Final Thoughts...

Throughout this semester I have completed assignments that took me way out of my comfort zone. However, the challenge of completing these assignments has showed me that with a little hard work and a short time line I can get things done, and done well! I am very excited that this class presented some very useful information both in my professional and personal life. This is a rarity for the classes that I have taken at Montclair!

The biggest thing that I have learned this semester is the fact that the jobs that my students will have in the future do not exist yet. Not only do these jobs not exist yet, but all of the information needed for these jobs is not available yet. Keeping this in mind, when I have the opportunity to rewrite the physical education curriculum, whether in my current district or another one, I have to write it for 10 years down the road, not for now. Teaching my students how to take care of their bodies and their minds, as well as teaching them how to effectively work with groups will be the main focus of the physical education and health curriculum. I have learned that the most important thing is not just if the students can perform a particular task, but if they know the process of completing a particular task.

With the information that I have learned this semester I am hoping to become a physical education/health supervisor. My main focus will be to create a memorable experience for the students. The physical education environment is different from a traditional classroom environment where the students get to express themselves through a variety of movements and group and individual activities. Teaching children to become self-motivated, hard workers, and to learn how to set individual and group goals is something that I can do by creating the ideal physical education and health curriculum. I have many ideas that I would like to see become reality, however, I hope to share my ideas with my colleagues whether I am in an administrative position or not.

Orange Middle School

Due to the fact that Orange Middle School has failed to meet NCLB benchmarks six years in a row, Orange Middle School has taken many positive initiatives to make the school a positive environment for the students. Some of the great things OMS has done include creating learning teams, having weekly team meetings, having parties for students when they make it through a term, inviting students to speak at meetings, and have a high police and security presences in the schools and on the streets after school.

With the developmental growth that adolescents go through, the above activities will address many of their developmental needs. For instance, adolescents need to become socially useful and need to know "what's in it for them". By participating in weekly meetings, students will have a part in what is taking place in their teams and will find out what changes will affect them and what they will receive from these changes.

Two suggestions that I would give would be to create an after school intramural program and to get the students of OMS to volunteer at a local business. The after school intramural program will allow students to expend excess energy and will keep the amount of students off the streets after school. Physical activity has a positive correlation to higher academic scores, which could help the students perform better on the state tests. This program could be conducted in a few ways. One idea is that everyday after school there are a variety of activities going on including, but not limited to, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, indoor or outdoor soccer, fitness training, etc. The second idea is that every few weeks change that activity that is held. For example, for two weeks do basketball, another two weeks play volleyball, etc. and keep rotating the activities around.

The second suggestion, having students volunteer at a local business, will allow the students to apply their learning to real life experiences, which will show students that what they are learning in school has use! Volunteering at a local business will teach the students responsibility, they can be with non-parent adults, and hopefully when the students are of working age, they will be able to get paid jobs in the businesses they volunteer at.

It is important to show students, whether in districts with families with a low SES or a high SES, that what they are learning in school can be applied to other areas. It will make more sense to students to want to put the time into studying if they know "what's in it for them" whether now or a few years down the road.

Curriculum Mapping

Curriculum mapping is a tool that is used to build cohesive learning communities. For instance, in District Five the teachers were noticing that the change in student population required the curriculum to be changed to create high expectations for all students. In order for this to happen the same way throughout the entire district, District Five leaders felt that curriculum mapping was the way to go.

Curriculum mapping allows teachers from the same content area from different schools to plan out what information they will teach each month so by the end of the school year all 4th grade students will have learned the same information. Although there are state standards, if there are too many standards teachers begin to pick and choose what they want to teach. The problem with this is that every teacher does not pick the same standards to teach, so by the end of 4th grade, each class could have covered some of the same information and some different information. Curriculum mapping stops teachers from picking and choosing what they want to teach, and creates more of a uniformed curriculum.

