Write a blog review of the logo making software you chose and what hurdles you encountered and your overall experience. I decided to start designing my logo with Adobe Express. I have used Adobe in the past for presentations and it was very user-friendly. So far I have I would say that I have had a positive experience with Express. It is very easy to get a basic logo design and pick a few key pieces that you would like. Some of the manipulations to the template can be a little finicky, but that is probably more associated with my lack of experience with the program. Each template is very customizable and there are endless options to choose from. I’ve designed two logos so far and I think I will continue to design a few more because the process is quick and easy. I have found that each logo I have designed so far needs something else. I will have to see if I can find a template that better encapsulates what I’m envisioning. I may also try and add a few more elements to the ones that I have designed as well. From someone not very computer savvy, I would definitely recommend Express. The templates make it so easy to design a logo. You can easily produce a logo in less than 5min which is pretty amazing. I believe the process will only get easier as I play with it more. But for now, it’s doing what I need it to do! Here is an example of a basic design I was working on.
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Blog: Blog about your own goals relative to the goals of the program. What hopes/thoughts do you have on how fellow cohort members can support you with completing your capstone and how you can support them? How will you work to support positive cohesion among your cohort? What is important to you in terms of group norms?
My goal for myself in this program was to expand my knowledge and thoughts about teaching. I wanted to force myself out of my comfort zone. Before starting this program, I had just finished getting my APE authorization to teach PE to students with special needs. I was feeling really great and motivated after completing that program and I was looking for the next step that I could take in my professional development. A Masters’s degree seemed like the perfect direction to go. My goal was and still is to continue to grow as an educator. That fight right now is APE. I was fortunate enough to work with an amazing APE mentor who lit a fire under me in regards to APE and its implementation. That is what has got me to this point. I just continue to look for stepping stones to help me grow. I feel very fortunate to be in a small group for this Master’s experience. It has been very different from my other experiences in school in a very positive way. The intimate setting has allowed everyone a voice and built a very tight-knit community. There is a relief knowing that we are going through this experience together. What I need from this group is what I’ve been getting this whole time. A fun, lively, hardworking group that is there to support each other in any way possible. As we wrap up these last couple of months together, I expect the exact same. In terms of support from me, don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything. I’m here to support you in the best way I can. Remind has also been a great tool to stay connected and get advice or clarity on things pertaining to class. 1) How does transliteracy change your current thoughts on the content you deliver?
2) How do you see the incorporation of transliteracy teaching methods increasing student inclusion and engagement? Currently, in my typical PE setting, information and instruction are directly delivered by me. We are often outside in a setting where direct delivery by the instructor works the best. Students do not bring devices to my class and do not have a portable whiteboard or poster board. I’m open to the idea of having my students bring them, but it would have to be heavily coordinated as we transition between multiple locations. When I student taught 8 years ago, our 8th graders brought devices every day to class and it worked well. Students were able to watch instructions and take notes. I feel like that setting was a bit ahead of its time for a PE setting. When we transition to my classroom, I do use youtube a lot to show sports in a real-life scenario to show how the athletes move and interact. I believe that it is important for the students to see what a real game looks like so they have an understanding of the skills we are learning and how they will transfer to a game setting. Utilizing multiple modalities to deliver content seems like a great way to keep students engaged and increase understanding. I know for myself, I get stuck in ways sometimes of what is working and am hesitant to branch out. It is important for students to become literate in multiple avenues. They must have the opportunity to develop these skills and be familiar with them. As we all know, the way we live, interact and work together is rapidly changing. Making sure our students are able to navigate and succeed in this rapidly changing society and workplace is important. Does either "flipping" or CBL have a future in your teaching practice? Why or why not?
In a perfect world, I like the flipped model in education. It makes sense to have students explore content before coming to class. I know that there are many limiting factors that make this model difficult to implement how it was intended. I think covid alleviated some of these issues by schools pushing more technology into students’ homes. I know at my school that every student has a Chromebook or iPad and hotspot if needed. This really allowed the classroom to be brought home and increased the options for our students. It raises a whole other issue of HW, but I don’t feel like getting into that right now. There are definitely some lessons that I teach where students could go over rules and the game and have a foundation before coming to class. I only see my students once a week for 1 hour. This would allow more time for the students to actually play than just sitting and listening to the rules. I do worry that this would just increase the educational gap between our students. Some will have done it and some will have passed it over. Would this actually make things more difficult when we were in class? Idk? If everyone buys in, it opens the door for more “doing” which is great. I think I view it more as an option here and there than a day in day out practice. For me personally, I don’t know that it would be needed all the time. It will be interesting what the classroom teachers have to say about it being in a very different setting than I am. In terms of CBL, I do believe that it has a place in our classrooms. It promotes critical thinking and applies real-life scenarios to students' education. We may actually be able to do way with “when will I ever use this?” This would support our 21st-century skills and build strong connections with the world around us.
