A Differnt world!

    Our district has been working had on Academic Vocabulary, and the importance of our students talking and using those vocabulary words.  In addition to this, I am also in my second semester of ESL course work to complete my endorsement.  So, you combine these two idea's together, and boy is my PE world different!  It's good.....mostly good anyway!  Warning: This is a pretty serious blog post!
    What I'm realizing quickly is how little attention I gave my ELL students.  This was definitely not intentional, I just didn't realize the importance of helping them.  All students, regardless if they are ELL or not, need to have academic vocabulary.  After shadowing our district ESL instructional coach for a day, I had my eyes opened to the importance of this.  A statement that stuck with me was "the students language must grow, so that their reading skills can grow."  Wow.  This is powerful, and true! 
   So, my thought process has shifted a little bit.  Never, ever, ever will I think that movement is not important in PE.  After all, PE=Physical Education!  But, I'm starting to see how we as PE teachers, need to not only teach our students TO move, but we also need to teach them WHY we move the way we do, and HOW we move the way we do.  I believe there is a fine line between movement without purpose, and movement with learning.  It's hard to find that line, at least for me.  To "toot" my own horn just a little bit, a couple of weeks ago and instructional coach from our district came into my gym.  After a discussion she said, your TEACHING your students, not just COACHING them.  That has stuck with me, and motivated me even more.  I want to make sure when we are working on our basketball skills that we are learning EVERYTHING we can about it.  After all, who wants to play basketball, but not able to explain what it means to dribble or shoot?  Facts are important too. Right?  But, if we are teaching the facts, we are taking away from movement.  But, by teaching these facts are we encouraging future movement?  Maybe? Probably?  I think we are.  In addition, we are making these students better.  Better physically, better cognitively, and better communicators.  All of these three things are pretty darn important.  I guess the tricky part for me is figuring out how to get all of this done.  I have worked pretty hard at accomplishing this in the last couple of weeks.
   We are almost done with our basketball unit.  I am confident my students (most) can not only show you HOW to dribble, pass, and shoot, but they also can tell you WHY.  They also can define and describe these words.  They also can use them in sentences.   We have worked hard on having little "chats" where I ask them to talk to their team about different parts of the game. I also make them answer using the vocabulary word in their sentence.  Finally, I think they can tell you a little bit of history about basketball (see examples below).  In the future, they can hopefully be confident in their knowledge of basketball, and hopefully use it as a way to stay healthy!  If this happens, then I did my job.
    I decided to dig deep into our basketball knowledge.  I found an article about basketball online that was kid friendly.
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pQJ6BPrCdSlz70lMDbfruYRcWK6gmT10j1-nWBhvpsg/edit?usp=sharing 
      I selected a paragraph and made it a google doc.  I projected it on the wall, and allowed my students about 5-8 minutes to read it over and take notes, using their ipads.  There were exceptions made, and I had to read the article a few times to some students.  I reminded them the importance of what good notes look like.  Then, I had them bring their ipads back to class.  Their assignment, using only their notes, they needed to describe what they had read.  I have a couple ELL students in 4th grade, whom I made sentence starters for.  I also allowed a couple lower level readers the option of using my sentence starters.   I quickly found, that most of the students could have benefited from the sentence starters.  Overall, this assignment went well.  Did we miss out on some minutes of movement, yes we did.  But, did we learn a little bit more about basketball? Yes.  Did we see, hear, read, write and DO?  Yep, we did. 
    I still have some work to do, but I am okay with this "different" PE world.  It's tough.  I still believe in movement, it HAS to happen for our students to be successful and healthy.  But, we can "teach" them a little more as well.

A few examples of my amazing students work!

 

4th Grader

     Basketball is the only major sport that is completely American in origin.the

first professional league was the national basketball league,which formed

in 1898.the first teams emerged in the northeast in the turn of the 20th

century.these teams were instrumental in developing the game.

introducing key elements such as the bounce pass and the free throw

following a foul.basketball was invented in 1891 by Naismith.

5th Grader
 Basketball is a amazing sport. It is the only major sport that is completely American origin. A smart man named Naismith invented basketball in 1891. They have basketball court every were even out side. Chicken wire and rope was placed around the courts to separate the players and fans. The first pro teams emerged in the turn of the 20th century. Nowadays the pro teams are named the NBA which stands for national basketball asoshuets (association).

