Major Blog Post #4

Although it was spring break for me and my classmates at Akron U, my major project continued because my high school was not yet on spring break.

Since St. V is a catholic high school, students get Thursday and Friday off for Easter weekend.  I ran a three day week with an optional/free lift on Thursday.  Since I was able to plan for this week beforehand, Monday was our lower body day, Tuesday was our upper body day, and Wednesday was a double.  Continuing with a mixed preparation for our third max week, on Monday I incorporated heavy build lifts which are indicated in red along with speed and corrective movements indicated in blue.

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For our upper day, I follow the same format.  (Red for build, blue for corrective.)

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Wednesday was our double day which means we lifted both our upper body and lower body.  (Green for lower body and orange for upper body.)

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Next week is spring break for St. V and there will be no scheduled lifting and it will be an off week for me.  I will still be running my college off-season program which I will blog about next week and explain more about it since I haven't yet.

#staytuned

Major Blog Post #3

I have chosen to write my week three blog post on a Thursday because my lifting session with my athletes as well as school for St. Vincent St. Mary HS is cancelled tomorrow, the 23rd, because our boys basketball team has made it to the state playoffs down in Columbus. 

Although this week was a short week and it may seem like there might not be much to post about, it is actually quite the opposite because I had the opportunity to experience a different kind of lifting week.  Monday and Tuesday were both early release days, which meant the athletes had a lot of time between the end of school and my lifting start time.  Since, I work full time, my head coach and I decided to keep lifting as scheduled and everyday it began at 3:00 p.m.  Since the first two days were early release, attendance numbers were down since many athletes, once they left school, were not able to come back for lifting.  This was a challenge that was foreseen and addressed the week before. 

Wednesday, however, was not a challenge that was prepared for.  Wednesday, was a snow day for the school, which meant my athletes would be away from campus until lifting began.  In our football program, we use a piece of technology called Hudl.  In this application, we send, share. watch and breakdown film.  I also use this application to communicate with my eighty some athletes.  When I received the call in the morning that school would be closed, I jumped on Hudl after speaking with my head coach and my school's administration and messaged my athletes that lifting would go on as scheduled.  Wednesday was also a lower attendance day. 
In a snowball like effect, today was also a low attendance day because of the altered week schedule. 

As I stated above, Friday there will be no lifting.  I bring all this up because I have now altered my strength program schedule.  Next week was supposed to be a very low intensity week, somewhat of an off week, because we are at that point where body recovery is a necessity.  I now have decided to make this week our recovery week and next week will resume as a higher intensity week.  My athletes will have a long weekend of three full days of body recovery. 

With lower numbers each day, before our lift began, I made changes to accommodate the attendance.  Monday was still our lower body day, but I incorporated low intensity lifts such as speed squats, band workouts, and core exercises.
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Tuesday and Wednesday, I again made similar changes to lower intensity.
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Today was again a less intense day, which included more body weight and corrective lifts.
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Since my max results from last week showed that some athletes benefited from the heavier, muscle building lifts and some benefited from the lower intensity, speed, and corrective type lifts, our three week preparation for our next max week will incorporate both styles of lifts to accommodate both types of athletes.  I was glad I was able to experience a week like this because it made me think on the fly and problem solve on the spot.  I had to make game time adjustments to have the most beneficial week.  I am also looking forward to the three day weekend because sometimes coach needs an off week too. 

Cool Tool #5 Canva

Canva: A true canvas for education.

                For my last cool tool review, I will be reviewing Canva.  Canva is a free tool available online with only a few “pay to play” features.  Broken down, this tool is a presentation application that contains many avenues for creativity.  Probably the most interesting part of this tool is it contains Google Doc like features that allow the user to have as many editors and contributors as they want which I will explain through my use.  Canva allows users to create a social graphic, logo, poster, flyer, resume, web banner, presentation, invitation, card, photo collage, and a few more design types (see picture 1). 

Picture 1

For my review, I chose to create a presentation and before you jump on me and say “well, that’s boring” let me explain my choice.  When I chose my list of cool tools to review I had a master plan.  I am a big lecture guy and I enjoy a teacher centered learning experience so many of the tools I chose to review were presentation tools.  I then used a similar lesson through out all the cool tools, so I could then analyze which tool I enjoyed the most and saw most beneficial.  What I also looked at was the different ways to use these tools to provided new and creative way to present a lesson and engage my students.   

Once I chose to create a presentation, Canva offers many different styles of presentations to choose from (see picture 2).  I selected an education presentation to create an American history lesson. 

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                Once the style of presentation is selected, the user is then taken to the editing stage.  For each slide, a background or format may be selected to coincide with the slide’s purpose.  Canva offers a variety of slide layouts which each contain specific elements to present information in the most beneficial way. 

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                As the creation process continues, the user can select illustrations and photos that are provided in the Canva database to add to the presentation.  This is the one feature that contains the “pay to play” aspect.

