PhysEdDude - Mark on the World

#SYTYCD Finalists @ #SISRocks

3/7/2016

Welcome back, I don’t think I’ve wrote too much in the past month or so, but I had to share this Dance Unit with you. Dance is not always a “student favorite,” and I’ve done some pretty horrific dance lessons that almost left me cringing in the corner, never wanting to try it again. Last year, the students remade “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars and after reflecting on it and my standards, the students hit the nail on the head. Choreography, rhythm (for the most part) and creativity was the result. Sixth Grade, Seventh Grade & Eighth Grade

This year I moved up to high school and wanted to push the boundaries a little bit with the So You Think You Can Dance Challenge. I remember thinking about this unit over the summer and then I watched a couple of SYTYCD episodes to get some inspiration. The result was this assignment with the following instructions, a Google Doc of FAQ and three class periods (80 minutes each) for students produced their videos.

Basic Task Breakdown

Get a Group - You and your partner are going to be responsible for creating a 60-90 second choreographed dance.
Find a Song and/or Dance - You’ll only be given 2 class periods to PLAN, PRACTICE and FILM your routine. The Song/Dance is all up to you!
Choreograph the Dance - You are meant to REMIX the video, not copy the exact same moves, but make it your own! Your OWN dance moves, your OWN dress and your OWN style!
Practice - This assignment will be graded under MOVEMENT as well as the collaboration ESLR. If you are working with a larger group to many voices can be counter productive. Stay on track, appoint someone to be the facilitator so that there are not too many people talking but ideas are still getting shared.
Perform AND Record - No matter where you are going to be shooting please respect the environment and take notice of others so that you are not a disturbance.
Reflection - ALL students need to “TURN IN” an individual reflection on Edmodo. The reflection piece is described below.

Below you can check out all 18 videos produced, there is another finalist videos and congrats to TEAM 5 for winning it all!

Google Doc - SYTYCD Challenge

#SYTYCD #PhysEd Challenge @ #SISrocks

2/2/2016

You've seen it at least ONCE on TV, but now it's time to make it a part of your classroom experience. This semester my students are participating in a #SYTYCD Challenge in PE. Their goal is very simple 60-90 second audition tape that will be judged by their peers.

Students get to choose the music, choreograph their ORIGINAL moves, then put it all together for the school to vote on the top 5 dancers or dance groups. From there the world decides.

If you'd like to see more about how it's been done. Check out this GoogleDoc and don't forget to drop a comment here if you have any questions!

@Edmodo Tip 4 Homework

1/25/2016

So...I get it! @Edmodo is a great tool to use when teaching, but it can get frustrating when students are not handing in homework correctly. If student's don't hand it in correctly, it opens up three other programs on your computer and well to be honest wastes your time.

I just wanted to shoot out a quick message to show you how I have tried to combat this problem with my students. I create a "Note" on Edmodo with my rules and "Pin" it to the top of each class. If something is not done correctly I don't grade it, if it's late because of that, it's on the student.

Take, Modify, Share, Repeat!

Text from my NOTE:

When turning in you homework, please remember the following:

1. Always turn in a piece of work as either a comment or a PDF. If you do not submit a PDF your work will NOT be graded. This also means that it will be considered LATE and it will be counted against your "Independent Learning" ESLR grade.

2. If you would like to RESUBMIT an assignment, that's fine, all you need to do is turn it in as a COMMENT under the same assignment. This seems basic, but many people forget to do this.

3. Questions about assignments are fine to ask me face to face, but if you don't write it down on the actual assignment I may not get to it. All assignments, comments and questions should be submitted on EDMODO, I will not accept emails.

4. If you have problems with your EDMODO account for ANYTHING, please come and talk to me. It DOES work, there might just be a small hiccup. If you can't upload an assignment at home, I get it, the internet is much better at the school so try there.

