Evaluation and Triangulation

Proper evaluation of academic/teaching/learning programs is essential to keep the quality of the program at the highest and most effective level as possible. Especially in physical education there is an overwhelmingly high demand placed on the learning within all three of the domains, consistent quality evaluation of the student's learning, the curriculum and opportunities, and the community impact should be looked at.

Student learning can be evaluated by different forms of different assessments. There is a wide range of assessment types, and such assessments need to change depending on which domain is being tested. For example cognitive learning, affective learning and psychomotor learning at all different, thus need to be assessed differently as well, to ensure an accurate gage on where the student's learning and understanding is. As well as how well the program is helping and assisting students in the learning process.

Community impact is looking at the cost-effectiveness of the program within the triangulation realm. It is asking is the time, price, effort, costs truly having a positive influence on the program? For example, in physical education the price of equipment to help aid in student's learning is rather expensive and commonly misunderstood as too it's importance to the program. The community may have to come together to help aid in the costs of such important needs.

Curriculum and opportunities needs to be under constant review as well as student learning. This can be a bit difficult in the PE setting because typically it is more geared towards teaching and then having students active and doing which leaves little time for assessing the students and curriculum all the time. To realistically assess as often as possible the alloted time given towards the physical education time for students should be increased.

So in short, student learning (assessments towards goals and objectives), Curriculum and opportunities (constant review of the curriculum), and Community impact (the cost-effectiveness of the program and program needs) are what makes up triangulation. Which is a very effective and positive way to ensure the quality and effectiveness of a program. !

About Gradebook

Dear Ms. Sime,
I am writing to respond towards your comments of gradekeeper. The program is a successful program, depending on what you are looking to do. It does a great job to help organize the student's information and grades. I find it extremely helpful and useful for my needs. The assignments and grades are easy to keep track of, as well as what exactly the assignment was. The student's emails can be put into the system so you have easy access to that as well. Another feature I find extremely helpful is the extra credit piece. I offer lots of opportunities for my students to receive extra credit. However, it is obviously optional, so if students choose to not participate in the extra credit, that choice can not have a negative effect on their grade. This program allows to me enter something as an extra credit grade and a missing grade for a student who chose not to participate, their grade is not effected.

I hope that this helps you to feel more confident about the program.
Feel free to email me with anymore other questions or concerns.

Scottie

AHH So much to choose from!

After conducting my google searching to find different gradebook software I realized the unbelieveable amount of options out there. I decided to go with the basic gradekeeper for windows.
This is how the website explains it's pros and cons of the software:
which can be found at http://www.gradekeeper.com/

Version 6.5 makes the following improvements:

• Can now export email addresses
• Can now edit and lock the term grade
• Can include tardies in attendance deduction
• Missing extra credit work is considered excused
• Assignment scores report includes basic statistics
• Class summary report includes breakdown by grade
• Can click column header to sort by ID, name, or grade
• Can enter negative scores to deduct from points possible
• Can enter multiple email addresses in each student email field
• Can use up and down arrow to change assignment date by one day

I think I need to play with the software before I feel confident with it. But I think with time it will be a very helpful tool.

My Man Marzano

After reading the first two chapters of Marzano's book I was rather pleased with some of his ideas. I realized the significance and importance of quality and appropriate feedback to help lead students to a successful educational career.

Physical education is an environment which exposed students to step out of their comfort zone. Students tend to shut down immediately if they do not succeed, so it is vital for physical educators to provide opportunities for success. It is also important for the instructors to provide feedback which helps students to understand why what is working and why what is not working.

Also, depending on the activity, it is very important for educators to include both formative and summative assessment plans in their curriculum. Both forms have their benefits and by using both is utilize that opportunity to harness both of those benefits.

I also agree with Marzano's argument that standards have actually handicapped the learning and teaching process. There is just too much content to cover, and it seems that teachers are more focused on the standards than the actual learning that is taking place!

Group Assessments

Group assessment ideas after reading articles:
For the 10th through 12th grade levels.

Teach others about yourself, and learn about others. Introduction to each other
*to help gain respect for yourself and others
*except that individuals are different and that is a OKAY thing to be different.

