I am the prgrams manager for a diabetes obesity prevention program for grades K thru 8th grade. We work through grants, our program is all about implementing Moderate to vigourous physical activites in the school. Our program is implemented through our health curriculum for grades K-8th, an afterschool program, a parent component, and a school food service program. Changing lifestyles in the schools is not easy, we can implement all the physical acticvities in school but what they do at home is a differnent story. What I would like is some feed back back on what type of activities can be done at home with the family or friends. I was looking at your website and I really enjoyed it, I have passed this over to my staff, Thanks

P.E has never been my best subject. I never played a sport in my life except for cheer in elementary. Running i absolutely hated because i was soooo slow!! even in high school i was able to cheat during the mile run because my friend was the teachers aid who would give us sticks for every lap we did and she would give me an extra one on my last time around so i would only do 3 laps (sometimes even 2) instead of 4. because of this i was able to finish my \"mile\" 3-5 minutes earlier than what i could actually do so i never finished last. now that i have learned to make P.E fun, i wish that my teachers had learned how to teach this way instead of running and doing actual sport (which i suck at) all the time. The form of P.E i have learned to teach doesn\'t exclude anyone or make the game about competition. in these games everybody wins and nobody has to feel like they are not good enough. i really hope to incorporate this into my classroom as we do P.E. so that my students learn that P.E is good for you and it can be fun.

As a child I was always participating in P.E and I was very fit for the P.E activities as well. However, I always felt horrible for those who had trouble in P.E and those who felt embarrassed. I hated when the teachers would pick students to be team captains and then those students would pick there teammates and usually they would pick the popular kids even if there not even good at the specific activity. As much as I enjoyed P.E and playing games I would become so discouraged when teachers would put students on the spot in front of the whole class. Luckily Tandalay was invented! I enjoy this program so much and I feel if schools used this type of P.E. all children will have way more fun and actually feel comfortable participating. I wish when I was a child that my teachers fallowed the Tandalay program and if they would have, my P.E experience, and others, would have been much more enjoyable!

Elementary physical education is somewhat vague in my memory these days. I remember running the mile of course and playing competition games. One specific memory that I hold onto was a day in P.E. where our class was playing a soccer game. My P.E. teacher chose 2 soccer players and then allowed them to pick their own teammates. I would characterize myself as being pretty athletic but unfortunately soccer was not a sport a had played. All of my friends in elementary school had grown up playing soccer so of course they got picked quickly. I; on the other hand, was picked (what felt like) close to last! It was so embarrassing! It wasn\'t that I was awful at the sport; I merely was uneducated with the rules and positions, so I felt a little lost. That experience stuck with me throughout the years and I never wanted to play soccer again... I didn\'t even want to try. It was such a big deal in my life that when one of my friends who grew up playing soccer was cut from 2 other sports teams that I made, I still felt inadequate because I knew I was no competition for her at soccer. Growing up I have always been encouraged to get involved in physical activities. That might have something to do with the fact that my family is consumed with coaches and my Dad was a high school P.E. teacher and head baseball coach for about 27 years before he became the Athletic Director. My Dad also became the assistant coach to my freshmen volleyball team, where he always expected more of me. Though my Dad was a tough coach he pushed me to become the best athlete I could be and I thank him for that! All-in-all I have a pretty positive outlook on my P.E. experience. In my personal opinion I believe it is important to help children find a certain sport that they will enjoy, whether it be volleyball, basketball, hockey, or dance. Getting involved in an enjoyable sport not only helps build self-esteem and promotes exercise; it also becomes a great building block for their future in wanting to stay healthy and fit. As an athlete you also learn that a healthy diet is crucial to your performance and if that is established at an early age it has a greater chance of following them into their adult lives.

