Throughout the past months of e-learning, teachers have been working very hard to keep students engaged – PE teachers included. With a subject that mainly requires physical contact like PE, especially with younger students, our teachers have applied their ingenuity in how they plan their lessons to ensure that our YCIS Beijing learners remain focused and involved during online classes.

The approach to e-Teaching for Kevin Meng, Primary PE teacher, has been to introduce a topic theoretically to students first, then end it by demonstrating what students should do. “After learning the essentials of the movement, students will perform the exercise a number of times as homework and send it to me through photos or videos.”  Once this is done, he finishes off by giving feedback.

For Shannon Speight, Athletics Coordinator & Primary PE Teacher, putting many of the students’ differing situations into consideration, has been the key to ensuring that each learner is catered to, “availability of equipment, indoor space for activity, outdoor access, internet connectivity, family engagement and time zone conflicts” are some of the factors she has had to consider before planning and teaching an online lesson.

Each teacher’s approach has been with the goal of getting students to be optimally engaged in each lesson and both have used different strategies to achieve this. In Miss Speight’s lessons, she has “combined fun online exercise videos with teacher led activities as well.  Since I teach Year 1-Year 3, I believe students prefer high energy, colorful, animated videos to follow during the lessons.”  In addition to these activities, she has also created some home fitness challenges to be completed in the week.

Both teachers encourage video and image sharing as a motivator for students and for class morale after every lesson –one way in which they leverage the technology available to them. According to Mr Meng, “taking a good video in advance has helped in saving time for in- class demonstrations. At the same time, I can share my lesson plans with my students.”  Miss Speight echoes the sentiment and adds that being online has also given her an opportunity to engage with parents as well about what activities to do.

”At the end of each lesson, I offer a question and answer session for all of the students and parents.  The Zoom platform enables me to receive feedback from students about which activities they really enjoyed (and want to be included in future lessons).”

By doing this, teachers are ensuring that their students’ needs are prioritized and they remain flexible, as opposed having a static approach.to teaching.

Miss Speight and Mr Meng have used their imaginations to keep students involved in the comfort of their homes and with no special sports equipment needed! Below are some household items they have used in their online classes:

- Replaced markers with paper cups, toilet paper, water bottles and other easy-to-find household goods,- Used plastic bags instead of a volleyball,- Used cartons instead of a football to practice stepping on the ball- Used household items to create indoor obstacle courses- Other items, such as, toys, towels, and shoes have been included in some of the other Minute to Win It style activities.

While using some of these at-home props, parents can do the following exercises with their children;

- Stretching, lunges, push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, planks, wall sits, high jumps, etc.

- Design an obstacle course using basic movement skills such as running, hopping, galloping, jumping, etc.  You can also make it into a race!

- Online exercise videos: I really enjoy the websites GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com ) and P.E. with Joe Wicks (www.thebodycoach)

- As long as they are following social distance rules, kids can simply go outside and play!  Free play is one of the most fun and effective ways to get their recommended daily physical activity.

To read more tips about how to keep active while on lockdown, click here.