Archive for the ‘Poduct Reviews’ Category

Body Mass Index Calculator

Monday, November 9th, 2009

It has been brought to our attention that the FitMet Body Bass Index Calculator is currently not working on the both Safari and Microsoft Explore web browsers.  Currently, the calculator does work with Firefox.  Also, the Centers for Disease Control links for the male and female BMI growth charts are broken as well.  We will find the new links for the CDC Growth charts and fix both problems.  FitMet apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused you in you classrooms.

Please check in periodically.  We will let you know when these issues have been resolved.

Posted in Body Composition, Fitness Testing, Miscellaneous, Poduct Reviews, Technology | No Comments »

Book Review–Bonnie Mohnsen’s Teaching Middle School Physical Education

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

By John Kruse

Using state content standards to teach physical education can be a daunting task. As a middle school physical education teacher, I often see teachers of sixth, seventh and eighth grade teach the same lesson all day long. They teach the same lesson regardless of the students’ needs, skills or developmental level. I’m not sure if this is due to laziness or if its because these teachers haven’t looked at the standards closely enough to realize there is a developmental progression that builds on previous years.

Bonnie Mohnsen’s third edition of Teaching Middle School Physical Education, A Standards Based Approach for Grades 5-8 presents an excellent model of how these grades should differ in their curriculum. This book presents sample units for grades five through eight and the reader will clearly see how these grades should differ in both content and focus.

Mohnsen is probably best know in physical education circles for technology. She is the CEO and president of Bonnie’s Fitware. Her previous experience as a middle school physical education teacher shows in her writing. In other words, this text provides practicle applications that are not coming form an “ivory tower” approach. The book is very well researched and uses these professional resources as support for the suggested practices found in each chapter. Mohnsen presents a good foundation up front on such issues as grading, assessment, teaching environment, choosing equipment and teaching styles. The book is particulary useful for someone who is new to the profession or someone who is looking for some new ideas.

Teaching Middle School Physical Education uses national physical education standards as a guide. As a result, a teacher needs to realize that the book is only an example and is not meant to be a cookie cutter approach to teaching. Teachers will need to use the examples to creat their own lessons based on their own states physical education content standards.

Teaching Middle School Physical Education is 584 pages in length. The book is comes in a soft cover and the third addition also includes a CD-ROM with examples of task cards and detailed lesson plans that can be purchased to accompany the text. The ISBN# is 13:987-0-7360-6849-9.

Click here for Bonnie Mohnsen’s blog.

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Six Things to Consider Before Purchasing Pedometers for Your Classroom

Monday, July 27th, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Part 4 of a 4 part series.

While teachers may find pedometers to be a valuable way to incorporate technology and to provide motivation, there are a few drawbacks. All of these should be considered before purchasing a class set and when developing lessons.

  1. Accuracy. Pedometers are not always 100% accurate. A pedometer can be fooled into thinking its moving when it is not. Pedometers are not always accurate with counting steps from obese children. This is due to the fact that pedometers need to be perpendicular to the ground for the sensor to work and obese children might not be able to get that position on their waist band.
  2. Cheating. A student can easily cheat using a pedometer. Students will quickly learn that shaking the pedometer can add steps, even while sitting. Also, a student can tap the top of the pedometer to add steps.
  3. Expense. Pedometers are cheaper than heart rate monitors but they can still be in the $10-$20 for each pedometer. When this happens it becomes very expensive for a teacher to have a class set of pedometers. This will cause a teacher to need to share the pedometers with groups of students and rotate the groups every class period.
  4. Missing in Action. Pedometers can be easily lost or stolen. Since they are so small a pedometer that is dropped can be difficult to find. A student can easily walk away with one of your pedometers during class and forget that they had one on.
  5. Instructional Time. Tracking data can be slow. Even if you get your students to fill out their tracking forms in five minutes, it has still caused them to lose valuable movement time. The first few times they use a pedometer you will be spending time helping to get them attached to waist bands and reminding them how to reset the pedometer.
  6. Break downs. A pedometer will break or need repairs. Since pedometers are small they will break from time to time with repeated use. They will need to be replaced. Also, pedometers are run on batteries. These batteries lose power and need to be replaced.

Despite these problems, I’ve found pedometers to be useful in my classes. You want to be able to keep your investment for a long time and having thought through these issues will help.

