Shut down, reset, and start again but make sure you first stop, reflect so you are ready.
The title of my blog is inspired by movement and that title came to my mind during one of my runs a few years ago.
I have started training again for an upcoming run, a famous one that you might know, it’s called the Angkor Wat International Marathon which this year happens to be the 25th year.
On Saturday I ran 16km, not a very fast pace, 6m per km or even a bit slower, and had to stop two times, one of them to buy some water because it was quite steamy outside. During one of these two stops, I decided to stretch a bit to recover my breath and then, this man walked by me, and smiled at me with his thumb up. Cambodian people are really kind, they always smile at you but this time, there was something else, he was empowering me, and I was grateful for that.
On Sunday I went running again, and this time I decided to try a new route, crossing the river on a big bridge to get to an island in the Mekong river. I just happened to see someone how was struggling on his run, and, somehow, I remember how the man from the day before had empowered me with a simple “thumb up” so I did the same. I got a beautiful smile from that runner, so now, I was on a mission, I decided to inspire others. I saw two more runners and I got two more smiles, which was refreshing, I wonder if they would do the same for others.
As I was running, I started to feel stronger and more positive, yes, I know, physical activity help you to get that feeling, but somehow, before I felt more tired, and I realized why.
As teachers, this pandemic is slowly draining us, we have been feeling more and more tired and with new duties and responsibilities, working harder, even if we try smarter, and with less energy.
Today I came to realize the importance of stopping, reflecting and deleting what is not need it in our brain and I encourage you to do the same. Find the time to do it, you will appreciate the effort.
Then, you’ll be ready to shut down, reset and start fresh!
Good luck!
By the way, today’s run resulted in 10km, jumping in a ferry that waited for me while I sped up to make sure I made it on time, a light rain and a better speed.
We launched “Gratitude Month, November” a few weeks ago. It’s such an important thing to show appreciation for others, and it’s amazing to see how much it can mean to people. Today, we started delivering some of the cards to staff members, and it was beautiful to see how their eyes were shining when they received them. It’s like they felt truly appreciated and valued for the work they do.
I’ve always believed in the power of gratitude, but this experience has really reinforced that belief. It’s incredible how taking just a few minutes a day to feel grateful for others and what life has to offer can make such a difference. It’s not just about making someone else feel good, but it also brings a sense of joy and fulfillment to ourselves.
I want to thank everyone on the Employee Wellness Committee at ISPP for organizing this initiative and giving us the opportunity to express our gratitude to the staff members. It’s a reminder that we should never take people for granted and that a simple act of appreciation can go a long way. I hope that this month of gratitude will continue to spread positivity and kindness throughout our school community.
Every year in January, I like to think of a word that helps me achieve an overall goal.
This year my word was “Present”
Not present as a gift, present as “be here now”
I’m a bit of what we call a day-dreamer, and can easily get lost in my thoughts. In addition to that, I do perhaps, similar to you, do so much every day that I need to be really organized for “what’s coming next”
Last year I coached two seasons of swimming, cross country, and junior volleyball.
I am a PE teacher and a lifelong learner, so I participated in different training and organized various events within my role of PE and with my team. To name a few, we organized the Sports Days (three in a row), the Angkor Wat Bike trip, an event where students cycle around the Angkor Wat temples, the PHE Week, where ES and SS students share their learning experiences, teaching each other, the swimming wipeout, for the whole ES, a fun event in the pool…
I was able to partake in “Positive Education” and “Cognitive Coaching” training as well as go to Phuket to a Physed Conference and present for other teachers around the world as well as learn from them.
As part of being a coach, many weekends were dedicated to competitions, including some traveling to Vietnam to chaperone the volleyball team. I was very happy about all these activities, events and learning experiences but I was also exhausted and definitely not always as present as I wanted to be.
I have been reflecting on this for a few months and really wanted to sit down and take a moment to write it down because I feel it’s important to pause, reflect and learn from what we did. That’s how learning sticks, and that’s how we get those annoying thoughts out of our minds.
I am happy that I choose “Present” as my word for the year and I’m mindful of those times when I am most present.
