Reflecting

As I reflect on the last seven weeks and learning about different technology strategies I have gained a tremendous amout of knowledge to help me in the phases I wanted to improve upon in helping developing my personal game plan. I wanted to improve on including technology within my classroom as well as assessing in my gymnasium. As far as using technology I have become better at incorporating blogs in my health and p.e. classes. I have also incorporated digital story telling with my fitness testing and I plan to do more of it when I teach new units to students. This will help the students get a visual on what they are supposed to be doing and how certain skills are supposed to look at an advanced level. When I look at my assessment skills as a physical educator I still need to improve on this. In P.E. there is quite a grey area when it comes to assessing. There are of course rubrics to follow but there is also a lot of professional judgement that comes into factor. Its not so cut and dry like some content areas. I need to continue to find good resources to help guide my instruction to become a better assessor. However, I feel the skills and strategies I learned in this class will help guide me to become a better teacher and contine to be a life long learner.

Progress

As I continue to work toward my game plan I am struggling in some certain areas. Assessment in Physical Education has always been a hard topic for educators. It is always the main topic of discussion when my colleagues and I meet. When you have rubrics made up in P.E. that is not the hard part to follow but it is the professional judgment piece that comes in. Because it is physical movement it is not as clear cut as other content areas. You have to have an extremely detailed rubric and then it is pretty much up to your professional judgement to decide whether is a student is advanced, proficient, basic or below basic. I would like some more imput or things from people on assessment in physical education. Health is probably the easiest thing to assess because students have a set amount they do. All of the other skills are very grey. Other than that my progress on my action plan are going according to plan I just need to be introduced to some more assessment options.

Resources for Game Plan

After looking at the things I need to address and work on when reviewing my game plan I thought about some resources that I am going to have to take a look at in order to be successful for my game plan. First of all I want to get better at Assessments within my curriculum. I think the best way to start that is to contact my teaching professionals, that would be other Physical Education teachers in my district and see how they assess within their classes and things we do that are similar and that are different and possibly make changes. Also, while asking my peers I want to see how they incorporate more technology within our curriculum in Physical Education without taking the physical activity part out of it. I believe it is extremely important to keep kids active and moving however, with our rapidly changing 21st century student. I feel it is important to keep my students interested in Physical Education with more technology being included in our curriculum. I can access more videos and media in order to show students how exactly some skills and activities should look but I would like some more types of technology within the actual movement piece of Physical Education when they are actually doing the activities.

Application 2: Designing my Game Plan

After looking at the ISTE website. I found a couple of indicators that I felt very comfortable with and a couple indicators that I feel I could drastically improve upon. The indicators I feel that I have a good grasp on are Facilitating and Inspiring Student Learning and Creativity. I believe I have a great environment in my gymnasium and the students are able to express themselves both athletically and individually. I also am very confident that I Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. The three main rules not only in my Physical Education class but as well as our school is being Safe, Respectful and Responsible. Maintaining a safe and responsible environment in my P.E. class is one of the biggest things I take pride in.

My goals are to improve my game plan is to learn how to become better and learn to design and age level experiences and assessments. I have a good start provided by our district assessments on assessments however for the rest of my units I need to become better to provide more validity when doing my district assessments for more accurate data. To become better at this I am just going to continue to create data each and everyday in my class room to see what areas my students are distinguished at and what areas they need to improve upon and how my assessments can help clear up that grey area I sometimes struggle with.  My second goal is to become better at incorporating technology into my curriculum. I know in Physical Education we need to have our students move and be active because our society is becoming heavily dependent on technology and sitting around. However, in my field I need to create more technology opportunities that align and go with my physical education curriculum and the movement of students. This will benefit the students the most. Incorporating technology with physical activity will get our students extremely excited and more motivated to be physical active and live healthy lifestyles. I will then evaluate using checklists and rubrics on how much my students are improving in the skills we are learning as well as their overall understanding of health and being physically active. Focusing on these indicators will not only help me become a better educator but make my students more successful and get them excited and more motivated individuals.

Final Reflection

After going through this course, I learned a tremendous amount of skills that will help me to continue to grow as a Physical Educator. When reflecting on my personal learning theory, I noticed that I do have some modifications after going through this course. Before the class started I stated that in my physical education classes I used a lot of demonstrating techniques so the students got a good grasp on the things we were doing. Learning is basically a matter of reinforcement. If you get the behavior you want then you reinforce it (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Some of the things I modified were incorporating instructional strategies. I felt like it was very important to contribute these to my classes because it allows my students to learn and understand things you are trying to accomplish and makes your class run that much smoother. By doing this I really focused on identifying similarities and differences amongst my students. In physical education it is very important for the students to know what they can do but also be aware of what the other students can do so they are accepting and respectful of others. This eliminates any off task or behavior issues right away.

