Technology Integration Lesson Plan

For my technology integration into a lesson plan I used my football topic from the Padlet assignment. For a fun spin on the football unit I found a lesson plan online for Ultimate Football. Ultimate Football is a modified version of Football which instead of using downs, it requires a certain number of passes be completed before a team can score.

This lesson was able to fit in with many of the standards set by both New Jersey and the International Society for Technology in Education. Most of the standards met were in regards to strategy, critiquing and adjustment. Football allows for the learning of specific defensive strategies and offensive plays and schemes that will hopefully help teams overcome the play style of their opponents. And having students self-critique and critique their classmates creates more successful and more competitive teams, and more skilled individuals. The ISTE standard deals with feedback and adjustments using the technology provided for them.

For the class I would require one football, eight cones, a roll of floor tape and 2 iPads. The cones would be designated as the front and back corners of each endzone, which is the area that a player with the ball needs to be inside of to score points. The floor tape will be used to outline the sidelines as well as the front and back of the endzone. The use of the iPads is part of the technological integration and will be discussed later.

To start the class I would have the students stretch in their lines to help prevent injuries during the game. I would then have them move to playing an instant activity, this being Sharks and Minnows. This is a tag game that has all but two students on the sideline and they have to make it to the other side without being tagged by the two “sharks”. If one of these students is tagged they become “seaweed” and can tag the running students as well.

From here we would move on to a review of information of rules and background from the flipped lesson I would send them for homework. I would utilize the flipped lesson as a way to save time in class and allow more time for actually doing to game or activity and have the students come in with an understanding of what they will be doing the next day or even next unit.

I would then break them into their three teams and from there determine which two teams would start off playing and which would be on the sideline first. As the teams cycle out the iPad then comes in to play. I would be using one of the iPads to record the games with the Hudl Sideline app. This would then stream to the other iPad using the same app and students on the team on the sideline would be able to go back to the clips and be able to look at their form, strategies and be able to make adjustments. The students could then also use the iPad for the Sketchpad app. This can be set up so that the students can draw offensive and defensive arrangements and strategies to help them be more successful next time they are in the game. When they are on the sideline they will also be responsible for evaluating throwing technique using a rubric provided. They can do this by watching the game as it is going on or by also using the Hudl Sideline app to point out their assessment partner.

Since it is the day before winter break, my homework for the students would be to have a good holiday break. On top of that I would advise them to take their clothes home to have them washed for sanitary reasons and to make sure they bring them back after break.

With the technology integration that I have put into the lesson plan I think it would help the students improve much more than if they did not have that technology. For the flipped lessons, as stated earlier, it would help increase time that students can work on skills and play games and activities. And the iPads and apps which allow the students to see their mistakes and fix form if necessary as well as creating their own plays and alignments. Giving this much freedom to the students should increase their interest and create a more fun learning environment which is one of the most important goals of a teacher.

Link to lesson: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1QI4spHWmIrd1hocUdpRWNYWXc/view?usp=sharing

Google Docs

Google Docs is a tool offered by Google which allows multiple people to work on a single project at online. This can be done in multiple ways, and follows much of the form of Microsoft Office. This means that students can work on spreadsheets, slide shows and word documents simultaneously while doing a project. Whenever I would create a group project for one of my classes I would do so with this tool in mind. I really like it because the students can divide up the work and be able to hand in one final product in a nice clean format. It also allows students to see what their partners are doing which will make the final product flow better and not have separate pieces copied and pasted in to one document. The students could also add me to their document which would allow me to look at what they're doing and leave feedback and suggestions. They could also leave questions on the document or project which creates a more open form of communication, enhancing the teacher/student relationship and making the learning experience better for both sides.

Flashcards

Flashcards is an Apple application that allows students as well as teachers to create digital flash cards in order to help with studying. I like to use this application as a supplement to a study guide. This is not just for Apple devices and could be used to study online on any computer as well if it is emailed to a student. If I used this while teaching I would have students work on the flash cards independently then about a week before the exam I would go through and make changes and addition if necessary before emailing them to all the students. If I was using it for Physical Education purposes I would create cue cards for the activities of that day so that students would have somewhat of an understanding and background of the activity, so that there is less explanation time and more time to work on the activity.

