Do all ES and MS schools do the same activities for PE?

[Anonymous]

Back when I was a student in MCPS, for PE we'd be split off into teams based on last name and would rotate between different team sports for a certain period time. What comes to mind was softball, volleyball, street hockey, basketball, soccer, touch or flag football, field hockey, etc. As well as other activities such as tennis and badminton. These weren't all in the same year and some of them might've been in high school.

But when I ask what my kids what they do in PE class nowadays it sounds different. For example in elementary school they had a session where they did pickleball, which might be understandable given how it's grown in popularity. But most of the other things don't seem as traditional or just different from when I was growing up.

Is this the same at all MCPS schools and every school does the same activities? And it's just times are different now and kids do different activities now. Or do PE teachers get to decide what specific activities students do? For example there were these posts a while back where someone mentioned at Julius West they have a unit to teach bike riding:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1113232.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1201516.page

So that's probably something unique that other schools don't do. And are there still some schools that might still offer the type of rotation between the type of activities that we used to do in PE a while back?

Part of the reason I ask is that my kids' elementary school didn't seem to have a strong presence in local sports that we knew of. So I'm wondering if schools try to cater the activities students do during PE.

[Anonymous]

Gaithersburg Middle offers swimming because they have access to the aquatic center in their building. They also have bikes for their Adapted PE class

[Anonymous]

Anyone else’s elementary school PE teacher show DudePerfect videos and give nap time during their once a week physical education class?

[Anonymous]

It’s no different than other subjects: there are specific objectives in the county curriculum that can be reached through a variety of activities. A teacher or a course-alike teach can choose which activities they want to do to meet the objective. That decision can be based on everything from available space and equipment to the preferences of students to local traditions. My own kids learned Gaga Ball, but my students have never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else’s elementary school PE teacher show DudePerfect videos and give nap time during their once a week physical education class?

Sounds about right.

[Anonymous]

MLK MS also has the bicycle program. I think a school has to win a grant to be provided with the bicycles and helmets, so theres a certain amount of luck involved. The equipment isn’t provided by MCPS and there aren’t enough bikes for every single kid at a school to take the bicycle course for at least one semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s no different than other subjects: there are specific objectives in the county curriculum that can be reached through a variety of activities. A teacher or a course-alike teach can choose which activities they want to do to meet the objective. That decision can be based on everything from available space and equipment to the preferences of students to local traditions. My own kids learned Gaga Ball, but my students have never heard of it.

This.

A long time ago, I was a HS PE teacher in a different MD County. As long as we met the state requirements, we could do whatever we wanted (and had resources for). We even had variations across the staff. I was a young teacher with a different skill set than some veteran teachers who preferred different units.