Why Become Fit

The reason that I included Why Become Fit as one of my categories is the fact that students are always told that they need to be fit but never really understand why. So I have these links as a resource for students to go to so they can understand the importance of being fit. This will hopefully in turn get them to bye into my fitness program. If studnets understand the benefits to fitness they will be more likely to adopt or jump on the fitness bandwagon.
Alot of the times studnets don't like to be told to do something but if they understand why or feel as though they are gaining benefits from an activity they will be more likely to do it.
One important site that I included on my list is title The Importance of Fitness For Preeteens. I think that this is an imporant resource and site for studnets to go to because it is not just based on the general idea that fitness is good for everyone but it is geared to the preeteen era and states why it is important for their age group to be physically fit.

Promoting Family Fitness

With in my classroom I want to promote family fitness. Why is family fitness important you may ask? Well a recent study I found by the Missouri Department of Health shows a 78 percent INCREASE in the number of overweight people in the state of Missouri. Being active and maintaining fitness is very important in reducing this number, but more importantly, for overall health. There are significant health risks and related health problems from being overweight.
In my classroom I want to promote life changes and it is hard for children to make life changes if their parents aren't into doing them as well.
I also belive that it is important to maintain family fitness, not only for health benefits, but for family bonding as well but it is important for parents to stay as involved with their children in anyways that they can.
So on my Blog I have given a few websites for parents to go to that could give them some ideas to help get their family moving and achieve total overall health. One website that I included is a good tool for families who are just starting to get their family fit. The site is Titled Take a Walk in the Park - Fitness Strategies for the Whole Family .

Another cool website that I include is called Go City Kids and this website you can plug in your childs age, what kind of fun you wnat, and if you want an indoor or outdoor activity and it will give you all the actities that their are within the Seattle area.

Local Sports Websites

I choose local sports websites as one of my topics is the fact that in my classroom I want to promote life long fitness. I want my students to be excited about their local sports teams and provide links for my students to access them of my website so they can find out their teams sechedule, statistics, and research their favorite players. I know for me personally I was motivated by watching local basketball, football, and baseball games to go out and play the sport after. I figure the more students are exited about their local sports the more the will be out their playing them. Also, if my students are talking about the basketball game that they watched the night before, this aids in the classroom community that I will be trying to develop.

Ways to use Web 2.0 into classroom

Using web 2.0 can be used as a tool to collaborate with students and build a classroom community. As a teacher you can use Web 2.0 to build a social network of students who share the same interests in sports and other activities.
There are many ways that I could incorporate web 2.o into my classroom, some of these ideas I have already stated in my Blog.
-For example, I could have a Physical Education wiki that has sign ups for P.E. make ups or have Saturday runs that students could sign up to meet at a place and workout together.
-I could also incorporate Web 2.0 into the P.E. classroom by having a classroom Blog. The students would have to go on the Blog and start at least three health related topics and comment on ten other topics. This Blog could lead to a community of learners and get them thinking and informed on health related concepts.
-I could also require students to keep a online journal and write about their current fitness, goals, and what they are doing to meet their fitness goals in the classroom and out of the classroom.
-In class I could pull up an in demand video that is based on the Anatomy of the muscles that the children are using in what exercises the students are using.
-I could also produce an electronic portfolio where students can collect, work and select specific pieces (hyperlinks), reflect on their fitness, set goals for further fitness and to improve and celebrate their fitness achievement with their online audience and classroom audience.

Accomodations for Students

As a health and fitness teacher it will be important for me to be able to understand many different special needs that students will have. I may not always know about all the special needs that will walk into my classroom but I need to have the resources available to me to find what one is. So, that is why I have choosen this as one of my topics. It seems that Physical Education is one of the first classes that students with special needs are mainstreamed into. Thhat is why it is important for me to have the resourse available for me to be able to understand a special need inorder to help me best connect to my students. As a teacher it is my job is to recognize the special needs in my classroom and know how to best accomodate. I need to be able to do this in order for that student to have the best P.E. experience possible. I also, have to understand that I will not be able to know every single special need but if one does enter myclass room I need to be able to use my resources to learn about the special need and accomodate to the student. For example, if a child with ADD/ADHD enters my class, I can go to my ADD/ADHD link and research the special need and see how I can best accomodate my teaching toenhance that students learning experience.

