Making Connections thru Professional Development

Today I had the privilege of attending two professional development sessions. The first being the CBE Physical Education Workshop. The second was an impromptu meeting among some elementary phys ed teachers to discuss formative assessment and the new report card strands. It is difficult sometimes to find professional development related specifically to Physical Education, yet when you do it's often very useful!

CBE Physical Education Workshop

The two areas I was most interested in were the use of Social Media as it's related to physical education, and wrestling. Now I haven't programmed any wrestling for a variety of reasons, though combative units seen in elementary settings can do very well (this was more of a personal interest, though many new applicable ideas came of this!).

Social Media with +Mark Bylsma 

I had the privilege of first meeting Mark at an Elementary Phys Ed Workshop last year in his previous role with the CBE as the Physical and Health Education Learning Leader at the CBE's downtown office. Mark's roles have since changed but he is an advocate for PE, Health and general wellness in all aspects of education so it was nice to see him leading a workshop for PE teachers.

The primary focus of this discussion was on the use of Twitter for Phys Ed teachers. I can tell you first hand that getting involved in Twitter on a professional level has made me a much more effective teacher! Through Twitter I've had the opportunity to meet and 'chat' with many Phys Ed teachers from across the world (literally!!).

I won't get into details of Twitter, suffice to say, that if you're not on it already ... it is a worthwhile investment. Today was a great opportunity to meet many Phys Ed teachers making the leap into the world of Twitter and I don't think they will be disappointed. Mark did a fantastic job giving an introduction to this great resource and I think we'll see many new tweeps within the #yycbepe community!

Wrestling

I've 'taken' wrestling in high school, but the hour and a bit I spent on the wrestling mats of Woodman School, I got worked! At the moment I can't see us offering a combatives unit at our school (this is a unit that can start off with thumb wrestling) for various reasons, other than the age of our students (many elementary schools have been very successful). That being said, it was a very informative session. Aside from learning a variety of exciting and dynamic warms ups, I learned that I have to work on my flexibility! I give credit to the dedication many wrestlers have for their sport! I was able to walk away from this session with many applicable ideas relating to fun and dynamic warm-ups that I believe our students will enjoy.

Impromptu Assessment PD

Not too long ago I had sent an email looking to collaborate on our FitKIDS initiative at our school. Being the only Phys Ed teacher in our school sometimes makes it difficult to know if what we are doing measures up. It was great to see so many schools offering a similar program, getting kids active prior to learning or during learning. What came of this email strand was an invite to participate in an impromptu workshop to look at assessment practices at different schools and how they relate to the new report card and to one another.

It was fantastic! Nearly ten elementary phys ed teachers all discussing how our formative assessment would support our report card writing! We could have easily spoke for hours on how to best support our teaching with all the ideas that everyone had to share. Already plans are in the works to meet on a monthly basis to discuss assessment, modules and ways to improve our teaching practice.

Going Forward

I believe we offer a great Phys Ed program at PHS. What I'm after however are ways improve what we offer by making it better, more challenging and more academic for our students. I can't take credit for the phrase, 'gym is dead, the new phys ed' (that goes to +Nathan Horne) but I do believe in this. Phys ed is more than dodgeball and floor hockey, though both have their place. By attending workshops like these I believe that the ideas shared will create positive phys ed experiences for our students and, hopefully, a love for physical activity as they grow.

As always, thanks for reading!

-CFM

Just Dance!

When is a good time to dance?

This was the question I asked our students as we began to learn about dance.

-at home
-halloween dance
-at school
-at a birthday party

... were a few of the most popular answers shared with me after I asked this question. My response - Anytime!


It was great having a discussion about dancing, with each group of students. I could sense some hesitation with a few students, yet the majority of the students were excited and ready to get started.

Keep a look out here and I'll do my best to share with you the outcome of some of the successes and challenges of our Just Dance unit.

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Here is an excerpt from the Grade 2 and 3 Just Dance unit:

Grade 2 - Just Dance

In a group of four present the dance that Power using the ideas and dance moves choreographed by Just Dance. Remember that you are welcome to add originality (your own ideas) to your dance.




(If you are having trouble viewing this video you can watch on YouTube http://youtu.be/wletFQfRfJs)

Grade 3 - Creating a Dance

In groups of four, create and present a dance using the short music clip from Katy Perry's Roar. 

Groups will be assessed by their peers on their teamwork (synchronization), effort, respect and their overall performance using our everyday self-assessment of SuperStar, Good and Okay. 

(Thank you +andy vasily and +Joey Feith for the ideas and inspiration on these assessments!)

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Phys Ed's October Challenge

I've managed to share my October Challenge in our school newsletter, on our website and outside our gym doors, even on twitter, and yet somehow forgot to write about it here... so here we go. 

Each month I am going to try and set up a challenge of some sort to encourage healthy living within our school community. Phys Ed's October Challenge is simple, Fitness Bingo. Now this isn't your typical bingo. Instead we want you to go out and get active by completing the whole card and when you manage that, you win! You win the satisfaction of knowing you are leading a healthy and active lifestyle and for doing so, I'll be sure to send you a certificate of completion. Please make sure to visit the following link (the same link as the bottom of the Bingo Card) when you have completed the whole card: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EkcyoAZ3qClQS2bee59euW6AD66kjxaG7llYnZeaJt4/viewform

Now for the #pegeeks out there ... Once students, and maybe staff, complete the challenge they are encouraged to click the link at the bottom of the card. This URL leads them to a Google Form (these are so powerful and I've only really just started to use them!) that they can quickly complete. 

