SIS Swimming Weebly

http://sisswimming.weebly.com/

Movie Project Description and Rubric

Swimming Video Project

Freestyle Flip Turn Video

1:1 Laptop Agreement

The middle school went 1:1 this year, so there is already a comprehensive document for technology expectations. At the end of the document, I added a few more expectations for use in and around the pool area.

Technology Expectations_Agreement Plus Pool

Audio Project: Two Voices Poem

Incorporating Tech into Swim Teaching

What is something you learned in this class that you will be able to incorporate into your teaching?


I think I can use a lot that I learned from this class. I feel much more comfortable with words like "embedding", and I'm motivated to make a practical website for the swim classes and swim teams. I don't want to use the same answer as the previous post (favourite lesson), but as I said in that post, I will try to incorporate iMovie in some way.

I think the goal I set at the beginning of class to create a teacher website will be met, so that's exciting. I'm hoping to almost eliminate the need for mass emails to different groups of students. Plus, I've been slacking on creating my own syllabus for each class since swimming is already in the PE syllabus. I'm really glad Sarah showed me "Pages". It's an easy way to organize a letter to elementary school parents, and to create a syllabus for the more grade-oriented high school classes. It looks much better too.

HS Swim Syllabus with Tech

Life Sport Swim Syllabus MC

Swim Letter to Parents ES

Grades 3,4,5 Swim Letter

CPR Prezi

CPR on Prezi

Tech for the Swim Team

What is your favorite tool you've learned about in the class so far? Why is it your favorite? How will you use it in your class?


My favorite tool that we've learned so far is iMovie. Both Sarah and Alex already knew how to use iMovie, so they helped me learn how to edit the video that they filmed. I was skeptical about using tech in the pool, but now I am starting to see it as a real asset. I still don't think I'll use it during classes, but I definitely will for the varsity swim team. I could do tutorials myself for swimming by having someone else film me, but I could also give the swimmers their own stroke analysis. I could film each swimmer at the beginning of the year, maybe spend a day teaching them how to put it together in iMovie (or let them figure it out), and then when they give it to me I could slow it down and do a running commentary so they can see the mistakes and the critique at the same time. 

CPR Presentation Assignment Guidelines

CPR First Aid Guidelines

CPR Prezi Rubrics

Content Presentation Rubrics

Melissa's Post #6 Article Review 2

The Power of Play in Learning

By Aron Levesseur

This article discusses the benefits of play in an educational environment. In the video game “Civilization”, the player has to create a civilization in 4000 B.C. and keep it prospering (or at least surviving) until the Space Age by managing the military, science, commerce, etc of the civilization. Levasseur states that, “Through trial, error, pattern recognition, logic and chance you continually reformulate your trajectory.” The idea is that you learn through doing, through making your own mistakes, and then learning how to correct those mistakes. The lessons a student can learn through this process and the knowledge they acquire can be internalized because they’ve discovered it to be true. There is a greater potential for student learning, instead of students repeating or restating what someone else has told them to be true.

In the pool, play is an essential part of the learning process. Finding balance in the water while moving in different ways, sinking, and floating are all skills that are hard to teach. Students need to be able to relax in the water with all three skills and control their breath. It’s much easier for a student to learn buoyancy on their own through trial and error, than it is for a teacher to explain the concept. Also, when students are allowed time to play in the water they can overcome fears and practice skills at their own pace. Feeling safe and comfortable in the water needs to come before stroke skills can be successfully taught.

Melissa's Blog #5 Article Review 1

The Classroom Is Obsolete: It's Time for Something New

By Prakash Nair

In this article, Nair states that the classroom is a relic from the industrial age, and that no amount of reform will improve student achievement unless it radically changes the classroom as we know it. He says ,“The research demands a personalized education model to maximize individual student achievement. Classrooms, on the other hand, are based on the erroneous assumption that efficient delivery of content is the same as effective learning.” How would this classroom look? Nair believes the stakeholders in education (from parents, students, and teachers to elected officials and business leaders) should be involved in the discussion. Although each community might come up with different principles of education, Nair has listed 12 of the most essential ones. The educational principles in the article were things like inquiry-based, student-directed, collaborative, interdisciplinary, hands-on, environmentally conscious, and offering strong connections to the local community and business while still networking globally. He advocates involving community members and businesses more in the students' education, not breaking the day up into blocks, and having multiple teachers and even parents working with the students.