Icebreakers
*initiative games to break down personal barriors
*cooperative games to build team work
*help build respect among classmates and eventually group members

Discuss expectations
*go over what is going to be assigned as group work
*encourage students to work with new people
*explain groups should not have same group members on group assignments, so choose each group wisely

Groups
*group members will grade each other on their work and participation in the group
*teacher will also grade based on observations in class and feedback from groups, and obviously quality of work
*improvement as group teamwork is expected throughout the quarters and year

Culture presentation
*students in groups will research a culture and give a presentation to the class

Culture lesson
*students in groups will learn a traditional game/sport or activity of the studied culture and a competitive game/sport or activity and teach to the entire class

Reflection
*students will write a professional and honest reflection report on how their group worked. what worked well, what didn't work well and why they thing this is.
*students will state what they learned and what they would do differently in the future.

The students will be given class time to practice their activities and sports in class time. students will also have the opportunity to discuss what their plan is with the teacher during class time. For the first group project the teacher will form groups for the students. The instructor needs to provide the opportunity for students to privately discuss concerns with the group members. However, as upperclassmen they should be able to handle simple delegation of work individually.

Letters

Dear School District,

I have a morning ritual of reading the Chicago Tribune, and to my dismay an issue we were just discussing last night around the dinner table was addressed in the new paper today. The issue I am referring to is the confusion around my child's grades, and the new grading system.

To be honest, the article actually helped clear the air and help us understand some of the questions we had. However, we still are curious about a few things. For example my daughter is in 2nd grade and using the 1-4 grading system, which we have finally figured out. We are confused as to whether or not she will have a new grading system for the upcoming 3rd grade year? If no, what kind of grading system will be used?

I am unclear why there are so many different grading systems, so if you could please clarify this for me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
have a nice day,

Annika Jones


Dear Mrs. Jones,

Thank you for your letter of interest. Surprisingly we have received a number of letters from parents regarding this topic based off the Tribune article.

In response to your question regarding the grading system for your daughter, as of now she will have the same grading system she had this past year. However, we are continually trying to improve the new grading format to most accurately show your child's performance as an individual. The old grading system pinned students against one another, not actually assessing them on their personal performance.

I hope this answers your questions.
If you have anymore questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Tera Cloude
Principal

Grades, grades, grades....

Grades are one of those things that are viewed and weighted so differently in every house hold and everyone it is hard to take a step back at look at the concept of grades solely objectively. For me personally grades became much more important in college than they ever were in high school. My parents encouraged us to get good grades, but they also did not lecture us if we goofed up an exam or got a bad grade once in awhile. I think this helped me in the long run because it almost made me want to get good grades for the prise of good grades than to not get bad grades for the lecture of not getting bad grades.

Every student is going to react differently to the grades they receive. I can vividly remember some of the "smarter" students getting a grade such as a 91 or something of that nature, a very good grade, but to them it was just not good enough. I would look down at my 80 and be like wow I am glad I am not such a Debbie Downer about grades.

References:
1.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5F-4RWBWRK-2&_user=671542&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000036438&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=671542&md5=c1ae98f5c827dcbb31d3e9b6460fa77a
2. http://www.springerlink.com/content/f464606x7508h635/
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032100760.html
4. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=99445

Summer Safety Quiz

I would like for my upper grade students to be aware of basic first aid and response to emergencies going into summer time. Basic water safety, what to do if they arrive to an accident scene first, and common first aid essentially. I will give the students a hand out of information which can be found at http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.86f46a12f382290517a8f210b80f78a0/?vgnextoid=9e7bf837443d0210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default as that is the American Red Cross summer safety website. I will ask them to read over the information provided, paying specific attention to the water safety and first aid sections. I will then administer a simple 5 question checking for understanding quiz. The quiz should take no longer than 10 to 12 minutes for the students to complete. The quiz will read as follows:

Quiz directions: Circle the answer which best answers the question. Be sure to make sure only one choice is clearly circled.

