I never really utilized Google Forms in my practice until we transitioned to distance learning in April, although I do have decent experience with it from my credential program and various professional development courses.
During distance learning, Silverado students were given a list of bodyweight workout YouTube videos, choosing one workout to complete Monday-Thursday; at the end of the week, they completed the SMS PE Survey in which they checked off the box(es) for the workout(s) they did each day. The survey ends with these three short answer questions: What other physical activities (if any) have you done this past week? Which is your favorite workout? Any other comments, questions, or concerns? This Google Form essentially served as an assessment tool for me, while holding students accountable and giving them an opportunity for reflection and satisfaction. But what I was pleasantly surprised by was how amazing of a tool it is for collecting data. I was pretty blown away by the response summary pie charts, bar graphs, lists, and conversion to Spreadsheet. While reading up on Forms and its add-ons this week, I was able to envision a few more potential uses for Forms and my teaching. In the past, I’ve done pen and paper sign-ups for intramural sports, activity periods, tournaments, and other various activities/events at Silverado. I plan to transition to having students sign up for things like this with Google Forms, as well as for checking in and out equipment. Choice Eliminator and CheckitOut seem like useful add-ons for these purposes. Choice Eliminator makes it so choices on the form are removed after someone chooses them, and CheckitOut can move choices from “Checked in” to “Checked out” and back when equipment is checked out… “Create a ‘Name’ short-answer question and you can see the paper trail of who checked equipment in and out and at what time in the spreadsheet of results.” Student activity logs can be another great use of google forms in PE: “Create a form with the student’s name and all the information he/she needs to submit. Each time he/she submits, it’s logged into a spreadsheet where students can review that data and submit it to you” (Ditch That Textbook). Finally, I can ultimately see myself using forms as a data collection tool for my action research/capstone project. I still have a way to go in figuring out exactly what my action research will look like, but at this time I think my end users are other PE teachers and coaches, and I’ll want to do research around them. I think I can use Forms to create a survey which will ultimately be shared with my end users and gauges:
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My DQ in its current state: “How can we effectively incorporate technology into PE and coaching at the secondary level to make our students more motivated and active learners?
My end user: PE Teachers and coaches like me! I have an idea of what I’d like my capstone to look like --a Website with resources for “How to tech in PE and coaching.” These resources would be applicable both to the classroom and for distance learning. My capstone would include the most effective applications and tech tools PE teachers are using in the classroom to enhance learning. It includes examples of innovative lesson plans which implement the use of technology in middle and high school PE. It teaches how to use the most popular and effective tech tools for athletic coaching. It shares tech tools which guide and motivate students to continue to learn about lifestyle and health from home. So I have a DQ and I have an idea of what I want my final product to be, but I’m not exactly sure how to go about doing my action research to get there… While reading the Design Thinking Bootcamp Bootleg, some of the methods of data collection seemed like they might be able to apply to my research.
Each week (I think) my DQ is becoming more solid. Looking forward to continuing to gain clarity on my plan of action (research)! The Education Week article “My Favorite Teachers Use Social Media: A Student Perspective” reveals the powerful potential of using social media in the classroom from a student perspective. High school Freshman Katie Brenmar explains that all of her best and most engaging teachers have used social media to interact with their students, such as her middle school math teacher who posted homework assignments and reminders to her Instagram page so students have no choice but to be reminded of important class stuff while checking their feeds (1). I couldn’t help but think of the way my colleague, good friend, and fellow Napa High baseball coach Jason Chatham utilizes Instagram for a similar purpose. Jason created a Napa High Baseball Instagram page and is super active with posting not only important calendar items and updates, but also uses the page to promote our players and program in a humorous and always positive way. It’s the perfect example of a positive use of social media in school.