During the summer we traveled back to Europe, to Spain and Holland. While in Spain we went to the north and rented a house where there was no internet. Purposely I did not buy a sim card. The result: I only used my phone from time to time to take pictures, and spent much more quality time with my family surfing, running, and swimming in the ocean as well as playing with my kids and their cousins.
If you ever get a chance, give it a try!
This just made me think of how many distractions our phones and devices offer us constantly. During the “Positive Education” course, something that really struck me was the power of not having your device on the table, even upside down, when you want to work on something.
I feel that that’s a great tip. Another one is to be sure to allow yourself enough brain booster moments, moving around and not sitting for too long.
And as for me, I am going to try and build some “present times around my day” where if I’m going off to walk or run I can feel the wind brushing my skin, listen to the wind, birds, or whatever sound I can hear and just simply be more in the moment.
Seeing Panda’s inability to find joy in the present moment, Grand Master Oogway says, “You are too concerned with what was and what will be.Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.That is why it is called present.”
This year the famous migration to Angkor Wat from Phnom Penh happened in the middle of March. Eighty students and thirteen chaperones traveled to Siem Reap to ride bikes around the Angkor Wat temples.
This is my 6th year organizing the trip with the PE team and I feel since most of us have done it now for at least 3 or 4 years, it just gets easier every time. It has changed over the years from its previous way of being when it used to be a “bike race” organized by Bike4kids.com and the run as part of the annual “Angkor Wat International Half Marathon”
As I said to our whole team, “It takes a village” and it really does.
The positive attitude of students and teachers since the beginning of the trip really help to make this experience a positive one for all.
Students cycled in the early morning on Saturday around the Angkor Thom complex.
Angkor Thom (Khmer: អង្គរធំ [ʔɑŋkɔː tʰom]; meaning “Great City”), was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer Empire. It was established in the late twelfth century by King Jayavarman VII.[1]: 378–382 [2]: 170 It covers an area of 9 km², within which are located several monuments from earlier eras as well as those established by Jayavarman and his successors. At the center of the city is Jayavarman’s state temple, the Bayon, with the other major sites clustered around Victory Square immediately to the north. The site is one of the major tourist attractions of southeast Asia.
The bike ride is beautiful. We go over the rampart wall entering the complex by the south gate of Angkor Thom, a very famous spot within Angkor Archeological Park. Admiring the sheer scale, we find ourselves drifting back in time to imagine how it must have felt to approach this spectacular city in its prosperity times is an experience all of us will hold forever.
This year we had 80 kids and divided them into 5 biking groups by skill level with 2, 3, or 4 chaperones, depending on their level and needs.
The route is beautiful, a bit challenging for some, and easier for others, like everything else in life.
I’m glad my son got to experience this opportunity while living in Cambodia and ride bikes, swim in the pool or play games, and walk around the Angkor Wat temples with his friends.
Students will treasure these memories forever, and I will too.
How do we foster meaningful experiences in physical education?
As teachers, as we plan our units, are we thinking of what is relevant for students? Or shall we call them experiences instead of units? What will bring them joy? What will help them develop interpersonal skills? Perhaps improve their motor competence? Is fun a critical element to fostering meaningful experiences?
After a few years of online school and disrupted learning due to the coronavirus infection, we are back face to face and minimizing restrictions. This has had a significant impact on our teaching and learning.
This year I’m also teaching grade five learners again, and our second transdisciplinary unit was “How We Express Ourselves” a rhythmic gymnastics experience in our PE lessons. We were able to plan for intentional and continuous learning exploring the commonalities and different points of view from the classroom teachers, the arts, and physical education.
This year we wanted to use the meaningful PE approach in this experience and we added the creativity feature as we thought it could be relevant to the students learning and understanding of the unit.
So we started the unit by asking the students “How this experience can be meaningful to me?”
And documented it using a large piece of paper for each feature of the meaningful PE approach
Students had 2 or 3 minutes to add their ideas on the paper, then they passed it to another group. We did this with all 6 features.
This whole activity didn’t take more than 15 minutes
During the first week, we had a number of activities for students to learn, practice and develop basic gymnastics skills such as rols, balances, jumps and leaps.