I suppose we curriculum map in my district. My curriculum is so old that I don't think that it has been mapped in at least 15 years. However, this year during my PIP meeting with my principal I was discussing creating a new grading rubric for the phys. ed. department. After talking this process through my principal decided that my best option may be to curriculum map so I know what I really want the students to know. Once I have this information it will be easier for me to create a grading rubric. I have not begun the curriculum mapping process yet because of the homework I have been doing this semester. I will probably start this process in January when I have more time.

While District Five was curriculum mapping the teachers were noticing gaps in learning throughout the grade levels. For instance, at one of the professional development days when the teachers were in mixed-group and like-group they discovered that the high school teachers feel that reading is what will make a student extremely successful. It was also discovered that reading skills were not taught past the 3rd grade. By discovering this the district was able to plan the curriculum in such a way that reading skills were taught throughout all grades.

Curriculum mapping can bring out the strengths or weaknesses in the curriculum being taught. Is what the teachers are teaching aligned with the curriculum? These are questions that can be answered when curriculum mapping. When weaknesses appear it is an opportunity for the district and school to change the curriculum so it becomes a strength.

UBD Implementation

I had to write a unit plan in UBD format for my Curriculum Development class and then also write some lessons for that unit. When I used this particular lesson it worked out really well, and I happen to use the essential question all the time, especially the question about how working cooperatively with your team affects the team's success. My middle school students are very competitive and think that it is better if they play a game like soccer and never pass the ball or include only certain team members in their strategies. But when I ask this question I can see that they are truly thinking about how they are playing and how they can change the way they play. Nine times out of ten when they include everyone in the game, they become the winning team in the class tournament.

These two games that I picked for the shooting lesson really helped the students when they were tested on their skills. I do not normally like to test on skill, but as part of this unit I tried it out. The students found that the two games, around the world and horse, really made them focus on their shooting and they saw that by using different shooting techniques their shots had different outcomes. For instance, some of my students tried to shoot with two hands, which was forcing them to push the ball and not shoot it. This made their shot very inconsistent. But when I helped them with the correct shooting technique, they saw that even if their shot did not go in the basket, their shot was in line with the basket and they were much more successful in the long rung.

I would like to use UBD more often for my lessons, but due to the fact that I teach so many different age levels and different topics, I am overwhelmed by the process of it.

UBD Lesson Part 2

Lesson Plan: Day 2 Shooting

Established Goals:

Standard 2.5 – Motor Skill Development: All students will utilize safe, efficient, and effective movement to develop and maintain a healthy, active lifestyle

2.5.6 A – Movement Skills
2.5.6. B – Movement Concepts
2.5.6 C – Strategy
2.5.6 D – Sportsmanship, Rules and Safety
2.5.6 E – Sport Psychology

SWBAT shoot a basketball using proper technique at a proficiency level of 70%
SWBAT explain what a foul is and what happens if a foul is committed.

Essential Questions:

• How does working cooperatively affect your team’s success?
• What key strategies that were previously learned can be applied to this unit? How is this significant?

Understandings:

• Following through on your shot, keeping your feet spread apart, and taking the shot in one fluid motion are all key aspects of a successful shot
• Shooting is how you score points, and you need points to win, but being a good shooter is not the only thing that helps a team to win

Misunderstandings

· As long as the basketball goes into the basket, it does not matter the technique used

Students will know

· Students will learn the rules of around the world and horse, both shooting games to reinforce the proper shooting technique.

Assessment Evidence:

Visual Assessment

While students are playing around the world and horse in their groups I will walk around and observe their shot. I will make corrections or suggestions where needed.

Question and Answer

When the class is over I will ask the students to explain to me the proper shooting technique. Along with their description I will ask a student to demonstrate the proper shooting technique.

Students will be asked to explain the rules of both around the world and horse.

Learning Plan:

After warm-ups, a demonstration of how to shoot a basketball, and a demonstration of the game around the world, students will be broken up into six groups and each group will have their own basket. While they are at their baskets I will walk around and observe their shooting and how they work with their groups as far as encouraging each other and helping each other out. About half way through the class the students will be stopped, have a seat at their basket, and will watch a demonstration of horse. Students will continue to work in their groups while playing horse. Again I will walk around and observe their shooting technique and how they work in groups.

