Today Was The Day

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WOW! First day. Where did it go? My first day of professional experience went so quick! My two HPE mentor teachers are fabulous. They are passionate and they are very animated in their teaching and are definitely role models and teachers to develop good habits and strategies off!

After the first two lessons, I was already teaching classes and showing initiative and confidence. Safe to say, first day exceeding my expectations! Now since my context is HPE, our lessons will be focusing on athletic skills since the athletics carnival is coming up.

Already, I have created TWO lesson plans for this week integrating ICTs. Honestly, all the classes will be outside on the track however, thanks to PEGeek.com, I have found some iPads apps I will be integrating into the Year 5 triple jump lessons. Now, triple jump is quick tricky to accomplish. Even now, I have to be reminded how to execute it properly.

So, using the iPad called, Slow Fast Slow, this will allow me to record the students triple jumping (3 at a time) and to show the students in slow motion how to correct their triple jump technique! What a ripper.

My second lesson plan will involve demonstrating a Youtube video in the hall (which is conveniently next to the netball courts!) showing the Year 4 classes how to execute a chest pass in netball accurately.

Considering we only have 30 minutes to do the lesson, it’s easier for me to keep the ICTs simple and convenient since HPE  is very practical and students need constant reminders and feedback especially with athletics skills.

Hopefully, these two lesson plans are good starters to begin with and they will be a success (fingers crossed)

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Other HPE prac students, feel free to share and bounce off others in brainstorming how to integrate ICTs in five of our HPE lesson plans!

Happy 2nd day and rest well!

Right on Time

Good Morning Quotes 

Well, I have just discovered where I am heading off to on my Professional Experience! Luckily I got placed at a school in my local area near my parents place. So I get to live at home again for 3 weeks, enjoy my time and THEN enjoy some holidays!

For this prac I will be teaching from prep to Year 6 for HPE. Now, yes this is exciting because it is my major BUT I’m also petrified of implementing 5 lesson plans with ICTs in my HPE lessons! Man I am going to be busy! When I stop and think about it, I think we all know that for the 3 weeks, we won’t be having nights in front of the television watching football or my favourite bridal shows (Say Yes to the Dress) or going to the gym or even just having a quick glance of what’s going on the outside world. No, we will be busy planning lessons, writing reflections and collecting all the right resources to complete a successful prac and Assignment 3.

Seriously, I am really looking forward to prac. It’s always refreshing to practice what we have been preaching about in our lectures and tutorials and to measure them in the real world of the classroom. My  goals about the next prac are always the same:

1)Making sure I have a fantastic learning experience and show my passion for teaching.

2) Demonstrating professionalism at all times and communicate well with my mentor.

3) Preparing and planning engaging and authentic lessons with ICTs .

4) Building relationships with the students in a professional manner.

5) Assisting and showing initiative at all times and to not be afraid to ask for help or support!

6) Be flexible! If your planning doesn’t work, have a back up. Don’t panic! Be open to changes!!

These are some of mine that I can think of at the moment, don’t be afraid to comment your goals (keep it positive) about your next prac!

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Moment of Happiness

Pikdit Gabe

Sunday night I completed and submitted my 5 week unit plan on Year 7 History. It was daunting to start but once I knew my assessment objectives and the ICTs I wanted to integrate, it become a mindset of thinking ‘imagine this unit will actually be happening I my classroom’.

I found the assessment task more time consuming then hard or difficult to comprehend. Having visual aids of previous years assessment’s made it more easy to understand and grasp the idea.

Now this is completed, I really need to commit to my blog posts again. It has been hard keeping track when we are so busy with the assessment tasks and other studies co PLUS life duties! (like my tutoring, work and being a boarding assistant at a school)

Regardless of our busy lives, we can all cherish this moment of happiness when we know we kicked assessment two butt and we can more on to the last one!

BeyondWindows9.com

PRAC. For most of us, it’s a nerve wracking thought with a side of excitement knowing we get to utilise all our learning and teaching practices for 3 weeks!

