Physical Education for the Homeschooled

 Tarleton State University is working to promote health and physical education to the homeschooled children of Stephenville and surrounding areas. The Games and Activities for Children class, taught by Tarleton State Instructor Misti Reisman, is  responsible for providing an average of 130 local children with 50 minutes of physical education every Monday morning. The college students enrolled in this class gain experience working with the children, in addition to learning valuable teaching lessons and organizational skills which will help prepare them for a career in kinesiology and/or education.

The children involved in these weekly PE classes are exposed to a variety of activities. First, the Tarleton State students and the children are divided into three age groups. Each age group is paired with an equally divided number of Tarleton State students who assist the children with the activities. The first group is composed of children ages five through eight. These children are introduced to two different activities per class meeting. The activities are designed to be age appropriate and the teachers (Tarleton State students) provide modifications for the activity, enabling all children to participate. The second group involves children ages nine through twelve. These children also participate in two different activities and modifications are also available. The final group entails children ages thirteen and children over thirteen years of age. Typically, the third group engages in sport-centered activities, but there are modifications for this division as well.

Not only does this Activities class benefit the homeschooled children of Stephenville, but it grants Tarleton State students wonderful hands-on opportunity working with children in a “real-world setting” as opposed to a classroom setting.

Misti Reisman speaks about the great benefits of having the Tarleton students help with the PE classes. “This semester I have 27 Tarleton State students working with the children which means that I have 9 teachers per group.  This is awesome! I am lucky to have lots of extra eyes to watch all the children, plus the Tarleton State students are introduced to a variety of games and activities during all of the classes.”

When asked how Tarleton State students benefit from being in this class, Reisman replies, “This is a great way to build their activity list for the future.  I rotate each group of teachers so that they have the opportunity to work with all of the age groups.”

Students in this class also learn how to effectively write and carry out lesson plans for activities. According to Reisman, the Activities class is valuable because it allows the students to implement their class ideas in order to see what will work with children and what will not. “I have often told the Tarleton State students that you may have a great lesson plan written out for your class activity and when you actually try the activity only to discover that in reality it was a flop!  Keeping it real is what we do best in the Kinesiology Department at Tarleton State University and KINE 250 is just one of the ways we keep it real.”