Visit TeachPE.com

Back to Review Menu
Back to Web Sites Menu

Reviewed Site: TeachPE.com

Site Content Area: Physical Education, Health, Health-related, Kinesiology, Fitness

Every month I go on a hunt to find a really cool website, that is off the beaten track, that hopefully a lot of folks haven’t seen or heard of yet, that can offer educators resources to enhance their curriculum. While traveling on this path, I cross oceans, seas, and continents, and visit many interesting websites, find pertinent information, helpful links, and useful connections, but the most amazing thing I find is that PE Central is listed in hundreds of sites as the main resource for all things Physical Education. So in honor of all those, on the other side of the World, I want to share a website from a far this month.

Overview:

TeachPE.com has content information, diagrams, links, handouts, resources, on-line quizzes and more. The site concentrates on Anatomy & Physiology, Training & Fitness, Sports Psychology, Teaching Resources, Interactive Quizzes, Drugs in Sports, Analysis of Performance, Historical information, and Coaching, although there are other sections available as well. After surfing through the site, I discovered one of the site’s main sources of traffic comes from students studying for their A-Level exams and the Intermediate classes, making it content-rich, easy to understand, and chalked full of self-assessments. The only piece we try to avoid in these reviews is products for sale, which they do have, but nothing different than what we can purchase from S & S Worldwide.

Site Requirements/Access:

Many of the links open new pages written in PHP or basic HTML, making them readily available for anyone. There are so many downloadable documents that require several programs, as well as video clips, so please ensure you have Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and a video player prior to visiting the site. Turn off your image blocker or at least enable your right-click option to view the images. Unfortunately, I did find a few internal links that indicated the pages were moved and could not be found. If you have dial-up, this site may take some time to download with the number of images scattered throughout the pages. I did not find the need for any other critical programs, making this site accessible for anyone who can access the internet.

Overview:

Each section, (for parents, for kids, and for teens) has many subsections or topics, which you can get lost in if you keep clicking, however they did try to streamline some of the topics. I found several of the links led to the same articles, so be careful what you have your students link to as some articles may be above their grade level. This site is so comprehensive there is no way I can review each and every page, in all three sections, as well as read every article, quiz, game, activity, and movie, so I'll give you a brief summary of what you will find in each section for the Kid's and Teen's pages. I would however, recommend you surf through the whole site, as there is a lot of incredible information.

The Look:

The pages are actually a little bit drab, with a white background; a simple image map on the top with several tabs, in standard blue; links down the left side; sections in the main content area, and advertising throughout. The main topics are written in slightly larger red font, making it a little easier to find various topics, but they are not linked. The page does scroll fairly far, a tad further than most folks will scroll, but hang in there; it will be well-worth the effort. It did take me a couple of times through to get the feel for the site and be able to find specific information, so be patient the first time you visit the site.

Features of the Site:

I was really excited to find the Interactive Quizzes which students can use for self-assessments and practice on their own. One could even have the students complete a given quiz, then copy their results to submit to their teacher. The quizzes are written in old-school type coding, are unattractive, but functional. Some questions require a click on a button, check in a box, or fill-in the blank, plus there are question marks available for hints to questions. Students may view one question at a time or all the questions at one time. If using one question at a time, students will get an instant response to their answers. Once they complete all the questions on the quiz, they simply click on the submit button to receive their final percentage. If it is not 100%, it will give them the option to redo the answers for the questions they answered incorrectly. The nice thing is that the student’s percentage is recalculated, incorporating their incorrect answers; their score will increase, but they will be unable to achieve 100%. The only drawback, if having students submit their results, is that they could conceivably retake the quiz repeatedly since there is no limit set. If you would prefer to download all the quizzes at one time, there is an option to purchase them.

The number of topics under the Anatomy and Physiology section are too great to list, but if you are looking for something specific, it is probably there. These content pages are short and sweet, and contain enough information for the students to grasp the concepts without overwhelming them. The title is at the top of the page with only a few sentences at best, then you have to skip down, over the advertising, to get to the rest of the content. After reviewing one page, it will become automatic to scroll down and ignore the ads.

When popping onto the Fitness and Training page, it took me a minute to figure out what the first two topics were, but our friends in the UK won’t have this same issue! Although in the US we don’t have A-Levels and so forth, the information on these pages is still relevant to us and worth a look-see. The other content areas spread across the disciple including various exercises, drugs in sports, and stretches. The images are clear; and the videos are short enough to play in class or do a quick review, plus they get the content across in an easy to understand way.

Sports Coaching is a section that is constantly being added to with new content, making this a page to revisit periodically. Since my daughter plays basketball I decided to check out the Basketball Coaching page. There are many different drills for each main skill, but better formatting, images, and diagrams would make them more user-friendly. Don’t get me wrong, the information is fabulous and very useful for teacher or coach alike. I really liked the section about parents behaving themselves too!

Upon opening the Sports Psychology page, I saw several more subtopics, with more links and resources; some directly related, some indirectly related to Physical Education. Depending upon what you are in search of, will determine where you go from this page.

The Drugs and Sports page is excellent for Health class, parents, coaches, and athletes. It shares enough information to help understand what is what and why it is not OK to partake.

The Teacher Resources is divided into two sections, again titled with UK course names, but once you enter one section, the information will make sense to you; just click on the section for your age group. Under the GCSE, ages 16 and under, has content links, interactive quizzes, further resources & downloads, and games; I particularly liked the Who wants to be a Millionaire? ppt. game. The other area I was happy to find was the Royal Navy Action Packs, downloaded PDFs about various sports, in brochure format. This is a nice resource to have in the field, or as a handout to your students; it is quick but still contains enough information to make it useful. If you click on the PowerPoint link, you will find a handful of helpful presentations you can either open or download. Finally one of the best resources is the GCSE PE Lesson Notes; a list of discussion points and questions that can be used by the teacher in class or by the students as a study guide.

A Level PE is the UK’s Advanced Level of Physical Education, ages 16 to 18 and up, so young adults such as college-aged would fit into this category. Here you will find the Analysis of Performance section, Skill Acquisition section, and the Social, Cultural, and Historic section. You’ll find questions, feedback forms, and task cards, plus glossaries, and essay ideas; and don’t forget the PowerPoint presentations. Again, a massive amount of information.

The Learn PE tab on the top will take you to a page that looks slightly different, but contains the same sections and links. The Teaching Ideas tab is a short-cut to the other sections.

Conclusion:

All-in-all this site has more resources than imaginable and you could spend hours surfing through the pages and checking out the various links, documents, quizzes, and presentations. If you have time to cruise, take it; if you don’t, try to stay focused on what you are seeking, especially since it is extremely easy to get distracted. Although I tend to lean towards attractive sites, beautifully designed, in fabulous colors, this site is worth every minute you spend there. All you folks in the UK, this one’s for you! Enjoy and surf safely.