Final Reflection Blog

The progress on my game plan has been astounding. I was able to create a class blog site where the students could communicate outside of class time about assignments and projects on their own time. I was able to teach the students how to find tutorials on the internet about whatever they are researching for class. Before this course I was not able to do anything technologically as far as software or programs where PE is concerned. The students learned collaboration and how to express their creativity by using digital tools.
It was my intention to foster an environment that facilitates and inspire student learning and creativity. I think that was accomplished by the voice thread about obesity and activity. It was also demonstrated by the wiki page the students and I created together which bring me back to the students identifying real world issues and problems that directly affect their community and modeling and engaging in learning with the students face to face and on virtual environment. Throughout the course I have learned many techniques, resources from the teacher and the other students. I reflect upon my level innitially and I would have to say I was a beginner and now I feel more confident in my practice with digital tools and internet resources.

Week Seven Game Plan Revised

The first goal is to Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity (ISTE NETS-T, 2008). I was my plan to engage students in exploring real-world issues and solve authentic problems using digital tools and resources (ISTE NETS-T, 2008). The students have identified real world issues and a problem that directly effects their community obesity and inactivity. The class has done research on the internet, created a class blog, has spoken to medical experts on diet and nutrition and learned many recreational activites to participate in outside of school. Be part of the solution not part of the problem, the change begins one student at a time and it starts with you. Now after many meetings with the IT professional the school has purchased many software programs that will help facilitate the use of digital tools and resources. I am excited about our progress with technology in Physical Education.

Throughout this entire process my students have been learning how to use the game plan system becasue we were learning and working on the standards together. I gave the students updates and announced where I was in the plan and what I was going to do next. Innitially my actions took a while to get going but I did seek out other professionals in my school and two surronding schools even at the district level. I made more time for planning and creating schedules. This can help my students when they work in groups, you have to begin with a plan that is outlined.

My students have been granted more time in the computer lab Tuesdays and Thursday 3:15pm to 3:45pm every week to work on whatever we are working on in class. There will be an adult IT professional who is aware of our class asssignments to help. The tech department has ordered the PE department 30 laptops and they will be in soon so we are making progress. This helps the students immensely. The students have created personal fitness plans that incorporate their families which shows they are being creative with content and educating family about comminity concerns.

The second goal to model collaboration knowledge by engaging in learning with students, colleagues and others in face-to-face and virtual environments. This took a while for me to do but it was easy once I relinquished control and allowed there to be orderly chaos. I began to let the students teach each other content creeatively because they were fully capapble of doing so. I beagn to be the guide on the side as the video presentation says. This showed that the students could research, synthesize information and organize it and edit it and present it as well in a digital tool that was colorful and to music.

Week Six GAME PROGRESS

What have I learned:
For my first goal of helping connect students to real life problems with digital tools is this is more difficult than I thought but it is feasible. You have to seek outside resources like IT professionals and internet resources that are related to your real life problem. These relate to my instructional practice by me incorporating presentation tools to my lecture with pictures and less words and allow students to openly discuss what they mean.

Still working toward:
My second goal which is to learn with my students and collaborate with other teachers I am making connections at school, two other schools near by and a few via email on epals.

New Personal Learning Goals:
To carve out more time to do more research for tools that support learnig for the students and myself alike. To create a schedule for the use of the computer lab and supporting tools like the video camera and digital camera as well.

Extending What I have learned so Far:
I have made appointments with the schools IT professional, and the districts as well both are working to get our school some software that will support our learning goals. I plan to immediately upload the software and introduce it to my students. There are many programs out there such as moodle, wikispaces, epals, think.com, and micro blogging just to name a few. I have taken tutorials on blogging, social networking, voicethread you name it and there is a tutorial for it.

New approaches to Improve learning:
Allowing the students to teach me and the other classmates. I feel as if the students are the best teachers so a new approach is to let go and allow them to shine in what they know best technology,digital tools, and real life experiences.

WEEK 5 Progress Toward Achieving Goals

Effectiveness of my Actions:
The students were able to identify one specific issue directly related to the community about obesity. One specific action the students implemented into their own personal lives was to increase outside of school recreational activities. One resource we used was mypyramid.com an internet resource tohelp understand the types of food we should eat. Dr. Brown came and spoke to all six of my period about nutirtion and diet and how food is fuel. Lastly, I made an appointment to meet with the districts IT specialist to request new software for our school.

So Far:
Currently we are working on our blog about obesity and how we can cure our direct community. In class we have created voice threads about the awareness and prevention of obesity. One new activity the students will employ before spring break is a personal at home fitness family plan. This will get more people involved behind the cause.