1. How can you tell if a swimmer is in distress or is drowning?
a. an active drowning victim is usually vertical in the water but unable to move forward to tread water
b. an active drowning victim will not try to press down with the arms at their side in an instictive attempt to keep their head above water
c. a passive drowning victim is very active and splashing in the water yelling for help
d. you should always assume that a swimmer in distress is joking or playing around

2. How should you respond to an aquatic emergency?
a. swim out to the person and carry them into shore with only your own body
b. if someone is missing, check the area surrounding the water first
c. do not bother to call 911 until the victim is unconscious
d. if someone is missing, check the water first

3. If you come upon a victim laying on the ground and you don't know what happened, what is the first thing you should do?
a. begin cpr
b. check to make sure the scene is safe
c. run away from the scene
d. run up to the victim and ask if they are okay

4. You see a victim dive into a shallow water area, the victim is unresponsive, what should you do?
a. tell someone to call 911 and immediately drag the victim out of the water
b. tell someone to call 911 and stabilize the victim's head so they are able to breath, but wait for the emt's to arrive
c. call 911 and then begin cpr immediately
d. tell someone to call 911 and wait for the emt team

5. Please list 5 things you learned about summer safety after reading the articles I have provided you with. For each item you list, I would like for you to explain why you think it is an important piece of information to have going into summer.

Thank you, have a safe and happy summer.

Analytic vs. Holistic Scoring....dundundunnnn

After doing some outside reading on the topics of analytic and holistic scoring I think I have the gist of the two forms of scoring. Simply put, analytic scoring is more specific and looking at the details put into the work by the student. With analytic scoring it may benefit having more than one person grading the work, as people have different opinions on what is good work. Analytic is generally more specific and looking for key responses which the student should give for their work to be correct. An example of this would be:
Please give and then explain 3 health enhancing behaviors we have already discussed in class. With your explanation, I expect you to provide at least 2 specific reasons why the behavior given enhances health.

I like the idea of penalties for information just randomly thrown out into the answer, as it is hard to assess what is correct and what is wrong and what actually applies.

Holistic scoring is more used for work as a whole, such as essays, projects, presentations, where a single score will be given for the work as a final product.
For questions created for holistic scoring styles you could create a spectrum of grading. For example, if a student was answering an essay question you could use a scale of 0-5, 0 = way off base, nothing remotely correct in the answer, 1 = minimal amount of information, 2 = some information, but lower than average, definitely should have provided more information on topic, 3 = average, nothing too exciting, but provides a fair amount of information, 4 = good work, a little more than average, and 5 = definitely studied and learned the information, has a concrete knowledge of topic.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of multiple choice.

I am sure all of us who went to high school in New York can remember taking the NYS regents exams. The good thing about the exams was the amazing feeling of "it's summer" when you finished them, the bad thing about the exams was the stress and anxiety going into the exam and the ugly thing about the multiple choice regents was the fact that we just practiced taking old regents after old regents. I felt like because the exam was multiple choice the teachers assumed that by practicing over and over and over and over multiple choice questions which were used in the past it would up our chances of passing the regents exam. At the time I really did not think much of it, just like ok... time to take another regents. But really we weren't learning anything except getting familiar with questions that could be asked or trying to figure out why a multiple choice opinion was incorrect.

I have never been a good test taker. Especially with multiple choice because I seem to always over analyze the questions and then the answers and just never feel like I am given the opportunity to prove what I know. That is very frustrating. I can admit when multiple choice tests are written correctly and the questions are appropriately asked, it is pretty nice to have a multiple choice test and just rock out with the confidence you are answering the question correctly. I am really not a fan of teachers who try to trick the students which funky wording, which is so easy to do when writing a multiple choice test.

I feel that with multiple choice tests it is a very thin line between too easy of a question, a question assessing knowledge, and a trick question. A lot of time, thought, and effort needs to go into the construction of a test to create questions which will accurately assess the learners knowledge. The good about multiple choice is a test taker has a chance, hopefully if they are not sure of an answer something will spark their memory and they can recall the correct answer. The bad is that same exact thing. If someone did not study, but has a good memory and just is a good test taker, they may actually end up receiving a better grade than someone who has really studied and put forth the effort and has the knowledge, just gets confused by the questions. The ugly is the horrible questions some uneducated people can make and think they are assessing knowledge when in fact they are just asking confusing ridiculous questions.

Who is who.....

Have you ever heard of a Mary McLeod Bethune? She is pretty interesting.... have a peek!