Teaching Tools

The reason I choose Teaching Tools as one of my categories is the fact every teacher needs a websites to go to in order to have fresh new ideas and stay on top on their subject area.

Under my teaching tools I included the GLE's, ELAR's website so I can plan my curriculum in a way that meets the states standards. I will need to use these sites as a basis to form my lessons. These websites also have good health and P.E lesson plans that I can use.

Another great tool is the Teacher Vision website has great Health lesson ideas and topics that include: lesson plans, themes, and printable. 's I found a great lesson plan titled "Designing Your Own Unique Exercise Program," this lesson plan was not only geared to P.E. but the students would be required to use math skills as well. This lesson idea made me think that if student designed their own exercise program they would be more inclined to follow it.

I also included the AAHPERD website which is the American Alliance for Health Physical Education and Recreation and Dance witch is and alliance joined with governing boards of 23 professional educational associations to express new direction and balanced education for all with objectives 1) To express self through art and understand artistic expression of others and 2) To apply knowledge about health nutrition and physical activity. I included this website because as a teacher I need to be always learning new ideas and practices that are being adopted in my field.

Article On Halo

So, yesterday I was reading the Seattle Times and came across this article Imagine School as Fun as Halo by Jerry Large, and found it quite interesting. Depending on how much of a video gamer you are you might know that Halo 3 came out at midnight on the 25th of September. This article was written the day before the release. The columnist comments that the makers of Halo understand how people tick and "if educators understood psychology as well as Halo designers, we could throw out the WASL and No Child Left Behind."
Jerry Large the collumnist also states that he understands that video games can get in the way of Homework and other activities, but that is why it is important as parents to make sure that those things come before picking up the controller.
The basis of this article makes the connetion that the technology of the game is new, but the story is old. But the way that the game was delelop still manages to captivate its audience a manner that stimulates young minds and Educators could learn from this. The writer attributes the success of theses games to the fact that they are stimulating and players grow as they go and there are multiple challenges, which get more difficult as the game progresses, along the way there are opportunities for many smaller achievements, and if the player does something right they are rewarded. The game makes you feel good about what you've accomplished and happy. Also, the game allows you freedom to make choices to with the end result being the same for all.

All in all I think that Teachers could learn from Halo. If we can take an old concept and enhance it with technology to entice learners then so be it. Another statement that I liked about this article is that we as educators have to allow our student freedom to make their own path to the reach the required destination. Students like to feel as though they are being independent and we need to be able to provide them with that freedom if it will aid to their learning. It may be hard work to do it but I be live that schools could be as fun as HALO.

Teaching Quotes

"Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand."
-Chinese Proverb

"A good teacher is like a candle- it consumes itself to lifght the way for others."
-Author Unknown

"The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book."
-Author Unknown

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influences stops."
-Henry Brooks Adams

"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds of the purpose of satisfying it afterwards."
-Anatole France

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
-William Arthur Ward

Smart Boards

I think the Smart Board is such a great tool to have in the classroom. As far as having the Smart Board in the gym that could be a little difficult to have a projector and Smart Board screen. Although if I had one I could incorporate this into warm ups by having boxes and the student come up and pick a box and behind it would tell them to do 20 push ups, 15 sit ups. I could also have them do jeopardy like we did the first day of class and have the questions be health and fitness related and if they get it wrong them they would have to do a physical activity. In the health room I could do a lesson from the smart board that could have them calculate their BMI and find out their daily caloric expenditure. I could also use a power point lesson to teach them about commutable diseases having pictures, links to facts, ect.

