Wednesday, May 11, 2011

255 Final

The website if from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The school is in South Saskatoon, Canada.

This news story was awesome! I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it yet. It is something I'd like to share with those who are still in denial that the condition of the body directly effects the mind. I think all teachers, PE or not should look into grants and programs to help them gain equipment to have such programs in their own school.

We don't hear about the Physical Education class because it is just another typical, sub-par PE Class. The PE teacher isn't doing anything amazingly special or comparing data to prove the need for physical activity.

By the end of this program many students had a higher performance in many subject areas than they had before the implementation of treadmills within the classroom. Not only did the students benefit in their grades, their behavior was noticeably different. Before the program students wouldn't stay in their seats more than 5 minutes. They swore and talked back and were rarely focused. Students actually began coming to class and being excited to be there, giving them so many more opportunities to learn. If you don't go to class, you don't learn. Now that students were regularly attending, they had so much more potential for learning. This program does meet the NYS Learning Standards. Standard 1A and 1B were met when the students began running, biking, and walking. They gained knowledge on those basic motor skills. Also the use of heart monitors and used that information towards creating a plan of their own meets standard 1B. Throughout this program a more positive learning environment was created. With the implementation of exercise, the students behavioral problems decreased and created a safer classroom, meeting Standard 2. One parent mentioned that their child encouraged them to go on walks at home out of the classroom. This shows Standard 3 at work, having students be aware of things to do outside the classroom.

B.D.N.F.= Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor

This is a growth factor found in the brain that helps neurons in the brain and also helps growth and development of new neurons. This causes the brain cells to become stronger. Research shows that aerobic activities help increase BDNF!

There are countless activities that meet standards 1A and 1B. 6&3 across 3 means that by their senior year students should be recreation ally competent in 6 activities, proficient in 6 across 3 different categories. I know in my experience this was not the case. In many classes students in PE were graded on attendance, if they were dressed, and then on participation. No emphasis was put on motivation or effort in PE, students did just enough to get by. In my experience in asking fellow students and thinking back to my years in PE I do not believe many schools in the State are using the 6&3 / 3 as a grading standard. Students in a PE class should be able to meet the 6&3 across 3 by their senior year. Students have been instructed in PE since kindergarten. If the curriculum is built from the bottom up and is well planned and written, at least 85% of grade 12 students should be able to meet this goal.

Standard 1B is extremely important. Once students leave their high school PE class, they are on their own physically unless they are an athlete playing at a collegiate level. Students should be able to have the skills and tools needed to create and follow their own fitness plan in order to stay active even when they aren't being told to by a teacher. Students should be able to develop a fitness plan a few weeks into school, and follow it while logging progress for around 4 weeks after. This shows they can create their own fitness plan, and follow it.
The percentage of students who can write and follow a fitness plan should be around 90%. Students should also be required to research proper nutrition and log their eating habits- here you could use DAILY BURN!



check out DAILY BURN

(http://dailyburn.com/locker_room)

So far using daily burn has been helpful. There are a lot of tools and tricks on the website to be explored. I like the graphics and think they would be aesthetically pleasing to high school kids.
A teacher could have students track their daily activity and nutrition, and take snap shots to track their progress. Here the PE teacher will be able to assess the students progress and ability in Standard B 1.


For students to accomplish the regents level for Standard 1B, students can track their work outs along with their nutrition. This gives the students the opportunity to track their progress through the semester and see how their fitness progressed and visually see weight loss.In today's day and age students are always on facebook, texting, or on their iPod. Adding one more step for them to do for homework on a visually stimulating website should be simple for both the PE teacher and the students. Adding pedometers to track students steps through out the day would be a great idea. This could also be tracked online. If the students are having a difficult time with the concept of using the Daily Burn website, the teacher could always record their steps.The Daily Burn is a great tool. It has everything available at your fingertips. You can search all foods you ate and track them, you can find any type of exercise and record it. This website is a great visual for progress for your students.For individual goals. In the beginning process where you's select why you're working out I wouldn't encourage students to pick losing weight. As we all know in any classroom everyone is different and this goes for PE as well. Students won't be expected to lose weight, just use the program in a way that benefits them the most.Grading would be noticing their recorded data, not checking if they ate the right things or worked out enough.


Students would learn how to use screen shots to help in their grading. I would also have students keep up a PE blog, and post these screen shots on their blog documenting their progress. Using screen shots gives documentation that students are participating in this physical activity.

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