It never seems to fail in every class there will be one or two students who are not engaged in P.E. The question becomes, how does a physical educator motivate a student to enjoy P.E.? In order to solve this question, physical educator must find the reasons why students display shy behaviors . Reasons could vary from home life, poor nutrition, bullying from other students, or self confidence issues.
The first step in understanding the problem is to communicate with other teachers and adults who are involve with the student1. If there is a consistent issue among the classrooms then the problem is not with the P.E. class itself. Communicating with the student’s other teachers is a great start because it brings awareness that there is a problem. Administrators could have information that would help understand the issue1. Delivering This knowledge to the school counselor could help the student in ways that an educator alone could not1.
Social skills should be taught and practiced throughout each class. Bullying is something that has been around forever and probably will never go away. As an educator, our job is to minimize this as much as possible. Bullying can be a key reason for a student’s shy behavior in P.E. Self confidence is a sensitive thing amongst students and if they are bullied then fear alone could cause them to become hesitant in class. The best prevention skill to teach students is social skills. Teaching social skills is a matter of 4 simple steps.
1. Define the skill. 2. Teach the skill. 3. Practice the skill 4. Ask questions2.
As physical educators it is our job to provide a class environment where every student is comfortable. So if a student is having issues in a P.E. class, the first step is to communicate with other staff members who work closely with the student. The more eyes and ears aware of the matter will only speed up the resolution. Teaching social skills in the P.E. class will also help improve student’s self confidence.
1Spark, (2012). Reaching out to Rebellious PE Students.http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/rebellious-pe-students/
2Spark, (2015). How To Teach Social Skills In P.E.: Grades 3-6
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Another step to getting those shy students fully engaged in P.E. would be just getting to know them. Students will not care to listen to what you have to say unless they know you care about them as a person. I'm sure you already know this. Establishing a healthy student-teacher relationship will go a long way. It will help get shy students engaged in P.E. I also like how you highlighted bullying as a reason why some students are shy. Usually the students that are more athletic or learn the skills quicker than others will bully the less athletic students. This causes the less athletic students to not want to participate because they feel incompetent.
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