PFA All-Star Teacher Showcase

Kim Berg - 2002 PFA All-Star Teacher of the Year

Kim has taught physical education at Alamance Elementary School in Greensboro, North Carolina for 13 years and received a PFA grant in the fall of 2000. Kim’s approach to teaching the “whole child” has created a love of physical activity and a host of life skills that encompasses respect, caring, determination, responsibility, integrity, giving, courage and self discipline. Her class motto is “Build each other up, don’t tear each other down”. Her principal, Mary Foley, writes to us; “Mrs. Berg’s emphasis on identifying behaviors that build up, rather than tear down, and her clear expectations for performance, regardless of gender, results in every student willingly participating and meeting with success.” Kim possesses the enthusiasm and energy that makes a real difference. She is model teacher in every sense of the word.

Kim's Philosophy:

The wonderful aspect of teaching physical education is getting to teach the “whole child”; I get to influence children cognitively, physically, and socially. My program provides an emphasis on the psychomotor domain but incorporates both the cognitive and affective domains, which enhance the total learning process.

Cognitively, I want students to leave me with knowledge about fitness, health, sport skills, and goal setting. Physically, I want students to experience all areas of PE and excel to the best of their ability. Whether we are using PFA, jumping rope, learning sport skills, playing educational games, dancing or doing gymnastics, I want students to experience it all so that they can discover an area of interest that will carry over outside of school and onto middle school, high school and adult hood. Socially, I want students to feel comfortable, confident and great about themselves. The motto for my class is “Build each other up, don’t tear each other down”. You can ask any student in my school what Mrs. Berg’s pet peeve is and they will tell you my motto. Many of my “teachings highs” come from this area of my teaching. It is an amazing impact to see a student go above and beyond in the area of respect, caring, determination, responsibility, integrity, giving, courage and self-discipline. “Being appropriate, doing the right thing”, as PFA Trainer, Dr. Don Morris would say is what the students I teach do.

One reason I love the PFA program is because it gives my classroom teachers a structural physical activity session with their students at least once a week. I have a PFA bulletin board, which highlights individual student achievements made on the PFA equipment. Also, every time a classroom teacher uses the equipment, they get to place a sticker beside their name. This charted progress definitely has increased the use of the equipment and has improved the goal setting and fitness scores of my students. The class with the most stickers at different times throughout the year earns a reward, whether it is a bowling trip, extra PE classes, etc.

PFA is not just a program about using the equipment, it inspires a teacher to seek new ways to get kids active and goal set on their own ability. I have a PACER club because of PFA. This is a running club, which has 21 running levels. Each time students begin PACER, they set their goal level and try to achieve it. The students are so psyched about running, I have made it into a before school morning club for grades 2-5. I also have an after school jump rope team for grades 3-5. Again students are given another opportunity for getting physically fit. There are skills that students have to master and demonstrate to be a member on the team, once again encouraging students to goal set.

I would encourage everyone to apply for this program. There is a valuable philosophy that surrounds the program. PFA has made me a better teacher.

Field Day

On field day, we held the “survivor” theme and used the PFA equipment in various survival challenges. Classrooms got to come up with their “tribal” name and compete in:

“Alligator Pit” – using the parallel bars: Every student in the class who could make it across with their hands earned a point for their class.
“Jungle Vine Climb” – using the pole climb: every student in the class who could climb to the top earned 2 points for their class. Students touching the other 2 colors earned 1 point for their class.
“Quick Sand Crossing” – using the horizontal ladder: every student in the class who could cross the horizontal ladder without dropping earned a point for their class. At the end of the day the class with the most points won the “immunity idol” to keep in their class the rest of the week.

Tennis Ball Challenge (Grades k-12)

Equipment Needed: A LOT of tennis balls!!!

Divide the kids into 2 zones(fitness break area and tennis ball challenge area)

Fitness Zone: Heavy hoops, jump ropes, regular hoops, wall push-ups, sit-ups, etc. Get creative!!

Students form a line
Teacher is located a good distance away
Teacher will toss a tennis ball to the student
The ball must bounce 1 time!
The student keeps it and returns to the back of the tennis ball challenge line
Balls must be controlled by the body
Students cannot use pockets or make “shirt baskets” to hold tennis balls
The student must put ALL collected tennis balls into the collection box and proceed to the fitness break zone
They choose one fitness activity to perform “x” number of times as instructed by the teacher
If a student drops a ball while waiting in the tennis ball challenge line, the student must place ALL his collected tennis balls into the collection box and proceed to the fitness break zone
Once the fitness break is complete, the student returns to the tennis ball challenge line

Grade	k-2	3-8	9-12
Bronze	3	5	10
Silver	7	10	15
Gold	10	15	20
Kong	15	20	25

PFA Sneak Attack

Equipment needed: The PFA equipment, 7 beanbag animals, 7 scarves, 7 rubber rings, 7 jump ropes, 7 small foam balls, 7 wrist bands, and 7 bowling pins

Divide class into 7 groups and place them at the different stations. Place one piece of each type of equipment at each station. Designate a certain item that each group will try to collect.

Game: Each team tries to collect their designated piece of equipment until they have all seven of the same item. On the signal “go”, the first player from every team sets out to get one of their designated items. Whichever station the player goes to retrieve the equipment from, he/she must perform one exercise at that station before getting the designated item and taking it to his/her group. When that player returns to his/her group, he/she tags hands with the next player in line and that player sets out to bring back another designated item. This process continues until all 7 pieces of the designated equipment are retrieved.

Rules: Only 1 player from each team goes at a time. No hiding or keeping equipment from other groups. If a player comes to get the item, he/she must be allowed to take it after performing the exercise.

Variation: Teach students the concepts of offense and defense. If a team is close to winning, allow players when it is their turn to take a piece of equipment from them even if it is not their designated piece to collect.

Allow teams to secretly decide on which piece of equipment they would like to collect. They may change their minds throughout the game depending on what the other teams are collecting.

You will be amazed at the workout the students get and how much fun they have playing this game.