Professional Preparation Performance

Preparation Performance

Technology Ideas for ELAR's and GLEs

Looking at the ELARs and GLEs there are many opportunities that I could use technology to enhance my classroom. By using technology in P.E it brings a new level of awareness to students and how they use their bodies. I could also use technology as a tool to enhance my teaching and my future student learning.
Project Ideas:
-To meet the Health GLE/Benchmark 2.2.2a-Understand the concepts and factors to communicatable diseases, I could have my students all choose one disease and do either a pamphlet, three page paper, or Power Point presentation describing the disease, symptoms, treatment, commonality, causes, and prevention.
-One of the requirements would be that they have to use at least three different sources from three different databases example (one journal article, one credited internet, encyclopedia ext.
-Another idea for a project to meet this GLE I would have the students find one health related journal article with a minimum of four pages. I would have the students turn in the article and write a two page paper that would include a summary, their comments, what they learned, and if they feel the article was accurate why or why not.
-To meet the GLE/Benchmark 3.2b-Analyze health information messages I would do an assignment to promote making healthy decisions. The assignment that I would give would be called Healthy Eating On The Road. The task would be for my student to pretend that they were going to be going on a road trip for three days and had to eat all fast food. They would have to come up with at least three meals for three days eating all fast food and see if they could eat a balanced nutritious diet meeting the daily nutritional requirements. The student would have to use the internet and the fast food websites to build their meals finding out all the nutritional value and printing it off. The students would have to eat from at least five different fast food places eating seven different meals. The students would then have to analyze their calorie, fat, carbohydrate, protein, and vitamin requirements and see what ones they meet or did not. I would then have them do a page write up explaining what they felt did well at and what dietary requirements were hard to meet and if so was it the options the restraunts had or was it what they decided to eat. Also, the students would have to comment on what fast food places were the easiest to make healthy choices.
-Another way to incorporate technology into the P.E. classroom would be to have a classroom Blog. The students would have to go on the Blog and start at least three health related topics and comment on ten other topics. This Blog could lead to a community of learners and get them thinking and informed on health related concepts.
-I could also require students to keep a online journal and w rite about their current fitness, goals, and what they are doing to meet their fitness goals in the classroom and out of the classroom.
-Another project idea would be for my students to keep a dairy for three days keeping track of what they ate and how much they ate. They would then have to go online to a nutritional calculator and plug in their foods and see how close there were to the daily nutritional guidelines. The students would then do a write up on things that they did well at in achieving the daily requirement and things that they could work on. I would also require them to think at long term things that they could change in order for them to meet the daily nutritional guidelines.

Level of Technology in Observation Classroom

Level of Technology In Obserrvation Classroom:

-My cooperating teacher Mrs. Munson does have a computer in her office. She uses her computer to communicate quickly with me via email. I also know she uses her computer to organize her grades and uses excel to keep track of locker and student locker combinations. I do not know if Mrs. Munson had her hands on making the P.E. website but on the website they do have classroom information including the syllabus, P.E. mission statement, calendar of P.E. make up days, homework assignments, and information for parents to access.
-By looking at the syllabus it looks as though the students have to use some technological skills which include them using the web to find Health Journals and do a journal write up on it.

Technology Resources Teacher has access to:
-Standard computer ($1,000)
-Access to at least one printer ($200)
-Pedometer’s ($30)
-Digital camera (shared by the three teachers) ($499)

Some things that I feel could be added to classroom to provide additional access to technology:
-Heart Rate monitors
-Projector in the Gym to put on workout tapes (yoga, kickboxing, jazzercise, ext)
-Dance dance revolution game
-Have student have online journals for students to talk about their fitness and fitness goals.
-Have online fitness calendar that promotes family fitness.
-Have a classroom Blog discussing fitness struggles, tips, goals, and ideas to get moving.

