Welch's Workouts

Volleyball

We are currently in the middle of out volleyball unit. Volleyball in the North Cobb area has recently started to grow in popularity.

Those who may be interested in taking part in the North Cobb High School or North Cobb Junior Warrior volleyball program in the future can find information at the site linked.

North Cobb Volleyball         

Speedball

We have started our first unit of the 3rd quarter with Speedball. Students will be rotating between Speedball in the main gym, the fitness center, and indoor soccer in our covered play area.

Linked is a brief synopsis of the rules of Speedball. The rules we play by at Awtrey have been modified a bit, but the main principles of the game remain.

http://www.loyal.k12.wi.us/highSchool/phyed/documents/Speedball.pdf

Students who are new to Physical Education this grading period received a course syllabus the first day of the quarter. This syllabus should be reviewed and returned signed by both you, and your child.

Writing Assessment

This week we have been working on our quarerly writing assessment. Students were to imagine they were the chef for a celebrity or athlete and to come up with a diet for this person to follow. Students needed to come up with a selection of foods that would fill the dietary needs that would allow their celebrity/athlete to meet the daily demands of their profession.

Absent Students

Absent Students:

Students who are not in class for any reason are still responsible for any work they have missed. If you are not in class, you are missing work that cannot be made up outside of class. This week's assignment for students who are absent from class is to keep a nutrition log for each day they have missed.

The nutrition log should include a list of everything consumed that day, both food and drinks...even water. The nutrition log should also include approximate amounts of the food or drink consumed. As a summary, write about why you made the food choices you made for that day.

For example, for breakfast I get up and have cereal, orange juice and a toasts with peanut butter. As the day goes on I have a snack of a Snickers bar and Sprite, for lunch I have a fun size bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, two glasses of milk, two turkey sandwiches with mayo, lettuce and tomato, and two large oatmeal raisin cookies...the kind from Publix. When I get home, I have a Granny Smith apple for a snack and a glass of water. Not being much in the mood to cook, I decide to go to Wendy's for dinner. There I get a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Coke, and fries...All Biggie sized. About 10 o'clock, I get hungry for a late night snack and make a bag of pop corn with the movie style butter and I drink 2 glasses of water.

For this day my Nutrition Log would look similar to this:

Consumed                                 Amount
Honey Nut Cheerios               1 small bowl
Milk (in cereal)                      About one glass
Orange Juice                         1 glass
Toast w/ Peanut Butter          2 slices, knife full of PB on each slice
Snickers Candy Bar                1 king size bar
Sprite                                   1 can
Turkey sandwich                    2 sandwiches (white bread)
Tomato                                 1 slice
Lettuce                                 2 leaves
Mayo                                     knife full
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie           2 Publix type cookies
Milk                                      2 glasses
Nacho Cheese Doritos             1 fun size bag
Granny Smith Apple                1 apple
Wendy's Spicy Chicken            1 sandwich (w/ tomato slice and leaf of lettuce)
Coke                                      1 Biggie Sized
Fries                                      1 Biggie Sized
Popcorn w/ movie butter         1/2 of regular size bag
Water                                     3 glasses

Physical Fitness Thougts of the Day 9.23.07

"The first wealth is health." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In just about every paper I wrote in college on the importance of Physical Education in schools had this idea as an undertone. That we may have highly productive and successful academic careers that carry on to highly productive and successful professional careers....but, how good are the fruits of your labor going to be if you are not healthy enough to enjoy them?

Many people do not realize the importance of being physically active until it's too late. Maybe it's back problem brought on by obesity, maybe it's high blood pressure brought on by smoking and/or poor eating habits, or maybe it's something we've known is something we should be doing, but just "don't have the time" to do. The truth of the matter is, our habits are put into motion at a young age. Children who are physically active on a regular basis tend to go on and be physically active in their adult lives as well. The key is though, to get the good habits started during childhood, so they don't seem like chores the older we get.

As of 2003, as a state, Georgia had almost two-thirds of it's population not getting the amount of exercise as they need. Per the Center of Disease Control (CDC). The most shocking number while looking at the CDC's data, is that almost 20% of Georgia's population is considered inactive. That this percent of the population gets less than 10 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.

To check out the complete numbers, at the CDC's website. Georgia Physical Activity Statistics. Select a state from list at the bottom to see how Georgia compares to others.

Sometimes it seems odd to me that we as a society will spend so much time and money planning for our future with retirement plans and 401k's, and how little time we plan for just making it to that point. Physical activity is something that is for everyone. Exercise knows no gender, race, or income level. Exercise doesn't care if you have hated it your whole life. Exercise will always be there, even when you're not liking it...exercise will always take care of you.

Physical Fitness Thought of the Day 9.18.07

Physical activity need not be strenuous to be beneficial.