Students adding play which makes it more fun and meaningful for them
The week after we starting introducing different rhythmic gymnastics apparatus, ball, hoop and ribbon.
Students explored different ways to move the different apparatus, as well as to combine them with different gymnastics’ skills.
We had QR codes with expert videos for them to learn more about it, and teachers were facilitators of learning.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go fast, go together. African Proverb”
Today I am prioritizing the reflection time over the planning time. We constantly ask students to reflect on their learning and document that as well, but I catch myself not giving enough time to pause and write to keep my thoughts in one place.
This week we are finalizing the Adventure Challenge unit and a few days ago something happened in class that just made me appreciate the support I get from my PE TAs even more. We had an issue with the iPads and instead of 10, we only had 3 working with their seesaw ready to go.
In the other 2 classes, I had students pairing up and working on the reflection together. They first had to think on their own, then, they could make a video together and upload it into their Seesaw to share with families. The reflection looked like this:
G2 Cooperative Games Reflection
Name Class
Circle the words that come back to mind when you think back on our experience. Please record on Seesaw why you choose those words.
Respect
Teamwork
Listening
Sharing Ideas
Record on Seesaw:
Something I found difficult in this unit was
Something I really enjoyed in this unit was
Since I had 20 students and only 3 iPads I decided to just “interview” students in small groups. That meant having the rest of the class play a cooperation game the rest of the time. My TA was amazing, proactive, and totally saved the day.
He ran the activity and was sending kids to me as I finished interviewing the others and doing some “magic” to upload all the posts in that very same lesson. Students were able to do their reflection and take part in the learning, playing with their teammates, before and after the reflection.
I was so grateful to have this kind of support, and I think it starts by making sure we acknowledge our TAs and the work they do to support our learners and to support us. Teamwork is essential, not only while playing cooperative games but every day. Building a positive environment pays off!
I love gymnastics, and I always get very excited when the time comes to teach this unit. This year though, the day before I started the actual unit I broke my ankle and had to be on a cast for four weeks. This meant that for the first ten days I was out of school, which was quite disappointing. Thankfully, the subs were able to teach the lessons so students did not miss the unit. For this unit, I wanted to use the meaningful PE approach, and this happened once I got back to class. With grade four students we agreed on what success criteria would look like.
We have a gymnastics room on the third floor of a building. Students could use different apparatus such as the vaulting, the balance beam, and the floor once they were there with the sub. When I came back to school after two weeks of the injury, I still had the cast on and it was hard for me to walk that far. So we used one of the gyms, brought lots of mats, and focused on the floor. The students started to create their movement composition having in mind the success criteria we talked about and agreed upon.
I did something similar in G2, just adjusted it a little bit.
G2 Gymnastics Movement Composition Success Criteria
Central Idea:Balances, rolls, travel, and jumps are elements of a gymnastics performance.
You have to compose a gymnastic movement composition individually or w. Your movement composition must have at least 5 different skills. (balances, rolls, and weight transfers) That would be one of the ways to perform for your audience.
I can compose a gymnastics movement composition (performance) that:
starts with a balance
has different rolls ( for example, forward roll, pencil roll)
has at least different weight transfers ( for example, cartwheel, handstand, headstand)
My performance is continuous throughout (flow)
My performance movements are controlled (control and proper form)
My performance movements have a sequence
My performance has smooth transitions most of the time (style)
My Plan
Part
Draw or Name your Movement Pattern
1
Balance (starting position)
2
3
4
5
Optional (add more if you want)
How can we make this a meaningful experience for them?
Many of us have done movement compositions previously and asked students to perform several skills, so how is this different from what we have done previously? This year the gymnastics unit was a real CHALLENGE for all. Why? Well, for the past two years, students have been online during this unit, so they missed many of the experiences in the gymnastics room, using different apparatus and especially the body control. We did practice a few skills while being online however, we were limited to doing balances and rolls for safety reasons. And I had a cast on, so my mobility was very limited as well as the capacity to demonstrate the skills. In the gym, we had arranged a few mats for them to practice the skills before they started working on their movement composition, so there were different stations to practice, for instance, rolls, headstands (mats by the wall), handstands (mats by the wall) and cartwheels.