Around the world rules:

All students will start at the first hash mark, closest to the basket, and try to make the shot in. If they make the shot in they move to the next spot. If they miss the shot they go to the end of the line and wait for their turn. If, though, the students make the shot from the first mark but then miss the shot from the second mark they have two choices: 1. they can stay where they are until their turn comes again, or 2. they can chance it which means if they make the shot they move to the third mark, but if they miss the shot they have to go back to the first mark. The game continues like this until one person has moved from the right side of the basket to the left, and then back to the right side.

Horse rules:

One student will pick to shoot from anywhere on their court. If they make the shot in then the second person has to make the same exact shot. If the second person misses the shot they will receive the letter H, but if they make the shot then the third person has to also make the same exact shot. If the second person misses the shot then the third person can shoot from anywhere (if the person in front of you misses the shot you can shoot from anywhere, but if they make the shot you also have to make it to not get a letter). The first person to spell H-O-R-S-E looses.

Equipment:

2 basketballs per basket (12 in total)
Poly spots to mark the spots for around the world.

Follow-up/Homework:

None

Online Class Thoughts

At the beginning of the semester I was very happy to see that there were a few online classes. I have a very busy semester and will welcome any online class so I can get to bed early on Thursday nights. After the first online class I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the parts that had to be accomplished. Plus, it took me much longer to complete the assignments than the time suggestions. I decided that I would much rather be in class then at home spending many hours on work.

As the semester went on I enjoyed each online class. Granted it continued to take me a long time to complete assignments, but each lesson brought new challenges. Each lesson definitely had me doing things that were out of my comfort zone, but if it weren't for the online classes I would have not done this type of work. As I am writing this I am very frustrated that I can not figure out how to get my UBD lesson onto the blog!

After my experiences in this class I would take a class like this again, but I would not take a class that is completely online. I am the kind of person that learns better from being in the classroom, listening to and participating in discussions. I am glad that I had the opportunity to take a class like this and have enjoyed being in it.

UBD Lesson

Creating the ideas for this lesson was not difficult because I use this lesson at least twice a year during my basketball unit. It was different to think backwards, although it makes perfect sense to create lessons this way. There are times when I create a lesson and sometimes don't get the results I desired. When this happens I have to go back and figure out what I did wrong. Using UBD though, you think about your desired results and then you figure out how you want to achieve your them. When writing this lesson with UBD I feel like that I could give this to anyone and they can go teach for me. UBD made me think through more ideas, more than I may normally think about. I have recently signed up to work with the Curriculum Coordinator and other teachers i my district to work with UBD in lesson design and curriculum design. I think it is a great design and am excited to work with it more.

What was difficult was using the UBD format. It would take less time if I used all the categories that UBD did, but used my own format instead.

Results Now

I would like to think that when Schmoker wrote this he was not speaking of teachers that I teach with, or even teachers like myself. There are days when I wake up and am so tired that I would love to roll the basketballs out and let my students shoot hoops, but this is the exact reason why I became a physical education teacher. I wanted to change the idea that some people have, that the "gym" teachers sit on the bleacher all day and read the paper while the kids shoot hoops. So even when I wake up and am tired, I go into school and teach lessons that I know are fun, exciting and worthwhile. I know that if I drove to Montclair on a Thursday night and was given busy work to do for a few hours, I would not be happy, so I would never give my students busy work.

Schmoker speaks about how schools will not improve until administrators begin to work with teachers to truly oversee and improve instructional quality. This I agree with. I do not teach a tested subject, therefore I get left alone by all the administrators. Of course this is great because I do not have to constantly explain why I am teaching a particular unit, but at the same time, administrators do not know what I am teaching. The only clue my principal has to what I am teaching is when she reads my lesson plans.

Fortunately I team teach so my colleague and I are able to bounce ideas off of each other. We though are isolated from the rest of the school, only seeing other teachers when they drop their classes off and pick them up. Not that we aren't motivated to change the phys. ed. curriculum, but I think if my principal visited the gym more and encouraged us to change our program, we would be more motivated to make changes at a faster rate.

