About the Author
After majoring in Kinesiology at San Jose State University, I wanted to become a personal trainer. Working at a commercial gym was very fast paced, entertaining, and very long evenings. I enjoyed helping my clients reach their fitness goals and feel healthier. One day, my client referred me to a charter high school in San Jose for the 9th grade physical education position. Not sure what I was getting myself, I decided to go through the interview process and to my surprise was offered the job. On the first day of school, the supervisor lead me into the miniature basketball gym and told me this was my classroom. I had no idea what materials I needed or what was a lesson plan. During my first year of teaching, I started to connect with my students and began to realize teachers make a huge impact on students. I wanted to be a part of that. I worked four years at Downtown College Prep, then I moved on to ACE Charter School, a middle school also in San Jose. Next, I landed at another charter school called Magnolia Science Academy in Santa Clara. At Magnolia, I witness a lot of technology lessons in classroom and see how students implement and collaborate with peers. Moving back home to Vallejo, I worked at Benicia Middle School and had the opportunity to work with colleagues that incorporate technology tools into their lesson plans. I was amazed on learning how to use Google forms and Kahoot with my students.
Reflections on your Journey
I am very happy to be introduced to an array of different technology tools in this Innovative Learning program. I have learned so much from my cohorts by their experiences, which have influenced my style of teaching and lesson planning. The blogs have helped me immensely by increasing my knowledge and improve writing. The responds I received from my peers and instructors help me think outside the box in lesson planning in P.E. Not a strong writer but blogging on a weekly aided my writing style and academic vocabulary. Having the opportunity to explore different technology platforms such as google classroom, edutopia, and adobe spark will be a key to help my students become 21st Century Learners.
Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
As a physical education teacher, my initial goal was to get students moving and exercising since they are sedentary in their core classes throughout the day. At times, my students are unmotivated and disengaged in the physical activity. I asked myself, "How can I make my students be productive and have fun doing it?" Smartphones are always a problem in P.E. Even repeating the school rules to them by elect to use their electronic device whenever the instructor is not paying attention. Instead of prohibiting students and having to fight them daily about their devices, why not incorporate technology in the lesson. I have used different kinds of technology tools while presenting Project-Based Learning but my daily use have been audio. I found that students are more happier, energetic, and enjoy the activity while playing popular music.
TPACK Reflection
Using technology in physical education class was not that common and at times it could also be a challenged since the environment wasn't the same as in a classroom. As Mishra and Koehler described TPACK is a theoretical framework where teachers integrate technology with the three bodies of knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. One of the ways I integrated technology in physical education was through project-based learning (PBL). Students have the opportunity to collaborate with each other, and use their prior knowledge with electronic devices to bridge the learning gap.
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