Our blog has been kidnapped

Hi Acton Middle School Parents.  The PE department is taking over your blog! today. (One time only).

You might have heard from your Eagle that we are doing things a little differently in PE than we have in the past.  I thought I’d lay out for you the new curriculum, along with the reasons behind it.

The basics:  The class is broken up into three pods of 8, which will rotate every few sessions. On Mondays each pod competes in a sport (ultimate frisbee), and on Thursdays they focus on conditioning.

The big difference?  Coach Carpenter spends most of the class sitting on his duff, and the EAGLES lead the class.

How does this work?  At the end of every Thursday class, each pod elects a leader for the following week.  Leaders may not be selected twice until every one has led once.

On Mondays, leaders are responsible for:

  1. Helping me lead their pod in the warmup (I’m still active in this to ensure everyone warms up sufficiently).
  2. Selecting teams (within their pod) for the sport and changing them up as needed to ensure fairness.
  3. Keeping score, enforcing rules, and settling disputes (a biggie).
  4. Leading the good sport of the day discussion, and selecting that person.

On Thursdays, in addition to leading the warmup leaders will be responsible for:

  1. Designing the conditioning class for their pod, using the lessons they’ve learned from Coach Carrozza and myself over the last year and a half.  Each leader is free to design their own conditioning class within each pod (ie. there could be three different programs going on). I will be available for them to help them design a plan if they wish, but only if they ask at least two days ahead of time (not during class).
  2. Leading the discussion to choose next week’s leader, and selecting that person.

My goal for this is to increase each Eagle’s experience and skills in:

  • Leadership
  • Being accountable to their pod/providing constructive criticism
  • Public speaking/discussion leading
  • Sportsmanship
  • Fitness levels
  • Learning to Coach
  • Learning and increasing skills in a new sport.

At the end of the session we will have a three-way pod tournament in ultimate Frisbee, with the winning team to play the Acton guides.  This should be fun, and so far seems to be sufficient motivation for the teams to improve.

Again, my role during class is primarily to be a timekeeper (i.e. let them know when they need to transition, etc.), and to ensure their safety. And I’ll pick the music 🙂

So how did this work out the first session?

Sometimes great.  Sometimes not so great.  But we end every session with the Eagles providing constructive criticism to their leader, explaining what they thought went great, and what could use improvement.  It has been INCREDIBLE to watch the eagles grow during this first session, and to see how seriously they are taking their responsibilities.  I look forward to seeing how much further they grow the rest of the year.

And I really look forward to beating them in ultimate Frisbee at the end of next session.

Thank you,

Coach Carpenter

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