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/