Parents

[lordie4]

How does one teach new ideas to students whose parents have literally held their hand their entire life, and the child refuses to have an open mind for new activities?

[kathy.lacey]

It took me awhile to come to grips with this in my classes since I have brought my own kids up to try new things. But I have to keep reminding myself that it's not the child's fault. When the student feels safe in your class (no one will make fun of them, they won't be hurt, etc.), they will begin to feel comfortable trying new activities. I never force a student to participate. However, they may not go off and do their own thing either. They may participate in the activity or stand by and watch until they feel comfortable. Most often, the student sees how much fun everyone else is having and wants to join in with the fun, too. Sometimes this takes a few weeks, other times, just 1 or 2 class periods. I do try to "over encourage" their participation and praise them big time when they do step in.

[leanne]

I completely know how you feel. This being my first year teaching I have a few students that will not participate on certain days because I play a game differently than their previous teacher or don't baby them like their parents would. Motivation helps the most when getting them to participate. I've also realized that if i dare them to do something or challenge them to do it, they will try to prove me wrong and "do" it.

[Megafit]

When a child exhibits a courageous change in behavior, such as overcoming apprehension, they receive a Giraffe Hero card in the mail to their home.

The card says: "You are a giraffe hero! Thanks for sticking your neck out to make a difference in PE."
The card has the date, the name of the student, and what the student specifically did. I sign it and send it. They love it.

[jmd0997]

I had the opportunity to coach a middle school track and field team. Some of my student atheletes fit your catagorie. Not extremely stubborn, but set in their ways if you will. All I did to try and correct this was asked them to try something new. That worked most of the time, but once. I explained to the student that even though whomever showed them the activity, I can make you better by introducing a new element on top of what they thought was the only way.

[luisavmeyer]

I see the issue of not trying new activities more with children that have been in structured sports after school (and really "serious" about it). Some of these children seem not to have fun if they are not doing the "official sport" of their choice.

One way to overcome this is having a program that does not look much like an "official" sport. After all, we're teaching skills that could and should be transferred to different activities and we should be teaching life-long activities. In Physical Education we are not creating top class athletes.

When I introduce a new activity I usually ask: Who plays baseball? (Many hands go up), then I go on saying: Well, this is a bit similar to baseball but is a completely new game. I explain that baseball (for example) has very specific rules, and that our new game uses some of the baseball skills but in another environment, or using different equipment, etc. I usually come up with a whacky name that will help them think of the activity as something totally different and fun.

I also let them know that many of the professional athletes they admire started playing different sports when they were children, and the variety of skills they learned led them to be a successful athlete.