Whats to learn:
My class needs to have a classroom set of laptops with portability and internet access and storage. This needs to be kept in the gym or we need to be assigned a classroom specifically for PE. There is so much for me to learn I am excited about what I have learned the students ar as well. My next tool is Imovie and podcasts, I want to play with these over spring break.

Adjusting the plan to fit the need:
As this plan is coming together adjustments and modifications are necessary, for example adjusting the time line, providing clearer directions, modifying the rubric and assessments, having the students switch groups or do more research on unclear sources. I have spoken to many about allowing PE more access to the computer lab, the tech, his assistant, the principal, the district specialist and now we are being taken serious. My colleagues are on board now and helping with my technology fight for equality. I am excited.

Week Four: GAME PLAN PROGRESS

The information and the resources I need are not readily accessible like math scores or reading statistics. The process takes time, research and is not easy but anything worth having usually isnt. I am finding the information I need in order to engage students in exploring real world issues and help them in solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources (ISTE NETS-T, 2008).

Adjusting my action plan slightly will be necessary to accomplish the goal. Only certain aspects of it have been met like research via the internet, news resources and local medical profeessionals. In addition to completeing part of the research I have had successful meetings with the IT professional on campus.

Physical Education has so much technological information and digital tools I had no clue about. Every day I am learning so much about how to reach my students by differentiating instruction, modifying activities and varying assessments. I have learned about blogging, voice threads, imove, power point and so many other applications.

Many new questions and ideas have risen from how do I purchase this software for the entire school, to how can I get time during professional development to teach my colleagues. I have a new found respect for technology and how it fits into the Physical Education curriculum.

References:
www.iste.orge

Week 3 Game Plan UDL

Located in the blog comment section is my UDL updated plan

Unable to Copy and Paste my GAME plan

For some reason I was not able to copy and paste or cut and paste my innitial game plan into the blog, but somehow was able to put it in the comment section of my blog. I hope you will still be able to read it and comment on it and gain some perspective on how I plan to help my students in oue Physical Education class.

Voicethread

So I was so confused about this weeks assignment (which it seems I am always) so this is very late. I created this great resource about childhood obesity and I hope you like it. Please if you have the time check it out and give me some feedback. Thanks

voicethread.com/share/896886/

Childhood Obesity in America

Constructivist Learning Theory

Dr. Orey described the Constructivist Learning Theory as knowledge stating that each individual actively constructs his/her own meaning for things. The example he gave was a chair, I may be thinking of a lounge chair on Miami beach and the next person could be thinking of a bean bag chair in their own room, it has to do with perception.

In Chapter 11 generating and testing hypothesis is applicable to all content areas even Physical Education. When students are generating and testing hypothesis they are engaging in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary and enhancing their overall understanding of the content.

This week we learned that power point, word and excel along with virtual field trips and voice threads help students organize, brainstorm, create and have unique experiences with the current lesson. For example my students take the state fitness exam, and there are six components: muscular strength, flexibility, body composition, aerobic capacity, muscular endurance and back and spine mobility. I could assign an activity where we use excel to track their improvement in their skill level. Another technology could be if I had the students to create a power point to use during student lead conferences (when they bring their parents into the classroom and they give them a tour of our class and explain their assignments and what they are working on) which would help parents understand more about the state exam components.

All of these resources can be used in any classroom, at any grade level, to help each individual student actively constructs his/her own meaning for learning things and thats how the resources of this week and the principles of the Constructivist Learning Theory work together.

Note Taking, Cues, Questions and Virtual Trips

I think I am finally getting the hang of this blogging. After reading Chapter 4 and 6 and watching the video presentations for this week I am excited about the virtual field trip but am having trouble finding one for Physical Education. Cues and Questions help students organize their thoughts and helps the teachers introduce new information to students. When I was in 11th grade my AP English teacher introduced and helped us master Cornell Notes, she said we would need this skill for college. Now it is more important than ever to expose our students to note taking that will help them organize thier thoughts and information earlier in their education than when I learned. The school where I was teaching fourth graders knew how to take Cornell Notes and I thought that was awesome. I found that the virtual field trip to the theater where Lincoln was assassinated helped me see just what students are learning and how it can relate to prior knowledge and connect to new information. I always say everyday you learn something new and I did this week.

Discussions and Application

I love the discussion area but I do not like so much the applications. How are you feeling so far in week two of this new course?

Rakeebah Bennett