Adapt(ed) PE Online: Strategies for Long-Term Resilience

Authors

  • Abby Fines
  • Christina Mehrtens
  • MacKenzie Pigg

Keywords:

Adapted physical education, online physical education, disability, physical activity

Abstract

Teachers and students had to adapt quickly to the impact of an unwarranted pandemic. This includes Adapted Physical Education (APE) teachers and their students with disabilities. Although counterintuitive, they have moved a subject matter that should elicit a movement response online and have done so with little to no research as a grounding foundation. This brief article offers six unpretentious strategies, informed by collective experience, to guide APE teachers as they keep working in a time of uncertainty. They are: (a) connect with your students, (b) connect your students to each other, (c) connect with parents/guardians and caregivers, (d) maintain partnerships with other professionals, (e) create intentional instructional resources, and (f) assess to have success! We believe these are long-term strategies that should be read with a proactive mindset, embraced even when teachers can set foot back into the classroom, to truly reinforce the mission of developing students who joyfully participate in and value a lifetime of physical activity.

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Published

2020-09-10

Issue

Section

Feature Articles