HKIS MS Grade 8 Physical Education & Health Class Update

Dear Parents of 8^th grade students,

During quarter 3 our 8^th Grade PE students have been engaged in a series of ‘Fitness’ lessons. Focusing mainly on cardio-respiratory endurance, many students demonstrated a marked improvement in their 1 mile run scores, this bodes well for the final fitness challenge of the year coming up in quarter 4 and prepares them for their High School focus on fitness in PE. Some other students became aware that they need to put in some additional effort in the area of cardio-respiratory endurance if they expect to see an improvement.

In addition to our focus on fitness, students have been engaged in ‘Badminton’ and ‘Touch-Rugby’ as part of our semester two Sports Unit. All students have experienced a significant improvement in performance in Standard 1: ‘sending & receiving’ on the move and in Standard 2: the ability to ‘use & create space’ for scoring opportunities.

Following the spring parent-teacher conferences students will have the opportunity to select an elective activity from ‘Kayaking, ‘Dance’, ‘Volleyball’ or ‘Flag-Football’. Assessment in these ‘electives’ is focused on ‘interpersonal skills’ (standard 5) rather than ‘performance skills’, students are encouraged to take a risk and try an activity that they may have little prior experience in, assured that their performance in a new/unfamiliar skill will not reflect negatively on their grade.

Each student’s ‘performance’ and ‘work habit’ assessments have been updated and are available on the PowerSchool system. Please have your child guide you through the system and use this as an opportunity to hear about their areas of growth and the areas they need to pay more attention to.

In any area where a student has been assessed at a level of proficiency that is below ‘Meets Expectation’ their teacher will have provided feedback and strategies for improvement via a comment attached to the associated assessment on PowerSchool. This feedback along with the assessment rubrics (all available on mDN) provide useful information to both parents and students with regard to the criteria for assessment and areas to work on.

All students have the opportunity to ‘redo’ an assessment (time permitting) in any component of a standard where their overall level of proficiency is below ‘Meets Expectation’. In order to take this opportunity:

• Students must reflect on the comment/strategies offered on PowerSchool.
• Students must take the time to work on improving their performance.
• Students must arrange a time (outside of class and within two weeks of receiving their assessed level of proficiency) to demonstrate their conceptual understanding and improved performance.

As we move toward summer, temperatures begin to rise and as we move toward the end of the school year, we will move our program more indoors and students can enjoy our ‘Water Adventure’ component and experience the final component of our Health Unit – ‘Healthy Sexuality. I will send out an email to parents two weeks before the commencement of this series of lessons, detailing the content and providing a reminder of the opportunity for you as a family to engage in dialogue about healthy sexuality issues.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email.

Kind regards,

Michael Coleman

Middle School Physical Education Department