Staples Recycle for Education Contest - Apply Now - Only 2 days left!!!

Staples has a new contest where teachers can enter to win a computer lab for your school!!! All schools have to do is enter one essay from a student on the environmental changes the school and students have made. Watch the video to learn more...

Help Students Review for Exams!

Quiz-Quiz-Trade Cards Activity 

It's that time of year again - final exams!  Here is an excellent activity that you can use with your students to review key terms and concepts:

Materials:

1. Quiz-Quiz-Trade template - print 5 sheets double-sided/student
2. Scissors
3. Pens and pencils

Instructions:

1. Download the Quiz-Quiz-Trade cards - Quiz-Quiz-Trade Cards
2. Print off copies for your students - ensure you set up your printer for double-sided printing
3. Have students select a Unit for review or select key terms from a section 

(Note: You can also assign Units or Sections to students to ensure variety.)

1. Instruct students to write down Questions and Answers on the cards: Sample Cards
2. Using scissors, have student cut out the cards
3. Have students partner up and quiz each other using the cards 
4. When they are finished quizzing each other, have students trade cards with another team and continue quizzing each other using the new set of cards.

Please Participate in this Survey for QDPE Programs!

I was asked to forward along this survey by my friends at the faculty of Education (University of Alberta), Dr. David Chorney and PHD student and former Alberta Ed Ministry of Education for HPE Michelle Kilborn:

Dear Ontario Colleagues,

We are writing to ask for your assistance with gathering information for a Pan-Canadian environmental scan we have been contracted by PHE Canada to complete. The purpose of the scan is to better understand strategies, approaches and current practices for quality daily physical education (QDPE) programs across Canada.

We would appreciate you taking 8-10 minutes to complete an electronic questionnaire by clicking on the link below. We would also appreciate your support in forwarding the link for the questionnaire to your network of contacts in school physical and health education.

Questionnaires need to be completed by Monday, December 12 , 2011.

http://app.fluidsurveys.com/s/QDPE/

Thank you for your participation in this environmental scan.

Goal Setting from NASPE's Coaches Toolbox

I discovered this article while visiting the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's (NASPE) website and I thought I would post it. 

The website has a resource called the "Coaches Toolbox" which includes a host of FREE resources for teachers and coaches.  I have included a sample article below that discusses goal setting.  This might be a great resource for students setting new year or new semester goals:

Principles of Effective Goal Setting, Eva V. Monsma, Ph.D., University of South Carolina

It's no longer just about the "sit-up!"

The new Functional Fitness Charts are coming together quite nicely.  The pictures for each set have been taken, our editor is working on the teacher's manual and our designer is working diligently to edit and crop images for the charts.  We are excited to get the charts out to schools!

All of the exercises included in the Functional Fitness Charts have been safety reviewed by Dr. Stuart McGill, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a man who has been recently referred to in Maclean's Magazine as "the man who wants to kill crunches."  Dr. McGill has been instrumental in the development and selection of each of the exercises included in our new series of fitness charts.

Our new charts focus on functional fitness training principles and provide teachers and coaches with a comprehensive package to implement well-rounded core training routines (in circuit, stage training or traditional "reps and sets") with over 300 safe and effective exercises to select from.

If you are currently doing functional or core training exercises with your students or sports teams, be sure to read this article from the New York Times: "Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?". The article includes some great tips from Dr. McGill on how to perform core exercises safely.

Functional or core circuit training is no longer just about doing a couple of sit-ups. Proper functional or core training should include a wide variety of effective and safety-reviewed exercises, that can be modified for all levels of fitness.

Check out information about the new Functional Fitness Charts on our website at: www.thompsonbooks.com.