Did You Know?

When watching this video it truly puts into perspective how big the world really is, and how each person, though only playing a tiny role, helps to create what the world has become today. These changes are manifesting our worlds the same way it manifested our parents, grandparents, etc. Most of our parents had to learn to use computers when it first came out; when our kids are in their teens, I'm sure there will be some kind of technology that they are using in school that we will also have to learn.

This is a scary idea, but I do not know if there is anything we can do to prepare for it. If we are training our children for jobs that do not even exist yet, how will we know what to change? All we can do is encourage our children to learn everything they can to the best of their abilities, and hope they remember us when they are successful.

In one of the slides it spoke about a supercomputer, which is not even built yet, that will be able to exceed the computation capability the human brain. I recently read a novel titled "The Footprints of God", by Greg Iles, which was about a supercomputer and the capabilities it had that went beyond the human brain. This novel was copyrighted in 2003, which means all these "crazy" ideas already exist, and if they exist they will one day be a reality.

With all this in mind, I don't know if we can prepare for these changes. The best thing we can do is keep on truckin'. When these changes come about, we will have to keep an open mind about them and adapt to the changes as best as we can.

Reading Don't Fix No Chevy's

When I was younger I used to spend hours a day outside on the basketball hoop practicing my foul shot and jump shot. My parents used to have to pull me away to come in to eat dinner and do homework. Many times my dad would join me outside and we would spend hours shooting and not talking. I was in my flow.


I have also been told that when I was in high school playing ball, the momentum of the game would switch when I was on the floor. My dribbling skills weren't the best, but I had this certain control over the game. I was told that when I was in the game the whole team would calm down and play under control. I knew where to pass, when to hold the ball...I was in my flow.


Today I do not play basketball competitively anymore, but I do other forms of exercise which put me back into my flow. I don't think about anything when I'm working out, my mind goes blank, and I just watch and enjoy my surroundings.


Flow is something that I think everyone should experience. If people are not participating in activities that put them in this mode, they need to experience different things until they find their flow. Flow is something that, as educators, we need to have our students experience. Because every person experiences flow in different ways, bringing flow into a classroom can almost be like a "project".


If a child gets into a flow from reading, then teachers should make time for students to have quiet reading time. If a student is in a flow from cooking, or by performing music, the teacher should invite the student to cook in front of the class, or perform in front of the class. Being in a flow allows a person to become intrinsically motivated, something that students need to experience more of. If a student knows what it is like to be intrinsically motivated, they may become more motivated to accomplish things because of how it makes them feel, not by what they will get out of it extrinsically.

NCLB Letter

September 30, 2007

Mike Ferguson
16 Mount Bethel Road # 353
Warren, NJ 07059

Dear Congressman Ferguson:

As an educator and resident of New Jersey, I have a great interest in President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, which has been in law since 2004. NCLB has done some great things for the New Jersey schools including, but not limited to, ensuring that all New Jersey teachers are highly qualified to teach their subject and that the teachers stay up to date with the newest techniques of teaching by having to complete 100 hours of professional development every 5 years. NCLB has also made information for parents regarding their child’s education more available and is creating benchmarks for students to work towards.

There are also some concerns I have that I think should be considered before the reauthorization of NCLB. If the goal of NCLB is to have every student be 100% proficient by 2014 in reading and math, yet not all schools are working with the same materials, how does the federal government expect this to happen? Statistically speaking, all students will never be 100% proficient. Supposing this goal could be met, I think that each school should be able to work with the same materials.

I am fortunate enough to work in a district that meets Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) every year, and we have the funds to purchase curriculums and materials that help us accomplish this task. Abbott districts and other districts that are receiving federal funding should also be able to purchase the same curricula that a district like mine is able to purchase. If every student in the state of New Jersey has to take the same standardized test in the spring, they should be able to prepare and learn with the same materials.

