Welcome to Coach Powell's Class
     Glad to be back and pressing on towards the second half of the school year. I pray that everyone had a restful, enjoyable Holiday break and was able to spend some quality time with friends and family members. Hopefully we are all ready to start the new year with vigor and excitement.

Class Project:
 In P.E. we are making a personal fitness program. We have begun by analyzing the results to our fitness tests. We are understanding what are our strengths, weaknesses, and areas that we have reached the standard. Next, we establish some ways to improve, and finally set some goals for this year. Students will be able to retest and see their improvement over this year.

New Year's Resolutions:
It is that time of year when most of us set resolutions. It is a good practice. Most New Year's Resolutions involve improving our health in some way. So I want to begin by saying good luck on your journey. However, the difficult part of this process is having the stamina to finish what we began.

Here are a few tips;
     - Set a realistic goal that is reasonable, measurable, and sincere. 
     - Place a date on your goal (the date that you expect that you will achieve your goal).
     - Write your goal down and place it where you will look at it often. (I like the bathroom mirror).
     - Break your goal into a series of short-term mini-goals.
     - Set checkpoints for your mini-goals.
     - Recruit support from people you trust. Everyone needs encouragement when we are weak.
     - Prepare ahead of time for days when you have a setback. DO NOT GIVE UP JUST BECAUSE YOU HAD A BAD DAY!  Get back on track and move forward to your goal. 
     - Reward yourself as you achieve a mini-goal. Choose something that will not sabotage your goal.
     - On the final date of your goal, analyze how well you did. Share your success with others.
     - Re-establish new goals.  
   
Thank you to all the students for all their hard work during the first half of the year To everyone, I appreciate your support, cooperation, and especially for showing understanding for the large classes. Although we are no longer in the Health portion of the year, we will continue to strive to apply the principles and concepts we learned. We will continue with the Second Step training throughout the year. We are learning to show respect empathy, and learning how to behave in social situations.

Announcements
      During the cooler weather, please remember to layer your clothes, wear sweats or sweat suits, and label all your jackets and hoodies. It is not uncommon to take off your coat or hoodie and forget to pick it up after class. No blankets or pajamas, as well as no wearing shorts over your jeans will be accepted for dressing out.

     P. E. classes are dressing out daily to show readiness to learn. We also have an increase in participation, which leads not only to better finess scores, but better grades for students. Students will be running and stretching during class and will need appropriate clothes and shoes. Students should wear t-shirts and shorts in the school colors. Shorts should be appropriate length. In order to avoid injury to students, students will need to wear tennis shoes. Sandals, flip-flops, crogs, Sperry type shoes and backless sneakers are not appropriate.
    
 If a student brings a note to be excused from Physical Education for the day, the student is still expected to dress out and pay attention to the lesson for the day. Students are to do make-up work immediately after they have been absent. Make-up forms are readily available in the box next to my office door. News articles used for make-up work should be attached by staple to the make-up form. All articles should pertain to the subject matter we are studying in class. Currently we are studying fitness, cardiovascular endurance and playing the game of Ultimate. 
 
      Locker rentals began the first week of school. The cost is $5.00 for the year. No locks may be brought in from home. We recommended that every student rents a locker so that valuables may remain safe. With the addition of new lockers, we will have enough lockers to accommodate every student in P.E. Also, this year P.E. uniforms are available. The cost for the set (shorts and t-shirt) is $15.00.  
     We will be learning First Aid and CPR in all of my 7th grade classes. Students will be dressing out for those classes.