I like the idea of not breaking the day up into blocks because if students know they’re leaving each class after an hour, they often try to simply endure it and then move on. It’s not enough time for a teacher or a student to really explore a subject or concept. If students could work on a project for more than one hour everyday, they could produce something to be proud of. Once you become an adult and leave school (unless you are a teacher), your day is no longer broken up into short segments of time. In most jobs, professionals work within longer time constraints in order to get the work done properly. I also like an interdisciplinary approach because subjects work together. Language Arts will be involved in every single project a student does, and there are very few projects that don’t involve technology. The other subjects also do not exist separately from each other, and most can quite easily complement each other. I am definitely in favour of changing the modern school in a radical way because our students, our teachers, our society, and our global community have changed our world so much that traditional education isn’t standing the test of time. These days, students don’t always see the value in education. They have access to as much information as the teacher does, making the opportunity for collaborative learning an easy and practical approach. 

SCREENCAST First Aid:CPR Participant's Manual

Melissa's Blog #4

"My Favorite Lesson" Share a lesson that you have done that you feel good about. Describe the lesson and explain why it is a favorite of yours. What is the learning objective ("Students will be able to...")? How do the students react to this lesson? Include the name and grade level of this lesson.

I can’t really answer this question as easily as most teachers probably can. I see each class in the school (K-12) for an average of 9 lessons per year. I don’t have time to lecture, show many videos, or even spend too much time on demonstrations and explanations. I take some time for these things depending on the class, but I’d rather minimize my speaking time and maximize their activity time. I think I use a successful succession of lessons in teaching freestyle flip turns to MS students. They start with a somersault, add the arm position with floating aids, move the drills to the wall, practice planting their feet, push off on their back, and then finally push off while rotating to their stomachs. Even though there is no brainstorming and very little discussion, the students do receive individual attention and practice time. The class does not move on as a unit, so if a swimmer needs more time practicing one of the more basic skills then they can stay at that level. They can move on when the teacher has told them to try to next step or when they think they are ready.

Melissa's Post #3

Evaluate your online reputation/digital footprint. What steps can you take to sculpt your reputation into one that is more of your liking?

I don’t have a problem with my digital footprint (no mugshots, whew), but most of the information is old. Most of the readily available information concerns my former life as a swimmer. It’s nice to have some record of that time in my life so I can remember that it existed, but it’s not very applicable to jobs I’ll apply for in the future. I need to make a teacher page that organizes my classes, my teams, and creates a connection between me, the parents, and the swimmers after they leave the pool. I’d like to be a swim coach in the States when I leave this job, so I’d like my digital footprint to focus on my career as a professional swim coach, teacher, and water safety instructor. In order to improve my footprint, it’s up to me to document my work and make it accessible. The only way to do this that I know of is through Weebly. I’ve tried to get the website going on Weebly a few times, but I have a tendency to overcomplicate things and then give up. Does anyone have a suggestion for an extremely user friendly, simple webpage creator? It’s possible that Weebly is the easiest, but I’m just making it harder than it has to be.

Melissa's Blog #2

How can you become a more effective presenter?

I can become a more effective presenter by using some of the tips outlined in class today. Usually when I use Power Point, I choose a slide design first and add photos as I go along, but it sounds like a better idea to add the content first so I can make sure to include the points that are really important (and not just add points because they go with a picture I found). I really like the idea of displaying a concise presentation with relevant points to the audience, but having more detailed notes on the computer that I can see in front of me. I can try using Prezi for the class assignment so I can add a bit of style to my presentation.

Melissa's Blog #1

In what way would you like to improve as a teacher? How do you think this course will help you to improve?


I would like to challenge myself to incorporate new ideas into the pool curriculum. I have been at this job for two years and I'm getting bored with my teaching strategies. For the first year, I kept things very simple and then this year I added some new elements that made it a bit more interesting to teach. It's still a little monotonous because I teach the same sport to every single class in the school, but next year I'd really like to try a new approach. I have lost my teaching mind since starting this job because I don't collaborate with teachers very much anymore. I think this course will help me think about how to teach swimming in different ways. Even if I don't incorporate technology directly into my teaching, I hope that I can get some ideas from other teachers that will allow me to think of ways the students can take more direct control of their learning. The most relevant technology strategy I'd like to learn is how to create and maintain a teaching website.