PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — UMPI’s physical education students took over the classroom recently.
Students were given the chance to practice leading gym classes with five classes of second-graders from Pine Street School during an April 29, 2016 training session.
“It was a little chaotic. It was a lot more than I thought it was going to be,” sophomore student Brianna Losee says.
UMPI physical education professor, Chris Standefer, says the hands-on event gives her students a chance to learn how to work with children.
“These are all college students who don’t remember what it’s like to be 7 years old,” says Standefer.
The future teachers led the kids in games involving balloons, basketballs and hula hoops.
Ron McAtee, the second-graders’ regular gym teacher says the event is also an opportunity to show his students the university’s gym — Gentile Hall.
“I like to give kids a chance to see this facility,” McAtee says, “They can go home and tell their parents about it and maybe get them up here to see it.”
McAtee was once a student in the university’s physical education program. He says during his time there, the only students they were able to practice teaching were their classmates.
“(It’s) very hard when you have college students and they’re trying to act like third-graders or fourth-graders,” McAtee says.
Despite the chaos, Losee says she enjoyed teaching the kids and is now sure she wants to go into teaching elementary-aged students.
“The kids were really fun. They seemed to have a good time and they were all laughing and joking,” Losee says, “I love the joy they see in this activity and I love the joy I get out of it teaching them.”