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                Once the creation is completed, the user can decide to share their work with specific people through email, through social media, or through the link feature.  The link share option is what contains similar features to Google Docs.  I selected to share my short lesson in this blog, with the option for any viewer to be able to edit it.  This feature has endless applications in the classroom as we have seen with Google Docs. 

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                You can check out my creation here: Road to Revolution and you are welcome to try the editing feature right there in my lesson.  Since my cool tool reviews will now be coming to an end, I wanted to share with you what my favorite tool was so far.  My answer: all of them.  Each contained a feature that I could see myself using in my future classrooms.  Emaze, for a new version of PowerPoint.  Haiku Deck, for its innovative way to create presentations from Wiki, which I would use to speed up the creation process and allow students to focus on then learning the information to present.  Storybird, to use as a possible online classroom.  Simplemind, for its simplicity to capture thinking and finally Canva, for its ability to create many materials beyond a simple presentation. 

Week 9 Blended Learning and Productivity

This week I will be discussing blended learning and productivity in the classroom.

                Somewhat reeling back a bit, I wanted to touch base on a previous topic: blended learning.  In my post about blended learning, I definitely was pro about using blended learning in today’s education, but I had a skeptical view as well.  In a video that I watched for this week’s post called, “Ending the Classroom Factory Model”, Michael Horn, an educational professional spoke on his thoughts about blended learning.  He was asked how he felt about students going into a classroom and immediately being put in front of a screen and he said that kids need a blended learning environment and the school provides that safe, custodial, and supportive environment for online learning.  This really opened my mind to blended learning because before I did just think that using blended learning was just setting students in front of a screen.  I wasn’t thinking about the complete environment it provided for the students.  The teacher is there for support as they pace their learning and the students still have the opportunity to learn with their peers.  I’m glad I was able to come across this video.

                Getting to more of this week’s topic, productivity is a key aspect of becoming an effective teacher.  Let’s face it, in this age of tech, the students are not the only ones susceptible to becoming distracted and teachers must manage their time efficiently.  Technology can be looked at as the “kiss of death” because of all the benefits it can provide still comes with plenty of distractions.  There is hope for teachers because there is technology available to assist in productivity.  One tool that can assist in this is called RescueTime.  This application basically blocks users from distractions and records the users’ time spent on different tasks.  For the most part I use applications that assist with organization because I truly believe that organization is the foundation for being productive.  As I continue my career, I plan to explore more technology that can assist me even further.

                Technology can also help teachers solve problems.  Some examples would be constant communication with students even when they are not in the classroom.  Another big example would be developing lessons that can cover a wide variety of learners.  Using technology to develop a broad but specific lesson helps teachers connect with all levels of learners in their class, it gives students the opportunity to have a more individualized lesson, and it gives parents access to their child’s education. 

                One productivity tool that I will use as a staple in my classroom will be Google Docs.  With this tool I can have students collaborate on a project or lesson while facilitating the individual creativity of my students.  Another simple tool I would utilize is Google Calendar.  With this tool I will be able to share my class schedule with parents and administration to ensure participation from parties outside of my classroom.  As I have stated in a previous post, the applications for technology in education seem endless and if it is even possible, the opportunities only seem to be growing.  

Cool Tool #4 Simplemind

Simplemind the actual simple way to capture your thinking.

                The cool tool that I will review this week is called Simplemind.  It is the first time that the title of an application truly held true to the actual use of the tool.  Simplemind is the easiest tool I have ever used to create a mind map.  According to simplemind.com, a mind map is a tool for the brain that captures the thinking that goes on inside your head.  Mind maps are perfect for brainstorming and they provide a platform to collect knowledge, remember, and create ideas.  This tool can be utilized on a website browser or as a mobile application.  I choose to use the tool in the mobile app manner.

                Simplemind is free and very easy to download.  It is offered in the Google app store for androids and the Apple app store for iPhones.  After downloading the app, the user is brought to an example mind map that shows the ins and outs of the tool.  Since I have used mind maps before I started to create my own and used a eighth grade social studies lesson on the American Revolution for the content.

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                After selecting to begin a new mind map the user can select the design of their map.

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                As seen below, the mind map will start with the central idea in a blue box and the user can then begin to add content to expand on information. 

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                As stated before, I created The Road to Revolution mind map which includes events, acts, and people to support thinking for the main idea.

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                After content is added, the user can scroll through their ideas to add or remove information.

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                Since I used this tool for educational purposes, I created an assignment bubble for my students to complete after the lesson.  The mind map can be shared to any number of people and the people it was shared to have the ability to view and edit the map.

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                Unfortunately, to fully access all of the features that Simplemind has to offer, the user must buy the full version of the app.  For this reason, I am unable to share and link the mind map that I created with the tool.

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                I would use this tool to help develop my students’ brainstorming abilities and to actually show how a mind map can explain their thinking using images and text.  I would use this tool in the classroom for a variety of purposes:

1.       Presentation     

2.       Brainstorming after lesson

3.       Organization of thoughts

4.       Problem solving

5.       Retention of information from text sources

6.       Simple notes.

I see no major challenges using this tool because it is as simple to use as its name suggests.  The only concern would be whether the student has access to the technology to use the tool.  Sometimes the simplest of tools can have the greatest effect and I believe Simplemind has that capability. 

