Final Blog Post

In this blog post I will reflect on what I have learned and how it will affect my ability to effectively and appropriately integrate technology in the content area I teach. The GAME plan that I developed and followed throughout the course can be viewed in more detail by reading the previous blog postings below. The physical education classroom website that was created has increased collaboration and communication with teachers, students, parents, and other community members. Other teachers have taken ideas from the physical education classroom website and used these ideas on their own website such as the year in review section to let people know what has been learned so far in the current school year. Parents and students like to view the online physical activity calendar and participate in the activities as a family as a fun way to exercise and keep their bodies healthy. This website is helping people be physically active and healthy. The easy communication with parents via email has been a success as well. For example, parents and teachers are able to have convenient communication with one another without having to figure out a time to meet in person or worry about students losing notes that are being sent to and from home.

One immediate adjustment that I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in physical education class as a result of my learning from this course is an online program called Xtranormal. This website allows users to type in whatever text that they want and the online program will quickly and easily create an animation video to present the text that was typed in by the user. This may allow teachers to present information in a way that will engage students and increase their understanding of content. Another piece of technology that will be integrated into the classroom is when a student earns a “star ticket” while in my classroom, I will email the student’s family to let them know how proud I am for their effort in physical education class. Having positive contact with families can promote a positive learning environment and can also help parent-teacher interactions in the future if a concern about the student arises thus making it easier for teachers and parents to work together to help the student.