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A Tale of Two Whistles

Monday, July 20th, 2009
My Two Whistles

My Two Whistles

By John Kruse

Have you ever thought about what the best whistle is for a physical educator? I can’t say I’ve tried them all, however, I have tried two of the more popular makes.

On my first day of student teaching I showed up without a whistle and my master teacher handed me “The ACME Thunderer” stating that it was the best whistle. Not knowing any better, I took his word for it and somehow managed to make it through my student teaching without giving the subject of whistles much thought.

Years later, I misplaced my whistle and discovered it was difficult to get through the day without one. After all, I’m at a really big middle school and have to deal with the noise of eight or nine other teachers’ students. In desperation, I drove to the local Sport Chalet near my house and discovered that they did not sell “The ACME Thunderer.” They did however, sell a whistle that many professional sports officials use called the “Fox 40 Classic.” At the time I can remember thinking that if it was good enough for the NBA, it had to be good enough for a physical education teacher.

The next day, I broke out the Fox 40 Classic and gave it a try. Wow! It had an ear piercing high pitch that could be heard across the blacktop. It was so loud that it kind of hurt my own ears. Students who were a few feet away would complain about the sound a grasp their ears like a toddler ignoring their parents command for bedtime.

Weeks later I found my Thunderer and decided it was time to compare the two. While the Fox 40 Classic was really loud and conspicuous, the Thunderer allowed for more of a custom sound. With a bit of practice, you could really vary the pitch, volume and “whirlyness.” In addition, students really didn’t complain about this whistle and it really didn’t bother my ears either.

To this day, I still carry around both whistles and decide to change it up a bit now and then. More often than not, I regret using the Fox 40 Classic when I do decide to use it.

My advice is this. If you are new to the profession or a veteran looking for a new toy, give the Thunderer a try. My master teacher was correct. In my eyes and ears, its the best. On the other hand, if I was lost in a the wild, I’d want my Fox 40.

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Posted in Classroom management, Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous, Poduct Reviews | 1 Comment »

“Super Size Me” DVD–Educational Review

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

By Matthew Bassett

Part one of a two-part series.

Synopsis
“Super Size Me” is a documentary video (Copyright 2004) that follows Morgan Spurlock for thirty days.  Morgan starts the documentary by talking about obesity trends that have risen in the United States and how corporate America avoids taking responsibility. He sets out to eat at McDonalds for thirty straight days to determine if fast foods can have a negative effect on his overall health. Morgan receives supervision by three different doctors: a general practitioner, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist.  These doctors record the data from medical tests during the thirty days. Morgan is given a clean bill of health by all three doctors and told that eating McDonalds for thirty days isn’t the best choice. He is informed that the body will adapt and Morgan will be fine. Over the course of the thirty days, Morgan’s health deteriorates. By the end of the film, Morgan reports that he has gained 24.5 pounds. His liver has turned to fat.  His cholesterol levels have risen to 230 (up 65 points). His body fat has risen 7% and doubled his risk of Coronary Heart Disease.  In addition, he experiences massive cravings, headaches, depression, exhaustion and mood swings.

For this instructional video, the original film has been edited and modified for use in middle school and high school. The DVD also comes with a curriculum guide and has lessons on behaviors and life skills, health, language arts, math, physical education, science, and social studies. The video can be shown in normal format or in pop-up format. The pop-up format shows various tid-bits that “pop-up” on the screen. It also has optional scenes that were edited out of the movie that can be chosen throughout the film. Finally, the DVD can be divided up into lessons that show smaller video segments with questions and activities for students to complete. This is helpful if you want to avoid showing the full video.

Review
I found out about the educational version of “Super Size Me” in late 2007. I purchased my own copy during Christmas break and presented the idea of using this as a lesson focus to my principal. After discussion with my principal about showing this video, she wanted to send home a letter to the parents.

I started using this DVD during the 2007-2008 school year. Many of my students eat out on a regular basis and I wanted to show them the effects of poor nutrition and limited physical activity on the human body. I show the whole video over the course of 3-4 days and I have students answer some questions throughout the film.

“Super Size Me” can be a great tool for getting students to understand the importance of proper nutrition and the need to exercise. You can simply show the video to your students or you can follow their curriculum guides for one of many lessons in physical education, health or another curricular area.

Next Week: Tips on using “Super Size Me” in class.

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