My Study Life

My Study Life is a Google Chrome application that is a digit, school specific planner that helps track assignments and important dates. I would love to use this when teaching to have students be responsible for organizing their workload and being personally responsible for their own work. I would post exam dates, when assignments are due and the topic or activity for class on the specific date. Posting the topic or activity of the day allows students to better prepare for the class and read ahead if they wish. I feel like this is a good tool because students should all have an expansive planner that allows them to better manage their time, which seems to be one of the biggest problems of high school students. One limitation to My Study Life is that it is only as good as the students allow it to be. Meaning that if the students don't properly track their schedule than no matter how much I post or what I post it won't matter. The good part about it though is that the schedule is optimized for cloud storage, which means they can retrieve it on their phone or other devices.

StudentBook

StudentBook is a Google Chrome application that allows teachers to post exams, homework, and share due dates and other important dates in the course. I would use this application for posting homework assignments if I had any or other supplemental assignments for the course. I would not choose to use it for exams because I believe they should be done in class where I could observe the students, If I was to use it for exams I would have to take the class to a computer lab or reserve enough laptops to be able to keep an eye on the students to make sure they wouldn't cheat. A possible limitation is that even though all the assignments are posted online students may not have access to a computer when they are due. Also not having a hard copy of the homework or assignment could lead to some students missing assignments.

TeacherTube

TeacherTube is a Google Chrome application that allows teachers to share videos, documents, audio and photos with students. I can use this in both my Physical Education and Health classes. I like the idea of using this as a tool to teach my students the information before class in a reverse lesson way. By putting videos and note documents on the website I would be able to have them do either projects in class or jump right into the physical activity for the day. I understand that not everyone has the time or ability to watch and digest tons of information at night, so I would keep videos short and give handouts of the note documents the day before.

Pew Survey Results: Teens, Social Media, and Technology

After reading the study the results that most resonated with me is the teens and their use of smartphones as a primary source of internet usage and that they use it several times per day. Having coached and worked around high school children for a good amount of times it is easy to see how much kids are attached to their phones. It seems like they interact more through social media and texting than actual human to human.

The most surprising result that I found was how Facebook dominated the social media platforms. I understand that the article is over a year old and that things may have changed but even with that the high percentage of Facebook users and low levels of other platform users is interesting. From my experience it seems that teens were most interested in Twitter and Snapchat, When I was coaching the kids would always be talking about who was snap chatting them or how many people they were connected with on the app. Also from experience it seems as if Facebook is becoming more used by parents and older people compared to the younger generation.

The least surprising out of all the results was that boys were more likely than girls to own and play video games. I believe this is more of a result of societal expectations than any other factor. Also the creators of video games tend to create games more widely appealing to guys then girls. They tend to be violent or based on male sports.

When it comes to how I will apply the results to my teaching, it mostly comes down to that the use of the internet and social media is key to reaching the students. I could do this by creating a class Twitter and Facebook page which detail what is being taught in class as well as other websites and internet resources that can be supplemental and helpful. As long as they follow then they should get notifications and never have an excuse not to know the details of assignments and due dates.

Working as a Team

Ms. Cope delves into a practice that is an important part of the Physical Education course, teamwork. She speaks of teaching the importance of being a productive member of a team and the best place to show this in the school setting with instant results and consequences is Physical Education. By playing team sports it shows that to be successful all members of the team need to be involved and working together. At the high school level where I want to teach most of the games and activities are team related so it should be easy to instill the values of teamwork in the students.

She also talks about how she uses the division of responsibilities within a group to show how important all members are. I can use this lesson in my health classes when giving projects out. I can go over broader subjects and have students do projects where each member of the group is responsible for a different part. This forces all members to become masters at their part of the topic and creating an end product that helps other students learn the information. Also the ability to teach is the best way to show if the students have a firm knowledge of the information they need to know.

The Work of Play

In this video the teachers describes the struggle of maintaining a balance of work and play. She started off by stating how depriving children of play can stunt their growth. Being a future PE teacher this is a fact that I will take pride in. The fact that there is so much room for play and providing a somewhat mental break from the hours of book work and notes throughout the school day.

Another issue raised is that of sharing but not calling it sharing. I like the way that the teacher in the video phrased it by instead of telling the students they need to share that instead it was an issue of kindness and respect. I feel like that approach works better because children need to know what respect is and how it is displayed as well as kindness, and sharing falls under the umbrella of those qualities.

A third idea I pulled from the video is that of being able to choose what they are interested in that day. So instead of being tied down to one activity or idea allow the students to choose what they are interested in that day to make it better and more productive for them. This could be implemented in such a way as offering the game that is currently in cycle or the ability to go to the weight room for that day, or allow for a fun Friday type of model where on Fridays or a certain day of the week there can be multiple activites going on at once with a choice of which to participate in.