 So far in this program I have learned a ton of new ways to incorporate technology into my physical education classes. I really liked the voice threads. There are a  number of different ways voice threads can be incorporated in my class whether it is in regards to new activities we are doing or health units. I think it would be good to introduce each unit by what health component it goes with. Then do a voice thread for that specific health component. The only trouble I have to do this is adequate amount of time. I am already strapped for time so I need to pick and choose how much technology I incorporate and when I do so.  

A couple goals, I have to integrate more technology in my classes will be to use at least one type of technology tool I have learned at least once every quarter. For example, using voice threads and using heart rate monitors when we are doing different types of activities and not just fitness testing. I believe that being able to see the students work hard in a game they are enjoying would be a good way to test their heart rate and relate it to activities they are enjoying. I will use these with different types of activities as well.

With all the new information I have gained I know my students will be more involved and engaged in my activities.  Rather than just simply having me demonstrate and then allow them practice time with the new skills. Incorporating new technology ideas keeps your units and your curriculum exciting and up to date with our 21^st century student. With all the new things going on in the world today I need to keep up with my students so I can keep them involved and excited in Physical Education. My long term goals for my Physical Education classes will be to just continue to grow as an educator. Continue to  gain more information from my graduate program and integrate it as needed within my curriculum. With the world around us always changing it is very important for us as teachers to change with it so we can be influential in the lives of our students and help them grow into great students and great people.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program one. Understanding the brain [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD.

Social Learning Theory

Based on this week’s learning resources we discussed the social learning theory. Social constructivists believe along with the integration of technology that our students learn best when working in group settings and guiding their own learning. When students are able to work together, using technology or not, they are able to construct meaning for new knowledge by interacting with each other (Pitler, et al, 2010). They also talk about how students are successful learners when they are able to make connections to what they are learning. I believe a huge part of learning is just being able to get the students to make connections to what they are learning. If they can relate the topic to something they already previously know then you are going to have that much more success as a teacher because students have already made that connection to prior experiences so they are already aware of the what you are talking about.

That being said along with working in groups allowing students to share knowledge or help guide each other is another tremendous way to help students succeed. In my physical education classes we do mostly all partner or team activities. Not only in physical education is it necessary to work in teams and working cooperatively with others but it is a big part of success in the gymnasium. Students guide and learn from each other with things they are successful with and things they struggle with. Being able to work together not only helps the students out but it helps the teacher who can’t always get to each student in a timely manner for help. Not only working together but while incorporating technology , for example; having a power point on the smart board watching students play a game that others are not familiar with helps the overall understanding better than just a demonstration from the teacher. You can see the students actually in the game setting and it being played. Often during a demonstration you just break down the skills and it is tough for the students to get a good grasp. Have social group work is a great way for all students to be successful. Students love being able to talk with their peers and work together. Not only does it raise interest in what they are learning but they get to do it together where they can help each other and students are not left behind if they don’t understand things on their own.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

VoiceThread Blog

Here is my VoiceThread Blog with my concern I face in my school with my Physical Education class:

Hey Guys sorry I was out of town all weekend and didn't realize you couldn't listen to my VoiceThread. Hopefully this will work now. Sorry again.

http://voicethread.com/share/1902613/

Constructivism and Constructionism Learning Theories

When reviewing this week’s resources I thought it was interesting to hear about Michael Orey’s explanation on how people interpret the things they see. They just don’t hear the word and automatically understand what they are hearing but they picture an image of what the word is and store that mental image. Both of these different theories are student driven and involve them being active learners. In constructionism, students will complete an artifact to share with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This is from the word construction. Students are helping in creating and guiding their own learning.

A good example I believe for constructionist learning would be any type of problem solving activity. Whether it is a math equation or any type of experiment, during an experiment you are making a hypothesis to what will happen you are testing the experiment then concluding your question with your data. This is all constructed by the students and they are guiding all learning.

It is even better when you can include technology into these experiments. You can do this by making a PowerPoint presentation. A PowerPoint presentation that goes a long with a type of experiment you are doing is a great way to not only get yourself involved and more engaged in the activity but also peers if it is group work. With these two theories our students are allowing themselves to grow as students. They are in charge of the things they are doing for a long term outcome that will be beneficial for them to tackle each of these different learning theories so they have experience to each different type.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program seven. Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Cognitive Learning Theories

I believe instructional strategies today have enhanced our cognitive learning theory for students today of the 21^st century. With the technology we have today students are not able to prepare themselves for assessments much easier that we were growing up. By teaching students how to effectively take notes, summarize, and use graphic organizers to the best of their ability, we are providing our students with a rich learning environment, which includes more than one means of transport supporting Paivios idea of duel coding (laureate 2010). With our students being able to use these key contributors to learning they are now able to get a better grasp of the lessons we are trying to teach them.

