Give um a ZERO!

Well, yesterday we had a big discussion on giving students zero's for missing assignments. The argument was to either give them an incomplete or a 50 for a hundred point scale. I feel that if the grades are weighted correctly, giving a student a "0" will not significantly hurt their grade. I also feel it is our jobs as teachers to teach responsibility in that a student should know that if they do not do an assignment or refuse to, they will be given a zero for that assignment. I do believe in allowing a certain time period to make up the assignment but anything past that time period, the student gets a zero. How do you feel about giving students a 50, which is a fail on a 100 point scale, compared to giving them a zero for not turing in assignments.

Safety first!!!!!

Today I almost had a student injure himself in our weight lifting class. I have realized ho wimportant it is to continue to go over safety rules in throughout the year. Even though weightroom safety is addressed often, it is important that ALL of the students have a clear understanding of theseriousness of weight room rules and safety. I am going to spend a short time in the first part of class and review particular techniques and saftey issues pertaining to that particular days lifts. Any other ideas out there?

Switch it up!

My cooperating teacher was not here on friday so I took over all of the classes with the sub watching over me. I decided to change the curriculum a little because of such nice weather. Instead of taking the students into the weightroom for fitness training, I decided to take the studnets outside and play ultimate frisbee. They loved it!! Sometimes incoorporating a little change in routine gets the students going. Great day for my first time teaching a full day at the high school level.

Startin to warm up!!

Today was a great day. We had great weather today so my cooperating teacher and I decided to have the students do a 20 min jog after warm ups. Some of the students were excited about this but others still felt it was too cold. My cooperating teacher and I actually decided to jog with the students which we thought we motivate them to take part in the entire run. This plan worked out well. When the students saw Mr. Wolcott and I jogging for the entire 20min, I felt the students tried a little harder to jog for the entire time. Great day overall.

3 day weekend blues!!!

Today seemed as if the students were still on weekend time. My goal today was to start off class with an upbeat, intense warm up to kick it into gear. Well, that did not work. The students seemed to just go through the motions and could not wait untill the bell rang. In the weight training class i let the students know that there work ethic for the day would determin what our end of class abdominal workout would be like. To sum it up, they did a pretty intense ab circuit. How do you get these students motivated to learn and participate after these 3day weekends?

Running out of room!!

I am currently teaching a physical education II class and our small gym floor just sustained heavy water damage. We have three PE classes that are are taking place during the same block. One will be in the weight room and the other is in the big gym. Unfortunatly my class is the odd one out for the next two weeks. It is cuurently too cold to go outside so are there any suggestions out there of what i could do?