Teaching Strategy
If you are anything like me, you wonder "Why aren't my students more involved and interested in my lesson?" Well, I have found this great strategy to get them more involved. Figure out what they are passionate about, then relate it to the subject you are teaching! When you think that something is related to your interests, you are automatically more interested. Make the subject interesting by using the students' passions to see how they can use the subject to their own passions.
Another way to make it more interesting is by using partnering pedagogies. Just a few of these are:
Each is a unique in itself. This is Guided Discovery in action:
Another way to make it more interesting is by using partnering pedagogies. Just a few of these are:
- Action Learning *Guided Discover
- Case Based Learning * Inquiry Based Learning
- Challenge Based Learning * Place Based Learning
- Community Service Learning * Problem Based Learning
- Discovery Learning *Process-Oriented
- Field Based Learning *Guided-Inquiry Learning
- Global Collaboration Project * Project Based Learning
- Team Based Learning
Each is a unique in itself. This is Guided Discovery in action:
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Notice how the teacher asked questions that she already knew the answers to, yet she made the topic interesting and relate-able to the students.
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Inquiry-Based Learning is more for critical thinking on the students' part. This way is not just stating facts to our students. It is giving them questions or problems to answer on their own. You should get different answers because their is no one correct answer.
What I like to use for inquiry-based learning are essential questions. They make the students' think on their own. Plus, there is no one right answer; therefore, the students don't feel embarrassed or nervous to give a wrong answer.
What I like to use for inquiry-based learning are essential questions. They make the students' think on their own. Plus, there is no one right answer; therefore, the students don't feel embarrassed or nervous to give a wrong answer.
E-Classroom
If I do say so myself, this is probably my favorite of the new tech savvy world. E-Classroom is absolutely wonderful! There is so much you can do with it. You can make assignments due online, lectures online, so on and so forth. My favorite would have to be flipping the classroom. This is my favorite because it can be used for literally any kind of subject from math, science, to even P.E. What you do is instead of making the lecture in class, you put it online for the students to watch for homework. Then, the next day, the students come in ready to do the assignment that you normally would assign as homework. This way, you can help with the assignments, and the students can learn at their own pace.
You could even strictly make an online class that is strictly online like I did. I learned that it is a lot of prep time for it; however, it is easy to look back and see what you have accomplished in planning the lessons and so on. Take a look at my module that I made for a "Body Transforming" class.
If you are Eco-friendly, tired of trying to decipher between a "T" and a "F" because of your students' handwriting, or just don't like taking papers home to grade, Google Classroom is the e-Classroom for you. It is amazing! You put your assignments that you would like your students to complete, make a due date for it, and it can even grade it for you! Boom! You're done. No more losing your students paper that they know they turned in. If they don't turn it in on time, you can always have hard copies to have them turn it in for whatever your policy is (-10 pts for every day late). Using Google Classroom have saved time and hassle for me.
Emerging Techs
With technology changing, we have to change as well. Technology has to be incorporated into the classroom due to the work-place being so demanding for technology educated individuals. Of course laptops, iPads, netbooks, kindles, etc are being used in the classroom due to the fact they are so abundant in the average home now, but their are newer technologies such as some as this:
There is so much that technology can help us with that we just have to let it or create it.
The big emerging technology for PE at this point are the abundant amount of applications that have and are being developed.There are apps that track how far and where you have walked/ran, what you eat, your heart rate and weight. There are some that analyzes your fundamentals of the sport such as bent knees, eye level, and shoulders for example. For me, most of the students already have either a cell phone or a tablet that they can download the apps to. If they do not, applications for PE usually means group work one way or another. Not only do the students get excited about fitness, but they get excited about logging and tracking using their handy-dandy technology.
These apps can also be connected to wearable technology. Wearable technology in PE can be amazing if used properly. By using wearable technology, the students cannot only see their fitness habits, but they can also use use learning analytics. All that is is the process of collecting data and analyzing it. By collecting the data from their wearable technology, they can analyze how they are progressing in fitness.
How are we going to use these apps? Well, by tablet computing. The students are already supplied with the device. They can connect/sync their wearable technology to the tablet. Everything needed will be on the tablet. Tablets are saving time, money, and helping with learning. We like to integrate technology as muhc as possibe in PE. Don't think it can be done? Wait to you see it this year.
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Issues and Trends
A trend that I am finding that is being used more and more in the classrooms are discussion boards. This is a great way that you could integrate technology, teach digital citizenship, and have classroom discussions that don't get too loud or out of control due to students' talking over one another and getting off topic. The students discuss given topics using their technology. They are also required to comment on two of their peers to give feedback and further the discussion. Not only does this give them use of technology, but it also helps the teacher to see their understanding of the topics.
As a teacher, I want my students to not only excel in my class, but in their careers and life. I want them to be understanding and contributing individuals which is what not only our society needs, but also our world. In order to make this easier by exposing the students to the world, I flatten my classroom. This allows my students to not only push to be good digital citizens, but it also allows them to connect, communicate, and collaborate with culturally diverse individuals. This gives the students an opportunity and a hand up over their career choice competition. Down below is a summary and analyses of a webinar that I attended describing the flat classroom. Take a minute and read it to get a deeper understanding.
Also, I find that allowing students to have choices in their education makes them feel like they are in more control of their education and they actually try harder because they made that choice. They take more responsibility and do very well when this occurs. Here, you can see a presentation of a lesson plan where I have allowed the students to make a choice in their project.
Special Topics
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This is an absolute wonderful short clip of how she makes her topics special. We don't need to have our own special topics due to the fact that our topic we chose to teach is special in it's own way. It is our job to make that topic special. Every topic is special, but we have to show our students that it is special.
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Curriculum Integ
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This is a short film of how I have tried to integrate technology into my own classroom while I was trying to get a grasp on how to integrate PE and technology.
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