For my upcoming prac, I have NO IDEA where I am going but I do know I will be teaching in the classroom for only a second time. Other times I have been out on the yard teaching HPE. But classroom teaching is a whole different dynamic compared to HPE. For me anyway. I have to change the way I present myself, organise students, tackle behaviour management and use different teaching strategies. But it’s all part of the experience! And majority of us will be graduating next year so we need to keep our heads up and just keep swimming as Dory would say and enjoy PRAC (wherever it is) because it gives us an opportunity to make mistakes and learn from then before we get sent out into the real world!

Good luck everyone!

Horrible History

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Do you remember these classic kids? When I was going through primary school, these characters were the main source of our history lesson. We would explore with them ancient worlds and societies, important dates and other historical knowledge. As students, it was great. We got to sit and relax (maybe listen) and learn about history with these characters that we could relate to.

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Now, the inner child in me enjoys this classic TV show, but the future teacher in me says ‘Now with ICT being embedded across the whole curriculum, watching Horrible Histories isn’t what I personally would have in my history lesson. There is always much MORE that can be done with using ICTs in a history lesson!’ 

Below is a video of  a Year 5 teacher who uses ICT within the history unit he prepares for his class. It’s a great starting point to build on how and what ICTs I can integrate into my assignment 2 (Year 7 History).

Youtube.

Hopefully tonight, I can find the motivation to start (Yes I am slack and a bit scared!) ,working on integrating effective, authentic and creative ways ICT can be used in teaching Year 7 History.

So Much Knowledge

by geralt

During Week 4’s Learning Path, we were introduced and for some of us, reminded of one of the aspects of our teaching goals. Generally, all of us as future educators want our students to be the best they can be to become a lifelong learner and an active and responsible citizen in society.

As successful educators, we want our students to obtain two types of knowledge:

1) Constructing Knowledge: What do we want students to know and understand? Example: Concepts, facts and procedures

2) Transforming Knowledge: What do we want students to be able to do when they apply and transform their knowledge?

So, what does this REALLY mean?

by Wikimedia Commons

It means that us as teachers need to align constructing and transforming knowledge to our specific curriculum in most cases the Australian Curriculum. In saying this, my specific context for Assignment 2 (it seems like yesterday I just submitted Assignment 1), I will be focusing on Year 7 History. I love history and unfortunately it’s a subject that doesn’t get as much credit as it should. So this is my thought process in regards to the curriculum and constructing and transforming knowledge.

Historical Knowledge and Understanding (Curriculum Content Description) = Constructing Knowledge.

Historical Skills (Curriculum Content Description) = Transforming Knowledge.

To understand a bit more on constructing knowledge, this video demonstrates an active way for students to construct knowledge by open class discussion so students can collaborate and reflect of each other in understanding facts about parallelograms.

Do you see other ways on how this teacher is constructing knowledge? Don’t be scared to express them in the comment section below.

The next video is based on the learning context of Art. It explains how the teacher of his class takes his students to a museum so they can apply (transform)  their constructed knowledge in the museum. There are also many great teaching and questioning cues! See what you can find. I especially like how one girl has to be reminded (in a nice way) to answer the teacher with the question in her sentence! Great comprehension!

This blog post by a fellow student as well, talks about these knowledge’s and how bloom’s taxonomy is integrated in them.

Like myself, I really hope this new knowledge of teaching knowledge helps you as much as it does for me. It forms the foundation and the basis of our teaching practices which allows us to be great teachers and our students to become great learners!

This quote is fantastic at reflecting about the concept of constructing and transforming knowledge.

by Eric Castro

Finish Line!

Hooray!

Finally completed the Assignment 1. This assignment’s purpose was to create and present to parents of our classroom WHY we were using ICTs in our chosen context and HOW this will enhance student’s learning.

I really hope it works and is eye-catching and pleasing and correct! So much worrying yet relieved at the same time!

Here is the link to my website which my Powtoon artefact is created on. Enjoy!

