Three possible options for my Course 5 project: A, B or C?
Source: Creative Commons Images (flickr) https://flic.kr/p/pXZbFx Photo Attribution: Magnetic Letters by Christian Schnettelker
A. Evolution of Blogging in Powerfit
Describe the project: What will your students do?
Students in my Grade 11 and 12 Powerfit class will blog about their fitness goals, fitness testing results, workout experiences and responses to various health topics throughout their semester of learning.
How does this project reflect your learning from COETAIL?
Students will use blogging instead of journaling to reflect on their learning. This will also provide an interactive platform for them with other students and myself. It will allow students to share their learning through a variety of mediums including their writing, photos, videos, links and other images. I would like to model the COETAIL course design on a smaller scale within my class. This will help continue the learning, dialogue and exploration of topics at home to compliment an active fitness class that keeps kids moving for the majority of the period.
What goals do you hope to achieve with this project?
To ensure that I am facilitating a good blogging experience that is dynamic in nature and extends the learning outside the classroom. I hope to create some interesting posts of my own to help role model my expectations, create better rubrics and ensure my expectations align with my course standards.
Why do you think this unit is a good possibility for your Course 5 project?
This unit plan would be ongoing for an entire semester. Furthermore, it would be an improvement to a past unit design and reflection from previous attempts would allow for reflection over a longer time period. I have also already gathered anecdotal feedback and have class surveys that would give some base data to see if changes really do lead to a high level of learning and engagement.
What are some of your concerns about redesigning this unit?
To be honest, this shift towards blogging has already started. I designed this unit for my course 1 final project but the implementation of the blog had its flaws. I have made some adjustments in my second term but hope to continue my path to improvement in the fall. My project would reflect on all three stages of change.
What shifts in pedagogy will this new unit require from you?
I need to improve the level of interaction on the blog. To start, it was just an online platform for journaling. I have recently added my own comments on each post and asked for minimal interaction from students. I need to continue my progression to push students to interact more with others, offer expression of their thoughts through mediums other than writing and use it as a platform to create informative blog posts of my own that are relevant to my students and our specific school community. Finally, I started with individual blogs and recently moved to a single class blog with individual pages. I feel I need to explore another possible blogging templates to maximise the potential of this unit design.
What skills and/or attitudes will this new unit require from your students?
Students will need to develop blogging skills and etiquette. Furthermore, they will need to buy-in to online participation outside of class time and at a pace that concurrent with the rest of the class.
Source: altruismrunwebsite.com http://images.artistrunwebsite.com/arwblog/bg_481367365851.gif?1367365851
B. Redesigning my Exercise Science Summative Project
Describe the project: What will your students do?
Students will be required to apply their learning about human performance to become a personal trainer for a teacher (or adult staff member) within the school. This would be the summative assignment for Exercise Science (PE elective-grades 11 and 12). Students will be required to complete this project in stages that include an initial interview, fitness appraisal and one hour workout. Each step will require a reflection report in which they must connect theory to practice. This will culminate with the design a long term fitness and health plan for their client.
Currently, students demonstrated their understanding by completing four one page papers and a final in-class participation. I would like to redesign this project keeping technology in mind to augment the learning to a new level. I would like to explore new ways for students to display their learning and engage in an interactive reflective process along the way. I think a class blog could be the platform for this learning.
How does this project reflect your learning from COETAIL?
This could be a project that could be improved through my new understanding of the TPACK model. I wrote about this in my previous post “Exercise Science in Action”, and this project could put my suggestions into practice. One change included a new for a public forum that would hold the students accountable. A class blog that was open to all students, myself in addition to teacher volunteers could create this dynamic. It could also allow for reflection to occur an ongoing basis and a means to reach out to the community for help and suggestions beyond classroom discussions.
What goals do you hope to achieve with this project?
This summative was designed to be a project-based learning experience but requires some improvements towards challenge based learning and authentic means for reflection and learning through mistakes. The product is not the purpose. The learning, experiences and dialogue that happen along the way would be the heart of this project.