While reading “Teach Students to Use Social Media (The Right Way) and the Possibilities are Endless,” I was able to envision how I might be able to use social media in a high school PE setting. New Jersey high school English teacher Bayly DiPilato uses Twitter in a similar fashion to the middle school math teacher who used Instagram to post assignments, but takes it a step further by "constantly retweeting articles that are relevant to their English class in the hopes of teaching her students how to use Twitter personally and professionally” (2). This is when a lightbulb clicked in my brain as to how I could effectively use social media for a high school PE class. I’m not big on assigning my students work to do at home, only to add on to their already demanding academic work load. I wouldn’t need to post homework assignments or make any part of this mandatory. But very often do I spend time interacting with interesting content on the internet related to my subject… Why not share it with my students who care to follow my class Twitter account? Sources: John M. Keller’s ARCS instructional design model "identifies four essential components for creating motivating instruction…”
Attention: Strategies for arousing and sustaining curiosity and interest Relevance: Strategies that link to learners’ needs, interests, and motives Confidence: Strategies that help students develop positive expectation for successful achievement Satisfaction: Strategies that provide extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for effort (1) When I think about using this ID model in PE, I think of the challenge of creating student buy-in when it comes to exercise and fitness. Keeping ARCS instructional design model in mind, the first step would be to get their attention. A video hook could be effective in arousing interest, or even something as simple as a question posed out loud to the class “Do you think your decisions regarding health and fitness made today can affect how long you live for?” followed by a Think, Pair, Share. The next step would be to make the content relevant. Continue a class discussion which gets students thinking about their family, friends, loved ones, and so on… who all have varying degrees of “healthy lifestyles.” Who do you know who is older and still physically active? What do you think makes one person more healthy than the other? One of my major goals in teaching and coaching is always instilling confidence in my students and athletes. In order to get students to feel successful in an area that many naturaly will not, is to set REALISTIC expectations. Improvement, improvement, improvement. Everybody is created differently… Some people are much better than math at others, some people are more naturally athletic. There is no “right answer” or “passing score” when it comes to fitness. When it comes to exercising, satisfaction is the easy part. I am always preaching to students the physical and emotional benefits of exercise. Your brain will create endorphins which make you happier and your body feel better! You will have an easier time doing day-to-day physical tasks. Food will taste better. You will sleep better. As you age, you will greatly reduce the risk of injury and illness. These are all the natural consequences of physical activity, or the intrinsic reinforcement. grading students on their effort will be an extrinsic reinforcement. I can also award additional positive consequences for those students who gave excellent effort, such as a “no dress pass” or water bottle. My driving question… How can we do PE online? I’m at a bit of a crossroads right now… This is something I care about and am quite interested in doing research on. I think there is a need for it, especially if we return to distance learning in the fall. Even if we go back to campus, I think incorporating technology into PE classrooms can be a good thing and is something I am hoping to do more of. I was also initially thinking my capstone project could be not only a resource for secondary PE teachers for “How to tech in PE,” but have tools for high school and college coaches and athletic programs. So where does my dilemma unfold? I’m not sure how to begin designing my action research. I think my driving question is centered more around teachers and coaches than students… How do I go about doing the research? I think I need to find some sort of PE teacher forum... (1) *The ARCS Model of Motivational Design originally developed by John M. Keller (1979, 1983). Adapted by Steven J. McGriff (1999). drive.google.com/file/d/0B1w1JOh5kTmMaVNud0Zua25DcE0/view When I was informed I would have to quickly develop a distance learning physical education curriculum for over 800 students at Silverado Middle School, I wasn’t really sure where to begin. I ultimately kept it very simple… I created a “Lesson Plan” google doc which was shared with every student in the school. Within this doc were 20 links to various bodyweight workouts on youtube and directions for completing one workout a day. The lesson plan doc also included a link to a Survey which was to be done at the end of each week, for students to reflect on their workouts and “share” the work they’ve done. That was the extent of my integration of tech tools to Silverado Middle School’s distance learning PE…. A google doc, google form, and youtube videos.
After exploring the massive library of tech tools shared with us this week, I wish I could’ve known about some of this stuff a few months ago. One tool which immediately caught my interest is Coach's Eye. I can see this being applicable to PE, but can REALLY start to imagine its functionality with my high school baseball players. With Coach’s Eye, one of my players (or students) can film themselves with any camera, upload the video to Coach’s Eye, and I can provide direct feedback to them based on what I see in the video. In addition to verbal or written feedback, I can analyze movements in slow motion and mark up the video to effectively analyze movement and relay exactly what I am seeing back to the athlete. An example of a secondary PE lesson incorporating Coach's Eye... Each student will film his or herself doing five modified pushups with their knees on the ground (more difficult than it sounds to find the proper technique!). After assessing techniques, I can provide effective and instant feedback to every student by sending their video back to them “with coaching.” Students can then re-film themselves, making the necessary adjustments based on feedback, and send me the new video showing their progress. When imagining Coach’s Eye application to baseball, the possibilities are endless. Slow motion video analysis has been a major tool for baseball players of all levels – whether we’re analyzing a batter’s swing, pitching, running or fielding mechanics. Coach’s Eye will add a whole new element to real time coaching, with clear feedback sent immediately and saved directly to an athlete’s phone. Equity: The Quality of being fair and impartial. How can we as educators, be fair and impartial with our students? How can we get our students to understand the inequities in our society and stand up for what is right? After exploring resources from Common Sense, KQED, Stanford and the ADL, it’s apparent we need to be facilitating open and honest (and potentially uncomfortable) conversations in our classrooms.
