Physical education
My daughter never complained about pyhisical education at her previous school, where she spent the first 2 years of her school journey. She always had fun, and even though her grades for PE weren't as high as the rest of the classes, I couldn't be bothered much because it also depends on what they do in classes, the approach of the teacher etc. I know this from my own experience.
Growing up with bad knees, which later turned out to be an issue from birth, but never came to the surface until my teens, I know that it sucks when you can't keep up with the classmates and that it makes a HUGE difference when a teacher is trying to include you in other ways so you don't feel left out. For example, my final two years at school, I had a teacher who I proposed to myself to focus on the books from PE and when I could not join the regular classes, that he'd give me some paper exam or something, he agreed. This way, I could lift my grade a bit.
He appreciated the fact that I was pro active and tried to include myself somehow rather than sitting on the sidelines just watching and I appreciated the fact that he allowed me to have the opportunity to still have a better grade on my end exams the final two years.
Probably my knees
I don't want to jynx anything but I fully expect my daughter to have the luck that she has my bad knees, although she never had any incident with them yet, I didn't either until my teens. I always warn her to be very careful with them, and most important to break her falls with her hands rather than her knees as it could cost her dearly if not. Once one of my knees first popped out of place, it was over with the fun and it remained an issue for decades to follow. The other one was never as bad but also became an issue at some point.
I hope she'll never have to face these issues I dealt with though.
New school, new teacher
Although I rarely heard her complain about any of the other teachers, besides the English teacher being wrong often and her thinking it's stupid she knows English better than her teacher (lol), there was a constant complaint about the PE teacher. The one she was assigned to at this new school was an old man, about to retire and grumpy as can be, from what I've heard he was 100% done with teaching children. He was probably already counting down his final years at school and even said goodbye after the first trimester as he was going to retire. Kids were happy he wouldn't return after the holidays, until he returned after all.
So imagine being this guy and thinking after the Christmas holidays you're done, finally, after counting down your time, and then saying your goodbyes, to then eventually be back on the same spot two weeks later. It must have sucked. I guess they didn't find a replacement in time so once this happened, he was even worse in his grumpy behaviour and I bit my lips several times to not lash out to him in the parent/school app.
I figured my daughter is probably also a bit hard to deal with at times when it comes to her personal manual and I just hoped he'd leave rather sooner than later, meanwhile hoping my daughter would at least find a bit of joy back in the classes.
The good news
Finally, in the final trimester of school, the new PE teacher was introduced and he was a young and still very motivated guy. Apparently he had some charms as well because when I was blown away by the handsome swimming teacher recently, she mentioned her PE teacher was also very handsome, lol. Either way, whatever he does, it seems to work for the kids.
My daughter immediately started to look forward to the phyisical education classes again and she only had good stories in the final trimester. What a relief! I was afraid the other teacher would continue for another year by that point, totally ruining these classes for my kid.
The best news!
My daughter never scored higher than a 6 out of 10 on her report at this school for PE, it was the only class where she'd not have a very good grade at, I was convinced it was at least 50% thanks to this grumpy guy just being annoyed that she needed some more explanation or maybe because he just didn't explain things well himself.
Turns out I was right because guess what happened on her final report this school year? She came home all excited and said the teacher already told the kids their final grade and she now went from a 6 to a 9! I don't think this happens just because she magically is a star at everything, but I bet it has to do with the teacher's approach to take the time to explain things better as well as motivate her to try things. Practice makes perfect after all.
She found back her spark
I'm so happy with this because she finally had her spark back which is great because it sucks to have 0 motivation due to a stupid PE teacher that just doesn't know how to handle kids that aren't natural stars in sports.
If there will be a moment in the future that I get to speak to this teacher, I will definitely let him know what a difference he made. He told the kids that he never gives a 10 at the report as there's always room for improvement so in fact the 9 was the best score he gave them. Imagine the happiness on my child's face telling us that, I will not forget it.
Did you ever experience such things with a teacher yourself or with your children?
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