Hip-Hop

In 1976 some house parties in the Bronx, NYC gave rise to a phenomenon that is still shaping culture today. Hip-Hop tends to borrow from existing sources: a DJ takes samples and beats from songs and mixes them together to create a new sound score; the MC or rapper borrows from West African folk poets and Jamaican musicians who have been reciting rhymes over percussive beats for centuries; beatboxing stems from ska and scat in jazz; fashion samples from impoverished and even imprisoned human populations; graffiti borrows surfaces other than conventional canvases and displays in unconventional "galleries", but borrows from numerous established and conventional techniques.  But since this is PE, our investigation of Hip-Hop will focus primarily on dancing, which draws from West African dance, East African dance, Capoeira, Jitterbug, gymnastics, and so much more.  At the core, Hip-Hop dance is street dance.

Our use of Hip-Hop is designed to foster strength, coordination, muscle and movement memories, strength, stamina, speed, awareness and rhythm, but also gives us a chance to support creativity, innovation, risk taking and management, and self-expression.

Hip-Hop has been so successful that in just 37 years that the influences can be felt globally.  The "open source" nature of hip-hop, a form that freely borrows from existing forms, allows it to fluidly be adapted by young people world-wide.  Hip Hop is a fusion.  There is salsa-infused Hip-Hop, Jazzy Hip-Hop, Balletic Hip-Hop, Tap-infused Hip-Hop, Bollywood Hip-Hop, even Hula-heavy Hip-Hop.  There is a Hip-Hop movement vocabulary, but there is also an expectation that a dancer manipulates, alters, and varies the vocabulary to establish a unique signature, style, or "trademark".  Take a move and innovate a new way to do it to impress all the b-boys/b-girls in your "crew" or at the "battle".  If you take a move but never make it your own, you are "biting".  You can "bite", but you then have to "flip it" (innovate something new in it or do it your own unique way).

So why Hip-Hop?  Isn't is a celebration of bling and conquest?  Hip-Hop is a reflection of culture as much as it is a culture to in itself.  If a culture celebrates bling and conquest, so will the art generated therein.  If the culture embraces innovation, creativity, self-expression, physical and mental flexibility, whole-bodied health, that is reflected in the art.

Hula and Isolation; Cat & Mouse; Catching Fish

In January most classes spent part of the time learning a Hula dance, which was aimed at our Multicultural Event's focus on Polynesian Culture.  Some students were concerned by or embarrassed about all the isolated movements of the hips, which opened dialog about cultural normalcy of dress, diet, exercise, and movement.  The conversations and context about culture and it's correlations with movement is a useful tool for understanding wellness practices that are as effective as they are unfamiliar.

The study of Hula was neither terribly in-depth nor intense, but serves to tune a students bodily awareness to in isolated group of skeletal muscles; to challenge movement and muscle memory; to challenge directional and spatial awareness; and as an unexpected "foot in the door" for the hip-hop lessons that will follow.

The introspective, low-intensity nature of the Hula lessons were paired with high intensity games of Chase called (Dog&)Cat&Mouse and Catching Fish.  These games requires speed, agility, quick decision-making,  fluid focus, spatial awareness, and attention to detail.

Cat&Mouse is a sprint game of chase.  Students stand in groups of 2 or 3 and serve as bases (or Mouse Holes).  One student is designated Mouse, another is Cat, and you can figure out who is chasing whom.  If the Cat tags the Mouse, the Mouse becomes the Cat (and Cat becomes Mouse) tries to instantly tag back.  Either Cat or Mouse can go to a base of students, join the group, and bump a new Cat or Mouse off the other end.  For a much more challenging version, add a Dog who chases the Cat who chases the Mouse who chases the Dog...

Catching Fish is a version of a Blob Tag and Infection Tag and uses more stamina than sprinting, and requires very different strategies and solutions.  One student starts chasing all the others.  A student tagged joins the tagger's hand until they are a group or "net" of 4, at which time they divide into 2 nets of 2 and pursue other "fish" (those yet un-tagged).

Next students will explore a cultural and dance phenomenon: Hip-Hop.

