After reviewing my thoughts from my original GAME plan that I posted last week I have decided to make a few adjustments. Seeing that I am new to the process instead of starting big and going with a district wide PE blog, I think an Apollo blog (my building) for Physical education would be a better place to start. My colleagues feel that this is a great idea and have volunteered to help with the blog in any way that they can. In our last department meeting we discussed what topics or concerns would be appropriate to include in the blog. This is what we came up with:
-Our rules and expectations.-Units covered and learning objectives.
-Fitness tips and why we include fitness in our program.-Who our PE students of the month are.
-Success stories from class. -Sports offered in the Fall, Winter, and Spring seasons. What is needed for tryouts in each sport.
- Possible video of classes in session. -Winning teams in our unit tournaments.
-Fitnessgram. What is it and why is it important. -Our daily grading rubric.
In our weekly department meeting, we plan to set aside a few minutes each week to discuss what is needed to make this blog available to our school community and how we can attract parents, and students to visit our blog. Our integrating technology teachers are willing to work with us to make sure our blog is designed and functions properly. Our next task is collecting all the information we need for the material we plan to include in the blog. I would also like to pick a date for the onset of our blog. 
Todd to Mike -
ReplyDeleteYou have a lot of great ideas, and I do not want to seem like I am throwing a wet blanket over them. However, you may want to check with your district administration to make sure you are allowed to do some of these. For example, our district required a signed release from the parents before any videos, pictures, or text is published to the Internet from a student. It is very different to post a picture of a student in a hallway display for student of the month, compared to putting their picture on your webpage. I would imagine that there is some kind of policy in place, and it might be just a matter of a phone call or email to make sure everything is acceptable. We had an incident where one elementary school in our district put a video of a Halloween parade up. It turns out there was a student involved in an abusive custody battle, and the absentee parent saw the picture and re-engaged their pursuit of the child. The custodial parent had a fit, and they were absolutely right, because they specifically forbid the school from posting anything.
Again, I think your ideas are great, and it would be a shame if something good you tried to accomplish was not to policy.
Good luck!
Todd Deschaine
Mike,
DeleteYou are incredibly lucky to have a collaborative group to help institute this endeavor. The multiple perspectives and varying levels of abilities with the technology will make this a much less intimidating venture. You were smart to downsize your original plan. Thinking big is great, but if the task is too overwhelming it will never last. Better to start with something you can manage and sustain than to go big and stop.
In terms of the privacy issues mentioned above, I wonder if your IT people could recommend a site that is not fully public to start. Perhaps the site could be only open to students and parents to start, like a Moodle or Edmodo, and then as your experience grows and you are able to maintain the privacy of your student's identity, you can make it more public. Keeping it in a closed community to start would allow you to experience and recover or completely avert any mistakes like the one mentioned in Todd's post.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some interesting ideas that could be posted in your blog. All of your ideas are something great to have available, but I wonder how much traffic the blog will get without some incentive to visit it. Your idea of the PE student of the month is a good way to give your blog unique exclusivity, as is video of class session. I see you put “possible” before mentioning the videos, which leads me to believe that you are tentative about showcasing video of minors, especially if you did not have consent. Anyways, by having students respond or contribute to the blog once a month, or set up some sort of assessment to ensure they visited it; this technological implementation will have a much greater impact for your students. You could also make sure the parents are incorporated by having them sign off on their visitation to the site and taking a more active roll in their child’s physical education.
-RICH
Tracy to Mike:
ReplyDeleteYour ideas sound fantastic! I especially like the idea of your department doing this collectively. Having your own blog for the entire department is a great way for you and your school to effectively incorporate technology.
It also seems to me that you would save lots of money on paper, because you would have a syllabus online and would be able to communicate with parents on a daily basis if needed. Again, I think it's great that your entire department is willing to help with this project.
Good luck!
Mike,
ReplyDeleteYou have really put some thought into your Game plan, especially by calling on your colleagues to assist with your blog. I can easily see the incorporation of students with this blog, in its development. Parents will also be impressed, hopefully bringing more attention to your department. Speaking from experience, I know that Physical Education is still overlooked and this blog could be key to connecting with your students and the community.
Good luck.