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Sharing our Failures
IMG_0873 by Taylorbri CC BY Last week on Twitter, I had a conversation over a few hours with @IMsporticus, Dean Dudley, Doug Gleddie, Andy Vasily, Dr Ash Casey, MrsLieke, TimFletcher12 and Mark Williams came in at the end. Phew! The central take-aways of our conversation for me was the interest in how we should not continually high-fiving ourselves or using social media for this platform, but about how we can use our PLNs for a much richer conversation that involves feedback and critique of our work as #physed teachers and learners of our craft. There is a lot of information on twitter and the original people who put the hashtags up for…
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What tools do you use in #physed? Why?
My typical whiteboard after a class…. There has been a very healthy amount of discussion in #physed and #pegeek spaces about tools that the PE teacher should have or should be dribbling over in their attempt to be a more effective teacher and most of these tools are tech based. We seems that from now on, we will always have new technology and apps and other gadgets that can provide us with new opportunities to teach our students or to engage in new learning experiences. However, recently I had the opportunity to present at the ACHPER conference in Adelaide and I was very surprised to find that some of the…
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Concept based learning – Invasion Games
Lego Spellen by Dirk Houbrechts CC BY NC For those who know me, you will know that I have recently moved from UNIS Hanoi to Yokohama Int’l School. This has been a big change for myself (and my family) and I am working in a new PE department and have taken on the Head of Department role. I am relishing the opportunity to put many of our good practice down in writing so that it is clear to others that our PE dept sees some fundamental truths as important and that this manifests itself in our classes, everyday. Now I am also part of the #PEPLC community, organising a…
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Who appraises or offers you Feedback?
Two Faced Justice by Johnson Cameraface CC BY NC SA The dreaded word around the MYP PE faculty and classroom is ‘reflection’. Do we have to do another one – really? It seems you can tell when the end of a reporting period is up as the students are madly reflecting on everything they have learned and teachers roll their eyes in solidarity – reflection time again – please spare us. I read Jen Hatmaker’s blog post on being the Worst End of School Mom Ever and took some of this away as I thought about how I end each of my units and how I watch the slog over reflections,…
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All teched up, where to from here?
Ultra-modern Cabot Place by UGG boy UGG girl licensed CC BY Last post on our iPod Trial at UNIS… The school year is almost done and so finishes our iPod trial in the MSHS. Before I go into the end products, it is important for me to thank Ed Gilbreath and the Tech team (especially Mr Long) for the opportunity to trial mobile tech in PE and for my own professional growth and learning during this process. I would also like to thank Clint Hamada for his never-ending patience and wise sage-like advice at times of despair and for sharing our home computer with 4 iPods and related issues. And…
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Slow Progress – iPod trial
Undecided by Rafael Peñaloza CC BY NC SA Have you ever thought that things would run at a certain pace, but been amazed at the reality? That is how I am feeling about my iPod trial. I suppose because I read about the great things that other PE faculties and teachers do, I dreamed that all of this would suddenly begin for me here at UNIS. However, I am findng that it takes longer than I had originally thought. My post here is not intended to be negative or pessimistic, I am loving finding out what I could/should do with my iPods in class, but there are some hiccups that are…
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Giving Feedback on a Presentation
Speech bubble by Alice Bartlett CC BY NC How do you evaluate your Presentations? I have struggled with finding meaning from student presentations especially if they aren’t very good. How do you face public humiliation in the moment of knowing that what you presented was not up to par? And why should this process of giving feedback only be up to the teacher? I have worked with index cards, asking students to confer with peers and just asking for verbal feedback but often this becomes teacher directed and students choose very trivial focus points (eg. “They had good slides”) and it can be hard to bring out meaning to the…
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Collaboration, Blogs and Feedback
Dancing Troopers by Kalexanderson licensed by CC BY NC SA My G8 students are beginning their annual Dance unit. This is usually met with not much enthusiasm. I have to admit that my dancing shoes are not as polished or practiced as many other PE teachers, but over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work a little with Sara Quigley, a fabulous Dance teacher, and she and I have worked hard to put together a Dance unit about dissecting dance and then putting a Dance together with all its segments and joining bits and it has been more successful than other attempts…. This year I decided that…