Be Healthy,
Matthew Smith

Magic Hand, Ball Control, Ballet

The running and tag games that filled October and helped us train in November for the Seattle Kid's Marathon was ultimately dominated by a game we developed in PE called Magic Hand.  In Freeze Tag the tagger has freeze power, and in other tag games the tagger has other powers, but in Magic Hand the tagger has a variety of powers.  Magic Hand is an amalgam; "All-Tag".  One student might be tagged frozen, the next student might be Disco Tagged and the next yet might have to complete X number of Jumping Jacks or Push-Ups to get back in the game.  The game and the powers grew from one week to the next, and eventually even became a team game based on the structure of Capture the Flag, but each team had multiple flags, each of which represented a Tag Power their team could capture from the other team.  While all K-4 classes seemed to thoroughly enjoy the playing and development of the game, only the 4th graders will get a chance to similarly create their own amalgam game or sport, TBD.  The running/tag games and lessons went later than originally planned, but student involvement and enthusiasm trumped paper-laid plans, and the game was a great, fun way to train for the Marathon.

Between the November and December holiday breaks, the K's and 1st graders will be studying Ballet while the 2-4th grades begin ball manipulation skills with Basketball drills and games.  The 2-4th graders will start Ballet upon returning in January, or if class dynamics are inappropriate or unsafe in during Basketball, they will start Ballet sooner.

For the K-1st Grades, Ballet focuses on movement memory, strong feet/ankles, stability (standing on one leg, for instance), balance (standing equally stable on the other leg), jumps/hops/leaps, and rotation/turns/spins.  Exact or precise reproduction of movement is less important than understanding the underlying movement dynamics.  For instance, if a student hops where he should leap, the momentum is more important than the details about which feet go where when, as long as the student can distinctly differentiate the two when asked.  Intermediate students will learn things like the sagittal, coronal, and transverse planes of space/movement (albeit by names like "wheel", "wall", and "table" planes).  They will learn that mobility is dependent upon (relative) stability.  Intermediate students will also be expected to demonstrated more Ballet vocabulary and more precise move memory and recall.  Students of all ages will learn a variety of stretching during ballet, but not in every class.

Basketball, like all team sports in K-4 PE, starts with drills and games for the skills and may or may not get as far as competitive team basketball.  It is my expectation that classes will get there, but they must work safely and with discipline; the more important lessons are the ability to control your body well enough to control equipment while dribbling, passing, aiming, shooting, rebounding, and more.  Basketball is another excellent opportunity to practice and refine teamwork and sportsmanship, and it also gives us more opportunities to tune our cardio-aerobic engines with  shuttle runs, all sorts of jumps (jacks, ropes, burpees, star jumps, etc), albeit with more emphasis on explosive power and sprinting than marathon, pace, or distance running.

The final week before the December break is intended to be obstacle courses, a student favorite that is generally appropriate on short weeks before holiday breaks.

Keep Moving,
Matthew Smith

Head-Tail and Cross Lateral;Problem-Solving and Satisfaction

The K and 1st Graders start most PE classes with a developmental movement sequence that is useful for coordinating strong head-tail connections in the spine (useful for rolling, falling, tumbling, etc) and to reinforce cross-lateral body connections (used in everything from crawling, walking, and running to throwing a ball or doing a ballet leap or turn).  They have played the Space Game (finding and using the positive/negative space in the shapes their bodies create), Body Sculptures, and Mirroring- all movement exploration games with partner(s)- and are starting to combine them into bigger, more complex investigations.  Students have been investigating quadrupedal movement to recruit strength in the arms, shoulders, back and chest (useful later when we tumble), and will soon start to play a few quadruped games, like tag and soccer.

The 2nd-4th grades have wrapped-up Frisbee Games and Ultimate Frisbee, and will next begin aerobic and cardiovascular studies.  We'll run (a lot) to build our cardio-aerobic engines, but also jump some ropes and some jacks.  In addition, we will revisit quadrupedal movement to build strong bodies and to prepare for Obstacle Courses and Capoeira.  The 3rd-4th graders will pull it all together with beginner Parkour/Free Running; essentially the practice of perceiving the world as an obstacle course and problem-solving on the move to navigate through it.  There are few things as satisfying to me as an obstacle course, and judging by enthusiasm, many students feel the same way.  Just like our ancestors running through a forest or across a savanna, we must make quick decisions while on the move.  Our ancestors did so to eat and to not be eaten.   Modern living has removed most of the problem solving from human mobility: civil engineers and planners have built roads, sidewalks, paths, and stairs but ancestral humans navigated their environments in a very different way.  Free Running and Obstacle Courses challenge us to live to that design- the problem solver on the move- and living up to our design is satisfying indeed!