Thant's it for now, but if other things come up please make sure you check here and try and problem solve b4, going coming to me! (Brain, Browse, Buddy, Boss)

Thank You,
@PhysEdDude

PLO @ #SISRocks w/the #SISPhysEd Crew

12/21/2015

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

A quick check in! I don't actually know who it is that uses this website, but I wanted to let you all know that I appreciate your visits. Truly, this site is a self serving organizational tool, but I appreciate knowing that others are getting use out of it as well. I wouldn't mind hearing from you, write a quick comment below and let me where you're from!

I wanted to take a bit of time and send out a PLEA!

Last year, I decided enough was enough in terms of the amount of professional learning in Asia for physical educators. So, I took it as a personal challenge to make a difference. I started by creating a webpage, defining a mission, and creating objectives for iPEC, a conference for Physical Educators by Physical Educators. In April 2015 we hosted 25 professionals from four different countries, ran six sessions and got an amazing amount of PD. Some colleagues left saying, "the best PD they have EVER HAD!"

Similar to last year, the iPEC team is planning on running a PLO in Shekou on January 30th. Saturday is going to be filled with some amazing PD, and we're looking to secure a couple of sponsors but to be very honest, not a lot of people have signed up and we can’t secure any sponsors with out having an event to sponsor.

I don’t know how many of you are still around, but I wanted to reach out and personally invite you to join us on January 30th and share with some other professionals you may know would be interested in this great opportunity. This year’s PLO plans challenge the understanding you have of PE, what it should look like in your school as well as give you some practical take aways to implement in your classroom on Monday. Andy Vasily, GoPros and Spikeball are some of our exciting highlights so PLEASE sign up today and let's get together for a great event.

It may be a time crunch to get in touch with your administrator, but I guarantee, it'll be worth it! Have a look at the website and sign up online...NOW!

Thanks again for stopping by, giving this a read and forwarding it on to those you may feel could join us in Shekou, Shenzhen on January 30th!

Students have questions, get them to answer them!

11/10/2015

I love telling my students to... PROVE IT! They may not always appreciate me saying that but it's true. This world continues to change around us, and when you're teaching #Life Skills (Health, in the US) you need to be on top of your game. One way I challenge my students is first let them ask you ANY question they would like about nutrition. Don't allude that they'll be answering the questions, but then drop this assignment on them!

Nutritional Questions Assignment
So...you all have been coming up with some GREAT questions. Some of them will be answered and discussed throughout the nutritional unit, but as a class, you are going to tackle most of these questions! This assignment is very clear cut, see my example below and use the following task list to complete your OWN research on a question you have. See the assignment on Google Docs.

#Reasons2bActive @ #SISPhysEd

11/7/2015

Hey Ya'll! Haven't been around for a while, but that's pretty typical of teachers, our classrooms become our lives, our students become our kids and out time becomes extinct. I have always wanted to make sure I posted an assignment, or something else I thought was pretty cool I did in class, but that hasn't happened for WAY TOO LONG! Well the wait is over, check out this assignment I just thought up with a bit of help from some colleagues.

This assignment was dreamt up after I saw a cool line of posters on tumblr following the #reasonstobefit. It got me wondering if students could recognize reasons WHY Physical Education is such a meaningful subject. After sitting on this project for about a year, some new people @ #SISrocks, Brittany McCrea & Peter Hennigar, brought the idea back to me and now we’re going to do something special!

Want to have a look at the full assignment? Check it out here! #Reasons2bActive - Art, PE & Technology

#Reasons2bActive Tweets

Professional Caricature

10/15/2015

I have had some comments about my professional caricature and thought I would answer everyone who was interested at once. The company is DimpleArt and they are GREAT! It was very easy and reasonably priced. I would recommend it to ANYONE wanting to spice up their profile and get ONE image to brand yourself.

That's it, short and sweet! Hope all is well and let me know if you have any questions!

The Music Video Challenge #SISPhysEd

8/16/2015

This is something I did last year during our movement unit, but I really thought the outcome was pretty great and worth sharing. It's a rougher version of the assignment, but I'll clean it up when we revisit it later this year @ #SISphysed!