The information entered into this form is then captured in a spreadsheet that I have access to (there is some great applications of gforms for assessment with such features!).

Here's the cool part - I've set this up so once someone completes this form, they will automatically receive a certificate of completion from me!! A cool, tangible result for those that complete the challenge.

How this works - Google has the ability to run 'scripts', which is basically a way to automatically complete tasks. Now, the development of scripts is beyond me but if you spend some time looking on the web (in my case connecting with other Phys Ed teachers) you can find a gscript that will work for you. In my case, it was a traditional 'mail merge' script called 'autocrat'. The gscript autocrat took the information from my form and populated it on a certificate which automatically mails the student a copy of their certificate. 

I have to give all credit to +Matt Pomeroy for the idea of the Fitness Challenge. After watching a Google Hangout of Matt, +Adam Howell  and +Naomi Hartl, the team behind +PHYSEDagogy, I was inspired to get the gscript 'autocrat' a try. 

I'm hoping that I'll find other ways to incorporate Google Forms into my teaching, maybe even autocrat. I can say for certain that each month we'll have an exciting challenge for our students and staff to take on. 

Until then, thanks for reading.

-CFM

Assessing a Small Village

I sometimes feel overwhelmed ... ok, most of the time I get a sense of being overwhelmed at assessing all our students at PHS, nearly 650 of them! It's our job to ensure that we continually assess our students for a variety of reasons - report cards, moving their learning forward, even to offer a glimpse of how my own teaching is being received.  I've been at this job for over a year (yes, not long!) but I'm finally starting to get a grasp of some innovative ways incorporate assessment into my lessons. The biggest challenge for me is the 30 minutes that I have with nearly 45-48 students (two classes). I'm trying to pack a lot into a short amount of time - movement, a lesson, practice, an activity, some assessment -  to name a few. 

This is what makes this job so fascinating some times, finding ways to make it easier for me and more exciting and challenging (in a good way) for our students. Now, I can't take credit for the work I've done with this idea. Though I did the leg work to get it going, the ideas came from the amazing group of #PhysEd teachers on Twitter and the North American Assessment Team (more on this soon!) from peplc.net.

What I Did

After figuring out what I wanted to assess in with the skills related to kicking and trapping, I created a Google Form. If you haven't experimented with Google Forms, they are one of my newest friends in the world of eduction!

The cool thing about Google Forms, for those new to them, is that they will automatically capture the information entered in a nice spreadsheet (half my work is done!). There is a lot more that can be done with 'conditional formatting' which I haven't explored yet, but plan to do so soon. I do know however that I can target some information on the spreadsheet and have certain colours appear. So if a low observation is entered, I can quickly identify areas of concern (for either the learner or me as a teacher). 

My next step was to create a QR Code for the URL of my live Google Form (I've used QR Codes before when teaching orienteering and hope to do the same this year expanding further into geocaching).  My QR Code is taped in the window of my office for easy access and I'm ready to go. 

The Process

Earlier I described my biggest challenge - 30 minute blocks with a lot of students and only one of me. I do have another teacher in the gym with me and this is looking like an effective way to utilize that teacher (there is a new teacher in the gym every 30 minutes). Now I have the ability to give the visiting teacher my iPad (or their own), scan the QR Code (no need to enter a URL) using a QR Code reader and they will be automatically directed to my observation form.

Already this has proved to be beneficial. In the past two days I've managed to capture more data than I have been able to in the past with the same amount of time. 

I hope that this quick explanation will be enough to get you interested in exploring Google Forms and QR Codes. If I've helped you in any way or you have a few questions please let me know by tweeting me, @ChrisFenMac, on twitter.

Thanks for reading!

-CFM

The Importance of the Basics

More often than not, we hear about students having issues playing games during recess and times of unstructured activity.  In Soccer for instance, 'He didn't follow the rules' and 'She used her hands to pick up the ball' are some of the comments we sometimes hear as recess supervisors.

It wasn't until now that I've started to think why do these arguments occur at recess. There must be some reason for it. Many say 'Kids will be kids', and 'not everyone will play fairly', but what seems to be the reason (I think) is simple - a lack of ability in fundamental skills.

Why do students use their hands in soccer? Often, it's a result of not having the ability to trap the ball with their feet. I've seen this over the past few days teaching our students kicking and trapping skills. The students we've seen having difficulty on the field at recess have usually been the same students struggling to effectively trap the ball or kick for accuracy. Simple drills of dribbling to control the ball and stopping on a whistle, or music, cue have highlighted the challenges that some have.

I've learned that the relationship between the students struggling in Phys Ed are sometimes the same students encountering roadblocks in other aspects of their life at school. This illustrates the importance of Physical Literacy and how fundamental movement skills are so important in a child's development. My focus has really changed over the past while to incorporating fundamental movement skills into as many aspect of our PE program.

Ask your child if they can hop, gallop, skip, catch or throw. Better yet, show them how or ask them to show you!

Thanks for reading!

-CFM