Soon, students started working on their compositions.
When I asked a few 4th graders to show me what they have created so far, they first showed me the paper with their ideas, and I asked them. “Ah, this is nice. Do you know how to do a cartwheel? How about a headstand?” They both struggled with that, so I told them they had to find a way to show that they could transfer the weight from feet to hands. We agreed that “mule kicks” was something they could work towards too and do. They were much happier and had a “just right” challenge in mind.
We also added blocks to support students who wanted to do headstands or handstands but didn’t have the balance to perform them during their floor routine. For them, knowing that they had those blocks helped them to keep practicing. Some of them did not need them during their actual performance. Social interaction was huge in this unit too. I let the students choose their groups or do it individually, although most chose to be in a group. Quarantine times were an additional challenge as members of a group would be in and out depending on the week. So the students had to be creative and adjust their routines, learn a new one, join a new group, etc. We talked about motor competence and what they did to improve their skills. We did peer feedback, teacher feedback, and self-feedback using video so they could understand what we were talking about when we told them: “Bring your hips up, or stretch your legs, point your toes…” We also had some “check-in” lessons that helped us think about where we were in the unit
Grade two students were very creative and choose to do partner balances which helped to enhance their performance.
In previous years we had invited teachers and admin. to watch the gymnastics performances. We even ran an assembly for the whole ES. This year was different, but we still got to share our floor movement compositions with families and homeroom teachers through a digital platform called “Seesaw” Grade two had an assembly and several of their performances were added as short clips to the assembly too.
We wrapped our unit with some reflections. I wrote down a few questions to guide the reflection, and students recorded themselves in Seesaw adding their thoughts on this unit.
This is the G2 reflection that I added as an activity in Seesaw.
I forgot to mention that apart from the movement composition, the students were invited to use other apparatus to share a favorite skill or something they improved during this unit. That was optional, yet many students chose to do it, which was great to see!
Last summer I read the “Meaningful Physical Education: An Approach for Teaching and Learning” book edited by Tim Fletcher, Déirdre Ní Chróinín, Douglas Gleddie, and Stephanie Beni.
I was really interested in applying this type of framework in my lessons and I tried to introduce it with my grade 4 students while being online but it wasn’t that meaningful or successful.
After 8 months of teaching remotely, the school finally opened and we thought that after a few weeks of doing a very short and intense “Adventure Challenge, Cooperative Games unit” we will start with the Individual Pursuits, Athletics Unit.
I thought it was the perfect moment to really introduce the framework and learn along with students.
During this unit of inquiry, we really tried to encourage students to work on their endurance in G4. That was one of the targets. This year was going to be challenging. Many kids DO NOT enjoy running as I do and many did none or very little physical activity while being online. That was one of our biggest concerns, the student’s health and something we could not control, just try to help and bring awareness.
So when we started planning this unit we were not sure how many students will be able to run or even fast walk a whole lap around the field.
We came up with an idea and it was a total success!
I created this poster and told the kids to choose where they thought they were that very first day. And everyone did, everyone found their way to run, even if it was just a little bit, and they were all SO happy. I think they felt the empathy of being unfit.
And we used this for a few more lessons as a warm-up idea. Many kids pushed themselves quite quickly and, of course, they were a few who wanted to do MORE than 2 laps around the whole field.
Then we thought that running was a good idea to start the lesson and to warm up, but I wanted to see if the kids had other thoughts in mind. And they did.
So we introduced more activities. They could still use that poster and also choose to work on their skipping ropes skills as well as ride bikes around the field ( not an easy task, by the way)
Mentor booksJump RopesBike Riding
During the unit, learners set up goals and work toward those goals usually with a partner they could check in with and support each other.
I like to check with students for understanding and sometimes, to be sure every voice is heard a quickly written 5-minute self-reflection is needed.
I had students thinking of this on their own:
Individual Pursuits-Athletics
Central Idea: Experiences in athletics, help us to develop our skills and set personal goals
What is meaningful to you in athletics? Why?