Students have a tough time with note taking. I know when I was a student I wondered what information I was supposed to write down and which would be the most meaningful to help me pass the test. When I was in school, I didn’t really think about actually learning the material especially if I was not interested in the specific topic. I was just concerned with pretty much memorizing what I had to in order to get a good grade on my test and pass the class. I think that is a problem with some of our students today. With understanding our cognitive learning theory with the help of technology, our students today can now get the most beneficial resources that will not only help them know the material for the tests but learn and understand the concepts being taught. The most important thing is our students take the best strategy and connect to their own individual learning and be able to comprehend the material so it makes them the most successful.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program five. Cognitive learning theory (Webcast). Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Behaviorist Learning Theory

After reviewing the instructional strategies it appears to me that these are two crucial parts that relate to behaviorist learning theory. Behavior learning theory is something that all teachers try to strive for. They want to establish rules, regulations and expectations so that it makes their classroom that much more smoothly and eliminates any possible distractions.

Reinforcing effort is a probably one of the most important factors when it comes to having a behaviorist learning theory. Effort is the most important factor in student achievement (Pilter, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). Constantly praising students for the effort they are giving and acknowledging it is no better feeling for a student whether they are grasping the concept of struggling with it. In my elementary physical education class reinforcing effort is one of the biggest thing that helps students want to get better and try there hardest at the skills we are trying to accomplish. I am very fortunate with the students I have that they love to come to physical education class and try their best. Many teachers have troubles with students at trying to do their best and getting students to put in the effort is one of the hardest things a teacher.

As for homework and practice in most classes these can correlate to behaviorist learning theories. In my content area practice is huge to keeping a behavior in tack. When I give students the skills and amount of time to practice it allows them to practice and develop those skills to a proficient levels. This also eliminates off task behaviors with students. Constantly keeping them engaged with a task with practice opportunities will make your class flow that much better. I also believe by practice students become motivated to succeed in the task at hand. They either see that they can succeed in the skills they are doing or they see that they need some work. That’s again where reinforcing effort becomes important. For the students that struggle praising their effort will keep the students going and keep your lessons strong.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Final Reflection

The past eight weeks I have been given a tremendous amount of knowledge about adapting to our 21^st century society of students and becoming ready and more effective for these changes. Robert Hof (2007) explained over the next decade, the relentless march of computer power and Net connection speeds will bring more profound changes to work than anything we’ve seen so far. This course has provided me a number of different skills and resources to take into my own classroom and now allow me to be able give these tools to my students to help them succeed.

I have deepened my knowledge of teaching and the learning process by being a learner myself. When first entering this class I had heard about blogs, wikis, and podcasts but I was not sure exactly how they work and had no idea that we could ever incorporate them into our curriculum. After getting a great deal of experience and learning about all three technological categories I feel pretty comfortable with including some of these pieces of technology into my Physical Education curriculum.

My perspective from a teacher to a learner has changed because in order to get through to my students I need to change the way I think and put my mind as a learner. I need to be able to see and feel what the students are engaged in and what things they are being interested in. To be a good teacher you need to be involved in what your students think and how they feel and be flexible to make you more powerful as an educator to get through to your students and help them be successful and show them that you care about their needs and wants. In order to continue to grow and expand as a teacher I need to always be ready and able to change. Change to help my students, to give them the things they need to learn and be flexible and inventive with the things they want to learn. Technology is a great way to keep your students involved and always being aware and flexible is a very strong way to keep them engaged.

In my classroom within the next couple years I want to incorporate more technology. Being in Physical Education it is hard to incorporate a lot of technology because technology is a big part of why are students are not being active at home and a big contributor to our obesity rate. I want technology to go hand and hand with Physical Education to not only make it healthier for our students but to also make it fun and a cool thing to do. A good example of this is the new things the Wii is allowing at homes. It is making video games more interactive and is played by people actually moving around and being active. This is a fun and cool concept that has attracted our world, this is what I would like to include someday within my Physical Education program. Not exactly a Wii, but a fun way to get students excited and involved with physical activity and not just in my gymnasium for a few days a week.

After looking back at this eight week course I feel the changes that I have developed are just the things I want to try to incorporate into my classroom in the future. Teachers need training in instructional technology and 21st century skills so they can learn how to embed these skills into their classroom and also have a support system (Miners & Pascopella, 2007).  I want to have more time to do different things and still get my physical education in. I am not given enough time as it is to fulfill a lot of the things I would like to and for a lot of students it is the only physical activity they will get throughout the week. With more time in my program I could incorporate cooler things for my students to get them excited about living healthy and happy lifestyles.

