Reflection

I think that there are many different ways that our students learn. There is not one learning theory that is better than the next. As a PE teacher I want my students to get in a lot of practice when we introduce a new skill. In order for my students to be successful they need to do the skill correctly over and over again. I would however like to introduce some new learning theories into my class.
I really like the idea of having my students chart in a spread sheet how the can improve their fitness levels. I think that it gives immediate feedback and is another way other than me telling them that they are doing a good job or could work harder. The other thing I would like to do with my students is to use a blog. I would use the blog to have students discuss activities they do outside of school.
Two goals I have for my classroom are to; continue to integrate technology and for myself to continue to new about new technologies. I think that there are a lot of cool things that I can do in my class that uses technology and also helps my students to better learn the subject matter. For myself, I will continue to take classes that teach about new technologies.

Voice Thread

This is the link to my voice thread.

http://voicethread.com/share/786915/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

I think that it is important for us as teachers to teach our students how to be able to work with other students. I believe that the learning is so much greater when our work with others. I think that it is important that when we have our students work together they do it in small groups (2-3) rather than large groups. I think that using smaller groups help to get all students involved and have a voice. Another thing that we also need to do as teachers is to use groups from time to time, it shouldn't be used all the time. Students do need to still be able to work independently. I think that when our students work together to solve a problem or work on a project each students brings a knowledge to the problem that the others may not have. By doing this I think our student learn more than by just working by themselves.

Constructivism in Practice

I think that forming and testing hypotheses is a way that our students can become higher level thinkers, and that goes hand in hand with Constructivism. We have to being higher level thinkers to be able to form a hypothesis. To come up with an educated guess as to an outcome makes us think at a higher level. We have to think about possible outcomes, which make sense and which don't. After coming up with a hypothesis we have to be able to test it. During the testing process our students will generate data which will either prove or disprove their original hypothesis. While looking at the data our students have collected they have to be able extract which is good and bad data. There is a lot of higher level thinking going on during this whole process. Our students have to look at various solutions or reasons to a problem that is proposed by the class or the teacher. When we have our students involved with the decision making process our students become higher level thinkers which is constructivism in practice.

Cognitivism in Practice

I think that there are many instructional strategies that correlate with the principles of cognitive learning. Cognitive knowledge is having a working knowledge about a certain subject not just memorizing facts. When it comes to cues, questions, and advance organizers the student must have and continue to have a working knowledge about that subject. I think that using cues and questions can help to facilitate that learning which will lead to have knowledge on the topic. Along with cue and questions students can also help to build that know by summarizing and note taking. Students must be able to add and subtract information in order to summarize a topic. When students do this they are working at a high cognitive level than just repeating what a teacher or book might have said. Have students be able to know what is important information and which information is secondary has those students working at a high level. The same goes for Note Taking. In the book "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works" the author says that just repeating or writing note verbatim does not mean that the student truly knows the information. We as teachers want our students to be able to know and use the information we give them. To have cognitive knowledge about a subject students have to be able to think at a higher level.

Behaviorist Learning Theory

When it comes to behaviorist learning theory and reinforcing effort I can see a direct correlation between the two. As teachers we tend to praise behaviors that are positive in our classroom and punish behaviors that are negative. This find right in with what Skinner say about Operant conditioning and behaviorist learning theory. Although there are many different ways for our students to become and stay motivated, reward for good behavior and punishment for bad seem to be the most common and easiest way to reinforce effort.
Homework and Practice also fit into the BLT. They say the repetition is the mother of all learning. Doing homework and practicing something over and over will help students to better learn about a certain content area. Having students practice over and over will help students to learn about a subject matter but I don't think that it helps with higher order thinking.

Reflection

• In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?
o I think that this course has given me a lot of insight to the power technology has and will have in the classroom. I have learned of new ways to use technology in the classroom, including Wiki’s, Blogs and Podcasts. I want to start using these tools in my class to help make me a better teacher and to help my student become better learners.
• In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of the teaching and learning process?
o Students are not the same as they were years ago. Students need to be challenged and they want to learn in a way that is comfortable to them. Students today use technology more and more in their home lives and want to use it more and more in the classroom. We live in a digital world and our students need to be digital learners.
• In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?
o I like the idea of being in a learner-centered classroom. I think that it puts the focus more on the student(s). The student will in turn take more interest in their own education. The class will be more student driven rather than being lead by the teacher. Students will have to be able to find creditable information and be able to use that information.
• In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?
o I think that this class has been a good launching off point and the following classes will help me to continue expanding my knowledge of technology. I will need to keep up on the latest technology and be able to pass those on to my students, in order to make them 21st century learners.
• Set two long-tem goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?
o I want to use a class blog to not only integrate technology but to also incorporate writing into my PE class. Writing across the curriculum is a focus in our district and a class blog will help me to do that.
o A school goal that I have is to have more computers and at one point have enough computers that each student can use a computer at their desk every day. We need to have more laptops for our students.

Podcast

Here is the link to a podcast I did for my masters class, asking a student about how shes uses technology. rcameron24.podbean.com

21st Century Skills

After looking through the 21st Century Skills website I was happy to see all of the great information it had in reference to teaching our students the skill for the 21st century. I think that the mission statement they had on the website was very thorough and see to be well thought out. It was interesting to see all the skills they see as necessary to be successful for the 21st century. The other thing I found interesting was all of the "big name" board members. To see all those companies that are involved with "The partnership for 21st century skills."
One of the things that surprised me was the vested interest in Math, Science and other technologies. I completely agree that each of these subject matters are important for our students to have a working knowledge of but the state I teach in does not have any standardized testing for science. It seems like in my state that if its not on our test it doesn't get taught to the extent that it should be.
The website has a bunch of information on it. I don't know the I disagree with any of the information but I also don't know how realistic some of the skills are to the immediate future. I think that it will take a while and a huge commitment from all teachers for all of the skills to become realistic.
Our world is ever changing and our students need to be ever changing as well. They need to have the skills to be successful in our ever changing world. We need to do what-ever-it-takes to help each and everyone of our students to be the best they can be. If we don't teach our students the skills of the 21st century, who will?

Class Blog

I have recently been thinking about how using a blog for my class could benefit my students. One of the things I have come up with is allowing students to blog about fitness activities they are doing outside of school. Students could interact with other students and myself about the types of activities they enjoy participating in outside of the gym. Students can use this as motivation and also get ideas of activities they can do at home. I would love to have students go outside be active and then be able to go inside to tell their fellow classmates about the activity they just participated in. I would love to hear from you on other ways a blog could enhance my class.

Ryan

Tech in the Gym

Hi - My name is Ryan Cameron and I teach elementary physical education in Cheyenne, WY. I just finished my 7th year of teaching. I have taught in Wyoming and Arizona. I am currently perusing my masters in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. During my masters program I am interested in seeing what other PE teachers are doing when it comes to using technology in the gym. I currently use FitnessGram to evaluate my students fitness levels but would love to learn of new technologies that others are using. I hope that this blog can not only help myself but others to integrate technology into the gym.



I can't wait to hear from some of you!!!

Ryan