I recently moved here from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Fayetteville has a small school district consisting of only 9 elementary schools, 4 junior high schools and a single high school. I attended Fayetteville High School East and was playing on the volleyball team. Going into my senior, I sacrificed my job and attended all of the required volleyball practice sessions over the summer. When volleyball season started, I was shocked to find out that the coach had placed me as a middle hitter playing on the JV team. I immediately felt I was misplaced and began wondering what the reason was. I couldn�t figure out why the coach didn�t have me play on the varsity team instead. I felt my competitiveness and skill levels were much higher than the JV girls. I thought I was supposed to be playing with the varsity team. My understanding of the high school�s athletic department policy is all seniors get to play on the varsity team. When I questioned the coach, she told me it was a mistake and she will switch me to play for the varsity team. But after two weeks passed, our coach ceased all JV practices and told me the rest of the JV team to practice on our own. She stated that the varsity team was her priority and had to prepare the team for a tournament in two weeks. Then, I became more confused than ever before for two reasons. First of all, she ignored giving me a response to my question about playing me on the varsity team. Second, she said that I was better off playing with the JV team. When I thought about what she had said and how she had utilized the varsity players, I noticed she kept the same three varsity girls playing full time on games without even subbing them out at all. Then, I began to really hate volleyball and disliked the coach for showing such favoritism over those 3 girls. At the same time, I was the only Hmong girl on the team and the whole school. I realized I was discriminated against. After some deliberations, I quit the team. About a week after that, the coach caught me walking on the hallway and asked me why I quit playing for her. She claimed she was looking for me and wanting to put me on the varsity team. At the moment, I thought to myself, �Whatever you say, you�re such a liar for telling me what you don�t intend to do.

Everyone knows about Physical Education testing that comes at the end of the year. It has to be the greatest example of what PE should not be. However, in today\'s society, there really is a growing number of students who are obese and it necessary to get some individual numbers. I wasn\'t the most fit when I was young and I remember being one of those kids who really hated PE because I was always self-conscious. I cannot really recall any PE experience that quite fit the guidelines of what Tandalay provides. All of the activities that we played in PE were full of the intimidation factor and favoring the kids that were very athletic. However, one year I remember not being able to pass the mile the first time. Up until this day, the mile-run left those who could not run the mile in 7 minutes feeling crumby because they were left outside (sometimes even the teachers would leave or go into something else while the students left were still running.) However, there was one experience I had that made the mile run bearable. Every student was assigned a buddy. The teacher tried to pair up people on the same level and the job of each student was to cheer the other person on. There really is no way to make the mile run completely intimidation free, but having one other person cheer you on while you did the same made it seem easier. Then once you and your partner were done with the mile, you were to go find someone who wasn\'t done and run the rest of the mile with them while cheering them on. The positive reinforcement made a seemingly individual test more about teamwork and getting all the students to pass. I believe there was only one person that year that did not pass the mile, but I remember running the mile in the fastest time in my life. So, just because an activity has to be done, it is always possible to make the activity a reinforcer for a student\'s self-esteem!

Physical education has always been a fun and energetic activity for me. Through my younger years of elementary I recall being involved in relays, physical education testing, dance and the monkey bars even if it is not considered physical education but if I think about it, it does require strength and persistence. Put most girls on a monkey bar and they can twirl rounds around you with one knee and two also. Going into my freshman year I can clearly recall my P.E. instructor her name was Mrs. Moore. I had a fabulous time with her and as I sit in class and listen to the things we should or should not do I can�t think of a moment that she made any of us feel out of place or embarrassed. She taught us volleyball, soccer, badminton and many more. Through the different activities I don�t recall her making anyone of us feel left out or making us feel bad because we couldn�t play but gave us several words of encouragement and every time someone did good like hitting the soccer ball with their head or serving overhand we got extra points or Free Time by choosing an activity that involved P.E. that we all enjoy to do for the rest of the P.E. period. My overall experience has been great and now that I plan to be an instructor I hope to be able to provide an outstanding curriculum in all my teachings to make every child feel special and important and involved.

I was always the student who hated when the teacher said \"And today we are doing P.E.\" then I would see her go and reach for the big red balls which only meant one thing Dodgeball. I was slow so I also hated relays where the whole class would watch me be last. In Elementary school I really hated PE. I hated feeling singled out or hit with a ball, or waiting for my turn. Looking back on everything I didnt like I am hoping to make PE fun for my class when I become a teacher. I want them to be excited about PE and not feel intimidated by it. I know that pyhsical education is so important for teachers to incorporate in there day of instruction and it can be hard if you dont know how, but I am going to set that as one of my goals so that I can get better at teaching fun PE.