In the late 1800’s and into the 20^th century, there were massive radical changes taking place in America, especially for black Americans who were experiencing monumental advances with relation to their place in society, as Hanson (2003) explains. Hanson (2003) continues to explain that it was the end of the Civil war with the North as the victor, and black slaves were no longer slaves but rather free men. Although they were considered equal, they were expected to remain separate from the white society. This concept is hard to fathom and accept in the present day as anything close to justified or remotely correct, but a century ago these were big steps in society. Blacks being born were no longer slaves, even though their parents had been, and for many even their older siblings. As time went on, so did the fight for equal rights and small progressions were made within American society with the help of some determined people.

Mary McLeod Bethune grew up during a time period that changed American history, during the separate but equal time period. Bethune was the 15th of 17 children, however, the first to not be born into slavery. The year was 1875; the place Mayesville, South Carolina and Mary McLeod was born into a typical family setting for blacks after the civil war, sharecroppers that were poor and illiterate. Hanson (2003) explains how Bethune was born in the transitional stages of blacks beginning to receive some rights; she did not have an idea why former blacks had fled the South to the North.

Sterne (1957) explains when and how Bethune had an experience that reinforced that blacks were not accepted as equals when she expressed interest in learning letters, touching a book and questioning how to read. Bethune had gone to help her mother by returning washed laundry to the Wilson home, which Bethune was very excited to do, asking her questions the entire walk to the Wilson’s. The Wilson girls were in the backyard playing, Bethune joined in but was distracted by a book lying open and pursued her curiosity by asking which letter an A was. Immediately, the book was slammed shut on her and was told that because she was black she was never to read, seeing as reading was only for whites. Bethune was only about six or seven at this point in time and this experience startled her and confused her quite a bit. The entire way home, Bethune asked her mother why she was yelled at for touching a book, questioning such a simple thing. Sadly, Bethune’s mother did not have an answer for her.

According to Sterne (1957) illiteracy among blacks was 90 percent throughout the country, however, in Mary McLeod Bethune’s town the illiteracy rate was 100 percent among the black population. Bethune’s mother had given up on trying to learn to read the Bible and now Bethune was asking her mother something she could not give an answer to. Bethune’s older brothers and sisters had grown up expecting to never receive an education, but things were different to Bethune because she was born outside of slavery and did not fully understand that there was a difference between blacks and whites even though they were “equal”, just separate. Sterne (1957) expresses the anger that stirred up inside of Bethune soon after when she was picking cotton and noticed the contrast between the white cotton balls and her black fingers. She was determined that blacks could hold a book, and that somewhere outside of Mayesville there was a black that could read.

Bethune’s opportunity came when she was eleven years old and was invited to attend a school for the colored. According to Sterne (1957) Bethune was exuberant to attend until she realized how important she was in helping the family to bring in hundreds of pounds of cotton a day. She discussed the opportunity of attending school and explained how important it was to her to be first in the Bethune family. At first her parents were hesitant, until Granny Bethune chimed in her thoughts on the matter. She simply stated that “Mary was a child of freedom, strong and determined, and if she was to learn to read she could come home and read the Bible to the rest of the family” (Sterne, 1957, p. 45). Bethune would walk three miles one way to attend her school but this was a small feat given the opportunity to learn to read. When Bethune arrived, there were a number of girls and boys that seemed to be a mixture of curious and afraid; some were excited to attend, while others were sent to the school to learn and they were the first that could by educated without punishment.

Bethune next moved to Chicago Illinois to attend Moody’s Bible school. According to Hanson (2003) Bethune had become deeply spiritual and decided she was destined to be a missionary in Africa. She applied with the attitude that the church official would definitely give her a position, but was denied. Hanson (2003) explains how she was disappointed, but then took an interest in racial responsibility and returned to her home town of Mayesville, South Carolina where she received a missionary position. This position helped Mary learn instructional building, approaching the government official and the state education official for accreditation and increased funding. During her arrival home, Bethune took the responsibility of watching over her parents, raising enough money to buy a comfortable home for them in Sumter, South Carolina according to Hanson (2003).

Bethune’s college was successful and while serving as President, Bethune became increasingly involved in political issues. In 1917, she became president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women. In 1924, Bethune became president of the National Association of Colored Women, which was the highest national office a black woman could be at that time. Also, in 1935, she formed the National Council of Negro Women to take on the major national issues affecting blacks. Mary had created a great relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt through her work in the National Youth Administration. This close relationship not only enhanced Bethune’s status, but it helped her to be selected for an administrative position on the New Deal according to Hanson (2003).