To create a goal such as reaching 100% in seven years and then not supply the students with the proper materials is only going to help these schools continue to be declared Need of Improvement schools. We are allowing these schools to fail. Before the reauthorization of NCLB, please take this matter into consideration. Consider creating a state wide curriculum for all subjects, not just in reading and math, so that every student in the state of New Jersey has the same opportunities to be successful.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,


Lindsey El Koury

State of NJ Standards Website

I think that this website answers a lot of questions for parents and teachers. Parents and teachers can look at the standards for each subject area and see what information needs to be taught by certain grades. Each subject offers an introduction to the subject and why it is important.

On the main page, there is a quote from A Nation At Risk, and then an explanation of why the CCCS were developed. Along with this introduction there are descriptions of the format and organization of the standards, CPIs and strands, as well as the implementation of the NJCCCS.

Under the Parents link, there are further descriptions of law and policy, understanding the standards, how a particular school measures up, etc. I think that this link is a great tool for parents to get a better understanding of the CCCS and other issues related to schools. The Educators link has a lot of information regarding professional development, technology training, assessments, credentials, etc., which I think is a great resource for teachers.

This website definitely shows the complexity of the standards and the vast amount of information the teachers are responsible for teaching, and what the students are responsible for knowing. Breaking down the standards will give teachers and parents a better understanding of the education system in NJ. Improvements can always be made, however, I think that this website does a good job of keeping people informed.

180 Days

The school I work in is 3rd grade through 8th grade, and being one of two physical education teachers, I teach the entire school. There are days when there is an assembly for the lower grades (3rd-5th grade) scheduled to take place in the gym during one of my upper grade classes (6th-8th grade), which means that unless I am outside with the classes, I can not go along with the originally planned lesson. Although my principal is careful not to use the gym too often for assemblies, it does happen.

Picture day is also a day in which it is difficult for my colleague and I to have a "normal" day. This is not because pictures are taken in the gym, but because my students can not be sweaty and messy for their pictures. If the homerooms are scheduled for their pictures after p.e. class, we have to plan activities that do not require the students to move too much, which takes away from the unit I am working on.

We also loose days when the marking period changes. The first and second marking periods we get new 5th-8th grade students, so the first days of marking periods 1 and 2 are spent going over the rules of the gym, the locker room, etc.

I completely agree with the idea that teachers truly only have 67 days or so for instructional time. I don't know, though, if making the school year longer would help to solve this problem. Extending the school year may only give more days to plan activities and take away from instructional time. If the school year was extended, it would have to be done under the idea that those extra days would be spent on instruction and not on activities.

There is a lot of pressure put on teachers to get their students to learn the information needed to not just pass the state tests, but to also get the students ready for the next grade. Extending the school year may take some of this pressure off teachers, however, I've never met a teacher who was unable to teach their students the necessary information in the time allotted. Before activities are scheduled, principals and teachers need to ensure that the activity is educational, and not to plan a lot of activities in one time frame.

The Saber-Tooth Curriculum

It can be argued that “The Saber-Tooth Curriculum” was written to mock the constant arguments that are had between educators and parents, and even between other educators. This story brings up many valid points, however to list all of them would become overwhelming. To keep it simple, I will discuss the introduction of a new curriculum when the current one is no longer effective, how change will always be resisted, and how children, and adults, are more eager to learn when what they are learning is purposeful.

Creating a curriculum is very important, for it gives educators a framework of what to teach. How the educator decides how to present the ideas is usually based on personal experiences. New-Fist observed two things that encouraged him to create his curriculum. First, that children spent their time playing just for fun, which was serving little purpose to the community and second, the adults were doing all of the work to allow the community to survive. The new curriculum was set up to teach the children the skills necessary to help themselves and their community.

Just as Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) stated that “learners of all ages are more motivated when they can see the usefulness of what they are learning and when they can use that information to do something that has an impact on others…,” (p. 61), New-Fist observed that the children had more fun engaging in purposeful activity than playing just for the fun of it. Motivation not only affects the amount of time people put into learning, but also affects the reasons why people learn; extrinsic and intrinsic factors, (Bransford, et al., 2000). When the rest of the community saw how well New-Fist’s curriculum was working, they too began to join the children in the new ways to gather food and skins.

