Comments on: The Grand Old Games http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/218 Reflections on technology and its use in education Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:08:48 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Debby http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/218/comment-page-1#comment-1065 Debby Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:36:21 +0000 http://tnturner.edublogs.org/?p=218#comment-1065 Humm, what comes to my mind is....are PE classes really physically engaged? I work in a high school and in most decent weather, I go out during my lunch time and try to get in a mile of walking. What I see as I walk to the track is: a class playing softball. Some are playing, but many are sitting on the bench. A class is playing tennis. Some are playing, many are waiting their turn at a court. I get to the track. At least there most of the class is out running or walking the track, though some are so lackadaisical they are in danger of being lapped by this old lady. With a 42 minute period, with 10 minutes at the front and back of each period to change and time to get out to the fields, PE classes seem to have little time for students to actually get physically active. Per your analogy, I actually find technology to have the potential to get every student engaged and to have them engaged at their level, more than a PE class. But like any tool...it is just a tool. Without a good teacher wielding the tool, technology will fall on its face. The teacher is the key. You just have to sell the faculty on the value of these tools and have them engaged enough to actually put in the time to learn to use that technology properly. Having a class go to a website and have them fill in the blanks on a worksheet, where the answers fall into their laps, is not really teaching students how to utilize technology, even though the teacher can now check it off on his/her lesson plan. Humm, what comes to my mind is….are PE classes really physically engaged? I work in a high school and in most decent weather, I go out during my lunch time and try to get in a mile of walking.

What I see as I walk to the track is: a class playing softball. Some are playing, but many are sitting on the bench. A class is playing tennis. Some are playing, many are waiting their turn at a court. I get to the track. At least there most of the class is out running or walking the track, though some are so lackadaisical they are in danger of being lapped by this old lady.

With a 42 minute period, with 10 minutes at the front and back of each period to change and time to get out to the fields, PE classes seem to have little time for students to actually get physically active.

Per your analogy, I actually find technology to have the potential to get every student engaged and to have them engaged at their level, more than a PE class. But like any tool…it is just a tool. Without a good teacher wielding the tool, technology will fall on its face.

The teacher is the key. You just have to sell the faculty on the value of these tools and have them engaged enough to actually put in the time to learn to use that technology properly. Having a class go to a website and have them fill in the blanks on a worksheet, where the answers fall into their laps, is not really teaching students how to utilize technology, even though the teacher can now check it off on his/her lesson plan.

]]> By: tnturner http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/218/comment-page-1#comment-1064 tnturner Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:05:49 +0000 http://tnturner.edublogs.org/?p=218#comment-1064 Jose. Thank you for your comments. I plan on completing my thoughts regarding this topic in a post later this weekend. I just felt that if I didn't cut it off when I did I would merely have been babbling like a baboon at 2am. Awesome on incorporating physical movement into your classrooms, unfortunately, the move has gone away from more formal PE classes and having classroom teachers as a primary source of physical activity, which is such a shame (holy huge run on sentence batman!) Jose. Thank you for your comments. I plan on completing my thoughts regarding this topic in a post later this weekend. I just felt that if I didn’t cut it off when I did I would merely have been babbling like a baboon at 2am.

Awesome on incorporating physical movement into your classrooms, unfortunately, the move has gone away from more formal PE classes and having classroom teachers as a primary source of physical activity, which is such a shame (holy huge run on sentence batman!)

]]> By: Jose Rodriguez http://tnturner.edublogs.org/archives/218/comment-page-1#comment-1063 Jose Rodriguez Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:31:57 +0000 http://tnturner.edublogs.org/?p=218#comment-1063 Your thoughts remind me of growing up with baseball as part of my life. I to did get a chance to play ball with my cousins and dad. Now... to the P.E. question. After 12 years as an elementary school teacher I have done little to none in formal Physical Education until this summer. Our theme this year was the Beijing Olympics. We trained for our own Olympics. Also once a week we did indoor physical movement games. Now I think I have a better idea about how to incorporate physical movement into my curriculum. and even though it's only 11:30pm out here on the west coast, I better hit the sack too. It's our last day of summer school. I'll even do some indoor P.E. games tomorrow. :-) Your thoughts remind me of growing up with baseball as part of my life. I to did get a chance to play ball with my cousins and dad. Now… to the P.E. question. After 12 years as an elementary school teacher I have done little to none in formal Physical Education until this summer. Our theme this year was the Beijing Olympics. We trained for our own Olympics. Also once a week we did indoor physical movement games. Now I think I have a better idea about how to incorporate physical movement into my curriculum. and even though it’s only 11:30pm out here on the west coast, I better hit the sack too. It’s our last day of summer school. I’ll even do some indoor P.E. games tomorrow. :-)

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