Mary McLeod Bethune has contributed to the development of contemporary American Education by way of standing up for what she believes in and pushing herself to do all that she can. Peare (1951) explains how Bethune did not let the fact that she was black prevent her from being a great educator, or from breaking down walls and creating educational opportunities blacks. Bethune did this by being extremely dedicated to her own education and valuing every second of class. She graduated from Mayesville Presbyterian Mission School, Moody Bible Institute and then started her teaching endeavor in Georgia, eventually moving to South Carolina, Illinois and finally Florida. Bethune opened one of the first schools for African American girls in 1904, the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School, in Daytona Beach, Florida, which is the presently renamed Bethune-Cookman College. When the school was first created, there were only five girls who attended. Bethune used boxes and crates as seats for her students and charged fifty cents per week for tuition. Bethune, adamant on educating youths because of the importance of obtaining and understanding knowledge, would never turn a student away even if their parents could not afford to send them to school. Bethune fought for equal rights in education as well as against the inequality due to segregation that blacks had to face. She was successful in opening a high school as well as a hospital for blacks, helping aid them in ways that were often overlooked.

I think Mary McLeod Bethune would view American education today as a work in progress. She would note that although American education is still progressing, it remains unbalanced with regard to disadvantaged students with lower socioeconomic status. There is a bias because the lower SES people of our country either do not know how to obtain the money available to help with education, or they have no desire or understanding of the benefits a quality education and college degree can offer. Academia in America is perpetually changing though, as certain administrations try to fine tune the most effective and efficient educationally sound systems.

References

Hanson, J. A. (2003). Mary McLeod Bethune and Black Women’s Political Activism.

Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.
Peare, C. O. (1951). Mary McLeod Bethune. Toronto, Canada: Copp Clark Company, Ltd.

Sterne, E. G. (1957). Mary McLeod Bethune. New York: Alfred A Knoff, Inc

Rock Climbing Game

Theresa Sime / Rock Climbing Game
Purpose:
• To help students understand the importance of first aid and have the basic knowledge and skills to help learn the basic and essential knots needed, safety procedures, basic holds, respecting the earth and rock, and general rules to rock climbing. The main subject matter includes: safety first, holds, knots, skills, tactile moves on the rock, respect, and values.


Grade level:
• 10th – 12th

Materials Needed:
• Construction paper, scissors, cardboard, toys for the game board pieces, markers, crayons, glue, tape, colored pencils, pieces of old rock climbing rope to help students practice their knots which they will be asked to make throughout the game, and other various craft items to help make the board game.

Assignment Description:
• The students will create a game that incorporates important basic knowledge that corresponds to rock climbing. Students are encouraged to use hands on approaches and elements in their game for students to practice as well as learn these skills. For example, a piece of rope can be given to help students practice a figure 8 knot in order to advance in the game. The game can be 3D so the students could it like the players are actually scaling a mountain.

Game board directions:
• The students must provide the correct answers to each of their questions, and the game has to have twists and turns to it. It cannot be a simple; you get a question right, advance however many your dice yielded type of game. We are looking for creativity.
• Directions of the rules to their game must be typed up and provided to the players. The directions need to be clear and concise.
• No gray areas in the rules. The rules which regulate play but my clear cut, very black and white so there cannot be an argument over a decision. If a dispute does arise, it is an automatic do over or rock paper scissors to resolve the issue.

Administration Description:
• The instructor will do a brief review session on the subject matter to help give students ideas when formulating their own questions for the board game.
• The instructor can also provide some sample ideas for a board game, or suggest the students think about some of their own personal favorite board games, and the elements those have to make it interesting and fun.
• The students are encouraged to be as creative as possible, as the game is being graded on uniqueness.
• The students have to get a 100% on a simple 10 question questioner about basic first aid knowledge. If they get a question wrong, they may use their book to find the correct answer, and explain why their first answer was incorrect. Once they have passed this they may begin construction.