Creating a Web Site

I don't know if I liked making my own web page from word pad very well. It seemed as though their are too many codes or HTML tags that have to be precisely right that just doesn't work out for me. The Google page creator was much easier but I would have like to had more ideas that I could have put on the page but right now I'm just would of cool and unique things that I could put on there. To my very own web site . I am exited to add stuff to my web site and am actually thinking about doing a calender website that has physical fitness ideas for every day of the week to promote family life long fitness which is a tool that I can one day use in my classroom. All in all I am excited to have learned how to make a web site.

What technology do students us? How to incorporate those into classroom?

Our children today go home to use their I-Pods, cellphones, computers, internet search engines, My Space pages, email, U-Tube, video games on internet where they network with children all around the world, X-Box, playstation, T.V., Tibo, ext. I found on a typical day 75% of children watch T.V. and 32% watch videos for at least 1hr and 20 min.

As a future physical education teacher I can encorporate technolology into my classroom by using computer software to assess my students physical fitness, strength, and endurance. I could also make my own fitness calander website that the children can go to and serve as a resource for familes to promote life long fitness. It would be wise to have a P.E. page through the school that has lesson plans, grading rubric, digital photos, information of all activities going on in the fitness world, and special programs held throughout the school year, with links to web sites.



Within class I could introduce heart rate monitors to show student what it really means to be physically active. I could have them wear them druening class then print off their HR data, and have them set goals to reach a higher fitness.for next time.



I could also have the children wear pedometer so that they can see how much they have moved throughout the day. I could then use this information and have them set goals for more movement next time they wear the pedometers.

Should technology be used in eduction?

Now that we are within the 21st century some trends within education will remain the same but others like technology will allawys be evolving. As teachers we can not be scared of the new resources technology brings to us. Instead we should see them as potential ways to connect with students and bring resources that were not previously available us of now at our finger tips. It is important for educators to be able to keep up with technology in order to be up to date with teaching practices and relaying those to students. Suprsisingly, everything teachers do today is influenced by technology and how many aspects of theching can be enhanced by technology.

It is our job as teachers to provide a quality education to students in a way that most stimulates them. Today, that means incorporating technological developments into the classroom. It is particularly important for new teachers to have tecnology skills so they can manipulate computers and related technologies for effective teaching. According to David Tyack and Larry Cuban in Learning to Teach, they argue that computers and technology can be powerful teaching and learning tools when in the hands of teachers who know how to intergrate them properly into their day to day interaction with the student.

There are already noticable advantages of using technolody as educational tools. For example, multimedia and Smart Board presentations make lectures more interesting, web acess brings resources never before accessable, and CD-ROM's that bring information to students in a new light.

Technology in education should be used as a tool to help engage, motivate and interact with students. In Learning to Teach they found that teachers who used computers and related technologies in their classrooms reported that there are strong motivational aspects of computers and Internet resources. Technology can also be used as a tool to help students improve basic skills such as spelling and math by providing them with the same content in another form, keeping them interested and engaged longer. Also, by bringing technology in to the classroom it allows teachers to communicate and bring the curriculum content on the students level.

Arends, Richard. Learning to Teach. 7th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2007.

Liberty High School Web Page

When I first went to the Liberty High School Web page the first thing I noticed was the upcoming events on the right hand side. I think this will be a great tool for parent to see what is happening with in the school. The home page also had recent news and information among the school with links to view the larger article. One of the things that I didn't like about the page was the dull colors that the school choose to use, light blue and navy blue really blend in with the white background and make the website not really standout. It was also hard to find the links to the athletics, staff, and administrative they really blended in with the some of the daily news links.
Another feature that I like was the fact that students could log in and find out their grades, course outlines, and homework from a class. I think this is a good feature to have because I remember in high school forgetting to write down my homework and not having the resources of the Internet at my fingertips.
When I was on the website I actually went to the Physical Education Department Site that gave me their physical education mission statement, course outline, P.E activities, rules and grading procedures, ext.
All in all I think this website will be a great tool for parents, students, teachers, and me.

Link To Website