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Timely
Warm-up Critique
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An elementary school physical educator provided the same structured warm-up each day to (a) help control students, and (b) conserve the time required to explain alternative activities. The standard five-minute warm-up consisted of the following exercises: |
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For one particular class, other school personnel had moved the floor hockey equipment. Since two students needed a few minutes to retrieve the equipment, Teacher 'W' did not want to lose another five minutes for warm-up after waiting for the students to return. Therefore, she skipped warm-up to enable students to begin tournament play sooner. Consider the merits and shortcomings of the measures taken by the teacher. |
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Critique Complement 1: The teacher made conscious decisions about classroom control and conserving class time, but the manner in which those were achieved was not well founded. Criticism 1: Conducting the same warm-up each day becomes monotonous. Providing some alternative warm-up activities is worth the little time lost. Criticism 2: For days when a calisthenic warm-up is desired, students may exercise some responsibility by choosing some of the exercises. Criticism 3: Skipping warm-up to save time was unwarranted in this case, given the main activity for the day. The class could have warmed up without the two students who retrieved equipment. Even if the class did wait for the students, a different warm-up could have been accomplished in only a few minutes. |
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