Seeing and Hearing Myself on Video

Welp... seeing myself on video was pretty much what I expected!  I thought I sounded silly and hoped I didn't sound like that in real life! I think watching myself being serious and talking to a class was entertaining, but the outtakes were even better : )

Plan for Teaching a Video Lesson

I will be doing my video introduction on a lesson for my health class.  The lesson is about bullying, and my students will be creating Public Service Announcements to bring awareness to bullying and/or promoting others to stand up for victims of bullying. 

Article Response

Obama wants schools to speed digital transition

Reading this article leaves me wondering what schools will be like in not only 5 years, but 15 or 20 years from now.  If all goes as planned, I'll still be teaching in 20 years, and it freaks me out to think about all of the things that can change between now and then. Who knows the kind of things we will be experiencing!

The article explains President Obama's hope for all schools to be using digital textbooks, or e-textbooks, by the year 2017.  This sounds like a pretty logical idea considering the ways technology has taken over many of our lives.  I know students are more in tune with technology now a days, but I am not convinced it is the best way to get them to learn.  I personally am not a fan of reading on my iPad.  It is hard on my eyes, uncomfortable and awkward to hold while reading, and very fragile (this is my second one, after my screen was cracked as a result of being carried in my school bag).  The thought of all reading being done on some sort of device like the iPad or Kindle has me dreading the excuses students will have for not doing their homework.  Forget about the good ole', "my dog ate my homework" excuse.  We will soon be hearing, "The internet connection was bad", or "I didn't have enough memory to read the chapter". Right now, we cant even give extra credit opportunities to students online because all students do not have internet at home and it is considered unfair.


In the article I didn't completely understand if the school would be providing the e-devices, or just the programming or full test books to go on the device.  When thinking about loaning all students an iPad, it makes me a nervous wreck!  How many kids are going to sell them for money, break, or lose them?  What will be the consequences for not returning them?  There is a significant difference between a $60 textbook fee and a $499 iPad fee.

I know a lot can change in 5 years, but for now I just don't see the benefits for all students having e-textbooks.  In my school district most of our students already have access to more than enough technology and for the ones who do not, we have enough technology in our schools  to provide them with plenty of experiences. In the end, the money might be a good benefit, and sure students respond well to technology, but we have sat in classrooms with text books for many years through all of the changes our society have endeared.  I personally am not a fan, but let's be honest... who am I to make this decision?  There are other people who get paid the big bucks to make these kind of decisions and I will jump on the bandwagon and trust them when the time comes.

Legal Concerns as a Physical and Health Education Teacher

Gosh... where do I begin?!  There are many legal concerns for me everyday!  
First, the most obvious, in the gym I have to worry about students getting injured.  PE teachers have to take all precautions  possible to ensure the gym is safe.  Anything that happens in my classroom is my responsibility, and at the rate people are suing these days, anything a parent can dig up is what they will take and run with.
Surprisingly enough, in my 3 1/2 years of teaching, I have had more than one parent phone call about concerns with me weighing their child or measuring their body composition. Some parents do not believe this is important and accuse me of making their child insecure or embarrassing them.  This is something I can see striking a nerve with the wrong family.  Who knows what could become of this situation in the future.


When it comes to Health, my main concern is teaching Sex/Abstinence education.  Sitting in on one of my classes can make just about anyone blush.  We have very open conversations about a lot of "inappropriate" topics. (I say inappropriate because in any other classes these topics would be 100% off limits).  Even though I feel like this is the most important unit where students probably learn some of their most useful information, some parents think otherwise.  Many parents have issues with me teaching their kids about the birds and the bees.  It is just a law suit waiting to happen!