Time to Reflect

After reading ‘Signing Out’ I was inspired to do the same and sit back and reflect on my journey through this semester.  What a semester it has been, what a semester full new skills and knowledge gained!  This course has introduced me to whole new world of ICTs, ICTs I had no idea existed or were comfortable using.  But through my journey I have gained the new knowledge and experience I need to continue using some of these frameworks and ICT’s.

I must say there are few I am still trying to get my head around and still trying to understand how it better and useful.  But I plan to continue trying and using the new knowledge and skills I have gained.

For now its time to finish off Assignment three for this course and study for an exam for another.

When it doesn’t go the way you want it to.

I was lucky enough to attend and assist in the schools athletics carnival for Prep through to year 6.  This was a great experience in a number of ways. This experience allowed me to assist and see how the HPE teacher organised and ran the whole event.  With a bit of a slow start the whole day ended up successful.  I was blown away with the great sportsmanship these students showed.  They helped their peers, encouraged them and cheered for them.  I told my mentor that he should be proud of the school they are a wonderful bunch of students who ALL participated, had a try and helped each other.  It was great to see.

The other experience I got to see and try was using an IPAD to time the sprints and take photo finishes.  Well my goodness what a task that was.  It seemed simple at the time but when you have used this app before and the runners are off I was so unsure when to start recording when to stop recording and how to save! Well I can tell you that not many of these races were saved or even recorded.  The app we used was SPRINT TIMER.

The next day I got the chance to talk to my mentor about this experience and we discussed how we could have done it differently to make it more of a success.  We talked about using more than one IPAD as the saving time took so long as the file was so big.  It was an experience that I will learn from, but it is a fantastic tool to use in such an event as the ones that did save, it was a saviour for the close finishes as we just couldn’t tell who was 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

kate

Tick and flick Assessment

While on placement I got the chance to teach several lessons on locomotors and non locomotors (fundamental skill) skills.  The lesson I taught were designed to and sequenced for me to be able to assess the students with a tick and flick assessment.

I got a great tick and flick checklist from this website here

This checklist allowed me to see what I wanted the students to be doing.  So when I designed my lessons I would make sure that these were my teaching cues when teaching certain skills.

For example:

Two foot jump: my cues where, two feet leave and land at the same time, arms come from under bottom to above head, eyes to face forward and shoulders and hips forward.

Theories and Frameworks

Working through this unit of EDC3100 I have come across a number of frameworks and theories that have be useful and will be useful in the future as a pre service teacher and a teacher one day.  See below:

CLEM Model	Help understand how to learn about a new ICT and how to use it to enhance students learning.	Any new ICTs you need to use it.  It might help your exploration and planning for part B assign 3.
TPACK Framework	Technological, pedagogical and content.  This framework is the knowledge required to design ICT-rich learning activities.	This framework will be an ongoing practice for now and the future as a pre service teacher.
Backwards Design	Knowing what the students need to know and be able to do (assessment and learning objectives) and working backwards to create a lesson/unit plan.	Through PE I have tick and flick assessment sheet for two feet jump (locomotors skill) working through what students need to do for a 2 foot jump allows me to plan and scaffold students learning leading up to the assessment.
TIP Model	Technology Integration Planning Model – teachers  can clarify that  using ICTs in lessons is going to be efficient, successful and meet the students’ needs through five phases.	Help with planning lessons and to make sure the using ICT is going to enhance and transform learning not just an add on.
The 5Es	An instructional model based on a constructivist approach to learning. Each phase builds on the previous. Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate.	Typically used for science lessons but can be used to arrange lessons for all learning areas.
WALT & WILF	We Are Learning To & What I’m Looking For – Allows students know be aware of what they are learning and with the students having more input into their learning they will take more interest.	Through most of my lessons I discuss at the start the purpose of the lesson and what I will be looking for, usually in 3 simple points.
Connectivism	This is the knowledge the students have (prior knowledge) and also how they connect their knowledge to the outside world and own experiences.	Always asking questions to allow students to make connections to what they are learning to something they may have already done or know of.
Blooms Taxonomy	Blooms Taxonomy – the level of thinking skills. Higher order thinking skills of analysing, evaluating and creating.	Something that is used often throughout all PE.
Postman’s 5 Things	Five things we need to know, that provide a different schema to think about technological change.	Something that I haven’t really look at in my lesson planning as of yet.
Toolbelt Theory/TEST Framework	Solving problems and helping to achieve an outcome.  Task, Environment, Skills and Tools.	Something I have used often throughout this semester when tackling assignments and lesson plans.  It’s a wonderful framework that I will be using more throughout my studies and as a future teacher.
PKM	Personal Knowledge Management – Framework to create a network of people and resources of information that will be of use.	A great way for me to link to other peers, ask questions and get a clear understanding of something

High Jump, Discus etc…

The next few days are looking at some athletic skills and measurements ready for the schools sports carnival that is happening on Thursday. Myself and fellow peer, have to come up with some lessons on discus and high jump, a few NEW things for us to teach, as we have never taught these before.