Why do you think this unit is a good possibility for your Course 5 project?
This is a good possibility as this project is truly in its infancy stage. I have taught this course once and this project is just being completed by my first cohort of students. I will need to reflect on this experience and make improvements before teaching it again in the fall semester. The timing of this project would be a good one as there would be opportunity for reflections, data collection and student input. Furthermore, I think with some more thought and guidance this could be a unit that could move towards redefinition on the SAMR scale.
Source: Creative Commons Images (Flickr) https://flic.kr/p/rz3STH Posted by Widjaya Ivan
What are some of your concerns about redesigning this unit?
I want to improve this project but I don’t want of overwhelm students or get away from the main objectives of the learning. I would want to integrate technology in a manner that was relatively seamless but would enhance the learning without it becoming the focus or a distraction. Furthermore, I would need to front load the design of this project and hope that in practice it would work with the understanding that it would be a long term project.
What shifts in pedagogy will this new unit require from you?
The changes I would consider would require me to facilitate a lot of the learning outside of the classroom time. I would need to be sure to make time for regular check-ins and online interactions with students. Furthermore, I would have to prepare some informative posts and pieces of accountability to ensure students were engaging in the process.
What skills and/or attitudes will this new unit require from your students?
Students will need to develop blogging skills and etiquette. They will need to value the online participation outside of class time and contribute at a pace that is concurrent with the rest of the class. Furthermore, they will need to know that their thoughts will be expressed on a public forum and they will be accountable to their classmates, teachers and possibly a larger online community.
C. Flipping Game Strategies and Rules in Grade 9 PE
Describe the project: What will your students do?
Students will use informational videos and instructional content to learn about basic sport strategies and rules in grade 9 PE. Students will engage in a flipped classroom model where they will access these teacher created resources to prepare for in-class activities and assessments.
How does this project reflect your learning from COETAIL?
The flipped classroom can be an effective model that allow for more application of content and active learning. This would compliment my philosophy to maximise activity time during PE classes while providing important theoretical knowledge online.
What goals do you hope to achieve with this project?
As I stated in my previous post, “Figuring Out Flipping”, I would follow the Clintondale High School model that suggested the creation of 3, 5-7 minute videos per week using Kim Cofino’s list of considerations to make some quality resources for Grade 9 PE.
Why do you think this unit is a good possibility for your Course 5 project?
Flipping is a great model for the physical education classroom. I think the creation of resources takes time and with the tools and considerations I have gained from COETAIL, I think I could make some helpful videos for students. Furthermore, I would be able to see the impact of this approach on a regular basis and could collect feedback from students and assessment data.
What are some of your concerns about redesigning this unit?
To maximise the effect of this project, I would need to redesign more than one sports unit. I would choose 4 key sports areas to create these resources for and test their effectiveness and reflect on any possible improvements or progressions as they repeated the same format. Furthermore, besides assessments this might be a difficult project to measure success and it may only resonate with some students. It would require understanding from the parents and the students.
What shifts in pedagogy will this new unit require from you?
I would need to move away from an introductory lesson to sport and mini-lecture style lessons in the gym. I would need to consider questioning techniques and strategies to ensure students were accountable for reviewing the flipped lessons online. I would need to create intentional activities in my lessons to help build on the learning from the videos to help consolidate their learning in a meaningful way.
What skills and/or attitudes will this new unit require from your students?
Students (and parents) would have to educated on the idea of the flipped classroom. They would need to shift their thinking that PE is a course that only required in-class participation. This would be a new responsibility for them that would require some additional time and effort.
***********************
This process has made me pause and consider taking on all three initiatives on some level to improve my practice next year. Is this a trick? To be honest, I am leaning towards option 2 as my preference for a final project but I welcome your feedback and your vote. Which one do you think is best for improved student learning and teacher practice?
A, B or C?