Digital Safety is a must!

As a student and a soon to be teacher, I know how important technology is in our lives today. The internet is a very powerful tool and should be treated as such, enter digital safety. I believe that digital safety is very important and should be one of the first things that children are taught when they are first exposed to the internet and the different tools associated with it. This is crucial to everyone because so many people are affected by what happens on the internet. The five topics that we discussed, 1) Fair User Practices and Copy Right Issues, 2) Digital Safety and Privacy, 3) Cyber Bullying, 4)Textual Harassing and Sexting, and 5)Pharming and Phishing, all became subjects of relevance for certain reasons as cases began happening over time. I feel like all of these subjects are important because millions of people are dealing with at least one of these issues every day. As educators, it is our job to teach students not only about the dangers that we can see but also the hidden dangers of the internet. All of these points are important and I would not delete anything and everything included seems to cover base with me.

As a member of Group Epsilon, we were given the task of covering “Textual Harassment and Sexting.” We worked as a team to put together a basic skeleton of what our presentation would look like, who would speak about what, and what activity we would do. Although we did spend a lot of time together in person working on our presentation, we also used tools such as WhatsApp, Wiggio, Google Hangouts, and Google Docs to work on our presentation, even if we could not meet up in person. I worked well with my group and we got a lot of work done away from each other because of our use of different tools in order to keep in constant contact.

I feel like our topic is very important when it comes to school and the students that we as teachers are responsible for. Our topic “Textual Harassment and Sexting”, I feel, is a very important topic. This is a subtle topic that you would never guess you were guilty of until you were accused and found out. This is a very serious offense and can land you on the list of Sex Offender and any dreams of becoming a teacher or anything else that is even close to the profession, consider it gone. The need to educate everyone about the dangers and perimeters of textual harassment and sexting is ever on the rise. More and more students are getting smart phones are becoming highly competent and curious about the capabilities of their devices.

Everything that we have covered in the area of digital safety is nonetheless very important, and we need to become educated in every aspect. I do not feel that any one aspect is more important than the other. Dr. Cyrus presented our class with a very important lesson and as a class, we were able to educate one another and enlighten each other so we do not fall victim to any of the problems caused when you are unaware of digital safety rules. These are all things that we should be aware of as future educators and that we should pass along to our students. The reason why digital safety is important and should be practiced more, especially in the classroom is because according to an online educational article titled Safe and Responsible Use of Digital Technologies (2015), “while advances in technology have created opportunities to engage students in the classroom in new and exciting ways they also present an opportunity to be both intentionally and unintentionally misused.” This means that with each passing day, a student who is uneducated about digital safety may be digging themselves in a deeper and deeper hole that they may never find their way out of.

Digital safety is especially important when it comes to education. According to an online resource Discovery Education (2015), “As a teacher, it’s important to make digital safety a priority in your classroom and ensure that your students know how to act safely, responsibly, and thoughtfully online.” This just shows that by tasking us with looking into these topics, Dr. Cyrus has helped us all to become more mindful educators.

These five topics that our class researched and presented on are things to think about as a student growing and learning to become a teacher. It was good that I learned more about them and I will be sure to carry on these digital safety practices with me and then enforce them onto my students.

           

References:

Discovery Education. (2015). Digital Safety Program. [Web] Retrieved from

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/DigitalSafety/

Victoria: Education and Training. (2015). Safe and Responsible Use of Digital Technologies.

Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/pages/safe

andresponsibleuse.aspx

My ever handy technology tool kit!

I was tasked with putting together an assessment of the tools that I deemed most useful in my ED271 class. This was not an easy task at first because I had been exposed to so many different types of tools by Dr.Cyrus. She had expanded my online world and gave me a plethora of tools that I could use to not only improve my education but the education of my future students. It is because of her and this class that I will make sure that technology is fully integrated in my Physical Education classroom. Everything we do today deals with technology, and in this day and age, education and technology are synonymous with one another.

Who am I?

I was born Anthony Joseph Taianao. I was born in Oka, Tamuning, Guam on June 16, 1994. My parents are Anthony Cruz Taianao and Jill Louise White. I come from a family of four and I am the oldest child. I have one sibling, a sister, and she is 16 years old and is a sophomore at Southern High School. I am a proud graduate of Southern High School Class of 2012. I played football, basketball, and competed in track and field while in high school. I was a four year member of my student council and spent my senior year as a member of the National Honor Society at Southern.

I am now 21 years old, and attending the University of Guam. I am pursuing my degree to become a Secondary Physical Education and Health teacher.

With a little help, everyone is fully abled

      I have always been aware of disabilities in the classroom and how they affect students, teachers, and teaching strategies. I saw a few things in this video that I did not know and did not think could be done for people with disabilities and I was pleasantly surprised. After watching this video, I can say that it was appropriately named “Enabling Dreams.” We have so many brilliant minds working towards improving the educational experience and just overall living experience that disabilities almost do not come across as a hindrance because we can now work through them effectively.

