GCS-ACT ASSIGNMENT 7

Technology
Assignment VII- Teachers reflect on their practice

Sherry Wyche
4/16/2014




Wiley Elementary School, 2013-2014 School Year
Coach: Tina Johnson
Staffing Specialist: Cristina Lester

Standard 4: Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction.
Specifically 4.04; Teachers know when and how to use technology to maximize student learning.
Background of Class
Currently, I use many forms of technology in my classroom to maximize student learning. Each
day for every class I use my Epsom projector to display Coach W News [See Artifact 1]. When it fits the
lesson I also use a program called Active Inspire, which allows the students to use the Epsom pen to
interact with the board [See Artifact 2]. A permanent fixture in my lesson is music which I stream from
YouTube. Students enter into my classroom with music provided from YouTube and they also lead in the
classroom by responding to music played from YouTube. Additionally, students have for certain lesson
been required to bring their iPads to class to explore things like QR codes, Gaggle e-mailing, and to
record themselves responding to a question that was linked to the QR code.
Target Goal
While I use some form of technology in all of my classes I realize that some of that is limited
where my K-1 classes are concerned because they do not have iPads and their technology use is limited
throughout the day. In response to this I would like to try to bring the technology to them in a different
way. The current unit for classes K-5 is soccer. Each class will pretty much learn the same skills but my K-
1 classes will be behind 2-5 because of scheduling and ability where hand-eye coordination is
concerned. Using this to my benefit I will have my 2-5 classes first respond to a question posted via a QR
code. The question is What is the appropriate way to kick a soccer ball? Once students respond to the
question I will ask them to answer that question by recording their response with their ipad and e-
mailing their responses to me using their gaggle accounts. I will then use what the students submit to
create a story board. Finally, I will have students in my 2
nd
-5
th
grade classes will choose a team leader to
record the activity using their ipad tying all of the material in the storyboard together.
Teaching others and then immediately using that information will maximize my 2
nd
-5
th
grade
students learning and watching as opposed to me lecturing about the content to the K-1 students will
maximize their learning and will also introduce them to technology in PE.
Practice in Action
As students enter the classroom they will notice a QR Code embedded into the Coach W News
screen. The directions on the screen will invite them to scan the code. Students will be taken to my
webpage to view a video of me asking them 2 questions. In that video I will also instruct them to answer
in complete sentences and to remember to look into the camera. Additional instructions will explain
that they may move to a different location in the room so that they can speak clearly into the camera
but to remain on a level 1 as to not disturb the people around them. The question will actually be the EQ
of the day which is Can I identify a sport that requires me to dribble with my feet? The second
question will ask them to identify the word wall word that is a push or a pull on an object.
Once this has been completed I will go over the answers with the students. In each class (to help
with the storyboard) I will as the team leader demonstrate what force might look like when applied to a
ball. Still photos will be taken at this time by another class representative. Students will then watch a
short video of someone dribbling a soccer ball and I will demonstrate as well. Finally, student will go
outside to practice dribbling a ball with their feet and then forcing the ball into the goal.
As students practice dribbling and scoring I will record those students that perform well as a
part of the story board. K-1
st
grade students will watch the storyboard inclusive of the answer to the EQ,
defined definitions, and demonstration of how to dribble and then force the ball into the goal. After
watching K-1
st
students will go outside to practice as well.
One of NCTIES suggestions to maximize student learning by using technology is to take the
approach of blended learning. The six things that they note blended learning should include are live
events, online content, collaboration, self-paced learning, assessments, and reference materials
(Blended learning). My challenge thus far is including all of these into one lesson given only 45mins.
Monitoring in Practice
As I moved into teaching this lesson I experienced many failures. Students understood that they
were supposed to scan the QR code and respond to the posted question but on multiple occasions iPads
were not charged, we experienced internet complications, or students had previously lost their
privileges to use their iPads and therefore came unprepared. In essence, I had many groups of students
who couldnt participate the way Id imagined. The goal was for the K-1
st
students to learn how to
appropriately kick a soccer ball based on watching videos from 2
nd
-5
th
grade student experiences. The
goal was for the topic to be introduced to the lower grades by showing them the videos created by the
upper grade students.
I decided that the actual process did not need to be retaught as the students knew how to
operate the technology but they instead didnt have it all the time. I did however notice that the steps to
kicking a soccer ball did need to be retaught which ultimately was why the entire direction what I
implemented changed. Instead of having the students to record videos I played a YouTube video for
students and we watched and shared dialogue about what was happening.
I collected data on one class to determine who could appropriately kick the soccer ball and that
data showed me that the skill needed to be revisited before they could teach, record, and demonstrate
how to master this skill to the younger students. I used a Google spreadsheet to simply collect that data.
The spreadsheet was arranged in a way that if students didnt receive a check for being able to
kick the ball I would be able to clearly and quickly see that in order to again work with them one on one
as other students played a kicking game. The system was arranged in such a way that it was obvious if
students werent following the practice and I didnt experience problems in this area.
Reflection
Initially, things went well. Conversations with teachers of record to ensure that students came
prepared or had already been taught how to use a QR went smoothly. The problems didnt begin to
present themselves until students began coming to class. I quickly realized I should have had a pilot
class to practice this implementation to see if it was even feasible.
While students did not get to record themselves as I originally planned I still saw growth in
students ability to appropriately kick a soccer ball. It seemed that students learned well looking at the
videos I selected and through self-paced learning. What I didnt anticipate was having some students
playing the kicking game and others needing separate time with me learning how to kick the ball. While I
didnt anticipate it the students benefited from it.
My data shows that during the first trial students didnt even know how to kick the ball the right
way! The data shows that after eliminating so much technology and eliminating student use of
technology during PE the skills were met more successfully by more students. My data tells me that it
would be great to use the technology the way that I intended but many things have to align in order for
that to be successful. Moving forward I think I will stick to playing pre-recorded videos, collecting data
using technology, team leaders who will control technology for a group and possibly pinpointing the
students who have in fact mastered the skill and recording them outside of the class experience.
In the end, I think that technology does increase student learning and can be helpful. I think I
can do it and after reflection I believe I need to complete a pilot class first to work out the kinks if I want
to continue this practice. Currently, I do not want to continue this particular practice.
Artifacts
Artifact 1: Sample of Coach W News
CWN (news).ppt

Artifact 2: Active Inspire lesson
Active Inspire

Artifact 3: Google Spreadsheet
In this artifact you will see the progression or areas of concern. This data was only recorded after I
realized students needed more practice in kicking the soccer ball.