What did you learn today?

After a very busy January with exams and report cards followed by the start of a new semester this month, it's about time I did some reflection and wrote a new blog post.  I was inspired to do this one by another teacher in my school board, Phil Young, who is coordinating a blogging series called Project 188.  The goal of this is to have more voices heard from our schools.  Be sure to check out the website and follow the project hashtag on twitter, #peel21st188.  

What did you learn today?  That is the key question.  In order to answer it, I looked to my Grade 9 Physical Education class, which was learning the key steps involved in completing a successful lay-up in basketball this afternoon.  During the lesson, we progressed from shooting directly under the basket to a full lead up with dribbling from a distance away.  At key moments, I stopped the class to ask questions, such as:

- At which part of the backboard should you aim for?
- What is the best way to hold the ball?
- What leg should you jump off?  

Partway through the lesson, we co-created a list of key points:  

 

 After our discussion, students practiced the task in pairs.  One of the baskets had an "instant replay" station that consisted of an iPad app called BAM (Bust a Move) video delay Airplayed to a flatscreen TV.  Here, students could practice their lay-ups and then walk over to the TV to obtain instant feedback on their performance (NOTE: A delay time of 7 seconds was ideal).  When they were doing this, I stressed that they refer to the key points we had discussed and ask themselves if they were achieving them.

At the conclusion of the class, students were given an Exit Ticket that asked them What they learned.  These were some of the more interesting responses!

 

I especially like the honesty of the student who said he didn't learn anything today because he already knew how to do a lay-up.  I appreciate a child who is not afraid to speak his/her mind.  Why?  Because these are the kinds of comments that challenge me and, when I'm challenged, I am able to continue improving as a teacher.  

So, what did I learn today?  I learned that no matter where we start or where we find ourselves, we always have room to improve. 

 

 

 

My Top 10 HPE Tech Tools

In my second blog post, which I wrote soon after the first one, I created a Top 10 HPE Tech Tools list (click the link to see it) that I use regularly in my programming.  Once again, I did this with the encouragement of Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler on twitter).  After spending a great deal of time examining my iPad and Chromebook and collating all of the apps and tools I use into one big list, I began what was quite a challenging task to whittle it down to 10.  Eventually, my decision making process centered on selecting the ones I use most frequently and that felt were most effective.  Having said that, I want to take this opportunity to provide a separate list of honourable mentions, which are in no particular order.

• YouTube
• iMovie
• GIF Toaster
• Pic Collage
• CoachNote
• Coaches’ Eye (this was a tough one to leave off the list)
• Numbers for iOs
• Playsport.net & TGFU app (great lists of TGfU oriented games)
• Seven Minute Workout app
• IntervalTimer
• Pocket & Feedly (places to save interesting articles & blogs)
• FIT Radio (similar to Spotify, but streaming music is tailored more for exercising.  There’s even a Phys Ed class workout playlist that I use a lot)
• All Google apps (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, & Slides)
• A bunch of handy chrome extensions (Save to Drive, Add to Google Classroom, Print Friendly & PDF, goo.gl URL Shortener [also creates easy QR codes], MakeGIF Video Capture, and Screencastify)

As I move into the future, and I'm not proud to admit this, I need to begin incorporating two very important pieces of hardware into my PE classroom.  These are pedometers and heart rate monitors.  Many other Physical Educators have been using these for years and, for some reason, I just haven't gotten with the program.  This is my next important goal.

Diving in to Blogging - A long time coming

 

I have thought a great deal about starting my own education focused blog for the past couple of years, but struggled with actually doing it.  However, this year I decided it was time to tell my school community and the world what I have been doing in my Health and Physical Education classes.  I started by sharing on twitter and then got quite the shock (and perhaps the push I needed) when I was recruited by one of my favourite bloggers, Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler on twitter), to write a guest blog for her.  Then, after an evening reflecting and typing on my couch, I had finally done it!  Here is a link to my very first blog post on Alice Keeler's website.

Sharing is Caring – Reflections of a Connected PE Teacher