I would begin my digital literacy unit with focusing on equity by introducing students to various videos discussing the topic. I stumbled upon one video which I think would be a useful introduction to the topic of equity: “5 Things You Should Know About Racism.” (1) Starting students off with a video is a low stakes activity which can be effective in reeling them in. Following the video hook with a classroom discussion on empathy vs compassion would be the next logical step for my equity lesson. Getting students to then understand the difference between empathy and compassion would be a major step in educating students about equity. KQED’s resource, 4 Tools for Kids To Help Develop Compassion and Social Change reveals the importance of understanding empathy vs compassion: “Empathy allows us to sense other people's emotions, like grief or joy, and imagine what someone else might be thinking. Compassion is similar, but also involves a desire to help the person.” (2) Finally, I would place students into culturally diverse groups (breakout rooms if done digitally), in which they would work together to complete this Living Room Conversations activity… “In Living Room Conversations, a small group of people (ideally six) come together to get to know one another in a more meaningful way. Guided by a simple and sociable format, participants practice being open and curious about all perspectives, with a focus on learning from one another, rather than trying to debate the topic at hand.” (3) In this activity, students are required to interact with each other and have challenging and honest conversations about race and ethnicity in our society. I believe secondary physical education is the perfect place for students to collaborate together while developing the social skills and maturity necessary to take part in an activity like this. Sources: 1. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/race-and-racial-identity 2. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/48430/4-tools-for-kids-to-help-develop-compassion-and-social-change 3.https://www.livingroomconversations.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/race_and_ethnicity_3.pdf
Considering how students make sense of new information is so important for effective teaching. After reading Dervin, Baggio and Clark this morning, I can’t help but think about my own teaching and reflect on how I can improve, as well as what I might already be doing right. Dervin talks about individual levels of understanding and qualitative research… these concepts understand the individual as essential to forming understandings. Similarly, Baggio writes about constructivist learning theory, which emphasizes the willingness, readiness, and autonomy of the learner… When teaching something new in PE, I always strive to have my students learn as through activity or gameplay. Sometimes that can look like classmates helping less experienced classmates to understand the more intricate details once gameplay has started. I generally try to spend as little time as possible frontloading students with the most important/basic concepts for a given game/activity, before letting them get out there to experience it in real time. Sometimes putting a big pause on the game is necessary to bring the class back together for a teachable moment, but now students are able to apply that new lesson to something they’ve actually just experienced. Both Baggio and Clark reveal the importance of effective visual imagery for learning. I believe in this deeply for PE. Verbally explaining new concepts can only be so effective (or not), but when we include whiteboard diagrams, poster board visuals, video learning, or student modeling/demonstrating, students can now very directly see the achievable outcome and try to replicate them. Connecting Dervin, Baggio and Clark: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KWmVv9LvlaqiNTZmBbydIGcDi2GJdJH3TVX7I_rjdk/edit When considering high school PE, teaching digital citizenship doesn’t exactly seem to be the most practical lesson, as we rarely incorporate devices into our PE classes when we’re at school. However, with our current situation and the implementation of distance learning across the country, we need to be ready to teach and learn in an online world. Educating our high schoolers on digital citizenship will not only allow our world of distance learning to become a safer place, but will also hopefully ultimately make the internet a better place for everyone.
Distance learning in PE might entail students partaking in physical activity in front of their webcams. We all know this is something that many people are not going to be super comfortable with. The fear of being bullied for what you look like while exercising is very real. One way to directly make it personal for students is to bring this factor to light, and have an open discussion about our embarrassment. We all experience this! Another way to make digital citizenship personal for students is to have them investigate this awesome source below, and have them think, pair, share (or class discussion) an example of a time they have encountered something from this list while online… then brainstorm ways to combat that instance of cyberbullying. Various Ways of Cyber Bullying Finally, students will be encouraged to have an open discussion about a time cyberbullying affected them or somebody close to them, and the ways they dealt with it. Did you (or they) handle it as well as they could have? What do you wish went differently? Wow! Brenna Dervin’s chapter “From the Mind’s Eye of the User: The Sense-Making Qualitative-Quantitative Methodology” is pretty difficult to make sense of. One might even call it educational jargon... but I will do my best to share MY understanding of the article.