Stay Healthy,
Matthew Smith

New Beginnings and New Expectations/Beware of Flying Objects

I am so excited to again be teaching K-4 Movement and PE at OWS.  My name is Matthew Smith, and this is my PE blog:

By now students in Grades 1-4 are starting to realize how expectations for them have risen with their grade level.  And I must say right up front that this year's Kindergarten classes are already making an outstanding impression with their focus, range, and willingness, so I am establishing high expectations for them as well.

The K-1 Grades will spend the next few weeks exploring things they already in some ways know, but things we want to define more clearly and to learn to observe the body more clearly.  We'll spend time rolling and crawling (in more ways than you might imagine) and falling and sliding; walking, running, leaping, jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping; and understanding how all those things are different and how the body does different things to coordinate and integrate and differentiate all the above.  I might choreograph a cumulative little ditty that takes us through the motor development from fetal position, through rolling over, reaching, scooting, crawling eventually running and leaping, and spinning... I have high expectations for these Kindergarten classes!

The 1-4th Grades started the year with team-building exercises, emphasizing awareness (of space, others, equipments/obstacles), communication (verbal, visual, touch), and trust.  Grades 2-4 will use Ultimate Frisbee drills and games to advance their team building.  The 2nd Grade will do some additional non-frisbee team building first, and will play games that drill the skills, not competitive games.  The 3-4th Grades will be assigned teams and will keep the same teams throughout our Ultimate Frisbee unit, developing a rhythm and familiarity, but good sportsmanship is a must.  Some students in 4th Grade will get the opportunity to be Team Managers, mostly giving them the opportunities to influence team mechanics and chemistry, and correct the imbalances of my team assignments.  Managers manage for one week, then a new Manager.  If this "pilot" works, we will repeat it throughout our team sport units (but probably new teams in every new sport), giving all students opportunities to Manage.

Until Next Time,
Go Bobcats!

Volleyball

Volleyball is a fantastic team sport that requires no physical contact with other players, but is nonetheless physically demanding.  Moving to the ball, positioning the limbs, jumping, sliding, and not to mention the timing and coordination of contacting a moving ball with a moving body.  Furthermore, students learn that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, so geometry becomes part of the game to keep the ball moving in the intended direction.  The ball bounces up to ~60% of it's original height, so students experience elasticity and must regulate and modulate applied force accordingly.  Lastly, volleyball requires a team effort that can not be successful without communication, trust, and focus.  I myself played Jr Olympic volleyball in HS and club volleyball in college and I always look forward to sharing my personal favorite ball game with students.

The younger classes will use a variety of balls and balloons to develop and coordinate skills and will also translate the skills to a racket game (probably pickle ball or badminton, TBD).  The older students will stay focused on the volleyball equipment and will more comprehensively learn the rules, rotation, and game play.  They are starting with very soft balls, but will gradually toughen their forearms until they are ready to bump a regulation volleyball.

Tail Tag, Fox Tail, and Wrestling

Students in Kindergarten are beginning 3 weeks of rehearsals for their Cultural Parade, but the 1st-4th grade students have all learned Tail Tag.  In Tail Tag, students wear a belt into which they tuck a flag.  That flag is the tail.  There are a variety of versions, but all versions require that one or more students try to take the tail of other students.  It is a tag game without actual tagging.  This no-contact game may seem a counter-intuitive introduction to the very full-contact activity that is wrestling, but it requires the students to start thinking about protecting the space behind them; protecting their backs.  It is also a litmus test to be sure that students carefully listen to and follow instructions.  When students demonstrate safety and responsibility in the task, then they advance to Fox Tail.  To date, about half the classes have made such progress.  Fox Tail wears the same belts and keeps the same flag as a tail behind a student, but instead of students having run of the gym, they are confined to a single small mat.  Retreat is no longer an option and there is nowhere to hide.  One student faces-off against another student, and while remaining on their feet, and without grabbing the other body, the students attempt to reach around the opponent and pull the tail from the belt.  Although there is no grabbing (no closed hands), arms and hands push and manipulate each other trying to solve the puzzle that is trying to solve them in return.  A student who captures the tail returns it, the tail is tucked again into the belt, and a high-5 or hand shake resumes the game until time expires.  Later versions of the game will allow a student to lie face down with the flag beneath the belly.  The partner/opponent then must try to roll that student onto her/his back to get or at least expose the tail- an amazing way to explore and exercise core muscles.  Yet another version does away with the tail altogether and the student lying tries to stand-up while the other student tries to roll her onto her back.  Some of the classes that can successfully and safely accomplish all the above will then move onto wrestling.

