Having a very busy past two weeks with my social calendar, getting a bit nostalgic with the year nearly wrapping up as well as preparing for my trip to Tanzania with 24 students this summer, has taken away from my drive to blog in general, but even more so from a professional standpoint. BUT, after just watching a #PHYSEDagogy Hangout with @andyvasily and @adamhowell, I'm back on the inspiration train and nothing short of pumped on this cool, May evening in Starnberg!
Andy Vasily is an inspiring PYP PE teacher at Nanjing International School - a city very close to where I lived and worked in China. The school he's at is said to be incredible and I'm not sure how it could be any less than that with a driving force in PYP and PE like Andy. He has his own website where he shares his best practices and it's been a spot I've frequented over the past two years to learn tips and tricks of the trade, but also to encourage myself that I am on the right track and that I am doing things right. On top of all of this awesomeness, Andy, along with some other PE innovators, has just launched the #PEPLC - the Physical Education Professional Learning Circle. What is it, aside from awesome? Well, it's a Google+ group that will eventually place PE teachers into learning teams that will meet via Google+ Hangouts to discuss best teaching practices in their area of highest interest. Upon sign-up, teachers chose an area of greatest interest for them that will help the #PEPLC initiators to sort them into learning teams: Assessment; Innovation & Technology; Curriculum & Programming; Leadership & Mentoring; Instructional Models in PE.
I filled out the form on Monday (nearly a week past the deadline) but my fingers are still crossed that there's a chance for me to get involved for myself, but also as a representative of my PE Team at MIS; we have some great ideas to share with the wider community but we also stand to learn a lot from all of this. (Quite frankly, I don't know how anyone who wants to better themselves as an educator (in PE) could afford to miss out on such a great PD opportunity and I'm kicking my a** that I dropped the ball with the late sign-up!) I've set up my Google+ account to allow Hangouts and have asked to join the #PEPLC Circle so I guess we'll see what happens from there...keep your fingers crossed for me!
Despite potentially blowing my chances, I intend on keeping up and trying to contribute when and where I can in the PEPLC. The vision statement that will guide the entire project was released this week along with the next steps for those wanting to be involved. The goal is for the learning teams to meet at least once a month to discuss and share what they've done to try to improve their teaching in their chosen area(s) of interest, provide evidence of how they've done this, reflect, have others in the group go out and try what they've learned from their group members and then report back again with evidence of what worked, what didn't work or share modifications they may have made. It's a powerful tool and with constant sharing and keeping things going within the group, it's sure to improve not only the way we teach, but how the students learn; after all, they're the reason we do what we do!
At MIS, we've spent the past year reviewing, meeting, tweaking and just finalizing the PYP PSPE Scope and Sequence. As a member of the PYP Curriculum Development Team, myself and one other colleague were responsible for making this our baby and now I'm onto reviewing the Social Studies S&S as it's another area of interest for me. That being said, I enjoy curriculum work but have opted to be a part of the "Assessment" or "Instructional Models in PE" groups when I submitted my request to join PEPLC. Following on with the next steps, those who signed up were encouraged to keep a journal where they would record questions about the themes they chose, the pros and cons of their current teaching within the theme and what they're hoping to get out of the PEPLC in relation to the theme. I've decided that my blog would be a good place for me to record my thoughts and feelings on the themes I have chosen and I will continue to use my blog as an outlet to reflect on my teaching and learning as the PEPLC gets up and running...with or without me! :)
Assessment in PE
This is an area that will always be changing and needing adjustments based on the abilities and needs of the students in our classes. What I try to do is provide a lot of open-ended assessments where students have choices, for example, with dance or gymnastics, I let the students choose music and create their own dances to perform for the class, or I let them focus in on a specific skill that they are most confident in demonstrating; however, there are some cases where I feel the opportunity to provide choice is limited.
When assessing, I try to put more emphasis onto the process of learning so that students are graded throughout the duration of the unit and also so progress from start to finish can be monitored. I use a lot of iPads for performance assessment pieces and we will move into using Google Drive and Forms documents to keep track of student skill abilities throughout units next year. I know there are a lot of other great apps out there as well that I'm keen to start trying out.
At current, we also use fitness appraisals and goal settings to help students see and take ownership of their progress and so they're aware of areas that need improvement. Students are given chances to do make-ups/re-dos of different activities as part of the fitness appraisal process (upon their request) to ensure they don't feel too defeated if they're having an off day - it's important that one day's attempts don't reflect the students' overall abilities!
I'm really curious to learn more about what others do with fitness testing and how/if it's factored into assessing student progress/ability at all. I'm also curious to learn how much choice is given to students, how we can foster student choice in assessments in PE more and what things are being weighted when assessing student ability. I am a big fan of peer and self assessments in PE and am wondering what others might do to ensure the feedback given by students is meaningful and appropriate. Along the lines of assessing, I wonder what reporting looks like in PE at other schools - Are sportfolios popular? What are some examples of portfolio work? And what criteria are the kids being 'graded' on in report cards?
Instructional Models in PE
This is probably my biggest area of weakness. I have a loud voice and I definitely use it to my advantage in the gyms but I've been told I may be too loud which is fair, but I'm naturally a loud person than most...but I totally think it's an enthusiastic loud! I do try to pull out the quiet cues now and again but because I know I can overpower the sound of children running and screaming during an intense game of tag, I sometimes use that to round them up again - definitely something I need to work on limiting! :P I also understand 'being loud' isn't so much a instructional method but hey, it goes hand in hand with my teaching!
I guess my philosophy with instruction is to get the students active for the majority of the class and have them (still) smiling at the end. I absolutely loved PE as a kid (as I'm sure all PE teachers did!) and I hope to recreate that enthusiasm that I had for my students, which isn't always possible; it'll never be everyone's favourite but it doesn't mean I'll stop trying!
I like to use the iPhysEd/Kath Murdoch Inquiry Cycle in planning my classes and this guides my instruction a bit as I get kids focusing on different stages of the cycle throughout the unit. I am also a big fan of stations and getting students rotating around to experiment with different balls or targets, for example, during a unit that focuses on throwing and catching in kindergarten; I try to incorporate stations in my instruction wherever I can (they're awesome as a provocation and to gauge student learning and the beginning and end of a unit) as they keep students moving and interested in 'what's next' but they're not always possible with limited set-up/take-down time.
Involving inquiry in instruction is something I place a lot of value upon and I'm very interested in learning more about how others do this with their methods of instruction. I'm also interested in learning more about differentiation and modification of games for unique learners and how that's incorporated in others' teaching.
Behaviour management is also something that comes into play within our instruction and I'm curious about how others go about this; I learn best from watching my colleagues and getting tips from just observing them teach. I have classroom training for elementary students (most experience with kindergarten and grade one) and the behaviour management techniques I used in the classroom don't apply so well to some gym/large space settings when it is in a child's nature to just get up, run around and, well, be physical. I'm a kinesthetic learner and I learn best by watching and then doing so my hopes are that within this group, a lot of videos may be posted of teachers in action with their PE classes - I figure that alongside their instructional models that will be on display, I'll also get the bonus of seeing behaviour management techniques at work!
Those are just some of the immediate thoughts to keep me thinking about what I want to accomplish from joining the PEPLC but I'm also excited at the prospect of learning about anything/everything PE and also sharing my best practices with others! Wish me luck! :)
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