EEND676 Artifact #2 Writing and Assessing a Collaborative Task

For artifact #2, I chose the assignment from  Module 6.  We were required to write an assignment that used a collaborative tool and then also create a rubric to assess the students on completing the collaborative task.  I was trying to think of a way to use this in a PE setting so that it would make sense to try with my students in the future.  One of the few negatives of elementary PE is that they only receive it for 30 minutes, two time a week.  It is not a lot of time to have deep discussions about specific topics and also have time to practice the skills.  Often times, the discussion piece gets lost in time and our topics stay very superficial.  I thought it would be neat if students chose a sport that interested them and were allowed to create a short Google slide show of what they felt was important for the class to know.  The groups would be assigned and would be 3 or 4 people.  Each student would be responsible to create their own slide and would need to provide enough information to share out and also include one piece of media.  By using Google Slides, students would be able to work on their own, at home, at anytime, and not have to all be together to work on it.  I also created a simple rubric for how I would grade the students based on the areas I felt were important.  By providing a list of different sports or topics, I could limit it to 1 group per topic so there were no repeats and also would allow me to have 1 group present when their topic was being taught during the school year.  I like the idea of students working together on something but in a digital way.  I think it's important for students to learn how to work with each other not just in a face to face setting but also in a digital way.

"History of Sports" Assignment 

EEND676 Artifact #1 Using Google as a Collaborative Tool

I chose this particular assignment as my first artifact because I liked how it fit in with what our 5th graders already do in their classroom setting.  Our 5th grade team has students create portfolios at the beginning of the year so that they can add simple artifacts throughout the school year as a lead-up to their Spring conference, in which they lead.  Each teacher shows their class how to create a Google Site and how to upload something as an artifact.  Because of this background knowledge, I knew my students would be able to handle this assignment with very little difficulty.  In this assignment, I asked them to create another tab on their site titled "Physical Education," similar to their other tabs of Math, Reading, Writing, etc.  I asked them to provide an artifact for 2 out of the 3 areas that we focus on in Physical Education; Fitness, Teamwork, Skills.  After they choose their artifacts, I asked them to use several different Google tools to provide their examples.  I gave an example of a student writing a short story about a teambuilding experience that they did in class and how they were placed in teams and had to solve a problem.  I gave another example of a student taking pictures of themselves doing a skill correctly and then placing the pictures in a Google Slide deck to explain.  This assignment was an easy transition for students because of their prior knowledge of the G-Suite tools.  This assignment gave me confidence to assign similar projects in the future and to possibly try them with younger grades!

Portfolio Assignment

Technology Conundrum!

     Growing up, I always wanted the latest and greatest in technology.  Whether it was the original Gameboy, the Sega Dreamcast, the first iPhone, no matter what it was, I wanted it just like everyone else.  But at the same time, I grew up playing outside until dark with all of the neighborhood kids.  I treated the technology in the house as something special and only used it at special times.  Unfortunately, kids do not see it that way in today's world, and neither does our society.  We are constantly using technology and not playing nearly as much as we used to.  Which brings me to my conundrum.  I love that we are now a 1:1 district and every single student from 2nd grade and up has their own personal Chromebook.  I love seeing how innovative and creative students can be with their technology and how excited they get when they teach their teacher something new.  I also love all of the new possibilities and opportunities that we could incorporate the technology into PE class.  But that is what I struggle with at the same time.  I am proud to be a Physical Education teacher and love teaching kids how to move and have fun and create their own enjoyment through movement and sport.  As PE teachers, our biggest enemy is the technology outside of the school that is sucking all of our free time out of our lives.  We are constantly trying to promote fitness and lifelong healthy habits for our students.  I have a hard time telling my students to bring their computer to PE class and then give up that precious time that I have with them and instead use it to work on a computer.  I might look at this a little differently if I saw the same classes every day of the week for 30 minutes but in our district, and common around the country, I only see them 2x a week.  I also know that using technology in PE class wouldn't need to take up the entire class time but I am also a realist and know that even the most simple google form could take much longer in class when 25 kids are all taking it on their own devices.  I have challenged myself to use more technology in my teaching by using Google Slides and adding Gifs to slides for different warm-up movements or using pictures and animations for directions.  I feel like I am in constant battle with technology because I want to stay current and use technology with the kids to keep engagement high but at the same time I want to promote activity and less screen time at home!  What a conundrum I tell you!  Does anyone else have similar feelings about using technology too much and feel that we are overly committed to using technology in education?  Or do you think we need to stay on the bandwagon because that is where the future is going in education?  It's crazy to think one day we will look back and ipads will be a thing of the past!