Whistle Talk

PE gets a bad wrap at at times because of how it "used to be". I have heard horror stories of how PE teachers "roll out the ball" and sit with a newspaper or just focus on the super star athletes. If you had this type of PE experience, I sincerely apologize. Not all of us are like this. As a matter of fact, more and more PE teachers are trying to be innovative and create quality PE programs. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, PE is one of the first subjects to be cut or downsized. Schools have one or two PE teachers with class sizes upwards to 40-50 with minimal equipment, non-existent budgets and hardly any support. Thankfully, the digital world does not disappoint. I can't tell you how many times Twitter has saved my lessons or saved a rain day for me. It's so easy to find new ideas on Twitter or bounce ideas off of other PE teachers to get a fresh point of view. In module 6 of my Foundations of Technology class, we learned all about Professional ...

It's been a hot second since I had to write a research paper. From the beginning, I was less than thrilled to have to go back to high school/college and remember everything that goes into a research paper. I got a bit overwhelmed just thinking about writing it even though writing is kind of my thing. I really enjoy creative writing and I leave the research to the professionals. I did procrastinate a little bit on it because it was not on the top of my "To-Do" list. However, once I got started it turned out to be one of the more interesting assignments that we were asked to complete. Our assignment "Trends in Technology Research Paper" asked us to dive into the world of the 21st century learner and the importance of preparing our students for the global society. I chose tackle this more from the student side rather than the teacher. I wanted to research how educators are preparing their students to be future ready. In my research, I put together a timeline of e...

I've mentioned a few times throughout this journey into the tech world that I struggle with using technology in PE. My first priority has always been to get the kids moving as much as possible. Throughout this course, I felt like I was able to dig deeper into many of the tech tools that were introduced. I was familiar with many of the tools, but I was able to enhance my learning and figure out ways to adapt the tools into my PE classes. The tools presented in this course allowed me to not only work through some of my struggles, but problem solve my reservations. The assignments/modules that I found most beneficial were: Module 6-Growing Professionally in the Digital World Module 7-Managing Devices in the Classroom Assignment-Trends in Technology Research Paper I have always been pretty active on social media, but it was more for entertainment and keeping up with friends. Once I started taking classes through USF, I found a whole professional world full of information and id...