Speaker 1: What's up guys, just got a few awesome questions from one of my members that I thought would be Helpful and maybe some other people might be wondering the same thing. So Gabe, thanks for your great questions and Gabe has four questions. The first one is When you're giving instructions or explaining a game to your students, are they usually sitting at home-based spots? Sometimes it looks like you have them sitting as a group close by All right, what's your general approach to student location and proximity? So normally it just depends, like we do our daily warmup, which I'll link up the video for that down below, kind of our routines we come in, do a quick instant activity. We go through this daily warmup stretching routine. And then for most games, if it's not super complicated, like if it's a simple tag game, like fire and ice, or it's a general group activity where I don't have specific teams or specific positions, I need to assign kids to start the game, I'll just have my kids come and sit in the middle white square. So they're just gonna come sit in the middle, and then I kind of give them an intro of what we're doing that day, go over the basics, and then we get started. If it's a game that's a little bit more complex, where I'll have different teams or positions, like for example, Hula Hut Throwdown, or Boom City, where I have two teams competing against each other, before I have them sit down, always split them up into groups so you can do that using an app called Team Shake or you can use like your home-based spot squad lines to split them up like row one and two go here row three and four go here my home-based spots are like the assigned seats that I have in my gym and you can do like if it's a two team thing you just do something simple like everybody get a partner one person stand out one person stay seated stand ups come over here sit downs come over here and that way people usually partner up with someone they are equally skilled at or someone they like to be with and then you're not only splitting up the skill levels but you're also splitting up those kids on different teams that have friendships and would likely be talking during instructions and all those types of things so that's helpful so the reason I like to do that ahead of time is because if you don't split up the kids into their separate teams and you just have everybody sitting in a group and then you explain a game to them, when you split up the teams and by the time you get everybody where they're supposed to be to play the game, most of the kids are probably going to be have already forgotten the instructions. So I always try to separate my organization or my management of the game from the instruction and if possible I like to get my organization done first and then give the instructions for the game so the kids can immediately stand up and start playing. That way I don't forget what we're doing and also it's very helpful if you have a wireless mic. I'll link up the one I have below. It's on our Amazon page. But if you're in a huge gym and you don't have a wireless mic, you might not be able to give a group instruction to the entire gym. So that's one thing I've found really helpful for using the wireless mic for is when I want kids to be in their spots where they're going to be for the game, and then I can explain the game to them, and they can visualize. Since I'm on this team, I know what Coach Landers is saying because I'm looking at the goal I'm I'm gonna be shooting at. Whereas if we were in a group and then we got split up later, it might be kind of confusing. Next question. Do you ever find yourselves asking the same students to sit up because they are laying down on their back as if they were at home, sitting at their home-based spots? Is this normal, especially with younger kids? Do you think it matters? Yes. Anytime kids are laying down, I always say, hey, we don't lay down in the gym. This is not your nap time. We're here to learn and I need you setting up, paying attention. There are a few kids in my school that have an IEP, so like a special education plan that allows them to have some movement. And so for those kids specifically at home base, I will put them in the back so that when they're laying down or rolling around, it doesn't distract everybody else in the class. And then I have a conversation with them. When I say like, hey, everybody go to the middle and sit down, that kid knows they need to go to the back because otherwise it's distracting to other students. If it's not in a special IEP or specialized accommodation plan, then I ask them to sit up and if they lay down again, you get strike one. If it happens two times, strike two, they go sit out and go to refocus. And yeah, with kindergarten kids, you might wanna be a little bit more lenient, empathetic. It really just depends on the kid. But you have to give quick, clear consequences if you want them to, if you wanna eliminate that behavior. So that's what I do and hope that's helpful. It is very normal to be experiencing that difficulty when you are teaching. Next question, when you are speaking, I noticed that your students are exceptionally quiet. Is this because you're videotaping or is it most likely that you're a magical hypnotist? My kids talk all the time just like everybody else. Me and Marcus did an entire podcast episode that would be really helpful if you're struggling with this where we kind of talk through some of the things that you can try to do when your kids are always talking during the instructions. The reason that a lot of the videos I post, you know, I try to actually post just a full cut as much as possible, but if my kids are talking and then I'm sitting there waiting for two or three minutes, that's not something that people wanna watch on YouTube. So usually I cut that part out. But I will link up like a few pep talks that I've given my kids. The more you say, the less you play is a phrase that I use all the time to try to help them understand that I'm here to help them, but they got to help me to help them. I can give them the keys to success, but they have to open the door themselves. And I talk to my kids about that concept all the time of, hey, it doesn't matter how good your teacher is, if you're not willing to put in the work and to actually listen to them when they're trying to tell you something, you're not going to learn anything. And then there's no reason for you to be here at school, so you can just stay home next time and let the other kids that are actually wanting to learn something not waste all of their P.E. time and that way they'll have more time to practice and get better at their skills and become a better version of their self. So that's kind of what I normally go to and another thing that helps is I don't talk over my kids. I think if you get in the habit of talking over kids you're just going to encourage that bad behavior. So, if my kids are talking while I'm talking, if it's one or two or three, I give a strike one as a warning, a strike two, they go to refocus, and a strike three, they get a no home. So, when you start handing out those strikes and giving the consequences clearly and quickly, that cuts out that behavior many times. If it's a group, like everybody in the class is talking, then obviously I can't just give the whole class a strike. So, normally what I'll do is just have them repeat that transition. it happens during a transition, right? So you have your kids in one area and you're like, all right, everybody go have a seat over here and sit down quietly. And then they go and sit down and everybody's talking. And so then I'll say, all right, we did not