Teaching health and physical education to a group of middle school students during
a pandemic via Zoom is not as impossible as it may sound.
A group of Western Carolina University health and physical education majors discovered
this past school year when they had to tweak their internships at the Catamount School
to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.
Their takeaway after learning to adapt their lesson plans to an online delivery system?
Meet the kids where they are, make it fun and hope for the best.
“Honestly, as we were beginning preparations to teach for our schools we had no idea
what to expect. We had plans to adapt our lessons to keep the students engaged and
ready to learn, but we expected the participants would not be so eager to be active
because they’re confined to their homes,” said Frank Minervini Jr., a senior from
Edison, New Jersey. “It has been such a wonderful experience. My students have exceeded
my expectations on overall participation and enthusiasm on the virtual aspect of teaching
Health and Physical Education.”
Thankfully, the interns had to teach the curriculum to most of the students remotely
for only the first three weeks of the spring semester, said Dan Grube, associate professor
in the Health and Physical Education program. That’s because the Catamount School
is a university entity, which meant when WCU decided to go remote the first three
weeks of the semester, the Catamount School followed. And when the university reverted
to face-to-face learning, the Catamount School did too, using the alternating group
A and group B plans. However, the third group, group C, which had opted out entirely
of face-to-face instruction, would continue its remote learning for the rest of the
year, Grube said.
Working with eight to 10 students each week – the number fluctuated as families vacillated
on whether their kids would be remote-only learners – the interns provided a short
demonstration video of a physical activity the kids could do at home with little or
no equipment, Grube said.
Then the students were required to complete a worksheet to document their participation
in that activity over the course of the week, submitting the report each Wednesday.
For example, one assignment included, among other things, jogging in place, lunges,
inch worms plus a push up and a couch stretch at the end, which is exactly what it
sounds like. Using a couch or chair to stretch the quads after a workout.
Were the interns ready for online teaching? “We had a collection of faculty in the
School of Teaching and Learning who put together a crash course on how to teach online
to help interns across all programs prepare,” Grube said. “At some point they were
going to have to do that in one way or another. All of the interns were required to
engage with those modules as a requirement of their internship. But the faculty decided
to focus that professional development on giving the interns some basic skills on
how to teach through Zoom.”
For Caleb Henson, a senior from Canton who had recently enlisted in the Army National
Guard, entering his internship was a bit of juxtaposition to his personal life. “I
had actually just finished 10 weeks of basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and
didn’t really know what was going on in the schools concerning the pandemic,” he said.
“I knew that if the students were going to be virtual, student teaching in physical
education would be very difficult due to the students’ participation and attitude
toward PE. Getting students excited about exercising and being active is a difficulty
we face when students are in class, and I knew teaching online would be a huge challenge
trying to get students to be active when all they have to do is turn off their camera
when they didn’t want to participate.”
Which did happen, Grube said. “One of the harder things about using Zoom, and I’m
aware this is an issue probably nationwide, but certainly in our region, is kids not
being able to turn their cameras on and unstable WiFi, or in the case of middle school, some of our kiddos were just embarrassed. They didn’t want to be seen, they didn’t want to be seen doing exercises,
they didn’t want people looking in to wherever they might be having to Zoom from.
“We did struggle a little bit with wondering what was going on behind the black screen
and the name, but we did our best to try to engage with them and to provide them what
we’re required to do by state law.”
One intern, Reanna Lehman, a senior from Sylva, could relate to those students who
struggled with online learning. She did, too. “One positive that has come out of this
year is learning what type of learner I am,” she said. “I learned through the pandemic
that I am a hands-on learner and need to be in person. I do not thrive online because
of the structure of it.”
Lehman wasn’t the only one to see silver linings in what initially could have been
a dark, gray lingering cloud caused by COVID-19 restrictions.
“I have grown closer with my students no matter that we began virtually,” Minervini
said. “Our dynamic has been created, and our bond between teacher and student is going
wonderfully. I couldn’t be happier to be a student intern at TCS.”
“I’ve learned how much I enjoy being a teacher and getting to have fun and interact
with my students,” Lehman said.
“Although it is harder now, I know this experience will make me a better educator
and will teach me lessons I can use my whole career,” Henson said. “I have always
thought that challenges allow other things in life to be easier, and I know that will
be true coming from this challenge.”
