I logged in today and finally saw that some students had started to engage with the discussion boards but also with the Assessment tab here. What a relief! I was beginning to think that there were no students in the unit. I have had about 6 of the 14 actually engage which I am happy about. At one point I was going to start to allocate the students to groups themselves for assessment two aas not much was happening. I might still need to do this soon if students don't seem to engage...we will play a waiting game! I tried to individually respond to all the discussion board messages that were posted. My rationale for this was not only did it personalise the experience is but this form of discussion board can generate 'data' that gives themes based on experience and then students can see how thematic research occurs using qualitative studies.
SOme very good responses based on personal experiences - they seem to be really switched on so hopefully some of the readings (especially Arnold and some others) give them some questions to ponder in their own practice. I am also really looking forward to seeing their one page philosophical papers on physical education.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Only a week away!
Semester 2 is only a week away and I have just returned to my office after a week's leave. Great to catch up and play with the kids and take them away from home on a couple of day trips.
Unforutnately in the back of my mind were a couple of work related issues including my promotion application, my teaching in this unit (have I got enough content? will the students like the way it has been developed? is there enough research-led teaching? will the students be able to take things practically out of it?). Many many questions that I have. I will have to revisit the unit in the next day or so to see whether what I did before my leave is how I really wanted the unit to end up.
Luckily I have a great colleague that is working in the on campus unit, someone that I can trust, have discussions with and talk through the issues of the unit. Someone that I trust immensely in this labour of love that I call teaching. This support is a must for the development of great teaching and great learning. But I am truly concerned about how off campus students will react.
I was reading John Loughran's new book bit-by-bit over coffee and when I had some down time on leave. The sections that were most interesting were on professional learning of teachers - there was one section that talked of a teacher that undertook a self-study and realised that there were problems in the way he allowed student learning to take place. Implications for physical educators - do we really know what takes place in the learning of our students through movement? How do we then prepare teacher educators? More tensions more concerns!!! [A big siggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!]
But it also gave me a great feeling that what can occur in physical education must occur through teachers changing the way they teach. They must have ownership, they must take some responsibility. Self-study is the way of the future.
How can I teach and encourage off-campus students to pursue such a line of thinking....
Enough for now - talk soon, Trent.
Unforutnately in the back of my mind were a couple of work related issues including my promotion application, my teaching in this unit (have I got enough content? will the students like the way it has been developed? is there enough research-led teaching? will the students be able to take things practically out of it?). Many many questions that I have. I will have to revisit the unit in the next day or so to see whether what I did before my leave is how I really wanted the unit to end up.
Luckily I have a great colleague that is working in the on campus unit, someone that I can trust, have discussions with and talk through the issues of the unit. Someone that I trust immensely in this labour of love that I call teaching. This support is a must for the development of great teaching and great learning. But I am truly concerned about how off campus students will react.
I was reading John Loughran's new book bit-by-bit over coffee and when I had some down time on leave. The sections that were most interesting were on professional learning of teachers - there was one section that talked of a teacher that undertook a self-study and realised that there were problems in the way he allowed student learning to take place. Implications for physical educators - do we really know what takes place in the learning of our students through movement? How do we then prepare teacher educators? More tensions more concerns!!! [A big siggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!]
But it also gave me a great feeling that what can occur in physical education must occur through teachers changing the way they teach. They must have ownership, they must take some responsibility. Self-study is the way of the future.
How can I teach and encourage off-campus students to pursue such a line of thinking....
Enough for now - talk soon, Trent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)