Dervin is not preaching facts, but instead is revealing academic theory posed by various studies on sense-making, and condensing those studies into a very dense chapter. She takes the information presented in various studies and continues to pose questions related to cognition and sense-making. Throughout the chapter, a major focus seems to be the role of human interaction and understanding information: “humans by continuing dialogue and sharing of personal observations do arrive at always limited but more stable observations” (Dervin 63). Similarly, she reveals the individual’s role in understanding new information: “sense-making does not assume that the individual is situated at cultural/historical moments in time-space and that culture […] Nevertheless, sense-making also assumes that the individual’s relationship to these moments and the structures that define them is always a matter of self-construction, no matter how non-individualistic the person or the time-space may seem” (67). Another way she frames the individual vsstructural levels of understanding is with the terms qualitiative vs quantitative approaches to research. Qualitative entails the individual’s role and all their biases in defining new information, while quantitative looks at new information from a structural standpoint. Ultimately, Dervin defines sense-making as “explicitly both qualitative and quantitative […] systematic qualitative research, an approach with qualitative sensitivity which is amendable to the systematic power of quantitative analysis (81). If I were to attempt to share this reading with a high school class, I might ask each student to pull 3-5 quotes from the reading and add them to a class-wide google doc (or padlet page!). Students should pick statements from the reading they can actually understand; quotes that they would be able to summarize in their own words. Then I’d have students get into groups of four and try to make sense out of the giant collage of (hopefully understandable) quotes from the reading, and collaborate on writing a short paragraph in which they utilize at least three quotes from the collage. Well…. I have always done well in school and enjoy reading new material applicable to my classes and career, but I have also always struggled with intensely theoretical academia. I’ve avoided philosophy classes my whole life for this reason… I cannot wait to read my fellow cohort member’s interpretations of this reading. I hope they shed some light and can “make some sense” out of this for me. Thank you! Personalized learning and competency-based learning take many forms in education today. Rather than just being one thing, personalized learning can entail a wide variety of educational philosophies and teaching styles. I like Katie Varatta’s definition of competency-based education in the article Teaching in a Competency-Based Learning Environment: "students moving through education based on mastery of skill rather than seat time, lessons personalized to the individual and students taking ownership of their learning."
So in a high school physical education class, what might competency-based learning look like? Example 1: While giving a lesson on how physical activity affects the heart rate, the teacher can begin with instruction to the entire class, defining the basics of heart rate to the whole group (physical activity's effect on heart rate, maximum heart rate formula, resting heart rate, target heart rate, etc.). Then after measuring their resting heart rate, students can be encouraged to partake in any physical activity of their choosing… something they like to do in their lives, then re-measure their heart rate and see the benefits of their favorite physical activity. Example 2: When giving a lesson on flag football, some students, through prior experience with the sport, will have excellent background knowledge and already be aware of intricacies and variations within the sport that inexperienced students will not. For this lesson, I would instruct the whole group first, teaching essential rules which would ensure the safety of the students, as well as familiarizing them with basic concepts. Then I would break the students up into groups by experience and abilities, allowing those students with good background knowledge to agree, as a group, on which variations they will play with (e.g. how many blitzes per four downs, two completions for a first down vs gaining 10 yards, “five Mississippi” or another countdown before rushing the quarterback, allowing or not allowing quarterback runs, etc.) Believe it or not, a good percentage of students would know all of these concepts specific to flag football and would not need a ton of instruction to get a good game going. On the flip side, that would allow me to put my focus and good teaching energy into the more beginner level groups, helping coach their games along, and stopping and re-teaching something when necessary. This falls in line with Laura Hilger’s example of giving different levels of writing instruction to various smaller groups based on what that group needs: “While they are working, you might be pulling small groups to go deeper on the focused mini lesson or individuals that need further interventions or support.” (Teaching in a Competency-Based Learning Environment). Example 3: When teaching a Weight Room class to high school students, you will encounter many students with wide ranges of physical capabilities. It would be flat out dangerous to expect all students to be able to handle the same weight or number of reps with particular exercises. It would be important to get students to self-evaluate and find the appropriate workout for themselves. Student agency will be an important factor here – students will be expected to take the “curriculum” into their own hands by getting to understand their own bodies better. Then, students would be divided into smaller groups based on their abilities and each individual would be set to go at an appropriate pace for their own development. |
About Dustin Green:High School PE Teacher Archives
March 2021
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