Major Project Post #2

I am back with my major blog post number two and I have much to discuss.

For this post I will be discussing my past week of the implementation of my strength program which began Sunday the 11^th to Friday the 16^th.  As I mentioned in my previous major blog post, this past week was my athletes’ max week, which is a week where we retest our four main lifts to quantify strength gains.  First, I would like to start with my attendance.  Since other sports are now coming to a close, my attendance numbers have drastically increased.  I have had to prepare everyday for a bigger and bigger group of athletes.  This is a key element because the number of athletes determines my time I will be able to spend with each athlete during the lift.  As seen in picture one, I organize my attendance numbers using an excel worksheet.  I first broke the sheet down by the month and day that each lift will occur and then I assign a number one for attend or zero for unexcused absence.  In the sample of my entire sheet I provided here, you can see my number values for each day as well as abbreviations for involvement of other sports or excused absences. 

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                Now, getting on to the exciting part.  As I mentioned in my last major blog post, my preparation for this month’s max week was different then my approach in the first month.  For this preparation, I had my athletes utilize corrective/strength band workouts which lessened the intensity and workload of the body before maxing.  In my first approach, I had my athletes perform low volume (number of reps) high intensity (heavy weight) workouts.  I was pleased with my first results, but I continually like to evolve my program and challenge my athletes’ bodies to see what works for each individual.  Some may say that striving for program individualization is impossible for the amount of athletes I train, but I am able to determine the greater increases for each athlete by comparing their gains from the two max session approaches. 

                Monday was our max squat day.  For the sample I provided below, the selected athletes that are highlighted in a yellow box, show the small to no gain from the first approach to max week and the larger gain from the second approach.  This tells me that approach number two was most beneficial for these specific athletes.  The athletes highlighted in a blue box shows my counter evidence.  This tells me that this specific athlete benefited most from the first approach and I now will adjust his workouts accordingly. 

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                Tuesday was our max bench day and will the sample provided below I have made the same highlights to notify gains. Yellow = approach number one had greater affect / Blue = approach number two had greater affect

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                Wednesday was max dead-lift and the sample below again shows high gains in yellow and lower gains in blue.

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                Thursday was max floor press.  See below for the same format of information.

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                Overall, I felt it was a very successful week for me and most of my athletes.  I use the weekend to write up the new workouts for the upcoming week and with my new max numbers I will now be able to make more individualized workout plans to maximize the possible gains.  Next week I will discuss the changes I made for specific athletes and how I implemented these changes during the workouts.  #staytuned

Week 8 Digital Learning Spaces

For this week I will be discussing Digital Learning Spaces and this ties right into many past topics I have discussed.

                Learning spaces are environments, whether physical or digital, where learning happens.  According to Dr. Jeremy Brueck, who spoke in a video given to my grad class, contemporary learning spaces are based in learning ecology composed of physical, digital, and virtual experiences.  Digital learning spaces can encourage student engagement because it provides students with multiple pathways to reach the desired proficiency.  In a video by Holli Tonyan, four forms of learning are discussed as possible pathways to create digital learning spaces.  These four forms are: campfires, watering holes, the cave, and the world.  If educators can effectively develop spaces for each of these forms of learning, I believe they will then be able to reach and encourage more student engagement. 

The campfire space could be a podcast or a video of a teacher lecture that students can pace themselves through.  The watering hole is the student interaction with peers and a form of this could be as simple as an online discussion form.  For the cave, a space for this would be anything that is reflective. This space allows alone time for students to engage in deep thought and reflection.  The final form is the world and this provides students the opportunity to apply their knowledge to actual world situations.  This also engages students in sharing and allows them to go outside of the classroom and see how others are learning about a similar topic. 

                Google Apps for Education will most likely be the future in the development of learning spaces.  GAFE provides a multitude of applications that can be the center piece in each space that an educator will develop.  One easy example of an app is Google Classroom.  This app simply is a classroom that is online; it is the epitome of a digital learning space. 

                One assumption that we should challenge as we design learning spaces for the future is that one specific application or piece of technology has a defined use when it comes to learning.  I say this because educators must delve into the technology and explore all the ways it can apply to learning.  According to Dr. Jeremy Brueck, we must ask ourselves “what do we want to accomplish beyond the device?” 

                We can see examples of the development of learning spaces right here in The University of Akron’s campus.  The main space utilized by the campus is Brightspace.  Brightspace is an online resource that professors can use to share, communicate, encourage discussion, assign assessments, and even hold class.  The discussion form in Brightspace can be the watering hole, a reflective assignment can be the cave, and added class content can be the campfire.  I believe that these learning spaces are very beneficial to my needs as a graduate student.  Many grad students hold full time jobs and the convenience of Brightspace allows us to be connected to our classrooms at all times.  I have also grown fond of learning at my own pace while using online sources as I never had the opportunity to experience this in my undergrad studies.