Scoring Methods:
• The scoring for this assignment will have two elements: 1. the overall quality of the game (by instructor) and 2. a peer evaluation of their peer's work Both the instructor and the students will play an active role in their overall grade of this assignment, and both will use a rubric.
• The rubric goes as follows:
o 5 is excellent the criteria is covered in full
o 4 is very good the criteria is mostly cover
o 3 is good the criteria is average
o 2 is fair the criteria is touched upon
o 1 is poor the criteria is insufficient

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a penguin named Waddles, who loved to go to school and play with her friends. Waddles had a teacher named Ms. Storey who was a very old, worn, beat up looking penguin, who told stories of battling off killer whales and sea lions in order to survive. Ms. Storey was very adamant on comparing her penguin students to one another by using norm referenced testing. Ms. Storey would use both traditional based testing which used forms of assessment which more often than not the form of testing which was confusing to Waddles because it used lots of multiple, circle the correct, and un-understanding ways to present questions (L.K., May 18th 2009) and norm based which was a way of assessment that was a way for her to compare her students' scores with what their peers scored or a standard (R.P. May 19th 2009).
Waddles often felt frustrated because she felt she was trying so hard in class but would get frustrated and give up because she was always being compared to others. Waddles thought she was improving, but eventually decided to stop trying in class.
Ms. Storey one day woke up and realized that Waddles had stopped trying in class, and approached Waddles to ask what why the lack of effort? Waddles explained that she was giving her all in class and wished that Ms. Storey would recognize her efforts.

Ms. Storey realized that perhaps her methods of assessment may not be the best way to assess her students and spoke with other teachers’ one the iceberg. Ms. Storey realized that if she used a form of assessment such as universal or standard based she could better meet the needs of Waddles and all her students.

Ms. Storey changed her way of presenting her activities as well as her assessment methods and saw a significant improvement in student performance.

Everyone was happy, especially Waddles, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.

What teachers should know...

Yesterday we were asked to look at four of the eight different concepts and assessment strategies, and today we were asked to focus on what is import for teachers to know about these eight concepts.

After reading everyone's discussions about the different concepts I think some forms are way more effective in accurately assessing student performance than other forms, however I believe teachers should be aware and know about all the different concepts.

I think that teachers should definitely know NCLBA and IDEA because they are government regulated, even if they do not necessarily agree with the concepts behind the regulations. I think that as educators we need to definitely think critically and form an educated opinion and try to make the concepts work as best for you as possible.

I think for forms of assessment the more traditional, norm referenced, criterion, should start to be phased out. I think that educators can not clump students together, nor compare students to each other. I think educators should start to use more universal, alternative, standards based forms of assessment. To gather a baseline reading on each one of their students before assessing them. I really do not believe in comparing students to one another.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligence

This past weekend at the graduation reception in the fitness center I thought it would be appropriate to I introduce my Moma to Dr. Wigglesworth. Especially sense Dr. Wigglesworth was the only professor of mine I could find in the massive herd of people. Some how we started talking about what my personal intelligence was based on the self assessment exel program we all took. I remembered I was highest in kinesthetic and interpersonal and my lowest was spatial-visual. When my mom heard this she was like really? She continued to explain how in kindergarten I was having issues understanding what was being written on the board and reproduce it on my piece of paper. When my parents would help me with my homework at night they would realize that something was not clicking, and confronted the teacher about my lack of understanding. The teacher would insist there was nothing wrong, I was doing great in school, getting along with the other students great, and there was no need for them to worry about me. My parents spoke with the teacher a number of times throughout the year and it was always the same, "Theresa is doing fine" attitude. Finally with a couple months left in the year the teacher contacted my mom and dad and told them I would have to repeat kindergarten. My parents nearly went ballistic because they were very upset they were never taken seriously when they brought these issues up to them, and they thought it would not be feel to me to rip me away from my freshly made friendships in kindergarten. My parents felt instead of just falling me, I should be tested, because clearly if the teacher had not realized I was not up to part until now, I was doing something right in school. I was tested by the school, and alas, I was diagnosised with a spatial-visual problem, and they also discovered I was able to adapt to my lack of spatial-visual by observing what was going on around me and figure out what I needed to do by following what others were doing.
When I heard this, I was blown away because 1. I thought the reason I almost failed kindergarten was because when I sing the ABC's at the very end I sing "X, Y, and Z, thus my teacher told me I put an extra "n" in because I probably said X, Y, n' Z. 2. Because this quality is still present in where I am lacking intelligence. Haha, I guess I have improved it slightly, but I am assuming more than anything I have learned to adapt my lacking spatial-visual skills.
I think the main point I took from this is that even if an individual does not seem strong in one area or "smart" it might not be the individual, it might be more attributed to the fact that they do not respond well to the methods used to instruct and teach them.