     One of the examples of full-inclusion that I observed in the video was when the teachers of the younger children were using the assistive technology. The use of such technology will always be the first opportunity for students to be successful participants. I personally feel like some features of a lesson plan that would set students with disabilities up for success would be to allot more time for certain parts of the lesson. By allowing more time for the students to understand and work with what they have, more learning and teaching will be going on. It is also very important to have time for questions during each part of the lesson. Students should also be addressed directly so that they understand that they are being spoken to and they better understand what they are being asked to do. The biggest thing that I feel is required in a lesson to help students succeed with disabilities in a lesson is encouragement and understanding. We need to encourage our students to grab life by its horns and we need to help them understand that they can do whatever it is they are tasked with, they can complete. You can see an example of this when Vishal Saraiya runs for president of the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internet Networking, and Technology (DO-IT) program’s student body. This young man has the encouragement from his teachers and parents from seeing what he can do with the help of assistive technology, and he understands that he has boundless capabilities.

     If I were to design my lesson plans while keeping in mind students and their disabilities, I would start by planning ahead. I would see if any of my students had disabilities, what their disabilities are, what is included in their Individualized Education Program (IEP), and how it could potentially restrict the student or provide constraints during the activities and lessons that would be included in my class. There is a universal design of instruction that would help to create a skeleton for your lesson plan and it also includes how to embrace students with disabilities. According to the MESA Curriculum Addendum and their article that is titled, How to Fully Include Students with Disabilities, “Universal design refers to the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation.” So with that, one of the first steps I could take to starting a lesson plan while keeping in mind my students with disabilities, I can start off by designing my curriculum or my class activities by using this “Universal Design.”

     After designing the lesson plan to accommodate all of my students, I could then teach the children about each other. I would use the idea of having the students work together. My mom is a teacher at Southern High School and she has been teaching Adaptive Physical Education with the idea of having peer involvement since she started teaching there in 1997. It is because of her that I feel like this would be a great idea. I think that students who have disabilities can sometimes feel alienated or they may feel like an outcast by their peers because of what they have to go through. I feel like there are a lot of positives when you incorporate all of your students together. By working with their peers, students with disabilities may not only improve in academically but perhaps also socially. According to Wang (2013), "students with special needs or disabilities can strive with the help of team building and or group participation." Full inclusion is the best way to go unless the safety of students may be compromised.

     “How Assistive Technology Enables Dreams” is a great short video and I feel like it is a testament to the amazing things that every student can do. The human spirit can be fire that is impossible to put out if it is kindled the right way. Being a teacher is all about learning over a lifetime while also sharing what you have experienced and what you know with every single one of your students in any way that you can. All children deserve a great educational experience, there are no permanent roadblocks when teaching, only temporary ones. My personal experience with assistive technology helping out students with disabilities is that I can see how much it helps. There was so much more that the students were able to do with the assistance and the overall learning experience was much improved and that’s what we want as teachers. We want to improve the learning quality for our students and give them the ability and hunger to be a lifelong learner.

University of Washington. (2015). How To Fully Include Students with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.washington.edu/doit/programs/accessstem/accommodations/mesa-curriculum-supplement-how-fully-include-students-0

Wang, K. (2013). 7 Ways to Include a Student with Special Needs in Physical Education. Retrieved from http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2013/11/12/7-ways-to-include-a-student-with-special-needs-in-physical-education/

Lessons of a Lesson Plan

     This lesson plan was good practice for finding ways to relate one single topic into different types of subjects. It was a challenge to actually start the entire process but once my ideas were in order, it was a walk in the park. Some of the things that I actually liked about this lesson plan were how I grouped the students, it was at random and this was to help the students work outside of their comfort zone. Beaudoin (2005) found that, a little anxiety can help us perform at our peak, psychologists have found — in other words, when we challenge ourselves, we tend to rise to the occasion. This is good because we should be teaching our students, at an early age, how to deal with situations in which they will not be with people they are comfortable with.  This also teaches them how to adapt to the styles of others and how to correlate everyone’s ideas and mesh them all together.

       If I could change anything, I would change the idea of using cereal and keep all of the same parameters of the lesson and do the project on the meals that the kids get from the cafeteria throughout the week. As a class, we would ask for the menu for the week and we will decide what three days, and their meals, will we be looking at and examining. We could do everything the same as the cereal plan but we would have more information to look at. This would be a more in depth project and would require a considerable amount of time but this could be placed as somewhat of a research project for a final grade or something similar.

       This lesson would be a part of a larger grouping of lessons that could fall under my “Nutrition” section that I would be teaching. After learning about nutrition labels, how to read them, and some use and analysis of our favorite cereals, I would teach the students more in depth about their nutrition and what exactly is going into their bodies. We would discuss and look at the different ingredients and results of short-term to long-term exposure to each specific ingredient and how they would work as agonists and antagonists in the body. Research by Holli and Beto (2014) supports that many studies have shown that eating habits are established early in the life cycle and tend to carry through to adulthood. As a result, the food that children eat now will undoubtedly influence their state of health in later life. I feel that everything would be perfectly correlated and this lesson would perfectly follow up my previous lesson plan.