If you are not too sure think of the events we have practiced and your goal. Why did you choose this goal? What’s special about it?
Their responses gave me some information on what they knew about the unit, but it gave them an idea of where they were at too.
I decided that the feature of challenge and personal challenge could be the most relevant for learners in this unit, but I still introduced the other features to them.
I can’t remember where I found this poster, but I am attaching it here for your reference:
Then, we worked on this together:
What is the MOST, LEAST, and JUST RIGHT challenge for you in athletics?
Before I explain this, I’d like to thank Andy Vasily, Jorge Rogriguez, Zack Smith and Ty Riddick who inspired me in different ways to come up with this idea.
Every student had a number assigned and as I called their number their got a RED sticker for the MOST challenging event, a YELLOW sticker for the LEAST challenging event and a GREEN sticker for the “JUST RIGHT” event.
This made them reflect on their learning and think of what they really wanted to work on as well as think if that was related to their goal. In the picture, the “white” is yellow as I didn’t have any yellow stickers at that time.
This year we changed our central idea and all the grade levels had the same one:
“Experiences in athletics, help us to develop our skills and set personal goals.”
I really liked how we highlighted the word “experiences” That’s all we want to bring and create for students. Meaningful experiences that they will remember and adapt to their own settings. Developing skills also was important for us as learners understood that the techniques helped them to improve their performances and therefore it was related to their goal oftentimes.
This is the Success Criteria we used for this unit.
Once again, I had students using the three colors to determine how they felt, although I realized later that maybe they could have had more than just one green, or one red or yellow.
Inspired by Andy Vasily’s blog and his PYP journey, we talked about what are some ingredients that can help you be successful in your athletics journey.
The big celebration of our success was to have the Sports Days before the winter break holidays.
Usually, parents are invited to this type of event, but because of the measures to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks, we had to limit the numbers.
We had 3 Sports Days. One for EY, KG, and grade 1 students.
Another one for grades 2 and 3 and finally the last one with grade 4 and 5 athletes.
We were thrilled to be able to run these activities and see so many smiles around the field.
Students competed in grades 2-5 for their house color in the different events. The youngest wore their house shirt and had a wonderful time playing and exploring the different events.
We have 4 houses at ISPP, Mekong (blue) Bayon (orange) Kouprey (green) and Lotus (green)
The enthusiasm was palpable, the energy was floating around and everyone was simply, so happy!
This year we introduced the relays in grades 2-5 to race during Sports Days. Everyone took part in it. It was amazing the see these little athletes pushing themselves as well as encouraging each other and giving air hugs after the races!
I consider myself fortunate and lucky to be in Cambodia, a country that has struggled in the near past, with beautiful people and amazing forests, temples, jungle and islands, the Kingdom of Wonders.
This has been a pretty great place to be during Covid-19 times, actually. Last year we were teaching online from March till June and started face to face in late August with a few weeks online in November and December.
After the winter break we were able to go back to school, teach face to face and even organize sports events, Sports Days for the elementary school and a bike trip in the forest temples of Angkor Wat. We knew that at any time things could reverse, and that this would mean to go back online.
On February 19th we went to Angkor Wat with 60 students and 12 chaperones in 4 buses to be sure that we respected the safety distance and other hygiene protocols. The bike ride happened early in the morning, so there are not many vehicles on the roads, although we tried to be off road as we could.
We had a blast. It was the perfect day, the kids were so excited and cycling in the forest, listening to the birds and other creatures that lived there was like music for our ears. Breathing the pure air throughout our masks and smiling, not only with our mouths, but also with our eyes and hearts. We were so happy!
As we finished the bike ride and were bringing the bikes back in the trucks I saw the terrible news. 25 new cases of Covid-19 in Phnom Penh. Anywhere else in the world, this might sound like a joke, but in this country, the official numbers have been very low, until now.
I couldn’t believe it. We were in Siem Reap, we felt so fortunate that this happened once our trip was up and running and after the bike ride. The weekend kept on going, we visited the temples with the students in the afternoon, and went back to Phnom Penh on the day after, grateful for an awesome trip and for the opportunity to have been able to run it.
