Response to "Giving PE the Respect It Deserves"

Alright, this issue sounds like a broken record to me...give PE the respect it deserves.  We all have heard that the US is one of the most obese countries in the world and we all want to do something to fix that, yet our students are seeing less and less physical activity time in school because all of the time goes to standardized testing or meeting state standards or something to do with meeting requirements created by leaders who have no education background.  Less recess, activity breaks and PE time are not helping the fight against childhood obesity.  According to Helen Durkin of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, only 6 states require PE in every grade and only 3 states require at least 150 mins of PE/week in elementary schools. In my school my students get one 40 minutes session of PE a week! And with holidays and different school activities that means I only see my students 32 times a year! How crazy is that?!

In the article Helen did point out that one recent movement, in fact one I have joined at my school is the "Let's Move in Schools" act created by Michelle Obama that aims to get students up and moving. WHile acts and programs like Fuel Up to Play are great supplemental programs, nothing compares to regular physical activity and physical education class.


Durkin, H. (2013, March 11). Giving pe the respect it deserves. The Hill. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/287309-giving-pe-the-respect-it-deserves

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Response to "7 Things You Should Know about Ning"

Before I read this article I had no clue what Ning was. I learned that Ning is a website that helps users create a new type of social media or social networking site. Ning helps you design a website and promote and build it. People use Ning for different reasons, some use it to create webpages similar to Myspace or Facebook.  Others use it for keeping in touch with different sorority or alumni events. Some users may even use it to promote different products. Ning makes it very user friendly for registered users to join. They simply let the user put in the information they want and create a new page. Because ning is so user friendly and personal it would be great for students in middle to high school to create their own pages and learn about the importance of safe social media and acceptable uses. I would love to see this used in technology classes.

Educause Learning Initiave. (n.d.). 7 things you should know about ning. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7036.pdf

Response to "Stop trying to figure out if screentime is good for students"

This article was very interesting. The author made some unique points about people criticizing too much screentime. The author, Lisa Nielsen, is pushing for the use of technology in schools. She talks about how we need to prepare our students for the future and that means technology and screens. While we want students to exercise and get fresh air we can't completely eliminate technology from their lives or it is our failure as teachers to prepare them for the real world, new careers and up and coming jobs. Screentime is not what is causing obesity, it is the elimination of PE, recess and teaching students about healthy lifestyles.  Technology is not 100% to blame. She made some really great points. I would definitely recommend reading this article.


Nielsen, L. (2013, October 30). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/10/stop-trying-to-figure-out-if-screentime.html

Response to 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis

Before I started this program through CMU I thought wikis were something that went along with WIKIPEDIA.  Now in almost every class in the program I have participated in an individual or class wiki. Wikis are a huge educational technology tool. Wikis are basically a blog that can be edited and collaborated on with as many people as the author allows. For instance my wiki can only be edited by myself and whomever I invite to view it.  Our group wikis can be changed and edited by anyone in our specific group. While this is great for educational collaboration sometimes because so many people can change or modify the information presented in the wiki information can become skewed. I really enjoy doing our group essays on the WIKI it is a unique way to collaborate and I wish I had known about such a method during my undergrad group project days.  Always learning something new!


Educause Learning Initiave. (n.d.). 7 things you should know about wikis. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf

5 ideas to strengthen the home-school connection in the 1:1 classroom

Administrators at my school are constantly stresses the connection between home, school and the community.  While many teachers have blogs or send home weekly letters the connection just isn't completely there. We all know that students with family involvement succeed more in school than those without.  This article provided a few ways to keep the connection alive.

For me having a blog is very time consuming, and just how many parents actually read it?! I liked that the author mentioned using twitter. How great! It is much faster and more convenient for both parents and teachers to use.  I actually think I might start a twitter account with my students. Along the same lines is Facebook, I did use this in years past,  and parents loved it, however it was pretty time consuming again for me.  One idea I wouldn't have thought of that would be great in a classroom setting was student-led parent workshops.  Basically students invite parents in and "teach" them 1 on 1 about whatever they are currently learning. This could even be doing via youtube!

Great ideas!


Nielsen, L. (2013, November 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/11/5-ideas-to-strengthen-home-school.html

How the Power of Interest Drives Learning

I really enjoyed this article, I am all about having students find something they are interested in and developing on that subject. It is great to expose students to many different things, but it's also important to help them find things they are interested in so they can learn more.  For instance many journal writing topics focus on emotions "how do you feel about this?" "what do you think of that?" these are topics typically girls do a better job zoning in on.  Boys however need topics like "what are the rules to playing this game?" or "how would you build a fort?" Boys would take more of an interest in writing if they had more topics they enjoyed writing about. The author discusses not just capturing students' attention but then being able to hold the students attention for prolonged periods of time.


Paul, A. M. (2013, November 4). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/how-the-power-of-interest-drives-learning/

Response to "PE Goes High Tech"

This blog was extremely beneficial to me.  As a PE teacher I find it so hard to accommodate technology into physical education, especially when I don't have the resources.  I was given an ipad this year but rarely ever use it even though it is full of PE apps.  Instead I carry around my pencil and grade book and then input scores and times by hand into the computer. This article offered me insight into two apps worth downloading.  Teacherpal is basically a spreadsheet that can help keep track of student growth and I am able to then export, import and backup the data all year long. The other handy app, Daily Fit Log lets the teacher track specific fitness information like times, laps, etc. It is great for goal setting. I have recently downloaded both apps on my ipad and will be looking into them and taking them for trial run later on this month. Another huge benefit of Daily Fit Log is that students can log in and find their information from any computer and the information should carry over year after year.

barseghian, T. (2012, march 12). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/author/tbarseghian/

Response to "How Physical Fitness May Promote School Success"

Well this shouldn't be a surprise to most educators, it is something that has been popping up in the news quite frequently.  Physical education, fitness, activity, etc. seems to have a positive correlation with success in school. Thus, this is the argument most physical educators push for when PE is eliminated from schools. My school has students run or exercise 10 minutes before a standardized test, because studies have show exercise helps brain activity. While we may not know exactly what types of activity specifically help aid learning it is important we understand the correlation between physical activity and learning.  Many of the teachers at my school participate in Brain Breaks 1 or 2 times a day because our students only receive 1 day of PE a week.  Not only are brain breaks a good way to stimulate learning they also get some of that excess energy out that may impede learning!



Reynolds, G. (2013, September 18). How physical fitness may promote school success. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/how-physical-fitness-may-promote-school-success/?_r=0