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We need to establish a discussion on how to better meet new standards by mulitplying/reinforcing instruction in one content area through others.

For example, reinforce reading skills through science and/or through art instruction.

This is going to be more and more important each year.

I personally am looking for ideas on how to reinforce learning in various content areas through physical education.

In response to your suggestion of integrating the disciplines, specifically physical education, I have had great success incorporating dance within the curriculum. I teach 7th grade life science and often have occasions where students "perform" dances to illustrate the functions of living things....cells for example. Students were grouped and assigned an organelle, their "dance" had to reflect the fuction of the organelle. We did spend some time on developing rhythm and even taught the "Temptations Walk". I look forward to hearing other suggestions soon!!

One way to integrate is to talk to the teachers of the various subject areas, take the concepts they are working on and create your own games using the basic rules for games you already teach and/or the students know. this does take some time but is worth it. Another way is to teach a unit on game development and let the students make up their own games. When you do this, you can integrate language arts very easily. The students could use the game as a Physical Education grade in terms of rules, equipment, safety, ect. and they could get a language arts grade for research, outlines, and the writing process. As a final part of the unit, they can teach the game to other students and experience what teachers feel and go through when we try to present new material. I have done this with middle school kids. They got new insight to me and my job, found out it isn't so easy to teach and gain some knowledge on how they impact the way you teach. All of this and 2 grades for 1 assignment. They enjoyed it and wanted to do more games.

An important consideration for integrating instruction is teacher readiness. We must begin to understand that to integrate skills and learning in one content area does not mean diluting or losing that which makes the other content area unique. There is much overlap in requisite skills among all content areas. Also, there are different levels or degrees of integration, from simply mentioning learning from another content area to team teaching and beyond in which the concept takes center stage and is explored through the various content areas, all linked together by the concept, sometimes called a theme, which unites the learning and makes it more relevant.

So staff training is a huge part of this effort, don't you think? Where do we begin to change attitudes along these lines?