Flipped Lesson

I chose to do my flipped lesson on the basic rules of football for multiple reasons. The first reason I did chose that topic was because it is what I did my padlet on so I had a foundation to work off of. The second reason I chose this topic is because I coach football and played it so I am knowledgeable when it comes to the game and the skills that are required to succeed in it.

After the students watch and do the flipped lesson we would move right in to the activity that the lesson has given a background for. In this case instead of having to give an abbreviated lesson on the basics of football before learning throwing and catching, we could go straight to learning those skills and have more time to improve them.

After learning about and creating a flipped lesson I am extremely comfortable with the idea and am interested in using it when I become a teacher. In Physical Education classes specifically I like the idea that I can present the students with lessons where they can gain knowledge of activities and skills beforehand. This allows me to use the period more fully and only have to review skills and activities and allow for more time to work on them and play games to keep the students entertained.

Using Padlet to Plan a Unit About Football

I chose to make football my unit topic because it was my favorite activity in PE when I was in high school and is still my favorite sport. It is the sport that I played and currently coach so I am very familiar with the intricacies of it and could make it a very fun and interesting unit.

I developed my essential question from the fact that I personally believe that football is a great activity for utilizing and excising the entire body. It not only makes the student look into the sport of football and possibly open them to a new hobby or interest. But even if it does not appeal to the students it still allows for learning about the positive health benefits of going out and doing similar activities has for individuals.

The goals I selected were chosen because I wanted the students to get a basic understanding of the sport. Football is a prevalent part of american culture so it would not hurt for them to know a little bit about the rules and the game itself. Also tracing back to my previous point about health, It allows students to better understand their bodies and how it works while they are exercising.

I chose to use the Sketchpad and Exam Time apps as my technological aids. Sketchpad would allow students to see a visual of the field and be able to see how all the moving parts would work during a game as well as see distances for penalties and draw up plays if they got to that point. Exam Time is a good tool for learning the rules of the game, positions and other pertinent information. This is true because it allows students to make digital flash cards and other visual aids that they could share with classmates to better understand the rules or prepare them for an assessment.

Pedagogy and Technology

The inclusion of Chromebooks and iPads in classrooms creates many new opportunities to improve the quality of education provided. The number of apps is increasing greatly every day and many of these have utility in the educational field. The following blog post ties some of these apps to instructional strategies that I can use in my future classroom.

The apps available allow the greatest amount of communication and group productivity. Apps such as Exam Time and ClassDojo allow direct communication between teachers and students, as well as teachers and parents. The sharing of information, learning materials and thoughts and opinions back and forth can create the best possible situation for all parties involved. An example could be posting online flash cards and allowing parents to directly see what the students are working on.

Google Docs and GroupMe instant communication between students which is helpful when working on assignments. This allows the students to be involved in group work and being able to hold each other accountable by seeing what the other members have done as they complete work. An example of its practical use is making students do a project on diseases or drugs, the groups can work on their project in class or out while being able to see all the work that the other members are putting in.

 Socrative Teacher app allows teachers to take attendance, give quizzes and have them instantly graded on their Chromebook. This would fit in to PE and Health courses by making the quiz and activity aspects of the class much more organized and time efficient way, as well as the quick attendance taking.

CourseNotes allows students to take notes and record audio on their Apple devices. It also allows the students to stay organized by keeping the information separated by subject. This is good for Health classes because it allows students who learn better through listening than looking and reading the ability to match the audio recording to the notes to give a more full learning experience.

History of Technology: Computers

I chose to look into the positive impact of computers in education for my first experience on PowToon. To be honest I am not a huge fan of PowToon after using it. I tried to use all the features that were offered through the program and I found that recording a voice over was very difficult. I tried to use the feature as a way to not overuse text in the presentation but found myself having to rerecord multiple slides because there were strict time limitations on the recorded voice option. I also thought that the service was inferior to power point and to me it came off a little bit childish in the way it presents itself and the slide styles. I believe PowerPoint can be made fun if using the correct styles and slide features, but also is the more formal option.

Being a prospective PE and Health teacher, I can not see it helping or being utilized much on the PE side. But I could see myself using the service on the Health side. I would still probably choose to use PowerPoint but I may give PowToon another try. I think for a health presentation that it may be a little too cartoon based to get the point across of things such as STDs and other serious health issues.
But I can see however how it could be a good tool for other subjects.


link to PowToon:
https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/g9WQbQ3CNI8/history-of-technologycomputer/
(Warning: must watch on slideshow without autoplay on to get full audio and all slides)