Podcasting in PE

Technology in PE is a very new concept. As the world becomes more and more technologically demanding, PE is one of the last parts of school that teachers become technology savvy. A couple things have come to mind when I think of ways to use Podcasts in my classroom.

The first thing that came to my mind is making a podcast for kids to make up days they have missed. I would be able to walk them through the make up assignments and they are reading the hard copies themselves. I would probably use the podcast or also make a Jing presentation to walk them through whatever I have them do.

Another way to incorporate it in PE would be to have kids make a podcast to respond to classes and out of class activities. Part of the PE classes are matching our own standards with the Oregon state standards for education. The affective domain of these standards is how students feel and their social interaction. Being able to respond via podcasts could let me as a teacher know what activities they do and don't like and also how they felt emotionally and physically during and after class.

Here is a short little podcast I made about the NASPE standards we PE teachers have to meet inside of the Oregon State standards.

That is all that has really come to my mind. If there are any other ideas on how to implement podcasts in the PE classroom, please feel free to leave some feedback.

Multi-Media Websites

Youtube.com/education - We all know how addicted to YouTube videos this generation is. With this website, we can use the YouTube name to catch their attention and find educational videos for the students that will also be interesting for them. It is formatted the exact same way just with educational videos.

Xtra Normal - This website is a great website to use for the middle school ages. It is a way to make silly 3D cartoons to present. Granted, the quality of the 3D isn't going to come anywhere to Avatar, Tron Legacy, or even the Pixar movies. Yet, it is a great way for kids to entertain themselves and their peers with an animated movie. All you have to be able to do is type and the program does the rest.

Flickr for students

Flickr is a place where people can upload and edit photos for the rest of the world to see. Since I am focusing on PE teaching, it would be tough to integrate a picture website into my classroom. I could think of ideas such as having them upload pictures of the them doing the activities outside of class and posting pictures of certain exercises as an assignment. 

Good and Bad Presentations

There are a few reasons why we as teachers need to use appropriate citations. One reason is that we need to set examples for our students. We can't hold them to standards for citations when we don't use citations ourselves. Another thing is that if we site where we got information from, the students could possibly be able to access these sources when they are outside of class. We need to seek permission for copyrighted work for the same reasons. Some of the best sources out there are copyrighted and need proper permission to use them.

There were a few things in the Presentation Zen chapter that I was already aware of. The most common mistakes that are made during PowerPoint presentations are people using too many bullet points for each slide and also how long each point is. Having slides that are very wordy are not only boring, but it also loses the interest of the students and also they won't actually pay attention to the slides and information. I am very aware of how to make good presentations. It is important to have interesting and fun PowerPoints because then the students will look forward to coming to class and taking notes/learning the information. All of the PowerPoints I have made over the years have always been animated and had fun and attention getting backgrounds.

If anyone in interested in the fantastic food of Couscous, I have made a Prezi about it. I has a little history, some basics, and how to make it. ENJOY :)