Super excited to be sharing this with the #PhysEd teachers out there, or really anyone who wants to make a music video. The idea came from a moment of reflection during my morning routine, I thought, "how fun would it be to make our OWN music video!" I am the kind of teacher that wants to have as much fun as the students are having, so here is what i conceived. Have a look and let me know if there is anything I should add. Better yet, request to edit the document and you can add some of your thoughts!

Welcome Letter for #SISPhysEd @ #SISRocks

8/16/2015

Hello SIS Parents and Students,

On behalf of the Physical Education Team at Bayside, I wanted to welcome you and introduce you to an interesting component of the Gecko PhysEd Program, something that makes it different than other programs you may have experienced. Here at #SISRocks, we think it is very important to quantify students’ efforts in PE. Because of the many advances in “wearable technologies” and their inevitable use for fitness tracking, we have taken the opportunity to fit ALL (yes, each and every one!) of our students with Polar Heart Rate Sensors.

The Polar HR Sensors are a very important part to what we call “physical literacy,” and the PE program uses them to justify the main reporting standard: Fitness Performance. Each student is different when it comes to fitness levels; some have been active for a long time and are physically able to endure more activity for a longer singular period, while others may not have been as active and cannot sustain that same activity level. We are aiming to eject the antiquated mentality in most Physical Education Programs, which penalizes students for not being able to accomplish a timed mile run or reach a certain amount of laps when swimming. At SIS we recognize not EVERYONE is going to be able to achieve the highest level (compared to his/her peers), however, we can take the step to monitor a student’s heart rate and know if they are putting in a good effort (as compared to his/her own previous efforts).

As your student uses the sensors in PE, they will have access to their data immediately through an online portal. It would be great for you to ask them how they are doing, and converse with them about what they can do to improve. Just login to www.polargofit.com and enter their user name and password to see what kind of effort they have been putting in during PE class.

Although this is an informational letter, it’s real purpose is to offer students the opportunity to buy their own strap that houses the sensor. To briefly explain the technology: there is the actual sensor that measures and records heart rate, and the rubber strap it fits into that the child wears (next to their skin, on their rib cage). SIS provides a strap for every student, but those straps are used by multiple classes and different students. In order to ensure proper hygiene, the straps are washed at the end of every day. Upon request from many students, we are now able to offer straps available for purchase.

Here is the information you’ll need to know if your student would like to have their own strap:

Straps will cost 100rmb and be his/her forever.
They are responsible for writing their name on it to make sure if lost, it can be identified.
Bring 100rmb to Apphia (SIS Accountant) on the first floor of Bayside on any FRIDAY from 12:30-13:00.
Once the strap is paid for, the student will get a Fapiao from Apphia.
Bring the Fapiao to Mr. Knudsen, he’ll sign off on it and give the student a strap.

If you have any questions, please send mknudsen@sis.org.cn an email and he can answer them.

Thank you for your support and please check out #SISPhysEd on Twitter, and if you’d like to follow any of the PE Team you can find them on the Twitterverse as:

@clos_gm Carlos Galvez (Grade 6-9)
@wondermeaghan Meaghan Wilson (Grade 6-8)
@PhysEdDude Mark Knudsen (Grade 9-10)

Sincerly,

The PhysEd Crew @ Bayside
#SISPhysEd

Creating a Positive Online Presence (POP) - #SISrocks

6/1/2015

Just finished up a unit with my 10th Grade Life Skills class about their Online Presence. Most kids know they need to watch what they say on social media, but how many know the direct impact it could have in their future...College, Post-Grad, Profession?

There are a lot of positive things that can come from having a Positive Online Presence, but there are also situations students need to be aware of. Have a quick read of the 120 minute lesson introduction. I am always looking for things that could help solidify my research and lesson, so please don't hesitate to pass on any other information!

The research below is about creating a Positive Online Presence. Student’s now, don’t realize but their online presence is going to be directly related to getting hired for a job. CareerBuilders.com has been poling employeers and the numbers continue to rise for those employers who DO use social networking to hire candidates... Read More.