Why would an elementary PE teacher have her students writing to colleges? Good question.
I grew up in a college town and always knew I would go to college. My family didn't have much money, but a college education was still an expectation. I graduated from South Dakota State with a BS in HPER and began teaching at Brandon Valley.
A few years ago, I realized that the expectation of college is not necessarily present in every home. I wanted to create an awareness of college to all my elementary students. My oldest son was looking at colleges and I realized he didn't know as much about colleges as my younger son. My younger son is an ESPN addict. He has learned about colleges through college athletics, so shazzam!-why not try that in PE!
Two years ago, I assigned each of my 3rd-5th grade students a NCAA D1 college that had a chance to make it into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. They each wrote a letter to the athletic director (which meant they had to find an address, use correct letter-writing skills, address an envelope...) asking for a pennant to hang in the gymn. I added a cover letter explaining the project. Throughout the last quarter of the year, the students received not only pennants, but posters, a jersey, team pictures, view books and letters! Our walls lit up! The students saw results, learned about colleges and practiced some letter-writing skills to boot!
Last year, I decided to teach an Olympic unit, as most of these children were too young to remember the 2004 Olympics. I know a bit about the USA National Swim Team, so I assigned each student an Olympic Swimming hopeful. We sent all the letters to the US Olympic Committee, who forwarded them to the athletes. This delayed the process a bit, but we were fortunate enough to receive five responses. We will contine with the Olympic theme this year and invite our athletes to this site, where they will have the opportunity to respond to this blog.
I grew up in a college town and always knew I would go to college. My family didn't have much money, but a college education was still an expectation. I graduated from South Dakota State with a BS in HPER and began teaching at Brandon Valley.
A few years ago, I realized that the expectation of college is not necessarily present in every home. I wanted to create an awareness of college to all my elementary students. My oldest son was looking at colleges and I realized he didn't know as much about colleges as my younger son. My younger son is an ESPN addict. He has learned about colleges through college athletics, so shazzam!-why not try that in PE!
Two years ago, I assigned each of my 3rd-5th grade students a NCAA D1 college that had a chance to make it into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. They each wrote a letter to the athletic director (which meant they had to find an address, use correct letter-writing skills, address an envelope...) asking for a pennant to hang in the gymn. I added a cover letter explaining the project. Throughout the last quarter of the year, the students received not only pennants, but posters, a jersey, team pictures, view books and letters! Our walls lit up! The students saw results, learned about colleges and practiced some letter-writing skills to boot!
Last year, I decided to teach an Olympic unit, as most of these children were too young to remember the 2004 Olympics. I know a bit about the USA National Swim Team, so I assigned each student an Olympic Swimming hopeful. We sent all the letters to the US Olympic Committee, who forwarded them to the athletes. This delayed the process a bit, but we were fortunate enough to receive five responses. We will contine with the Olympic theme this year and invite our athletes to this site, where they will have the opportunity to respond to this blog.
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