MYP Physical Education
Physical Education
Once International Day passes we will be leaving Unit Three, our group dance theme, and entering Unit four -Â Ancient Sports (Individualized). During this six week unit students will be learning the art of plate spinning, juggling, and poi spinning. Students will earn basic techniques, choosing which activity they would like to perfect. Upon completion of this unit students will perform a simple routine in front of their peers.
Statement of inquiry: What makes a skilled performance? Studying an individualized task, such as juggling, spinning plates, or poi ball spinning provides insight into human coordination. Students will analyze their current level of skill, set goals and work towards improving their skills and reaching these goals.
Questions students will be focusing on.
Factual: Plate spinning dates back thousands of years to the time of the Chinese Emperors. If one compares skills performed by different people at different levels, they will see the differences in fluidity, ease, precision. What is the difference between skill and technique?
Debatable: Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it. Does practice make perfect?
Conceptual: (CEO Coca-Cola) Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air – school, family, health, friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that school is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. How does one create balance in their lives when juggling different thing?
Juggling: Has been recorded throughout history from 1994 BCE to 1947 CE, worldwide, from China, Greece, Rome, Ireland, England, Europe, India, and America. Juggling is a physical skill involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object or many objects at the same time, using one or many hands.
 Plate Spinning:  History: Plate Spinning most likely began in China as part of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220CE) Hundred Entertainments. The Hundred Entertainments showcased spectacular performance and acrobatic feats to entertain and impress visiting rulers. In China as well as Medieval Europe, performers balanced spinning pottery basins. Circus and Vaudeville performers made the trick harder by spinning other items such as metal tubs, kitchen tables, and table cloths. A common plate spinning routine seen during Vaudeville and variety television shows was to see how many plates a performer could get spinning at one time. How it Works: Plate spinning involves balancing a rotating plate at the top of a stick. Modern plates are made out of metal or plastic usually with an indentation in the center for easier balancing. Once in motion, plate spinning is a flow action because the plate is always in motion.
 Poi Spinning: In the MÄori language, poi can mean the physical objects used by the dancers, the choreography itself, or the accompanying music. MÄori poi come in two forms: short, with strings equal to the length of the fingertips to the wrist; and long, with strings equal to the distance from fingertips to shoulder. By contrast, modern poi is generally performed by individuals, without singing and with less structured choreography. The tools and styles used are more varied. Many people first encounter poi in the form of fire spinning, but fire spinning is just one form of this highly varied art. Modern poi borrows significantly from other physical arts, including various schools of dance and many object manipulation arts. Poi is practiced around the world and can often be seen at large festivals like Burning Man, European Juggling Convention, and the Fire Dance Expo held annually during the US National Dance Week in San Francisco.
Continued Taekwondo Benefits
◠Fitness – The principals of Taekwondo/Hapkido techniques are based on the design of your body. For power you develop the larger, powerful muscles of the torso. The speed of the techniques comes from the fast, agile muscles of the arms and legs. As you progress in Taekwondo you will learn to coordinate this speed and power, and develop a concentration to focus all of your body’s strength into a small, hard striking surface like the edge of the hand or the heel of the foot.
◠Self-Defense – When the speed and power develop through Taekwondo/Hapkido is used in self-defense situations against the soft vulnerable parts of an attacker’s body, the result can be incredible. Taekwondo/Hapkido allows a woman to emphasize many of her natural physical strengths, such as power in the legs, while learning a method of self-defense efficient against a much larger opponent. Knowing you can defend yourself, your confidence will grow. And confidence alone is usually enough to deter potential attackers.
◠Self-Confidence – This does not come naturally for many people, but self-confidence can be developed over a period of time. Through Taekwondo/Hapkido, as you accomplish new goals, your confidence level increases. Taekwondo/Hapkido instills a sense of discipline and self-confidence that can carry over to all aspects of your life.