Wow!  I don't know about you guys, but thinking about all the work required for this portfolio is a little overwhelming!  I have spent quite a bit of time working on the planning of this over the last few days and wanted to share my ideas, tips, and suggestions (for whatever they are worth) and ask you to do the same.

In my school, I only see students once a week and that doesn't begin until week 2 of the school year - so next week.  The first week I have students, I always teach the class rules, procedures, and routines.  My classes will be 45 minutes long and I am sure I will need to plan to spend the first 5-10 minutes for the next few weeks reviewing those with students throughout the class period.  My big three procedures are Entering the Gym, Attention, and Cleaning Up/Lining Up. 

I plan to practice the testing protocol the second and third week that 2nd and 5th grade classes come to my class.  I also plan to assess all of the 2nd and 5th grade classes I teach because I want to submit the class(es) that show the greatest amount of overall student growth.  There is no way I will know which classes that will be so I plan to assess them all.

I have already sought out the person in my building responsible for the video equipment and set up the possible dates I have planned to video the assessment.  So, here's a break down of how I plan to do it (at least for now):

Week 1 - No students yet

Week 2 - Rules, Procedures, Routines

Week 3 - Practice Protocol #1

Week 4 - Practice Protocol #2

Week 5 - Administer Cognitive Test (in case my pennies are not in yet)

Week 6 - Administer Assessment #1 to 2nd and 5th graders

Week 7 - Administer Assessment #2 to 2nd and 5th graders


Obviously, I am not going to stress out if this gets pushed back due to typical interruptions in our schedule.  There are just too many other things that deserve my energy and I refuse to get upset.  I have printed out two calendars in Publisher (Understated Theme) and have penciled in the info above.

I would love to hear what you, or someone you know, is planning to do and any ideas, suggestions, or tips that you can share with everyone else.  What works for me may or may not work for you and vise verse.  So, the more we share, the better the chances we find something that will benefit each of us.

Check back often as I plan to share all that I can and hope you will too.  Also, please forward this information to your colleagues through Facebook, Twitter, email, and other social media.  This could really help someone who is struggling with this process.  I would rather be evaluated on my teaching than on what others in the building are doing since I cannot control what goes on in their classroom and I would like to encourage you to have that same attitude.  This is an opportunity for us to better our profession and to validate ourselves.  As many of you know, PE is not required by the federal government and if the State of Tennessee deemed it unnecessary, PE could be cut and so would our jobs.  This is a fantastic opportunity for us to show our value in the education of the total child.  Do miss out!

PLCs are the latest "trend" in education and one that hopefully will be here to stay.  I posted a post a few weeks ago about using Google+ to join professional learning communities and tonight I want to share another really good PLC called SimpleK12.  Some of it's resources are free and some require membership.  I took part in a few free webinars that weekend and they were great.  Who knows, this might be great for you.  Check it out!

SimpleK12

A few weeks ago I did a workshop on Monitoring Student Growth and I shared a simple form that I developed to record data about student performance over time.  That's the key to showing growth - over time!  I take the data from this form and put it into GradeCam and viola!  I have B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L data, charts, and simple analysis tools ready for me to share and talk about where my students were before I taught the lesson/unit, how they improved over time, and where they wound up by the end of the school year, semester, etc. 

If you have not heard about GradeCam or seen some of the amazing things you can do with it, please go to www.gradecam.com and take a quick tour.  This is a free tool that can truly enhance your students' learning while also providing you with proof that you moved them.

The Essential Skills Form below is in Excel format so you can use it right away.  I have also attached a sample Essential Skills Form to demonstrate one way that you might use this form in your class.

The annual TAHPERD conference will be held this coming Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Murfressboro, TN at the Embassy Suites.  Click here to get more information.

Teachers often ask me, "Where do you find all of this stuff?"  Well, today I am going to share one of the easiest ways that I stay abreast of the latest technology and their uses in the classroom.  Google+!  If you have not checked out Google+, you should sign up today and check it out.  There are thousands of online communities and there is surely one that is a fit for you.  I am a member of a number of communities, as you can see below.  You can create your own community for your class, your school, etc.  For example, I created one below for our Teacher Leaders (Memphis Central Teacher Leaders).  You can make your community public or private and only allow certain people to have access to the content and conversations.  You can post articles and other documents in your community as well.

Using online communities is a great way to network with other people in our field all across the country.  Just do some general searches for things that you are interested in and you will see a number of communities pop up.  If there is one that sounds good to you but it is "Private," just send a request to join the community and go from there.

I also created on for my class, Fitness & Conditioning, and I plan to introduce it to my students soon.  Here, they will be required to engage in discussions about topics discussed or learned in class.  This is a great way to gather information about what your students know about a topic and to reveal what misconceptions they may have as well.  You can also easily embed short surveys to assess or inventory students' interests, for example.  The ideas are endless!  I plan to have surveys for parents where they give me information about the lifestyle practices their family engages.  The more I know about my students, the better able I am to teach to their needs!

Another way that I use Google+ is to read about the latest technology and how other teachers are using it in their classrooms across all subjects.  I steal a lot!  (Please don't tell on me!)  I may find a great idea from someone in a different content area, but I make a few changes and modify it so that it works for me in my classroom. (Try it!  I will not tell!!)  :-)

Check out some of the communities that I subscribe to below and sign up today.  As always, I am here to help.  Shoot me an email or leave a comment here.  By the way, this blog is also a great example of an online community, but here I cannot control who engages and who does not.  I would love to hear if this works for you or not so leave comments or shoot me an email!

It is always so refreshing to go to professional development workshops and see teachers excited about what they do.  I truly enjoyed seeing so many teachers that I have known for quite some time and meeting so many new teachers.  Coming together is really such a good thing! 

I hope those of you that came to my session walked away with at least one idea on how you can improve your classroom instruction.  I would like to start a blog where health and physical educators can come together, learn from one another, and support one another.  As we move forward and begin to learn more about how Common Core affects us and how we will be evaluated, I would like to share strategies for meeting the new demands.  Please join the conversation and leave comments.  I really love hearing from and communicating with other health and physical education teachers. 

Click the link below for the PowerPoint for my presentation today.  Email (coachnikibray@gmail.com) or text (901-496-0955) if you have any questions.  Please leave a comment!!  Subscribe to the feeds for this blog for updates by clicking on the RSS Feeds link on the right side of the page.