most students were bubbling with ideas and discussion and one or two were looking elsewhere and not talking. I noticed that aides attempted to engage these students in conversation.
 * Recess/Snack**
 * Math**
 * Preparing for Lunch Recess**

1) Safe, respectful, responsible and on task 2) Level 1: Needed reminders 3) Level 2: Needed reminders and support 4) Level 3: Behavior interfered with learning They also have a category called “Did student complete tasks as expected?”
 * Interview:**
 * Jill**: I noticed that there were 3 students who hadn’t finished their math sheets. Why did you hold accountable only the one boy?
 * Ms. Berry:** I have to treat the students as individuals. For example, the other boy who didn’t finish is new to class. He is just getting used to the routines. He has figured out that at math, we work at different stations, and we sit and work on a worksheet at each station. Even though he is not getting that much work done, he has figured out the routine, and for him, he is doing very well.
 * Jill:** I noticed that you often used the word “level” when you were prompting a student who was not on task. What are the levels?
 * Ms. Berry**: The “levels” refer to our system of consequences with disruptive behaviors. Each child has a daily behavior chart. For each activity, whether it is taking the bus, math, or lunch, they receive a check in one of four categories:
 * Jill:** Do the students fill these out, or the teachers?
 * Ms. Berry**: The teachers fill them out, but they review them with the students each day.
 * Jill:** What are the consequences for the levels?
 * Ms. Berry:** It changes each year depending on what is effective and meaningful to them. As a rule, I hate withholding recess, but I found that with this year’s class it has been very effective.
 * Jill:** What was up with the boy who sat alone at the table and later talked on the phone?
 * Ms. Berry**: He had been mean to a student and I called him on it which was a level one. He responded by getting angrier and acting out, which earned him a level two. This is why he had to sit in at recess. I told him that if he calmed down, he could go out to recess. He wasn’t calming down. He asked me if he could talk to his mother on the phone. I told him that if he calmed down, he could. This isn’t something that we normally do but I thought, “Hey, I’ll give it a try.” Sure enough, he calmed down and got to talk to his mother right at the end of recess from our classroom home. He asked her if he could go home and she said that he couldn’t, but she knew that he would be able to handle it. He accepted this, and, as you saw, was in great spirits for math.
 * Jill:** Tell me about choosing buddies for lunch time**.**
 * Ms. Berry:** This is something that we created this year because there was so much drama! “We were friends but now we’re not, he’s not my friend any more, I want to be her friend, but she’s not being nice to me…” The buddy system means that for the first five minutes of recess, you **have** to play with only you r buddy. After five minutes, you can do whatever you want: be alone, play with other friends, or keep playing with your buddy.
 * Jill:** How has it worked?
 * Ms. Berry**: Great! These students spend so much time together, that this gives them permission to be alone after the first five minutes without hurting anyone else’s feelings.
 * Jill:** Do they always get to choose their buddy?
 * Ms. Berry**: No. I use a lot of different methods to pair them. Sometimes I will purposely pair them with someone they don’t normally play with. Our aides are monitoring heavily those first five minutes at recess, making sure the students are interacting, and getting along well. Also, we have had many sessions to teach them how to have social skills: for example, how to have a conversation, how to play nicely with someone, etc.
 * Jill:** I noticed that the students worked at a variety of developmental levels in math, although it looked like the worksheets were the same for all at each table.
 * Ms. Berry**: The worksheets are the same, but what they are doing on them might be different. For example, at the station where a child rolled the di and had to write down the number above or below it, some of the students were rolling two dice and figuring out the sum.
 * Jill:** So the students know about their modifications, even if it is not written on the paper?
 * Ms. Berry:** Yes. The modifications are something that we are constantly monitoring and changing. It is a challenge.

I was thrilled to be in Ms. Berry’s class. The general atmosphere was relaxed and happy. I could see evidence of creative modifications and unique problem solving everywhere. It was heartening to see 12 students with 4 adults. I felt, in general, that the students were constantly being taught to be responsible and aware, both socially and academically. Ms. Berry was strict and quickly held her students accountable for inappropriate behavior, but she was also very friendly, loving, and flexible. As evidenced by the boy who called his mother, she is willing to try new and “out of the box” ideas to help her students. I was very impressed at the sequence of activities during “Social Learning”. Moving from: modeling, to discussion, to role playing, first with her ideas and her acting, then to their ideas and acting, and finally to the whole class participating in independent groups worked so smoothly. I was also impressed that she modified the consequences of rules for each individual child. I believe the evidence of order and routine gave students confidence and helped them to be independent because they knew what was expected of them. Clearly the students liked and respected her and there was a lot of joy in that classroom. Even though I will teach a general education class, I will still have a classroom full of individuals and observing Ms. Berry’s class has armed me with some great ideas!
 * Reflection:**