Blog about how you incorporate gaming, gamification, game thinking into your class. How? What are your objectives?
Consider the following:
This is an interesting topic for me as a PE teacher. Physical education is game based. Many of the standards written have direct correlations to the sports and games we love. The sports, games and activities that we participate in physical education were created because they were a fun way to stay active and healthy. This is one of the main reasons that I became a PE teacher. I loved physical activity as a child and still do to this day. I think I took PE in school all the way through my senior year even though I had met my credits after my freshman year of high school. It did not feel like school to me. It was a place where I was up on my feet, moving, competing and actively participating. There was very little down time or “sit and listen.” It was all about doing and that is what I value most about PE. PE incorporates both gaming and gamification. I would consider all the sports and games we play as “gaming.” For example, 8th grade, Team Sport Standards 1.3 Demonstrate basic offensive and defensive skills and strategies in team physical activities. 1.4 Apply locomotor, non locomotor, and manipulative skills to team physical activities. 2.2 Explain the rotation principles used in performing various manipulative skills. Nowhere in the 8th grade standards does it say “play basketball.” Basketball could be a vehicle or game to meet the needs of the objectives above. So could football, softball, volleyball, etc. Games are used to gain experience and gain mastery of a skill both physically and cognitively. I don’t use gamification very often in class, but there is certainly room to do so. I’ve thought of a few ways to incorporate it to fuel some friendly competition between grade level classes. I’ve also been toying with the idea of doing a beginning of the year Olympics where students compete in events to get on a plaque for the year. This might be more of a combo between gaming and gamification, but would be a lot of fun. My struggle will always be not including games in class, but how to engage those students who don’t want to participate in PE. It’s interesting, in TK/K most of the time there is 100% participation. In my sixth grade classes, it can be 50%-75% depending on the activity. When the “game” includes physical activity, it can be less inviting for some which is unfortunate. Overall, I think that games in school are important. If students are engaged, learning and having fun at the same time, that’s exactly what we strive for as educators.
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I started my initial lesson for a flipped/blended learning on Google slides. I was able to easily add the content that I needed for a quick lesson on dribbling a basketball. I’m new to using add-ons so I decided to see how pear deck interacts with Google slides. I added a simple question page after the video that I gave demonstrating dribbling. I wanted to add the question directly into the video, but it seemed that a platform such as Edpuzzle would be a better option. I logged into Edpuzzle to check it out. I played with it and embedded some questions and a note in the video. Afterwards, I was having trouble finding a way to put the video into my slide. I’m not sure that they are compatible. I looked in the add-ons and wasn’t seeing anything. This might take some further exploration or maybe just use Nearpod. I used a video that I had created during distanced learning. I only needed part of it so I used a video editor (clipchamp.com) to pull the piece that I needed. I saved it to the drive and was easily able to upload it into my slides presentation. While writing this, I realized that I could have just added the link to my Edpuzzle in slides and had the students work through the video that way. I do, however, like keeping everything self-contained if I can, not having the student navigate multiple platforms. As I move along and test this out, I will figure out what works best. At the end of the lesson, I like the idea of having the students post a video to Flipgrid. I am running into the issue that I teach every student in the school and don’t have set rosters associated with Google classroom. There is the option to manually upload emails, but it seems daunting for the amount of students I have, even if I keep it to 4th-6th for now. Catlin Tucker stated, one of her favorite reasons for using a flipped model is it allows the students to work at their own pace. I agree with this and it is one of the things that I like most about this model as well. Students are able to stop, go back, re-watch or simply move on if the content was mastered. It also allows our students to control the speed that they are receiving the content and is beneficial for all skill levels. Jennifer Gonzalez discusses in step 6 of her “9 Ways Online Teaching Should Be Different than Face to Face” about the importance of keeping the flipped classroom instruction simplified and slowed down. By being concise in our lessons, students are able to focus their attention and energy toward completion without feeling overwhelmed. In a Flipped model, not all students have the same support at home that they receive in school. It is important that the students are able to work through the content on their own, we can’t assume that there will be any help. Blog Assignment: Social Media for Student and Professional Learning