For as long as I can remember P.E. was never fun. In elementary, I remember dreading the long walks around the baseball diamond, as our teachers stood off to the side. Our teachers required we jogged around, although we all only jogged as we approached our teachers, and once we were so far that we thought our teachers could not see us, we would walk. As if that was not enough, I will never forget in sixth grade, all six grade classes did P.E. on the blacktop for the entire year. Why? I do not know. I just remember having to do push ups and sprints on the blacktop. We all hated it and even tried getting out of P.E. by saying we did not feel good. I believe if we had done the activities from the Tandalay curriculum in elementary school, I would have enjoyed P.E. As a matter of fact I am 25, and I enjoy these activities now, as a college student. I feel all teachers need to be involved and involve every student. This is a great opportunity for us, as future teachers, to make a difference in physical education.

In 7th grade, I had a P.E. teacher who yelled a lot and was very intimidating. P.E. was never fun in his class. When it came time to run the mile, he would yell at us as we ran, �Whoever comes in last will get an F!� It made me feel horrible for those students who were slower than I was and who had poor self-esteem already. He probably couldn�t give students an �F� for finishing last, but to be that person that who finishes last would make me hate running and hate P.E.. I felt bad because those people who weren�t the best runners needed encouragement not fear as motivation. To hear our P.E. teacher make threatening remarks made everyone feel uncomfortable. If our teacher would have given us more positive motivation instead of an attitude of �do it or else,� we may have actually performed better! I�ve since learned that there are ways to go about running the mile that don�t require a �last place� runner. Our teacher should have had us run as many laps as we could in a given amount of time. I�m sure it would have relaxed all of the students in our class if running the mile were more about pushing yourself instead of competing with your peers.

When I was school P.E. varied from when I lived in southern Calif. to Dunlap, Calif. Physical education in southern Calif. was something that I do not remember as a child. When I lived in Dunlap, Calif. I attended Reedly High School and this I remembered because we had to run the mile, do sit-ups, push-ups and of course the best of all pull-ups. Gosh, for the life of me I could not do it. So, here I was with three other girls who also could not do a pull-up. Our P.E. teacher was like a drill sargent who just would not let up on us. And to make matters worse the guys were out sitting on the bleachers watching. How embarasssing!! Finally when she realized we could not do it she reluclently let us go inside. What a memory!! Never forgot it. She damaged me. Where was Tandalay when we needed it. Things would have turned out better and a happy memory for me. But, I guess you have to take into account that my P.E. experience happened over twenty years ago. Today, with some of us becoming teachers the children will have a better experience with P.E. Gina

I do not remember all too much from p.e in school. I do remember how excited i was for p.e in elemantry school. My favorite game was kickball. I loved playing kickball because i was really good at it. Something i remember in junior high was having to run the mile once a week. We each had a partner and the partner had to keep track of how many laps we were on and what our final time was. I hated having to run the mile. I always made sure i was partners with one of my good friends so we could cheat. We would always mark down a faster time. The teacher would never know because there were so many kids finishing at such different times. I think instead of timing us on how fast we can run the mile, they should have done how many laps can we complete in a given time. Once i moved onto middle school i was able to weasel my way out of pe many times. I was able to do this because i played sports for the school. Since my teachers loved my friends and i, we would ask if we could practice the sport we were playing at the time than having to participate in the class activity.

I attended the fourth grade at Berletic Elementary located in the west side of Fresno. During our P.E time we would either play dodgeball, basketball, or simply run around the track for fifteen minutes. I really was not to happy when we had P.E. because I had classmates that were very tall that always made fun of me beccause I was short; and I wasn\'t to much of a participator cause I was to afraid to be laughed at; so what I would do is not try as much so that I would get out of the game as much as possible. I would see the other students try really hard to win for their team, buti always didn\'t seem to be the only one because the girls all seem to act like I did. Now running around the track for fifteen was the worst especially when it was too hot, so I didn\'t have to much fun in P.E. in elementary; neither in High School even though i passed the class; but for some reason it was about the same thing for instance running the mile to beat the time was difficult but i always was trying to finish so that i could sit after and just watch until we had to go back in the class. I believe that running should be banned as a P.E. activity because it does not work and to have the students like P.E. is less of an interest.