Wrestling is an almost universal developmental experience among young primates and indeed among many other young mammals (puppies, cubs, kittens, and ferrets all wrestle).  Wrestling and running are probably the first two activities that humans ever organized into sport.  Running, wrestling, swimming, and climbing are activities that allow and encourage natural functions of the human form, and that is why I am excited to offer an introduction to wrestling this year in PE.

For safety, we will not go so far as executing take-downs or tackles (although some students may earn the chance to learn and slow-motion practice) and there is a zero-tolerance policy toward horse-play and inattention.  Because of such high expectations and such low tolerance, this is generally a very safe unit of study.  In years past, I have always had more bumps, bruises, or injuries during Tag Games than during Wrestling.  But also because of the expectations and tolerances, and also because of the many uncertainties about the activity itself, I tend to contact more parents during wrestling than during any other activity.  I am also at your disposal for any and all questions and concerns that you may have, so please do not hesitate to email me or schedule a conference.

Enjoy the Warming Weather,
Matthew Smith

Hockey; Recognizing a Winner

Open Window Students in K-4 have been practicing floor hockey.  There are a variety of skills to coordinate in hockey.  The youngest students and those newest to the sport had their hands full (literally) handling and controlling the hockey stick, and manipulating the stick to maneuver a puck.  Students learned that a hockey stick is not at all dangerous when left to it's own devices, but that a careless student with a hockey stick can be very dangerous indeed! On the other hand, a student who carefully handles the stick and controls it as an extension of self will have the most mastery of the puck and the most consistency on the court.  Some players preferred to forego control and focus only on power shots, but those players generally spent more time in penalties, caused more painful accidents, scored fewer goals, passed less accurately, and developed and coordinated fewer skills.  The Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes in particular did an excellent job and proved that they could safely engage in an intense, equipment-heavy sport.  Those youngest classes have already moved-on to Tail Tag and Fox Tail and the 2nd-4th grades are finishing their tournaments today.

Most games have been "scoreless".  Many students opt to keep score, but officially the score is always 0-0 so that the focus stays on skill development rather than scoreboard argument. Students are often very concerned about who wins and who loses, so we define winners as those who learn something new, improve a skill, and/or have fun.  Students only lose is they lose sight of what matters.  If a students stays focused on the skills, the teamwork, the play, and the action, that student has a perspective appropriate for a class or lesson.  If a student loses that perspective and instead focuses on the numbers or the score, then that is the loss.  The lesson and the development are lost, so that student lost.  In class, winning is almost never about the scoreboard.

Happy Spring,
Matthew Smith

February Fitness and the Truth About Stretching

During the last 2 weeks before Mid-Winter break, students reconnected to their cardio-respiratory fitness.  The 2-4th grades learned fitness circuits; spending just 2 minutes at one station doing one exercise before quickly moving onto the 4 more stations to do 4 more exercises, yielding up to 10 minutes of non-stop exercise for the full body.  By keeping the movement going from one thing into the next, students keep their heart and respiration rates elevated.  By switching exercises every 2 minutes, no one muscle group gets over-burdened.  These dynamic efforts also encourage students to engage their personal determination and to find mental strategies for toughness and perseverance.  Many students enjoyed using medicine balls and weighted bars to increase the burden of their labors.  The 1st graders students spent this time rehearsing their Penguin Dances and all classes enjoyed at least one obstacle course.  Kindergarten enjoyed several obstacle courses and lots of matwork.

PE also introduced stretching.  Stretching is one of the most mis-understood parts of active lifestyles that it is worthy to examine it in some detail here.  Stretching is simply pulling unwanted tension from muscle fibers.  This is usually accomplished by tensing antagonistic muscle groups (to stretch the muscles on the front of my thigh, I engage the muscles on the back of my thigh), by using hands or straps to pull, or by using partners or even gravity.  So when should we give our muscles this pull, for how long, and why?