Read the articles about social media in education in the Content section. Can social media be used effectively in the classroom? If so, how? At what ages? And, with what tools? When we presented on this topic in class using Flipgrid, I was a “no” for using social media. You all made some compelling arguments for why we should use social media in the classroom. Points were brought up that I had yet to consider. I guess that is what is great about discussion and doing these blogs. I currently really only use Facebook and Instagram in my personal life. When the question was asked, that is what I immediately thought of. I thought it would be hard to use those platforms with limitations, digital citizenship and the teacher having enough control over them to make them effective educational tools and not a distraction. Social media is much more than these two tools though. Really, any site offering media where you can interact can be classified as social media. The Flipgrid app we used, I would use that in a heartbeat in my class and thought it was a wonderful way for us to share our thoughts. It really does depend on the app, how you are going to use it, and how you are going to protect the students on it? There is no doubt that our students enjoy using devices and different apps in their everyday life. As I expand beyond Facebook and Instagram, I do believe that there is a place for social media. It is another way of students to engage that they are comfortable and familiar with. It would be a great way to present projects, assignments, question intro/exit tickets, etc.. I think that there is probably an app for just about everything that we do in education. The key is picking something the educator is comfortable with and can be used appropriately by the student. I’m sure that there are many age appropriate apps that could be used for all age groups with parent consent. I do really like the idea of using social media as a community building tool. Showing events, classrooms, school functions, could be a great way to keep the community engaged in what is taking place at school. It seems that most schools currently do this. It’s a nice way to give the students recognition in a public way. This is a great quote from the NEA article, “I think the best way to use social media in school isn’t with kids but about kids.” This would be a great way to utilize social media. Overall, I think I’m coming around to the idea of using social media in the classroom. Especially, with all the various options to explore and utilize. BLOG #1: Digital Literacy After exploring the resources from Common Sense, KQED, Stanford, and the ADL, write a blog about how you will teach digital literacy with a focus on equity. We know technology/digital literacy has to be taught (we can’t rely on the theory of the digital native) yet, given your already full curriculum, how will you begin to teach digital literacy with an equity focus? Reply to the posts of 2 of your colleagues. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/625404/equity-vs-equality-what-is-the-difference I constantly confuse equity and equality, but I love thinking about the above image to help me remember/understand and “make sense.” If we are to focus on equity in digital literacy, we must first understand what our students' needs are. We must understand our students' abilities, Socio-cultural backgrounds, access to technology, and prior knowledge of the subject content. As we have discussed in 791, accessing prior knowledge is paramount to learning no matter the subject. Having an understanding of our students prior knowledge and experience with digital literacy would make sure that each student is receiving the support they individually need. When the pandemic hit this past year, we scrambled as a district to ensure that each student had access to a computer at home. This resulted in the district ordering a device (chrome book/ipad) for every student in the district. Hotspots were also purchased for families that did not have wifi or adequate internet connection for zooming. This was the first step to making sure that digital literacy was equitable during the pandemic by making sure that each student had access to technology at their homes. I hope that the district extends the use of technology this following year allowing students to barrow devices as needed. I think that last year will redefine how we teach and teachers will be able to further incorporate the digital systems that they have been using. Many of the students that I teach come from low income families and the device sent home from the school was the first computer that they have had at their house. Equity starts with access. Being cognizant of this is important in teaching digital literacy knowing that some students have never been on a device outside of school. Teaching starting at the basics would be a good approach making sure that students are receiving the foundation that they need to be digitally competent and safe. As technology is making its way into households as well, creating a family guide or lesson could be important in making sure that what students are taught at school is being reinforced at home. With the amount of technology being used in the classroom, it offers a lot of opportunities to teach a lesson on digital literacy and practice what you have learned. Understanding that each student's needs are different and designing lessons that keep this in mind make sure that equity is being achieved. Common Sense, KQED, Stanford, and the ADL give us some awesome resources with lessons already designed for educators. This saves us time and allows us to easily implement them in our classrooms. Blog #2 Distance Learning Tools Review
All of us were thrust into the position of having to teach or coach remotely last school year and this school year due to COVID-19. As a result, we had to innovate in our practice and try out new tools and new lesson designs. Please share at least one tool (you can do more) (other than a GSuite App--but you CAN do Add-Ons and Chrome Extensions) that you tried out and found success with during this unprecedented time. Please try to share tools we have not yet discussed in class. Explain why you used the tool. Outline the tool’s capacity and explain how you used the tool. Please also share (based upon your experiences NOT the product’s website) the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. Be sure to also address the following questions in your post:
The only tool I really used other than my computer camera for videos was Clever and google classroom. For PE this year, We did live zoom workouts for each class and I created a weekly video of myself doing an activity and posted it to my google classroom and clever for my students to follow along with. Clever I used Clever, as well as my district for all Tk-2 students. These students do not have active Gmail accounts so they needed another platform for a digital classroom. Students were able to access teacher pages as well as the apps that they were using in their classroom. I specifically used it to post a weekly video of me that the students would follow along with for PE. Overall, the platform was useful and students were able to access the videos. I created two categories, video of the week, and video library. The video of the week was at the top and easy to access for students. The library allowed students to have access to prior weeks videos. For me, I didn’t need many categories, but I could see how this could be confusing if there were alot of categories. You would have to scroll through all the content to get to the bottom, opposed to having a cover page or quick access on the side. The district set up the account and created the page for me which made things very simple. They linked all the classes as well. I was able to upload a picture of myself to make it easier for students to find my app. With the age group that was using it, not all the students can read yet. It was easy to say “click on my picture.” It did not take long to get the hang of the App. Uploading my videos was very simple. I would upload them to google Drive first and then copy the link over to Clever. One big learning curve for some of the students was getting on the Clever App itself. Teachers were using QR codes to make it easier, but it definitely took some time for some of our students. I do think that it was the right tool for the job ultimately. For me, students were able to access the videos that I was posting which is all I really needed out of the App. I’m not sure how it was for other teachers who were running their classes through the program. It is a useful feature that all the apps that a student needs can be accessed on one page specifically designed for that class. Prompt: Given your students’ grade level and the subject matter you teach, consider how you can teach digital citizenship and specifically digital citizenship as it relates to digital communication. Please provide 3 specific examples on how you might make learning digital citizenship personal for your students. Through your answer, make connections to the resources/information in the iCARE
It has never been more important than now to teach our students digital citizenship and literacy. We have spent more time on a computer in the last year, more than most people have in a lifetime. Having clear expectations, goals, and precautions is important for our students as they navigate a vastly unregulated world. I teach PE and grades Tk-6th. Obviously, digital citizenship would look very different at each grade level, but I believe it is equally important. With the rise in digital use in our everyday lives, communicating digitally happens naturally. There are numerous ways to stay connected virtually and each needs to be approached with caution and understanding of how to properly and safely use the platform. 3 ways to make it personal: Have students relate it to their personal lives.
The resources listed on ICARE all have great content that is broken down into age appropriate lessons. One way to examine digital communication and make it personal for our students is to have them examine the platforms that they are already using (tiktok, games, texting, IG. etc.). How are they using them to communicate, what is being communicated and with who? These are some of the platforms that our students are spending countless hours on. Having tools to remain safe is important. Having them examine each one and what they are using them for is beneficial to see the positives and negatives of each. There are a lot of positives that come with technology and digital communication. They simply make our lives easier at times. Being able to text someone and having an ongoing chat is very convenient. It is instant and the recipient can reply when it's convenient. This last year when we were on stay at home orders, students were still able to communicate via the video games they were playing. Tiktok allows students to express themselves in short videos. Making it personal, students could pick one digital communicating platform that they use and list a positive for it. The downfall of the digital world is that we don’t always know who we are communicating with. In video games, you can be playing with people from all over the world. Chat rooms and forums are accessed by all sorts of people, both good and bad. Online profiles can be fake and made to look real (ex. Catfish MTV). Some people are predators, some get satisfaction out of being someone they aren’t, some are out for financial gain. Using the tools and information from sites like commonsense and google can help protect ourselves and students in these situations. Students can examine their own use and where they might be vulnerable. |
AuthorMy name is Bailey Tucker. I teach Physical Education and Adapted Physical Education (APE) at Calistoga Elementary School. I have a strong passion for sports, athletics and fitness. I've been involved with sports my entire life and that is what ultimately led me to the path of teaching. I have recently obtained my APE Authorization to teach PE to students with special needs. This has been a growing passion of mine and I have immensely enjoyed working in this new field with my students. I'm looking forward to this next chapter and working towards obtaining my masters degree. Archives
February 2022
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