4th Grader

First, I learned that the only sport that was completely American in Oigin was

basketball. Second, basketball was invented in 1891 by Naismith. Third, in the 20th

century the first professional teams came from the northeast. Next, the professional

teams introduced the bounce pass and the chess pass as well. Finally, back then in the

basketball games the basketball teams had to put a fence to keep the fans and the teams

sepreacted probably so the fans won't get hurt with the ball.


Ell Students using sentence starters.  They are also working with a student who can speak Spanish and English fluently.

 

 


Get connected.  Check out Google Drive.  Keep on making a difference!

AB

Chatter world!

     It's Saturday, and I'm blogging!  I managed to use every spare minute I had this week to do things other than blogging!  So here I am.  My older son is at basketball practice, so I decided this was the perfect time.  Watching College Game Day (rock chalk) and reflecting on a great week of teaching!
  
   The last time I blogged, I talked about opening up our Basketball unit, with focus on dribbling!  We continued and wrapped up this part of our unit this week.  I have worked really hard on having my kids "talk."  I have touched on this in a few other blogs, but it's a game changer.  I was skeptical at first, but it's changing my world.  When I combine this "talking" with technology, my PE world is expanding.....and I like it.  I'm honestly seeing my students learn more.  Seems crazy to me, talking=learning more? Now if I can just conquer assessments!  Eeek....still struggling with that, it's a little blurry to me...but I'm seeing it a little more clear each day!
   Okay, so our last lesson on dribbling the basketball.  It was a two day lesson, including the use of ipads (shocking, right). 
Wednesday and Thursday: Today I am using my ipad to assess my dribbling skills, so that I can see what I know.  I'll know I've got when I score at least a 3 on all of the assessment questions.  This was the objective I gave my students.  This lesson was for 1st-5th grade.  I'll explain how I watered it down a bit for 1st grade.  Everyone brought their ipads to PE starting on Wednesday.  After a quick warm up, I asked the students to find a partner.  Their assignment for day one was simple, have your partner record you for 20 seconds dribbling with your right hand and left hand.  In addition, they needed three pictures dribbling with each hand.  1st-5th grade all were able to do this.  Something happens when the students know they are on camera, they seem to concentrate a little bit more on what they are doing. 

 

1st grade students working hard!

       Day two of the lesson, the students returned with their ipads.  There were a few students who had not been there the day before, so I quickly caught them up by making quick videos with them.   I prepared for this unit by using Google docs and QRstuff.com.  I knew I wanted the students to have access to the questions they had to answer, without giving them a worksheet!  Google Docs allows you to type a document and create a link.   This is a VERY easy process, if you haven't checked out Google Docs, do it now.  It's a game changer.  When you have a link, you have what you need to make a QR code.  Simple.  Useful.  Makes everything a little easier.  I also wanted my kids to be able to have the scoring rubric at their finger tips.  I wanted to them to self assess after all!  (By the way, I will attach the Google docs at the bottom of this. Feel free to use them).  So I made the questions and the rubric into a QR code.  This means that when they walk in the gym, they can quickly scan them and BOOM they have them on their device to use when they need.  I was impressed how some of the Students used them, you'll see in a minute.  When they walked into the gym, here is what they saw projected on the wall:

Dribbling Assessment

1.  Answer the questions about dribbling using an app of your choice.  You must include a video or picture of yourself dribbling.

2.  You are working ON YOUR OWN

3.  When you are done, you must show your work to Mrs. Baugh or Mr. Castillo

 



I quickly read the questions out loud, and then told them to get work! Every five minutes, I had the students stand up and do jumping jacks or burpees' for 45 seconds -1 minute!  Brain Breaks! :)

      Before I show you some of the awesome, creative work my students turned in, I want to share what I did with first grade!  I still had them bring their ipads back.  While setting on their homebase, I instructed them to watch their video three times.  Then, the same questions that the older students got from the QR code, were displayed on the wall.  I asked the question, then had them view their video looking for that particular item.  Example: Where your eyes up most of the time? Never? All the time?  Would you give yourself a 1?  2?  3?  4?

