Every school year, I always have some goals set for myself to try and incorporate into my Physical Education program. During the current school year, I have set the goals of changing my curriculum to reflect the skills rather than sports, new lessons plans for the students, incorporate technology with the help of a projector, make better connections with my students, interact with parents face-to-face and through online, and being involved with my school on the next level. Plickers/Plagnets Each year I have struggled with assessments and trying to see if students really understand what I am trying to teach them. I have created psychomotor rubrics and assessed students since day one. I have always struggled with the cognitive and affective assessments. Since adopting the national standards this year, I made it one of my goals for this year. I played with a few ideas on how to assess students quick, easy and came across the Plickers. It has been one of the best ways I have found to assess students in multiple ways. At first, I was not sure how I would do it but then bumped into the Plagnets from Mike Ginicola and Tanner Roos. Watching the videos and asking a few questions, I jumping into it with printing off the codes and numbers and began cutting, sticking, and laminating the Plagnets to use. I then asked the maintenance staff if there was an old magnetic write board laying around and they found one, they hung it up and I start using it right away. It has changed how I have taught my students and will recommend it. There are so many ways to use them from asking questions for answers, keeping track of skill progressions or levels, how they feel towards activities, feedback on lessons, attendance, and surveys about which activity they would like to do. ClassDojo I signed up for ClassDojo last January once I saw some of my second grade teachers using it, it sparked my interest. I have always thought about how I can communicate with parents more than just the few I would see at parent/teacher conferences. The big kicker was seeing Mike Graham use it in his Physical Education program. Since using the program, I have had great responses from parents at Parent/Teacher Conferences. It was the most I have ever seen parents at conferences and everyone mentioned how much they like seeing what we are doing in class with videos and the instant feedback about their son/daughter. Being able to make my own specific skills and feedback has been great to communicate with parents on what and how they are doing in class. Monthly Newsletters I have always admired teachers who send monthly newsletters home weekly/monthly, but with 400 students, that would be alot of paper to use. Since I was going to use ClassDojo, I found it a lot easier to send home monthly newsletters to parents so they know what is going on in PE that month. I know it will not reach every home, but those who sign up with ClassDojo will get to see it. I have gotten positive feedback from parents who have seen them. I try to include important dates for the month, my contact information, and what skills we are working on for that month. I also try to remind parents to have their son/daughter bring their gym shoes and so a little bit of info on being physically active. Self-Assessing I have only started playing with the idea of self-assessments with students on how they did that day in class. I started with 3rd up to 6th grade with it. Reason I would like them to think about how they did in class that day, is to put more accountability into their learning. I want them to reflect on their effort Technology This year I am working on getting more technology in the classroom from a projector, to making google slides, to making pictures, videos, and GIFS, to assessing students on an Ipad with google sheets as I walk around helping them. At the beginning of the school year, I applied for an Ipad through donors choose. I figured it was far fetched for someone to donate money for 1 Ipad for a Physical Education program, but to my surprise, it went through. I am very thankful for all of those who donated to help my program and cannot wait to start getting more creative for my students. WHAT, HOW, WHY On my white board, I would put up the warm-up activity, the lesson focus, and the activities for the different grade levels. This year I saw an article by Joey Feith about the What, How, and Why we teach to the students. I thought it was a good idea since it helps me think about the lesson and why I am teaching it to the students. It was a struggle at first, but as I go through the year, it become easier. I just have to become a little more creative on why I am teaching what I am, but it makes me really think about the lessons that I am presenting and, how the students will know if they learned the concept, and why it may be important to know the concept or perform the skill. Since the first day of classes in August until the holiday break, I have added and implemented new ideas and concepts into my classroom. With these changes, I am hoping to help motivate my students to become more active during class. With these new changes, I am hoping it will bring greater joy for the students in class. From plickers to classdojo to self-assessing. For me, I have in corporate more technology into my daily lessons, a monthly newsletter to share with parents what we are working on in class, and more importantly the WHAT< HOW, and WHY I am teaching the lesson for the day. - Matthew Holben (@holben_pe)
* Always a BIG shout out to Mike Ginicola (@HDPhysEd), Tanner Roos (@) and Joey Feith (@joeyfeith). Thank you for all you have done for not only inspiring me to become a better professional, but others as well!
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AuthorI am a Physical Education teacher starting my 14th school year. I have been at the same school all 14 years. Starting this blog as a new project to share my thoughts and ideas. Archives
August 2019
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