sit down quietly, so we're gonna have to go do that again. We're gonna go back to the spot we were at. We're gonna come back over and sit down quietly and can anybody tell me why I need you to sit down quietly? And then you just talk about the why behind it, not just that you're a mean teacher that doesn't want them to ever tell their friends about what they did this weekend or what they had for lunch, but it's actually you have things that you have planned that you want to teach them and you spend a lot of time planning a fun activity and now you're not gonna be able to do it cause they wasted all their time talking. So make sure to explain to them that you are on their team and you're trying to help them to be successful, but you can't do it if there's nobody listening cause then they won't be able to hear the directions. They won't know what to do. So, uh, that's it. But if you want the long version, go check out the podcast that Marcus and I did. I'll link that up down below as well and that'll kind of explain some more strategies and things that you can try to do to help with that situation. Next question, I noticed that on your blog on assessing your second grade students on their knowledge of dribbling a basketball, you gave them a verbal quiz on what they know. And he's talking about a blog post which I'll link up below for you to check out if you would like to. And what is your method for assessing them on psychomotor skills for dribbling a basketball? So similarly to the way I did that assessment was, I would ask my kids to tell me the three cues for a basketball dribble, finger pads, eyes up, waist level. So if they could tell me those three things, then they would get three out of three, and they would get 100% on their quiz. If they missed one, they would get two out of three, and if they missed two, they would get one out of three. And if they didn't know anything, they would get a zero out of three. And man, it's really hard not to know a single one when I've been talking about it for three weeks. So the psychomotor assessment would be the same thing, but it would just be me observing them as a teacher observation assessment. So I'll be watching them do the dribble, and then I would mark 3 out of 3 if they were using their finger pads, waist level, eyes up. I would mark 2 out of 3 if they missed 1, 1 out of 3 if they missed 2, and I don't even know how you could get a 0 out of 3 on that skills assessment. But if there was some way to dribble a ball without using your finger pads, not at waist level and keeping your eyes on the ball, then they would get a 0 out of 3 on that assessment. So all of my grades and everything, I try to keep it super simple, everything is on one page, and I will link up how I do my grades and assessment posts down below, which I think will be really helpful. And that kind of relates to the next question, which is, I notice that when you use behavior codes on your roster, for example, not following directions, I would mark it NFD. These are all negative behaviors. Something I noticed in my teaching is I'm quick to spot and record negative behaviors more than positive or things that I hope to see. While it is easy to note something a student is not doing correctly, how do you assess or note leadership skills or demonstrate things that kids are doing when they're showing great effort during your lesson. And so for that one, you're totally right, it is a lot easier to focus on the negative because that's like the fires that you're putting out to keep the class running smoothly. The reason that most of my behavior codes are negative is because that is the information that, in my experience teaching, that most of the time people are going to require me to give them. For example, I've never had a teacher or a parent complain about a positive comment. For example, if I said, hey, great basketball skills, nobody's ever going to be like, how did you know they were great? When were they great? How often? What days were they great on? Everybody's like, oh, thank you. But if I made a comment, it was like, hey, they struggled to follow directions this nine weeks. Then I have a parent come and ask me, when was that? And then I can easily look at my roster and say, they actually struggled five out of nine times that they came to PE. And they had to go to refocus, which means they got two strikes on four of those nine weeks that they came. And or I could say, look and say they also struggle with talking without permission, or they were not participating, or they did not wear their tennis shoes. Or they were hurt and they said that they were not able to do the activity. So I try to keep those notes because those are the codes that I have because Those are the most often requested by either a parent, an admin, or a special education teacher, or another classroom teacher. I do keep positive notes, so whatever unit we're doing, I'll just put a plus SK for a positive note to myself that that student is really skilled, so then when I'm doing my grades, I can look back and say, hey, nice gymnastics skills, or awesome job on our basketball unit, or great job when we were doing throwing and catching, awesome throwing and catching skills. So that is the way I do that and that just depends on what unit we're teaching as to what that little plus SK means. And then another thing that I'll do to highlight like you said leadership skills or like a positive effort in class is we have these things called gator slips which is like these little incentives for positive behavior it's called PBIS which is positive behavior intervention. So basically you're like kind of like you're talking about you're rewarding positive behavior instead of always calling out negative behaviors and I try to give one of those out every day and the way it works at our school is when the kids get that they will drop in a little raffle box and then once a month the school draws names out of those boxes to do special events like cornhole in the hallway or you get to sit with your friends at a special lunch table or you get to go play yard games out outside with the principal or you get to like go have a dance party in the theater or something simple like that and then the teachers will like volunteer and lead one of those each year and so those are the way that we do positive behavior incentives and so anytime I see a kid like exemplary exemplary showing a great example of good sportsmanship or maybe perseverance or not giving up when they were like failing over and over again they just kept on trying I will try to write a gator slip to them then at the end of the class during my closure when when I'm giving my kids a preview of next week, a review of this week, and a thank you for their effort, I will hand the gator slip to them and I'll tell a quick story of what I saw them doing and what the behavior was that I want everybody else to try to replicate as a way to try to focus on those positive behaviors and make sure that kids know that you're watching and you appreciate it when they do the right thing. And so that's the way I do it. You could make your own little slip where maybe you do like a monthly prize drawing or something like that, or if your school has some kind of incentive for positive behavior, you can try to tie it into that. But yes, I do think it's important. If nothing else, you could just do like a rockstar of the day certificate or something and give that to that kid that you see showing that positive behavior that you're looking for each time. So thanks for the questions, man, and I hope you have an awesome day. Hope that was helpful, guys. Have fun and teach on. Later. ♪ Yeah, oh, ♪