On Monday we went back to school, quite rare, as after every single breakout, once of the first things that happened was to close all the schools. And Monday night we had the news, schools closed, online learning will be happening from tomorrow.
And so now it’s been two weeks, with a three day holiday in between.
‘’Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success’’
Shiv Kera
If you are a teacher with young kids you might relate with me. It gets full on at home just helping my kids with their tasks, so I decided to be intentional about it and be present.
My husband is also a teacher and most of his lessons are synchronous, which means that he doesn’t have much time in the mornings to be with the little ones. I do, so I feel lucky that I can do my job at a different time of the day.
Some of the positives of these uncertain times are to be able to run early in the morning, we take turns with my husband, as well as spending more time with my family.
We are been very creative about the games and activities we do and learning how to best support each other.
A month ago, our helper had to go back home, so while we are finding a new one, we are also finding times to do all the chores of the house as well as cook. It’s been challenging at times, but a great learning and a way of appreciating the little things.
My aim with this post is to reming myself all the positives that can be around us, they are very powerful and can totally change your perspective.
As we approach our second week of online school, our second time to suddenly move from face to face to a last-minute closure of the school, I reflect on my wellness.
“Health is a state of body. Wellness is a state of being.”
J. Standford
Yes, we know, this is a pandemic year or pandemic times I should say. Honestly, the way we lived this Covid-19 situation in Cambodia was quite different than in other countries. We never understood while life seemed to be as “normal” as you can think outside of school, people going out, to markets, to pools, on holidays… and only a few wearing face masks.
In school, we adopted safety protocols and we have been following the government, the ministry of education protocols that had evolved to “more” physical activity, more equipment, the opening of the pool, after school activities, and sports practice (even a virtual competition, a virtual Swim Meet) as well as cafeteria and bus services… We were so happy to be back in school, and even if we had to wear masks, keep the distance and maintain hygiene protocols such as washing hands often, using sanitizer and disinfecting equipment after being used, it did not seem like such a big deal anymore. And then, suddenly, an outbreak happened and they closed the schools in Phnom Penh.
G3 athletes inquiring into the best technique and form for hurdlesI can ride my bike now! G1 learner
First in November, two weeks of online school, then back to school for a week, then, again, a community outbreak happened which meant a new closure of schools three weeks before the winter break.
And, yes, it does affect us, it affects us all, in different ways. It affects learners who need to spend several hours sitting in front of a device, who are missing the daily interactions with friends, running around with them, playing, sharing their stories. It affects us, teachers, So we need to be aware of it and take care of ourselves, but how?
Yummy tropical fruits
The Wellness Committee met and discussed how to best support staff during these uncertain times. This year most of us will not be able to travel to meet our families, and this situation affects us. Many people are already stressed, tired, juggling things, and trying to figure out how to balance their lives.
An idea that came from that meeting, among many others, was to offer the “Wellness Challenge” to staff for the last weeks of school. As with all the new things, we are aware that many people will not see it as a benefit but as an additional task which might result in not taking part in it. Not long ago, I learned a new term to describe this “beginner’s mind” and I have to say that I quite like it.
A wellness challenge cultivates healthy competition among employees while encouraging positive lifestyle behaviors, such as working out or eating right. Wellness challenges, when properly designed and executed, have a variety of benefits for both the individuals and the community. Promotion of healthy, lasting habits, better mind and body health, and improved interpersonal relationships are some of the advantages of this type of challenge.
During this second sudden closure of the school, I spotted many staff members going for a walk after their lunch or during morning breaks, a few running on the field, some playing badminton, and also a few going to the pool to swim their laps. All these are related to physical wellness and physical health. I wonder how many were able to do something within the other categories.
Opt Outside!
Well, this is our “Choose your Wellness Challenge” in case you want to take a look, tweak it and use it.
My dear friend Laura, took the time to curate all these resources and share them so we can all learn more about race, our kids, our students, our family members and, especially, us.
I am adding this padlet with a tone of resources so, together, we can create a world of justice and respect. We know a few things, we need to learn many, many more.
Thanks for reading, hopefully, I was able to inspire you somehow.
inspiredbymovement 