Researches at the University of Michigan Medical Center found that adults in their 50's and 60's, who had a minimal level of physical activity in their life were about 35% less likely to die in the next eight years than those who were sedentary. Those with cardiac problems were 45% less likely to die in the next 8 years as compared to their sedentary counterparts.

The bottom line, even minimal levels of physical activity on a regular basis can help extend ones life expectancy.

Ultimate Fun

Nature does require
Her time of preservation, which perforce
I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal
Must give my attendance to.

-William Shakespeare

This week we have started with our Ultimate Frisbee unit, or "Ultimate" as it's known by those who play it. Here is a very good website that gives an overview of the game of Ultimate, provides rules for playing, and gives a glossary of terms that are unique to the game of Ultimate Frisbee.

What is Ultimate Frisbee?

Ultimate is a great form of anaerobic exercise. When played properly, Ultimate does a good job at keeping your heart rate in the target heart rate zone for long periods of time.

Besides the physical benefits of a game like Ultimate, there are many affective benefits of the game as well. There are no referees in the game of Ultimate, so players are to call their own fouls, apply rules appropriately, and settle any disputes amongst themselves. In order to have a game that runs smoothly, players must be honest and show sportsmanship in applying rules.

Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that is quickly growing in popularity and I am excited about exposing students to it.

For more information about Ultimate Frisbee leagues in the Atlanta area, try a Google search of the group Atlanta Flying Disc Club.

Absent Students

Absent Students:

Students who are not in class for any reason are still responsible for any work they have missed. If you are not in class, you are missing work that cannot be made up outside of class. This week's assignment for students who are absent from class is to keep a nutrition log for each day they have missed.

The nutrition log should include a list of everything consumed that day, both food and drinks...even water. The nutrition log should also include approximate amounts of the food or drink consumed. As a summary, write about why you made the food choices you made for that day.

For example, for breakfast I get up and have cereal, orange juice and a toasts with peanut butter. As the day goes on I have a snack of a Snickers bar and Sprite, for lunch I have a fun size bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, two glasses of milk, two turkey sandwiches with mayo, lettuce and tomato, and two large oatmeal raisin cookies...the kind from Publix. When I get home, I have a Granny Smith apple for a snack and a glass of water. Not being much in the mood to cook, I decide to go to Wendy's for dinner. There I get a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Coke, and fries...All Biggie sized. About 10 o'clock, I get hungry for a late night snack and make a bag of pop corn with the movie style butter and I drink 2 glasses of water.

For this day my Nutrition Log would look similar to this:

Consumed                                 Amount
Honey Nut Cheerios               1 small bowl
Milk (in cereal)                      About one glass
Orange Juice                         1 glass
Toast w/ Peanut Butter          2 slices, knife full of PB on each slice
Snickers Candy Bar                1 king size bar
Sprite                                   1 can
Turkey sandwich                    2 sandwiches (white bread)
Tomato                                 1 slice
Lettuce                                 2 leaves
Mayo                                     knife full
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie           2 Publix type cookies
Milk                                      2 glasses
Nacho Cheese Doritos             1 fun size bag
Granny Smith Apple                1 apple
Wendy's Spicy Chicken            1 sandwich (w/ tomato slice and leaf of lettuce)
Coke                                      1 Biggie Sized
Fries                                      1 Biggie Sized
Popcorn w/ movie butter         1/2 of regular size bag
Water                                     3 glasses

Lacrosse

"The first wealth is health." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the kids get settled down being back in the flow of school, it's time to start our first organized unit in lacrosse. Here is a very good website that gives an overview of the game of lacrosse, provides rules for playing, and gives a glossary of terms that are unique to the game of lacrosse.

US Lacrosse

For our purposes, we will be be playing by the same rules used in the girls game. These rules will still be modified a bit for safety reasons.

LAX, as it is often called by players, has long been popular in the Mid Atlantic and Pacific Northwestern states and the popularity of the sport has spread. North Cobb even fielded their very first varsity team last season with both boys and girls teams.

North Cobb Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a fast paced, high scoring, excitement filled game that was originally developed by Native Americans. It's a little known fact that NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown was both an All-American football and lacrosse player while at Syracuse University. Many in the lacrosse community believe that Brown is one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time.

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It's Time To Jump Into Action!

"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease."

-Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

As we start the 2007-2008 school year, the Awtrey Physical Education department is very excited about getting the students of Awtrey Middle School out from in front of the television and computer and outside being physically active.

This year we are looking to expose to students to activities they normally may not have seen or have participated in before. Some of the units we plan on teaching during the first 9 week grading period will include lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, co-operative team events, and other activites.

One of our biggest goals this year in Physical Education is to teach children just not how to participate in games and activities, but to teach them the benefits of living a healthy and physically active life.

Finally, Fridays will be Fitness Fridays.  On Fridays, we will focus circuit training as well as completing different portions of the FitnessGram. This will be one of our first steps into implementing the use of portfolios in P.E.

Here's to a healthy year!!!
Coach Welch