For as long as I can remember I dreaded PE in school. I used to pretend that I was sick all the time just so that I was able to sit out. I was never athletic so naturally, I was pretty bad at all sports and like many unnatural athletes I was always picked last. I was the kid that had the most embarassing things happen to them during PE. Once in third grade, while playing soccer, I was passed the ball to make the winning shot for my team. It was an open shot and there were no oppenents around! I pulled back my little leg to kick the ball really hard to ensure that I would make it. BIG MISTAKE. I ended up missing the ball and somehow landed on my back. We lost and I didn\'t stop hearing about it for like a week. Playing softball was even worst because I would throw the bat back after I would hit the ball and my teacher would yell at me in front of everyone. After that I could have cared less about proper techniques in softball. In middle and high school, I would pretend that I didn\'t care about PE to hide the fact that I didn\'t know how to play a sport. I could honestly say that I hated PE. Now, being able to experience tandalay curriculum, I notice there has been a shift in my feelings towards physical education and fitness. Now, I can\'t wait to go to PE and try new activities, even the sports activities! Even my family has noticed the difference in my attitude towards PE. They say, \"Wow, I\'ve never seen you so happy to go to PE\". So now, I\'m hoping that I will to be able to share these activities with my own class someday so that every child could have a fun experience with Pysical education like I\'m having now!

In P.E. class I always had bad experiences. I remember always complaining that something hurt so that I can sit out. I was never good in any sport and it was never fun for those who weren\'t athletic. When it was time for captains to pick teams I was always the last one. I remember felling like a loser. I always told myself that when I become a teacher I am going to make P.E. a fun experience; I don�t know how I was going to do that until I took a Kinesiology class at Fresno State. That class has taught me how to make P.E. fun and fair for everyone. There are tons of activities that get each child involved. I wish they had Tandalay curriculum when I was in school. I am looking forward on making P.E. a great experience for our kids.

I remember I long time ago my school would have grades 4-6 run on the track together. They would always pick what they called \\\"jack rabbits\\\". They were kids that were allowed to get ahead start before before the classes. If the classes caught up to a jack rabbit, the poor kid had to run extra laps. Needless to say I am a very slow runner and always got as a jack rabbit and had to run a lot of extra laps.

P.E. is a distant memory, thank goodness. Since college, I have had the luxury of not doing ANY physical activities except for the occasional gym workout a few times a month. In high school, I was a big girl and felt insecure about doing sports activities in P.E. I went to Clovis Unified School District which ha d a four year P.E. requirement in High School and I wanted to transfer to a Fresno Unified School so I would only have to take two years of P.E. My parents wanted me to go to school in Clovis, but I always thought: Fresno students are so lucky, they only have to do 2 years of P.E. We have to do 4 fours! Four years of running the mile! Luckily, I was able to take weight-training for the third year of P.E. I enjoyed it and it made me stronger and more muscular, but my last year as senior, I had to go back to taking regular P.E. I didn�t enjoy the activities and feel like it was important. Soon, I noticed that my muscles were returning to jiggles. I wish I had a choice in something that I enjoyed. I would have been healthier.

When I was in high school i decided to go to my old Junior High and help my old volleyball coach with her new team. I wanted to help with some of their techniques because once I entered high school i learned that what i was taught that a lot of the fundamentals that I learned before high school were wrong. Which I then proceded to use wrong form because my muscle memory had already stored the bad habits and I still continue to have what my coach called funny feet when I played at my Junior College. Therefore, I went to help right some wrongs made before it was too late to fix. When I arrived at my junior high my coach ended up having and emergency to go too and would need to leave me in charge for the rest of practice. She left me with simple drills that I would have the team run, which seemed fine at the time. During one of the drills we did what is called pepper over the net and there was a line on either side of the net which left a lot of people standing around. After looking at the tandaly criteria I realized that this wasn\'t the best way to run the exercise. If left too much time to goof off, which i found out the hard way. After the girls hit the ball once and returned to the end of the line they began to jump up and use one leg to kick off the wall. Before I knew it I had a girl on the floor with a dislocated knee and I had no idea what to do. If I would have had better thought out drills or exercises to run where all the girls were always interacting with one another or just didn\'t have the down time to goof off this wouldn\'t have happened.