•  Before Exercise
• This is completely dependent upon what type of exercise.  It is beneficial to warm-up or loosen-up before exercise, and this should include moving through the range of motion that the exercise will demand.  For running, this would include some ankle and toe articulations, hip and knee flexion, rotation in the lower spine and pelvis, and even swinging of the arms, but actually stretching the muscles causes tiny tears in the fibers.  Those tears will impair the performance of the muscles during the run.  If, however, the exercise is ballet or gymnastics, figure skating or Tae Kwon Do, then the range of motion used is far greater and warming or loosening that range of motion may indeed require stretching those muscles.  In general, however, it is safer to think of the activity before exercise as loosening the range of motion rather than stretching.
• During Exercise
• During the course of repetitive tension and relaxation of muscles, it is possible for muscles to fail to relax.  Sometimes this tension is a shrugged shoulder or tight muscle that wastes a little energy but does little harm.  Sometimes, though, a muscle very important to the task or exercise seizes, very tense, and cramps.  Often, the antagonistic muscle groups (generally, those on the other side that execute the inverse or opposite movement) can not alone overcome the tension in the cramped muscles, and a manual pull is needed to relax the muscle fibers.
• After Exercise
• Remember those tiny tears in the muscle fibers discussed above?  Similar damage happens to our muscles during exercise.  Exercise is indeed somewhat traumatic.  It is because our bodies want to reduce the trauma that they then rebuild themselves a little bit stronger after exercise- so that future efforts will create less trauma. Since the damage is done during exercise, adding a stretch to the end of your workout does not really create any new damage, and will not impair the workout.  Indeed, the benefits of stretching after exercise seem to include
1.  improved gas transfer, moving CO2 (and toxins) out of the muscles and out of the body
2. better re-hydration
3. maintained or improved range of motion
4. release of unnecessary tension
5. decreased recovery time, and more
• There is evidence that holding a stretch for any less than 30 seconds does not give muscles sufficient time to benefit.  Stretching is also fairly ineffective if breath is held (remember, one job of stretching is to boost gas transfer and toxin removal), so we hold every stretch for at least 5 deep breaths.

Next in PE: Hockey!

Stay Healthy; Breathe Deeply,

Matthew Smith

Grounded; Capoeira

The Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been studying and practicing groundwork and rolling.  Students started with log rolling (a simple lateral roll with straight legs), barrel rolling (knees tucked under chest into a little ball rolling laterally), and wheel rolling (a lateral movement from Capoeira that goes from bear crawl to crab walk to bear crawl to crab walk repetitively).  The rolls were frequently coupled with reviews of quadrupedal movement, and were later put into complex partnering rolls like surfing (one student log rolls while another student seal crawls or "surfs" across the log roller or the "wave"), monkey rolling (1 student log rolls toward another student, who monkey jumps across the log to then roll toward another student, repeating the whole process).  Many students learned somersaults and used them within some of the complex roll games above.  Just a few students were able to learn and execute wheel somersaults (with a partner, each holding the others' ankles, students somersault one at a time).  Some of these movements will be used in the upcoming performances.

The 2-4th grade students have been studying Capoeira.  Thanks to January's cultural event and Capoeira assembly, all students now have some exposure to the Brazilian blend of dance, martial art, music, and culture, but for those who might have missed it, Capoeira is the product of Afro-Brazilian slaves and their descendents.  The lineage can be traced directly to hip-hop/break dance in everything from the movement vocabulary to the playful, circular battling.  Capoeira allowed us to take all that we had learned as quadrupedal movers and all that we learned in ballet, and look at it from a different perspective.  We are also using Capoeira to strengthen skeletal muscles and cardio-aerobic systems, improve flexibility, expand range of motion, stabilize, mobilize, and balance the body, to move rhythmically, and to boost awareness of self, space, and a partner.  Capoeira, like rolling, is also what introduces us in PE to tumbling (our next lesson set after a fitness/conditioning/stretching set).

Lastly, I myself suffered a bicycle crash on my way to school recently and have a large bruise and a larger abrasion on my left hip.  I have been sharing my own healing process to teach active recovery versus passive recovery, and to teach the students that sometimes a wound or injury may limit activity, but it doesn't always have to eliminate activity.