When I think about building confidence in my students it always comes back to building strong relationships and trust. I believe that these are the foundation that every teacher must develop to ensure that students feel safe and confident to learn. I often cruise through my lesson and individually check-in with each student or small group. My goal in doing this is to give every student a voice. Sometimes there are a few students who take over a class and demand the teacher’s attention taking away from students who are more reserved. I love joking around with my students, I love small talk. I encourage students to talk about what they have been up to outside of class, we talk about other classes, we talk about sports that they are participating in, etc. I make an effort to get to know them, show an interest in them and what they are doing. I’ve also had the opportunity to teach the same students for the last three years which has really helped build a strong relationship. Another area that I have helped students build confidence in what we are doing is making sure that they get enough time to practice the skills for each sport that we are focusing on. We never jump right into games. I always break down the skills from basic to more advanced as we progress and give them ample opportunities to show what they know and need to work on. I’m not afraid to go back and practice a skill that wasn’t achieved. Students’ are aware that they are going to get a lot of time to practice before game scenarios. Practicing in a low-stakes, non-competitive environment is important when learning something new in PE for students’ who are new to the sport. Teaching scenario: I had a student last week that did not want to participate in basketball. He is on the spectrum (very high functioning) and sometimes sits out because he doesn’t feel comfortable trying things that he hasn’t done before. We have a lot of quality one-on-one discussions about having a growth mindset and giving things a try. He always responds really well when I give him a chance to explain what he is feeling. I’ve made it a point when I see him leave an activity to give him a minute to himself. I never call him out publicly to come back to the group or ask in front of the class why he is sitting out. In that time alone, I think he is also thinking about ways that he can join. He does a great job of self-regulation in that regard when he gets frustrated. Our relationship over the last three years has gotten a lot stronger and I know that he needs that time. We often joke that if he knew how to do everything already, I wouldn’t have a job! We also discuss things that he is good at and how we can transfer those skills to what we are focusing on. He has a great motor and is one of the best runners in the class. Luckily those skills translate really well to a lot of different sports. BLOG: From your research paper, reflect on what you have learned from your research:
Well, as you all know, research has not started yet. I have been waiting on the IRB approval but I did get the green light to start from Dr. Redmond. The plan right now is to start the week after Thanksgiving break. It will be interesting to start to finally put together everything we have been working on and apply it officially to our students’. My first order of business will be to test for a baseline for each of my students using their IEP goals and their appropriate gross motor test. From there I will be able to jump into heavy work training and hopefully be able to quantify some positive results. I am still worried about time and this going deep into January. I just want to be sure that I can collect enough data that I can reflect on it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I will have fitness trackers in time as I previously hoped. It did get approved but has to jump through every hoop known to man to get ordered. I didn’t think it would be such a process, but I should’ve known better. I think I will try and include that data in the capstone poster if I get the trackers in time. I am sure as I get rolling with my action research that things will come up that need to be addressed and changed before the second cycle. The reflection component of all this will be the most powerful tool. Just thinking about what’s working, what’s not, and what I can do to change it. I am excited to chart these results and create a clear picture of what took place in my classroom. 1. What were the key ideas you noted from the C-Content speakers. Any synthesis thoughts on them as a whole? 2. Then consider the list you created from the context of your classroom and your teaching practice. - What are your insights from this analysis? - Are there common threads in your perceptions? - How do your findings fit in with the other topics in this class: 21st century teaching & learning, equity of opportunity for students, the brain, problem-based learning, etc. 3. As an instructional leader, how might you apply Mobley's 6 insights to help your students (or your colleagues) to think creatively? Creativity is key. Pink, Robinson and Brown all discuss that we are in a fast changing world where the importance of creativity is present more so now than anytime in history. Jobs are rapidly being outsourced and we are left with jobs that take a creative mind or more right brained focused thinker. Can creativity be learned? It seems as though we are all born with creativity. We have lost this important skill over time as we have been a part of a system that does not value it. I have the pleasure of watching my 3 year old be creative everyday. It amazes me what he comes up with. If he doesn’t have something or isn’t sure of how something is used, he makes something up. He has zero issue with being wrong. There are no constructs or systems inplace to tell him he is wrong, other than my wife and I. It is strange that we don’t nurture this and promote this as children get older. I agree a lot with what the presenters were saying in their talks. I’ve seen some of these before, and it really makes me think about the systems that we have in place. We need to help students explore their passions and ignite their creativity around these areas. We need to create meaningful lessons that engage students and offer high levels of fulfilment. This begs the question: how do we get students involved with what they are interested in? All the talks had a similar message about our current educational system and its catastrophic flaws. It is not working and it is very outdated. I like the idea that John Seely Brown presented about shifting from knowing to making and playing. I think that this is one of my favorite things about PE, the fact that you are creating and playing. There is very little lecture time. I know from experience that I perform much better in these environments. When tasked with sitting and absorbing information, I can’t sit still. I’m anxious, I tap my foot excessively, I doodle all my margins. I need to be up and moving, and so do our students. Allow our students to create and be an active participant in their educational journey. Blog about your thinking on your qualitative vs. quantitative data analysis:
Why did you choose this/these analysis methods? How will this/these methods help to answer the research question? Most of the data collection that I will be using in my action research will be quantitative with some smidges of qualitative data. Here is an excerpt from my IRB pertaining to data collection: What is the level of performance on IEP Goals? Quantitative Each participating student in APE has current goals and objectives outlined in their IEP (Individual Education Plan). For each IEP goal, a baseline performance measure will be collected at the beginning of the research and possible changes over the course of the research will be tracked. A rubric will be used to score the skills outlined in their IEP to determine level of performance at the beginning of the research. After implementation of Heavy work training during the students’ APE sessions, the researcher will then conduct a post examination of the students’ performance on their IEP goals to see if change occurred.