In Elementary school I was drenched in black watery soil as I slipped in a mud puddle while walking backwards trying to catch a baseball. In high school, I remember my face stinging with pain, forcing myself not to cry, face red from embarrassment from the soccer ball that my friend accidently kicked into my face. It took all my will power not to kick it right back in hers. Worst of all, I recall the dread in my heart as I waited for the whistle to blow to start the Mile Run. My lungs were bursting, dizzy, on the brink of fainting as I inch my heavy feet towards the end. Worse than the Mile Run was the look of disappointment, or hatred, from my teammates when I couldn�t spike the ball over the net. I remember praying: Please, do not let the ball come to me! Fear. Agony. Torture. These are the memories and the feelings I have of Physical Education. Maybe I was traumatized, but I�ve learned to stay away from balls: basketballs, volleyballs, tennis balls, baseballs. I�ve learned to avoid trouble and be safe by staying as far away from the game and being as invisible as possible. Fear. The fear of getting hurt, of being ridiculed, of being not good enough made P.E. a daily panic. In retrospect, I wonder: Where were the Fluffilos? These adorable, soft, cushiony little balls would have saved me so much pain and trauma. Where was the creativity? Where was the fun? So many simple materials such as hula hoops could be used to create fun activities and give every student the opportunity to experience fun P.E. and be more confident with their peers. I am eight months pregnant, and I feel confident and have so much fun doing the activities on Tandalay. When we did the soccer unit, I was kicking the ball around with my big belly and not even wondering if I was going to have a ball kicked in my face!

A long, long, time ago there was a very shy, self conscious, uncoordinated seventh grade girl. At her school there was the most beautiful guy you ever saw. He was of course one of the most popular people and a real \"fox\" (as we called them back them). Well, even shy girls have crushes, and she just so happened to have one on him (as did all the seventh and eighth grade girls). However, this poor girl had the misfortune of having this \"hottie\" in her P.E. class (of all classes). Now seventh grade P.E. was awkward and intimidating enough without worrying about tripping or falling or doing something foolish in front of \"popular people\". Well, wouldn\'t you know it, something horrific happened. She and he were set up on opposing teams in a volleyball game. Someone on her side lobbed the ball, ever so gently, and set him up for a perfect spike. He spiked the ball in perfect form. Sadly, he spiked it right into this young girl\'s face! She grabbed her face and went down to the ground in pain. She could hear people yelling and panicking and the next thing she knew Jeff (the \"hot\" guy) was touching her on the shoulder and asking her, \"Eve, are you alright?!\" with great concern. Jeff walked Eve to the nurses office. It was one of the most embarrassing Junior High encounters. The shocking part of the whole story was...... he actually knew her name!

My experience with physical education seemed like a very positive experience. All of the physical education classes that I took involved competition in some sort of sport. It was never a game, it was always a sport. I am a very competitive person so I liked going to P.E. class to play sports. I was always that student that everyone wanted on their team. You know, how there is always a student who is stronger and more skillful than anyone else and the team captains always fight to see who picks that person first. Well, that person was me. I enjoyed being better than the rest at any sport. The problem came when the physical testing was done. For some reason I could never do push- ups. I could do pull- ups just fine and run the mile faster than almost everyone in the class, but I just couldn\'t do push ups. I remember feeling kind of odd because all my friends couldn\'t understand why I couldn\'t do push-ups if I was the best at every sport. I remember that I used to hate going to P.E. when we were going to do push-up testing. Good thing they only did this about three or four times in the year. Now that I know about the different factors that need to be taken into account when teaching physical education, I realize that I have had really bad teachers. Even though I was having fun beating everybody at different sports, there were others who were not having a good time at being embarrassed and not doing so good in sports. I realize that my teachers didn\'t do a good job by allowing team captains to choose the teams.

I took a P.E. class at night in my 3rd years in college. It was from 7-9:50 p.m. The P.E. course was on Fitness and Health. It was a once a week class. I remember on the first day of class, the teacher came late. He took roll and told a us how to dress for the class. The teacher told us that when we get to class for us to start running or walking around the stadium until he came to take roll. After that we went home. I was like, what a class. I went back the next week and saw my classmates walking and running around the stadium so I joined them. The teacher came 15 minutes after class start and took roll( every week he did this). He told us that we can leave after he took roll. Every single week we did the same thing; walk or run around the stadium until he came to take roll and then we left. I thought to myself, \"what kind of fitness and health class is this?\" Honestly, I thought it was an easy way to earn an A so I went everyday to class. We did not learn anything about our fitness and health the whole semester. I have an bad experience in this class. I did not learn anything on my fitness and health. I was expecting to learn something and do more than just choosing to walk or run around the stadium. I was disappointed that it was a college P.E. class and we did not learn anything about it. After that I never took another P.E. class dealing with fitness and health.