Stay Healthy, Stay Safe,
Matthew Smith

Stability vs Mobility, and Balance to Boot.

Since the dominant exposure to ballet in the USA is a December trip to the Nutcracker, it is an excellent time of year to study "old school" (roughly 400 years old!) dance in PE.  Ballet is an excellent opportunity to think on the move and to: fine tune our bodily awareness and spatial awareness, apply rhythm to movement, study alignment, improve posture, strengthen muscles, contrast fast and slow movement, and to better understand balance, stability, and mobility.

Let's contrast stability with balance.  For our PE purposes, and contrary to popular speech,"balance" is not achieved by standing easily on one foot, unless it can be as easily done on the other foot.  "Balance" is the achievement of equilibrium on both (or more) sides.  A baseball pitcher, for instance, develops one arm to throw strikes but will very likely be unable to even throw to the catcher with the other hand.  The pitcher's development is therefore unbalanced.  It is more productive to consider the achievement of easily standing on one foot as "stabilizing on one foot".  The human body has over 700 skeletal muscles, many of which are used as (and informally called) stabilizers.  It is not really common to refer to any of the skeletal muscles as "balancers".  To strive for balance, we will consistently do all of our dancing to the left and to the right; we will rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise; we will stabilize, leap, and turn on one foot, and then the other.  Think of the balance you used in chemistry labs- balance is the achievement of equilibrium on both (or more) sides.

We speak of a sense of balance (we have many more than just 5 senses), formally called equilibrioception, a sense from our vestibular system.  But stability comes from proprioception- our sense of our bodies' relative position in space (the sense State Police test on erratic drivers)- and a strong, balanced, smart development of bones and muscles.  Stability is also the flip side and enabler of mobility.    

If the baseball pitcher does not stabilize the feet, ankle, and core, the throwing arm has no anchor, no power, and the movement will not satisfy its intention.  If the dancer does not stabilize one leg, she will collapse to the floor when she tries to lift her other leg, pirouette, leap, or even walk.  Some parts of the body are designed for mobility, some are designed for stability.  In ballet and in PE, we will try to maximize both.

Keep Moving,

Matthew Smith

Finding stride, falling, bouncing back.

In October, we concluded our study of (but not use of) quadrupedal movement.  We will continue to use these ranges of motion to unlock greater upper body and core strength, especially when we approach acrobatics and tumbling.  However, in the nearer term we will be spending more time on our Seattle Marathon training, basketball, and also falling and returning to our feet.

Classes are accumulating kilometers.  I tally the distance each student runs in PE, and chart the totals for each class (individual distances are not displayed).  At the end of November, students who are tallying "home" kilometers (soccer practices, hikes, bike rides, even swim lessons!) will add "home" kilometers and "PE" kilometers.  Students participating in the Seattle Kid's Marathon will each individually accumulate 40km (or more) before running the final 2km on Nov 26th.  We are supplementing pace running with shuttle runs, sprints that frequently stop and restart.

Shuttle runs emphasize changes of direction and shifting of weight.  This allows me to in turn emphasize weight distribution in the foot, but also allows us opportunities to experience gravity and inertia, which it turn give us opportunities to practice falling safely.  Falling is common to us all.  I remember reading somewhere that most of us fall hundreds of times simply learning to walk.  So why should falling give us hesitation, anxiety, or fear?  Somewhere in our development, we learn to associate falling with failure or mistake.  I suspect this is unproductive, unwarranted, and unsafe.  Indeed, falling itself is fun (weee!) and informative (where's is my weight, equilibrium, stability, center, etc), it is just the abrupt impact interrupting the fall that is problematic.  But if we understand our design and momentum, falling can be just another means of moving forward.  Falling will not be associated with failing, but will be a confident, comfortable, safe part of our movement vocabulary.  When we trust ourselves to fall, we can challenge ourselves to fly, or at least to bounce back and keep going. 

Students are getting a rather literal lesson in bouncing back.  This week students started learning about dribbling and controlling a basketball.  Just as running gives us an excuse to examine the foot and ankle, dribbling gives us a reason to study the hand and wrist.  K-1st students will start to examine a variety of ways to manipulate a variety of balls and 2nd-4th students are already starting to pass and will drill shooting skills next week before learning about the game itself (basketball) after the skills are introduced and drilled.  Emphasis will remain on body mechanics, coordination, and skill development; competition will be almost an afterthought.