References

Hof, R. (2007, August 20). The end of work as you know it. Businessweek.com. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_34/b4047426.htm?chan =search

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34

 

Technology Podcast

http://walk.saddleridge.laramie1.org/modules/podcast/files/956125/App%205%20Podcast_0.mp3?sessionid=cacd56d678c056dc0fd766cdd4e0a042

For my podcast I interviewed two students and one first grade teacher at my school. I asked them what types of technology they used at home and about how long they would say they used that type of technology. I also asked the students how much technology they were exposed to at school and how long they were able use those types of technology as resources during school. When interviewing a first grade teacher at our school, I first asked her how much technology she used throughout the day herself. I then asked how much technology she used within her classroom and what types of things she would like to incorporate with her first graders in regards to technology. I chose to interview a classroom teacher because being a physical education teacher I don’t use as much technology as I should right now so I thought it would be more beneficial to see how the classroom teachers within my building were incorporating technology into their curriculum.

The students I interviewed seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about technology both at home and in the classroom. According to McHale, "They've had digital technology surrounding them from the time they were infants," he says. "That digital world affords them many things that the previous world didn't." In his article, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," Prensky describes these students as wanting their information extremely fast and being experts at multitasking and networking. Yet he sees schools lagging behind, still tied to an antiquated system that rewards staying on task and on pace with others above more individualized education plans. I believe this is found to be true. The second grade girl student I interviewed said she did not use a lot of technology or hardly ever at school but she did use it quite a bit at home. I believe this could be because of the student’s age. They are not that exposed to many types of technology at the primary levels. However, the teachers at our school all have smart boards for each class so those primary students are introduced to technology in that aspect.

After conducting my interviews I realized that schools are still behind in terms of what the students are doing with technology at home. Also the amount of hours they are using technology at home compared to school is a lot. This was not surprising to me because of what our teachers are trying to do. They are still trying to make sure they follow their units and curriculum the way they always have. However, I think we are doing a better job each and every year and our technology in schools is slowly progressing.

References:

McHale, T. (2005). Portrait of a digital native. Technology & Learning. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/4572

 

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

When first looking around at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills I thought to myself what is this? I had a tough time finding things and understanding what the website was about. After awhile, I thought what a great website to have for our future in education and our 21st century students. This organization advocates readiness in regards to innovation for every student. It is a great way for both teachers and students to enhance education by keeping up with the three R's and four C's (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation). When exploring the organization website I looked through all the news and notes the website had about announcements and the productivity that was going on to keep this organization running at a top notch level.

Teachers need training in instructional technology and 21st century skills so they can learn how to embed these skills into their classroom and also have a support system (Miners & Pascopella, 2007). One thing I found interesting when going to the state initiatives tab is how the certain state department of education really backed this organization and had a complete list of initiatives mapped out to best educate their students and have them ready to enter our 21st century and have all the essential skills needed to be productive in society. It was also good to see that certain states had 21st century standards side by side with state standards. I appreciated that they were still concerned with their content standards and were aligning them to see where they fit with the 21st century standards.

Other information I found beneficial from the site was under the tools tab and seeing that they offer Professional Development. I feel this is a great thing to offer the teachers so that we can be informed and be able to provide the accurate education of these tremendous resources. I believe this is a great tool that our government, districts, and organizations are putting together to offer the knowledge and tools to combine with our own curriculum to all and all better prepare our children for the society they soon will enter in the 21st century.

References:

 

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34

Blog In My Classroom

To develop a blog for my Physical Education class I will use this as a feedback and suggestion box. It would be a great way to interact with students on a daily basis to get feedback to see how well they are enjoying whatever they are learning in my class and also get suggestions on units and games they would like to see in the future. It would also be a good way to let them share games with me. I always have students come up to me in class and say can we try this game or that game. With having a blog it would be a great way to get all the ideas from all your students and not take away any additional class time.

Physical Education and Sport

This is my first time as a blogger. I am setting up this blog for Physical Education teachers as well as teachers in other content areas to communicate with one another about ideas within their content area as well as regards to technology ideas in each specific content area. In Physical Education it is difficult to find time to incorporate a lot of different types of technology that is found out of the classroom. We as Physical Education teachers already lack sufficient amount of time to give students the time to be active and practice living healthy lifetstyles. Some students only see physical activity in their Physical Education classes and are not active at all once they get home and get out of school.

A good way to incorporate blogs with students if you have adequate time in your Phyiscal Education class is to allow time for students to blog on your blog site. Adopters of Weblogs in the classroom have already created a wide variety of ways to use them, and they have shown that blogs can enhance and deepen learning. (Richardson, 2010) This would let students give their opinions on the units you were doing and also give suggestions on future units. This allows student feedback and a great way to get students involved in your program.  

References:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.