Miss G’s Year 4 Science Exploration!

Now, where’s the wine?

Unpacking Assignment 1

During this week’s tutorial, I created my plan of attack for assignment one. With extra help and guidance, I developed my activities, context, curriculum and my three arguments.

Hooray!

Although my major is Health, Sport and Physical Education, my next professional experience will be in the classroom. Since my second favourite subject throughout my school years was Science, I have chosen this subject as my main component for assignment one.

This article explores and clarifies how ICTs in the Science classroom enhances both the students and teachers learning experience.

The following Youtube video shows a Year 7 classroom using different kinds of ICTs within their Science unit. It’s a good watch to gain some insight of what the classroom would look like and the reasons behind the teacher’s idea to use ICT in the Science lesson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Digital Citizenship

This week’s learning path we learnt about copyright laws within Australia and Digital Citizenship. Before engaging in this week’s learning, I had been using images from Google or Pinterest that I did not create and I did not reference or attribute them correctly. However, now reflecting on this, I will be using Creative Commons to appropriately demonstrate my own Digital Citizenship.

Basically, Digital Citizenship is the act of using the internet safely. Reflecting on this as a future pre-service educator, it’s very important to model correct behaviour and attitudes when using ICTs in the classroom. Student’s need to be explicitly taught and shown how to correctly use the internet when browsing both inside and outside the classroom. In saying this, student’s who demonstrate this lifelong skill, will become active and safe citizens in modern society.

The following Youtube video shows us a class using passports while engaging on the internet to teach them about being safe on the internet. It’s a really creative and fun way to teach students about Digital Citizenship without them knowing! A great resource idea for my future teaching!

The next video is from Youtube as well and gives a small insight on why teachers need to teach Digital Citizenship and why student’s need it in modern society.




Mapping my Mind

During this week’s Learning Path, we were asked to put all our thoughts and ideas (which turned out to be a lot!) on why we WILL use ICTs in the classroom. The best and most resourceful way to do this was by creating a mind map using bubbl.us again.

Click on the diagram for a larger view.

Not only does implementing ICTs in the classroom beneficial for students, but also for teachers, parents and the whole school community. Using technology in the classroom, such as a class blog for example, can support parents and demonstrate and include them in their child’s learning. Also, effective ICT implementation gives the school a variety of tools and applications that parents and the community can use to analyse school data such as achievement, budgets and overall feedback to help strength the relationship between the teachers, students, parents, school staff and the community.

Technologies in Health and Physical Education

This video shows a class of students participating in a HPE lesson wearing heart rate monitors by Firstbeat Technologies to measure their heart rate and see if they are able to reach the ‘Redzone’ which is their maximum heart rate. What a great way for students to enjoy their HPE lesson and for them to reach their full potential with their heart rates. There are so many opportunities for further learning experiences with this activity!

This video shows a HPE class participating in physical movement by using the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus! There is also a company called Wii Fit Kids.org in the U.S who contribute by providing schools the equipment for schools to use the Wii Fit to improve physical education enthusiasm and for the students overall health benefits! How wonderful!

It is becoming obvious that implementing technology in HPE isn’t such a ‘myth’ anymore!

Jarrod Robinson founder and creator of PEGeek.com, posted a very useful resource outlining in great depth how to use technology in HPE lessons! Thanks to him, many more HPE pre-service teachers like myself will be very knowledgeable about how to effectively use technology in HPE lessons!

Also, I found this website which talks about the huge increase of Iphone/Android apps that relate to HPE. It provides a page of apps that HPE teachers can use to help them with their teaching! Thumbs up!

Personally, I was skeptical about using technology in hpe. During my school years, we were never using technology during our HPE lessons. However, all that has changed since engaging in EDC3100 and using my SEEK and discovering all these useful resources and effective ways of implementing technology in my future HPE practice. It proves that the demand and rapid growth of technology can be used for other subjects besides just in the classroom!

I can’t wait to download these apps on my phone and share them with my students on my next professional experience!