Here are the links to my rubric and to the questions the students had to answer.  Notice I threw in the question about how they "feel" when they are dribbling.  This was a great reflective tool for me, this allows me to see what students are confident, and who needs extra attention.
Rubric
Dribbling Questions

     When reflecting on this lesson, I should have set this up on Showbie, so that I didn't get so many emails with assignments. 

Check out this students work!  I love that he recorded his voice!  He was so upset he forgot to record his score!  He decided on a 3, because he had some trouble with control, but he did do what was asked.  Adobe Voice 

 

      Throughout the next week, I will ask all the students to show me their work.  Then I will be giving them a grade (1-4) based on their dribbling skills and effort to complete the assignment!

 

   This week we have a Elementary PE all day inservice.   It's always good to meet with my colleagues.  We have some big time work ahead of us, but I am ready to tackle it! 

 

AB

 

P.S.  Get connected.  Get involved.  Twitter is a fantastic place to start!

 

 

 

Basketball world and so much more!

       Ahhhhh.....did you hear that?  That was a sigh of relief, I just got observed.  I actually didn't even realize it was my year!  Thank goodness we are just beginning one of my very favorite units, basketball.  I was far from a basketball player (I was a cheerleader during that season) but I still know enough to make me dangerous!  Roooccckkkkk Chhhhalllllkkk.....sorry, I got off track! :)
   Today was day one of the basketball unit.  I break this unit down over about a months time.  There is just so much to be taught/learned!   This week we are focusing on dribbling the basketball.  Today's specific focus was how we use our hand to dribble.  I of course wanted to incorporate a little bit of technology (just another way to get my point across).  I also wanted to make sure we were doing ALOT of dribbling! I have mentioned before how during a pervious observation by our district administration team, I was told how important it was to have the kids talking.  I know, I know, it almost seems like counter productive.  It's not. 
   I started the unit by talking about all the different aspects we would be covering in basketball.  Then we focused in on today's task, using our hand correctly to dribble the ball.  I found a picture on google docs of a cartoon-ish man dribbling the basketball.  I opened it up in Google Drive, which then allowed me to open it up in Notability on my ipad.  This allowed me to draw on my image, and help the students to better understand what they needed to do!  After this quick little lesson, (I left it up on the wall, using airserver and my projector) we moved on to putting our knowledge into action!
Each student got a ball, and their instructions were to dribble the ball with whichever hand they wanted to.  (After we talked about how the ball looks when we need to be "quiet," between our feet on the floor).   I played music, they dribbled, I walked around and observed.  After stopping the music I reminded them that they shouldn't be making noise with their hand on the ball (slapping).  Then we did it all again.  After a few minutes, I told them to "chat" with a neighbor about what they think it takes to be an all star at dribbling.  After about a minute, I quickly asked for some answers.  The the kids dribbled some more, thinking about "what it takes."   I am always amazed, that with the right management skills, I can get the students to refocus after our "chats."  My next instructions were to use their other hand to dribble.  After a few minutes, I asked them which hand was easier?  Then I had them chat with their neighbor about why the hand was easier. (Remember, our chats are never more than one minute, usually about 30 seconds).  Of course, most of them said the first hand they used was easier, because that's the hand they right their name with.  YEAH!  This lead me to tell them the importance of learning to dribble effectively with both hands! Next, I had them evaluate each other.  Watch your partner dribble for 30 seconds, when the music shuts off, tell your partner one thing they rocked at, and one thing they need to work on to be like Billy (he was the guy on the airserver that we critiqued).  After both partners had their chance, we then put into action what our partner said!  IT WENT GREAT!!!! 

Here is a picture of the fun!

One of my weaknesses is accessing my students.  It's haaaarrrrdddddd!  I discovered an awesome way to assess...guess where I discovered it.....TWITTER!!!!  I immediately knew, I was going to make it my own!  We discussed it today, and I had the kids tell me where they thought they measured! 


I need to share more with you about our VIP's at our staff hockey game, but I gotta go!  Back to doing my dream job, yep this is pretty darn close to my dream job....more about that later!

G.E.T. C.O.N.N.E.C.T.E.D.

AB