Our mentor gave us a great site, that explains each athletic sport in full detail on teachers cues, techniques and some rules.  Though we have to remember the rules written on this site are for LITTLE A’s (Little Athletics) not for a sports carnival.

The site that we have used as a guide and reference is Golden Groves Little Athletics.   This web page has some great information that will help in New HPE teachers, teaching athletics for the for first time.

Parachute

While on placement I wanted to try out the parachute as I have found that all students from Prep to year 7 and even highschool students love using the parachute.  So I found this website Parachute Games and Activities to give me some inspiration on what fun warm up and cool down activities I could do.

As I am teaching and focusing on fundamental skills – locomotion I though the use of parachute will be a great idea as the students will be using different parts of their body (body awareness) by crawling, running, walking, jogging, jumping, skipping and hopping and the list goes on.

Here are a few ideas I have started to add to my list:

* Shark attack

* Popcorn

* Cat and mouse

* Making waves

* Mushroom

* Roller Ball

and the list just keeps on going.  You can pretty much make your own games up and get the students involved in making games up.  The parachute is never ending fun.

Not always smooth sailing

I just read a great post by Belinda on her experience using Skype while on professional experience.  I was blown away, I know that we have been taught to try and use Skype and how engaging this can be for your students but I was not aware that it actually happened.  I was truly amazed and also inspired!

Belinda’s blog went on to talk about the many problems they were faced during this experience, but how it still turned into a success.  We cannot be afraid to try new and different things, yes we may encounter problems, but we can face problems in lessons that don’t require ICT they are just different problems.  We always learn from our mistakes and learn from the things that went wrong.  After reading Belinda’s blog I can see that it doesn’t matter that they were faced with so many problems the whole Skype experience still got the students engaged and transforming their learning.  Next time might be done  differently to try and avoid those mistakes.

Thanks Belinda for that fantastic blog!!

Balance it!

Thought I would write a bit about a lesson I am looking at doing next week.  This may help some other HPE pre service teachers who are also on placement.

There is this wonderful app call Balance it that my mentor suggested to me as I am doing fundamental skills – locomotion. This app I found on The PE Geek.

My thoughts in writing.

* Warm up – Use parachute for simple games like shark attach and cat and mouse that will get the students moving their bodies (crawling, crouching, running, walking etc.)

* Using the IWB to show the app BALANCE IT that shows a number of different balances students can do that are on your own with a partner or within groups.

* Show the students the different balances.  Then place only one up on the screen get the students to go off and perform the balance showing photo evidence on their ipads.  Once all done and photos are shown, the next balance is shown on the screen and student go off perform the balance and get photo evidence.  and this continues.

This allows students to find balance, work with their peers and use ICT in one lesson.

I still need to play around and work out step by step what I will do but this is what I am working towards.

ICT – APPS FROM MENTOR

This placement I need to use ICT in at least 5 lessons.  I am lucky enough that my mentor is also the ICT teacher at the school.  I was so scared and apprehensive about this prac using ICT in HPE but I am starting to feel ok about it all with the guidance of my mentor.

He gave myself and my other peer Nancy  who I am also doing my placement with a few apps to look at while teaching specific skills such as Athletics.

Here are a few of those apps.

* Burst camera Extreme.  This app allows teachers to take a number of photos at once (15 or so) and then show the student after to give feedback and correct technique.

* Sprint Timer – This app allows teachers to take photo finish to see who won, and also times the student.

*CMV – Allows to take videos of students performance, can set to slow mo., and also set on delay so student can demonstrate skill and then run and look at the ipads to see what it look like and see where they need to correct something.  Great way for students to peer teach and self correct themselves.  My mentor said this app will allow me to show a professional at start of a lesson and then they film themselves and show the two videos (themselves and the professional) side by side on the screen to really see if their technique is correct.

I have downloaded these apps and I am planning on using these within the 3 weeks that I am on practical experience.

PYP Curriculum Framework

This week I started my placement.  For the next three weeks the school that I am attending to complete my placement is at an international school that follows the PYP curriculum framework, (Primary Years Programme).  This framework is completely different to the framework that I am use to using through uni lesson plans and unit plans.  My mentor said with any lesson plan I do through the placement to still use Australian Curriculum as that is what I am more likely to use later in the future.

I know that this is the case, but I am curious as to what this PYP framework is so I have linked the website for future reference and for any other fellow peers who are using this framework also.