Physical Education for the 21st Century
Seesaw
Student-centered digital portfolio
A digital portfolio that empowers student to take ownership of their learning. Parents log into the class account and can only see what their child posts up or the class blog that the teacher creates effortlessly through the app.
Team Shake
Leave it to mother chance? No, leave it to mother phone.
I use this app regularly as it gets rid of the awkward ‘team captain’ selection process and the ‘1-2-1-2-1- what number am I, teacher?’ Enter in the names of your students, select how many teams you’re looking to use, shake, and presto! Teams sorted.
Technology
PowerPoint
Now, there are 24 teachers in the room!
I have been experimenting a lot with PowerPoint and I have to say it really does assist in developing independent and empowered learners. Airdrop or create a link for the students to download it and all of a sudden, the whole unit is in their hands. It allows students to develop skills at their own pace but also creates opportunities for leadership by coaching others. This turns a teacher-led lesson, into a student-centered classroom with the teacher being a facilitator of learning. I have my PowerPoints here.
SportsTracker
Run your sports events like a pro
During my athletics events, I set up a big screen which linked to the event feed. Athletes regularly came back and forth to see results continuously being updated through the software – team scores, individual results, event progress, etc.
Evernote
People will think you're an elephant
With seamless connectivity between all devices I can write notes down into my phone when something in my class occurs and use it for report cards down the track on my laptop. With over 400 students to look after it can be tough to keep track of student achievements mentally, therefore, Evernote helps with my mental shortcomings.
Sprint Timer
Race against the iPad.
Turn your device into an all-in-one timing tool. This app is great since there are multiple ways to time and record your students: photo finish, video finish and motion finish. A new feature it supports is electronic starting gun connectivity – somehow, I do not think I can get that into the school budget, but we can all dream.
See the apps we use to enhance our learning environment. The images link to their relevant sites.
Kahoot!
Genius or over-confident?
A platform where you can create interactive learning games. Easily create multiple choice questions where students answer through their devices. Students get points for answering the question correctly within the set time limit. However, you get more points for answering the question correctly quickly.
Plickers
An ideal formative assessment tool
Using QR codes, educators can quickly get an idea of student understanding. This is an ideal formative assessment tool where you need a snapshot of the class' progress. You can project a question on your board, ask a question out loud, etc. and students respond by rotating their "plicker" (QR code) in different directions. Super quick, although I did find the website itself a bit clunky.
ImgPlay
Easy to use GIF maker
Does what it says on the packet. Quickly makes those GIFs so students can see small clips repeatedly to enhance understanding. Need them to do a warm-up but too busy to explain? Film yourself doing the warm-up, create GIF, stick them in to a PowerPoint, project onto your screen, boom, done. Students automatically see what they need to do.
Sportplan
Quick! I need a drill!
Look no further. Drills get a bad rap but when used in the proper context they can be very useful. Usually they are simple and specific - ideal for student-led team planning and training. This does require a subscription but our PE department and sports team coaches use this regularly. Highly worthwhile since this site has drills from basketball to gymnastics, lacrosse to volleyball.