Things, however, do not remain the same and must constantly be changed. The curriculum New-Fist created was no longer effective when the environment changed, and therefore the curriculum had to be updated to meet the needs of the new environment. Members of the tribe resisted the new curriculum because it was beyond their comfort zone. New-Fist continued to push the new curriculum and teach the new skills because the members of his tribe still had to survive. As members of the tribe became more frustrated with the lack of food and skins, they became more motivated to learn the new skills.

In my Administration I class we learned that no matter how good the change may be, people do not like to leave their comfort zone and will therefore resist the change. When a new administration took over my district they introduced the Everyday Math curriculum. They did this not just to be able to meet, but excel past the requirements set by the state due to No Child Left Behind. The teachers did nothing but complain about it for many reasons, however, a year later they have grown to like it so much they wish that curriculums for other subjects reflected the Everyday Math design.

New-Fist had many great ideas to teach the children and adults of his community the skills to survival. He was able to motivate his learners and was also able to update his teaching ideas when the change in the environment forced him to do so. No matter how much the new curriculum was resisted, he knew how important the change was to the tribe’s survival, and made the changes anyway.

This story parallels modern day education in many way. Educators teach students the necessary skills to pass the grade level they are in, the prospective grade levels, and to survive in the “real world”. Teachers hope to motivate their students to want to learn the necessary skills; however, this may not always be the case. There will always be resistance to change, but if the change is truly believed to be needed, teachers or administrators must continue to offer the change.

Change Response

I think American education is slow to change due to the fear of what is to come with a particular change. In his book Change Forces: Probing the depths of educational reform (1993), Fullan states that "educators...had a crisis of confidence." Based on this statement, take into account the teacher who has been teaching for 30+ years, who has never used a computer, and is now being asked by their building administrator to use computers in their classroom. The teacher may be upset by this request for a few reasons. First, this teacher may feel that the request to use computers is a personal attack, that the building administrator may feel that this particular teacher's lessons are lacking. Most likely, though, this teacher is fearful of the computer, and using it will create an unknown atmosphere to them. However, if this teacher is fully supported in the slow transition of using computers in their classroom, they may begin to feel more comfortable with the idea of using computers, and may accept the change better.

It is in the best interest of educators to do the best they can to adapt to the particular change because, "Education has a moral purpose. The moral purpose is to make a difference in the lives of students regardless of background, and to help produce citizens who can live and work productively in increasingly dynamically complex societies," (Fullan, 1993).

Fullan, Michael. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depths of educational reform. London, New York, Philadelphia: The Falmer Press.

Marc Prensky

The idea that students need more motivation to learn is something I feel is unarguable, however, I do think that Marc Prensky is going about it the wrong way. First and foremost, students should not have to endure the stress of learning 5 or more subjects well enough to pass tests in a few months time. Curriculum are written over a years period for a reason. I think Marc's idea would work best if introducing areas such as technology, along with subjects such as math or LAL, would be better and less stressful.

Secondly, our world is depending more and more on technology so opening students' eyes to technology, is a great idea, but I do feel that other areas should be addressed. Not all students are fascinated with technology, so by looking at the arts, fashion, athletics, etc. there is a possibility that more students will become engaged.

In the district where I work we just began using Writer's Workshop. This is a fairly new curriculum, however, its intentions are to not only improve students' writing, but to motivate students to write and to enjoy the writing process. Instead of the teacher telling the students what to write about, the students pick topics from their own lives. Since using this curriculum, the students are very excited to write, and now enjoy writing. Th students were not motivated with gadgets or promises of meeting famous people, but they were motivated by their personal experiences and the hard work of their teachers.

Having said all this, I do believe that students need to be held accountable for their scores, however, it is the job of the teachers to motivate the students in an appropriate manner so the students can achieve the best scores they can.