FCBARCELONA.CAT

28.05.2008 17:30

Sport, values and school

The ‘Play it!’ training resource, created by the Foundation, is now part of everyday Catalan school life. Positive sporting values have come to the classroom in order to promote respectable citizenship.

The 6th year primary PE class at Escola Vedruna Àngels was different to any other. They didn’t go out to the playground, but stayed in the classroom. The school’s games teacher, Eduard Riudabets, chose to hold a debate instead based on some of the online activities offered by the ‘Play it!’ scheme.

A peculiar class

The chosen activity involved a series of videos to promote oral expression and group reflection. The first, projected onto a large blackboard, showed a group of people playing football, while at the same time diving and faking injuries. “They are play-acting” explained one of the pupils at the end of the video. While the rest of the class raised their hands to join in the conversation, Eduard explained how sport is more important than cheating, and showed why faking injuries on the pitch spoils all that is good about football.

A second video showed a player scoring a goal while the other team was a man down due to injury. The teacher stopped the video and asked the pupils what they think would have been the fair thing to do in such a situation. “It is the referee’s fault!” came a voice from the back of the room. “The other team should let the others score”, added a girl. Eduard let the video play on and showed the exemplary attitude of the goalkeeper, who allowed the other team to score a goal in return. The debate continued.

Material to support teachers

This is just an example of the kind of classroom situation that is possible using the ‘Juga-la!’ in your school currículum. “It is material that reflects reality very well, and it is perfectly adapted to our interests” said Eduard Riudabets, the teacher from Escola Vedruna Àngels. “We teachers often find it hard to find thought provoking materials and ‘Play it!’ really helps with that.” Here it was being used in PE, but the same materials can actually be of benefit to a number of other subjects too. And as it is entirely web based, it can also be used at home by parents.