2.Is there an increase in Fitness tracker statistics? Quantitative
3. What is the level of self-confidence? Both
Overall, I am glad that I will be using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. They both bring a level of validity to the study that is important. I did not seek out one or the other, rather just using what fit for each of my sub sections of research. Blog:
This week, please blog about how implementation of such policies could affect change in education and in public schools. Include both the moral/ethical imperative stated in John Dewey’s quote made one hundred years ago, “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, we must want for all children in the community. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.” Everything that Darling-Hammond laid out in her final chapter is important for success in schools. All five areas are important and each school could of course improve in those categories. Policy is always discussed for education, and the next great promise and innovation that is going to put us at the top. In reality, it seems that our government just spins their wheels, slaps a new title on it and tells us this is the next great thing. While all this is happening, we have teachers already doing things that DH outlines. It has always been on the teacher, and always will be. Good teaching is good teaching. Sure, teachers could use more support and planning time, but there are so many teachers already doing these things. I feel fortunate enough to teach in a district that isn’t live or die by the textbook, that allows teachers the freedom to teach and prepare how they see fit. Of course, there are standards and standardized tests, but how material and content is delivered can vary. Quality teachers should be training quality teachers. This would be an interesting discussion at the district level deciding who should mentor, but that would feed a system that needs help. It seems often that the senior teacher, or longest tenured teacher takes on a student teacher. Nothing against them, but I feel that there are other teachers who would have a much greater impact on a teaching candidate. I was placed in this exact category, though at a very good school with an amazing PE program, but I always found myself gravitating toward two other teachers who I thought represented more of who I wanted to be and were learning about. As DH mentioned, putting an emphasis on critical thinking is such an important approach. She mentions how other countries are doing this/have done this with much success. It really makes sense to build upon this as a fundamental foundation in education. It translates across all content areas and develops individuals for success outside of the classroom. I agree to some extent with the Dewey quote at the beginning of the chapter. I believe that all parents want what is best for their children. Not just the “best and wisest.” It really comes down to access, funding and equity in education. MONEY. Of course I don’t believe that it should be that way, but it certainly is. Wealthy populations have access to higher quality of education. All our children should have this opportunity and I do agree with the quote in that regard. BLOG = this week blog about what you believe you need to complete your research cycles this semester. Feel free to enjoin your cohort members for support and to make specific requests from your instructor(s).
I think the biggest challenge is time. I need more time! I’m worried that I only see my APE students every other week. Squeezing in two rounds of action research will be a challenge and I think three rounds will be near impossible. (Ex. In one month, I see my students twice). I just want to be sure that I have enough data at the end of the research. If I used a Gen Ed class, this wouldn’t have been as much as an issue, but I really wanted to keep the focus on my APE students. The plan is to just keep moving forward and collect as much data as I can. I still also need to create a system to efficiently categorize all the data that I am collecting. I want to make sure that I remain organized and systematic so that what I’m collecting can easily be transcribed. I will be using a lot of video to record, just have to figure out what exactly and how I transfer it. As for our cohort and instructors, I think keeping things positive is important. In terms of my research specifically, I don’t think there is much that others can do right now for my research. I think it's more about keeping a positive environment and good shoulders to lean on knowing that we are all in this together. These last couple of weeks have been an absolute grind, but knowing that everyone is pushing through is comforting and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just got to put the final, final on this IRB. That will help things! Keep sharing what is working. Always nice to hear about a tool or system that works for you. |
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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