Keep Moving, Stay Healthy,
Matthew Smith

The words we use and shoes if you choose

OWS PE is off to a great start.  The students have been enthusiastic and receptive in class, and it is a delight to see and hear so much fun and pleasure in motion.

The K-4 students have spent the first 3 weeks of PE and Movement building and embodying vocabulary.  For instance, most students initially defined walking as "slow" and running as "fast", so we tried walking quickly and running slowly.  Further exploration led us to discover that indeed the speed is not the important contrast since a fast walker could beat a slow runner to the finish.  So there must be a better way to define and differentiate the two.  We found it in the transfer of weight.  At the moment of transfer, walkers are grounded through both feet (2 feet on the ground) and runners are not grounded at all (both feet off the ground).  Games like Red Light/Green Light and Tag gave us opportunities to practice and experience.  We have similarly explored jump, hop, leap, skip, and gallop.  Students are also beginning to explore quadrupedal movement and are practicing bear crawl, crab walk, monkey jumps, froggers, and vaults, skills that have been practiced in games and on obstacle courses.

Our supplemental study has been the human foot and ankle.  We learned that there are many bones and muscles that are effectively immobilized by our fairly rigid footwear.  That immobility does not allow those bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to develop the strength and flexibilty for which they are designed.  Furthermore, running shoes encourage students (and adults) to run with a stride too long for their legs (striking the ground at the wrong angle conducts the impact and stress unpleasantly up the bones and muscles), a habit that can eventually damage the feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, etc, and limit opportunities for and interest in an active lifestyle.  Indeed, running-related injuries have sky-rocketed since the invention of the running shoe in the 1970's.  The students have therefore been given a "shoes if you choose" option in most PE classes so far.  I will require PE shoes for most sport lessons (soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc); we will be barefoot for many movement lessons (dance, creative movement, tumbling, yoga, martial arts).

Now that we have a solid foundation and a ready vocabulary, we will learn to safely fall from and return to that foundation.  We will next study groundwork, gravity, and floor play, and supplement those lessons with studies of the human spine.

Regards,
Matthew Smith

K-4 PE at OWS with Matthew Smith

I am thrilled to be the new K-4 movement and PE teacher at Open Window School. Concurrent with my 1st year at Open Window School I am teaching my 6th year of K-8 PE at Arbor Montessori Schools on the Sammamish Plateau, where I have developed and refined my approach to physical education.  I also taught K-6 PE at Tall Cedars Academy in Duvall before they closed last year.  I am extremely excited to have the support of the OWS staff and the use of the OWS facilities and equipment for physical engagement, education, expression, and experiences with such a versatile student population.  I am optimistic, and I eagerly anticipate each of the "new" bodies coming into my classroom.


I will introduce myself more thoroughly below so that the future of this blog may focus on PE students, lessons, and activities.

I have been involved in fitness education and body training for more than 14 years.  I started in aquatics as a teenager and by the time I graduated college I had coached swim teams, taught swim lessons, water aerobics, lifeguarding, diving, and even a little water ballet to nearly 2000 students, ages spanning over 70 years between youngest and oldest.  My aquatics career paid for my dance education.

My dance career has taken me throughout the US and as far as Tokyo, Japan, but was focused primarily in NYC.  Much of that career was spent teaching, choreographing, and performing outside of NYC at universities, schools, theaters, and studios.  I retired from dance when I left NYC in 2005, but recently "came out of retirement" to perform a duet I titled TORN at On the Boards in Seattle, June 2011. 

I will frequently be bicycling 70km round trips between my home and OWS.  Cycling is my favored means of light transport since it allows me to eat everything I want.  In August 2008, I even ate ~8000 Calories daily for 20 days to pedal 5000km from Seattle to Brooklyn, NY with just one friend riding with me.  I have taught and coached cycling for 3 years.

Additionally, I enjoy time gardening, farming, eating, cooking, baking, running, climbing, jumping, falling, climbing back up, playing with my Doberman named Hades, and this summer I discovered an interest in white water kayaking.

Sincerely,

Matthew Smith