Taxonomy

So I have noticed that on the youtube searches it was difficult to find taxonomys other than Bloom's and the cognitive domain. I was not really overly surprised because I think most people assume the cognitive domain is the most important, especial in an academic setting.

I am kind of disappointed that so much emphasis is placed on the cognitive domain because I think that is the most obvious. I think that in health the affective and physical education the psychomotor, obviously, and affective have such a great opportunity to be developed!
I think the affective domain is so important, because in my personal experiences as a substitute teacher students were really lacking empathy and feelings towards their fellow classmates. The students would make unnecessary rude and hurtful comments as well as refuse to work together. This was really hard for me, because I felt I had no control as a substitute to bulid the affective domain and my familiarity with the students was so minimal it really decreased their reseptiveness towards me.
The psychomotor domain is really lacking developement, as in many students in middle and high school I witnessed a serious segregation of psychomotorlly developed students and students lacking physical skills. The students who were able would continue to just be good, participate, and enjoy physical activity. The students who were lacking skills would either sit out, or walk the track opposed to participating and developing their skills. It was really unforunitate and sad, and I think this is something health and physical educators need to address.
I feel that physical activity has such a great opportunity to help students utilize the affective and psychomotor domain as many physical development skills could encorporate team work, and companionship.
All three domains and definately important to develope and incorporate into goals and objecetives, I just think more emphasis should be placed on affective and psychomotor than what currently is.

Standards, Goals, and Objectives.......

So. After reading everyone's discussion post I realized I did not correctly do my discussion portion of the blackboard segment. I did touch on the California k-3 standards, but I failed to write 2 goals and 2 objectives for that standard. So I thank everyone for doing it correctly and I am not sure why I goofed up. I wish to make my corrections here:
California k-3 physical education standards~
Goal 1: Students will gain knowledge about their body and movement
Objective 1: Students will correctly identify and name at least 10 different parts of their body when asked by the teacher
Objective 2: Students will correctly demonstrate at least 4 of 5 different locomotor skills when asked by the teacher

Goal 2: Students will learn skills to enhance physical fitness
Objective 1: Students will demonstrate 3 different locomotor activities to elevate heart rate when asked to do so by the instructor
Objective 2: Students will correctly demonstrate at least 5 basic locomotor skills such as skipping, galloping, running, hopping, walking, leaping, jumping, etc when asked by the instructor

I think everyone has good examples of goals and objectives for the different standards provided in the matrix. I think this was really helpful, because although the ABCD's are important I feel everyone had their own interpretation of them and application when writing their goals and objectives. Which was nice to see and read.

Day 1

I feel among all of us we have analyzed and viewed a good population of the states we could potentially be working in and the states we are most interested in finding employment in.

I focused on looked at the standards of three states, New York, California, and New Mexico. I looked at these states because these are the states I could potentially be finding employment in these states. Alas, knowing and being familiar with the state's standards and compare those to the national NASPE are essential to be competitive in the job market.

After reading over the posts on blackboard I have noticed a trend in the various states’ importance of physical activity, locomotor development skills and lifelong fitness. However, I have seemed to notice a lacking in the actual assessment of the standards that are set. I like the way California, as many of us have pointed out, break down the different development stages by grade level, and in the high school California really starts to break down the different levels and parts of physical education which should be met. In New York, I feel the standards meet and align with National standards, but the actual practicality of the standards make me wonder.

I know personally my ultimate goal for all my students is to provide them with the confidence, efficacy, and skills to be able to engage in the physical activities they wish to, and have the knowledge to do so. I feel one of the biggest issues is assessing the physical and health educational standards is setting something that meets ALL the students needs, as well as providing a margin of success. I feel that the standards are on the right track, I just wonder how accurate we are as educators. I feel that the makeup of the physical class needs to be readdressed opposed to the expectations of the standards. I feel the standards are pretty solid, but the only way to actually deliver the expectations of the standards is to relook the actual make up of the classroom environment.