Professional Practice
"Members apply professional knowledge and experience to promote student learning. They use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities. Members refine their professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection." - OCT
Keeping Active - Keeping it FUN!
Immediately after virtually meeting the students on the first Observation Day in Spring 2021, I made it my main goal to improve the sense of engagement and fun in the classroom. Energy was low, students were staring at a screen most of the day, not moving or saying much, and very few if any cameras were turned on.
Of course, the more fun something is, the more engaged students will be. And taking over the Health & Physical Education block gave me plenty of opportunity for fun, through games and activities. It was time for us to do some dancing. Combined with the awareness of how much competition can help engage boys (especially in areas like dance) as well as neurodiverse learners, I introduced the game of Freeze Dance. This meant more than one moment of me dancing hard and all on my own on camera, but eventually (perhaps because they felt bad for me, but more likely when they realized it could be fun and the self-consciousness dropped away), it became quite the dance party. And so began the first of 3 times that my Associate Teacher remarked during our month together, "I think this is the record for most camera's we've seen turned on." She also kindly passed on what was happening in the chat, which I couldn't see since I was trying to get them all dancing, with students clearly noticing how I was "really into, and feeling the music", and that they all appreciated this modelling of joy of movement, and lack of self-consciousness.
The students had a great time, and we quickly scrapped the idea of the 'rules of the game' altogether as they involved elimination, and the name of the game after all is really involvement and participation. After 20 minutes of dancing, I stopped so we could move on to the next activities. Students asked if we could have these dance parties every day - and we ended up doing them twice a week. I also noticed how one or two of the songs I had put into that first class playlist (from my widely eclectic taste in music) didn't quite land with the students. Most stopped moving.
I posted the 'song request list for tha dj' doc you see below, and thus our playlist (above) was born. It is also linked here on Spotify, for your listening pleasure...
Of course, the more fun something is, the more engaged students will be. And taking over the Health & Physical Education block gave me plenty of opportunity for fun, through games and activities. It was time for us to do some dancing. Combined with the awareness of how much competition can help engage boys (especially in areas like dance) as well as neurodiverse learners, I introduced the game of Freeze Dance. This meant more than one moment of me dancing hard and all on my own on camera, but eventually (perhaps because they felt bad for me, but more likely when they realized it could be fun and the self-consciousness dropped away), it became quite the dance party. And so began the first of 3 times that my Associate Teacher remarked during our month together, "I think this is the record for most camera's we've seen turned on." She also kindly passed on what was happening in the chat, which I couldn't see since I was trying to get them all dancing, with students clearly noticing how I was "really into, and feeling the music", and that they all appreciated this modelling of joy of movement, and lack of self-consciousness.
The students had a great time, and we quickly scrapped the idea of the 'rules of the game' altogether as they involved elimination, and the name of the game after all is really involvement and participation. After 20 minutes of dancing, I stopped so we could move on to the next activities. Students asked if we could have these dance parties every day - and we ended up doing them twice a week. I also noticed how one or two of the songs I had put into that first class playlist (from my widely eclectic taste in music) didn't quite land with the students. Most stopped moving.
I posted the 'song request list for tha dj' doc you see below, and thus our playlist (above) was born. It is also linked here on Spotify, for your listening pleasure...
| song_request_list_for_tha_dj.docx |
When I played the songs students had chosen, or we danced together to the music videos of their choices - and in some cases when students even tried to teach some of the moves themselves - engagement soared. This was student voice student choice in action.
Other ways I kept the physical activities fun and engaging were through sharing a great video that linked to the Unit on Space we were doing in Science, and introducing a months-long plank competition where we would record our times using different colours of the word BOOM in all capitals to correspond with different time range groupings - thus lowering the risk of student's doubting or comparing themselves too much to others, and still showing the possibility of tracking our improvements over time. (This chart also provided a great set of data we could later use to practice graphing with). When typing the word BOOM, I encouraged students to SAY IT OUT LOUDLY as they did so, to signify both accomplishment and the burst of energy that we now had after engaging in the physical act of a plank.
Another activity I came up with was 'write in a wall-sit', where we quickly discussed the benefits of exercise whilst standing on one leg. Then, students had to go and get something to write with and on, and get into a wall-sit position - basically sitting without a chair against the wall, thus engaging the legs and core. Then, after joking that I simply HAD to tell them a super long personal story before giving them the activity instruction, students were told they had to write down 2 benefits of exercise, in legible and complete sentences. They can't get up to rest until this is done. The class continued in the similar pattern, next writing 2 benefits of time in nature from the plank position, which is how I first introduced them to the plank as an exercise. I taught that lesson with this fun jamboard I made. Again, physically doing the activities with students, gamifying the learning, listening to student's interests, and continually finding creative ways to keep virtual schooling active all helped to drive engagement, which of course is a precursor of performance. And from all that we know about the crucial benefits exercise has for the brain and cognition, the more we can get them moving the better!
Other ways I kept the physical activities fun and engaging were through sharing a great video that linked to the Unit on Space we were doing in Science, and introducing a months-long plank competition where we would record our times using different colours of the word BOOM in all capitals to correspond with different time range groupings - thus lowering the risk of student's doubting or comparing themselves too much to others, and still showing the possibility of tracking our improvements over time. (This chart also provided a great set of data we could later use to practice graphing with). When typing the word BOOM, I encouraged students to SAY IT OUT LOUDLY as they did so, to signify both accomplishment and the burst of energy that we now had after engaging in the physical act of a plank.
Another activity I came up with was 'write in a wall-sit', where we quickly discussed the benefits of exercise whilst standing on one leg. Then, students had to go and get something to write with and on, and get into a wall-sit position - basically sitting without a chair against the wall, thus engaging the legs and core. Then, after joking that I simply HAD to tell them a super long personal story before giving them the activity instruction, students were told they had to write down 2 benefits of exercise, in legible and complete sentences. They can't get up to rest until this is done. The class continued in the similar pattern, next writing 2 benefits of time in nature from the plank position, which is how I first introduced them to the plank as an exercise. I taught that lesson with this fun jamboard I made. Again, physically doing the activities with students, gamifying the learning, listening to student's interests, and continually finding creative ways to keep virtual schooling active all helped to drive engagement, which of course is a precursor of performance. And from all that we know about the crucial benefits exercise has for the brain and cognition, the more we can get them moving the better!