      By the time evaluation comes around, I would better understand the constraints of teaching the lesson in my school and how I can better prepare my lesson. I will also have learned more about the uniqueness of students and how to address the needs of every child while still covering the lesson, challenging young minds, and igniting constant hunger for knowledge and understanding. The objectives state clear standards provided for students and at the end of the lesson, they will have mastered everything required for that section. That correlates with the evaluation because the objectives are looking for understanding of the material placed in front of them. It also looks at the students’ observation skills and critical thinking skills. One aspect that I can think of that I feel was not included in the ASSURE lesson plan format is the initial interest because at first glance, cereal is not the most attractive food in the world. I feel as though students would have an easier time learning and being hooked on learning if they were interested in the topic from the start, but that is hardly ever the case. Although cereal is not seen immediately as an exciting food, it is up to me as the teacher to find the appeal factor as well as make it fun for the students to learn and easy to pick up. I felt as though I had a good amount of resources and assistance but there is always room for improvement. I feel like there could have been more assignments to do with the same information, or perhaps give the students a hypothetical question that would encourage critical thinking. The assistance would have come from the extra assignments because it would have enforced the lesson more and it would have also made the assignment more challenging. I would have been able to get more out of students and they probably would have had more information sticking in their heads.

       Overall, it was a lot of fun putting this lesson plan together and I know this would have been a lot of fun to teach in class. A lesson is only as fun as the teacher makes it!

Beaudoin, N. (2005). Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone Lessons for School Leaders. New York, NY: Routledge.

Holli, B. B., & Beto, J. A. (2014). Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills for Dietetics Professionals. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Get to know the grains that are causing your gains!

Get to know the grains that are causing your gains!

Teacher: Anthony Taianao Room:   Subject: Health Grade: 11th Date(s):  03/30/2016 Per:

	A​nalyze Learners	Narrative Comments/ Reflection
	Learners’ general characteristics: This lesson is designed for 11th grade students at Southern High School. Ethnicities of this school include Chamorro (85%), Filipino (11%), White (1%) and Other (3%). The class is comprised of 20 students: 8 male students and 12 female students. The age ranges between 16 to 17 years old. 2 Students have Attention ­Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). One is female and the other is male. Entry characteristics: ​The students in this class are familiar with accessing the Internet on a computer and can almost identify a nutrition label. Students have some experience with cooperative learning groups. However, students will be creating a bar graph for the first time on the Internet.  Learning styles:​(Estimate % of Students) ∙ Visual: 30% ∙ Auditory: 20% ∙ Kinesthetic: 50%
	State Objectives
	Objectives: 1.  The 11th grade health students will be able to identify the fats, sugar, and salt contents of each cereal provided with 100% accuracy when provided with the nutrition label of each cereal. 2. The 11th grade health students will be able to list the cereals chosen in order from most nutritional to least nutritional with 100% accuracy based off of their results.
	S​elect Methods, Media, and Materials
	Methods: Cooperative Learning Groups Materials: Images of breakfast cereals with corresponding nutrition label 1. Cinnamon Toast Crunch 2. Cheerios 3. Reese Puffs 4. Frosted Flakes 5. Special K 6. Coco Pebbles Computer Printer Internet Resources: ∙ Data Collection Sheet (Paper) Media: Web: American Heart Association: Understanding Food Nutrition Labels YouTube Video: How To Read A Nutrition Label Online Tool: ChartGo (Create Graphs) YouTube Video: Tutorial ­ Intro To ChartGo
	U​tilize Media, Materials, and Methods
	Prepare the Materials: ​The students and I will travel to the school's library/computer lab for this lesson. The school’s computers have internet connectivity already linked online. At least 5 computers will be needed; One computer per group of 4 students. Prepare the Environment:​5 large tables will be separated with 4 chairs with one computer at each station for each group. The students are not to access the computer until needed, after they collected the data needed to input into the computers to make the graphs. I will give the “Go­ Ahead” to access the computers after I have verified their data collections. Prepare the Learner:​Students were already informed of how to properly read a nutrition label, and use the online tool “ChartGo” assigned to them as homework prior to this class lesson session. However, they can refer to the resources and or media during the class session if needed. Methods: Cooperative Learning Groups ­ Students will be placed into five (5) groups of four (4). Each member will have to contribute and participate in order to get full credit. Materials: Images of breakfast cereals with corresponding nutrition label Students will use the images for discussion and to collect sugar, salt and fat information 1. Cinnamon Toast Crunch 2. Cheerios 3. Reese Puffs 4. Frosted Flakes 5. Special K 6. Coco Pebbles Computer: In their groups, the students will use the computer to document their data and access the internet to create their charts with their data. They can also refer to online resources and media to assist them with their work. Printer: After the students compile their data and create their charts, they will print it and submit it to me. Internet: The students will use the internet to access media and also the “ChartGo” website. The use of the internet will only be permitted after the students have complied their needed data prior to the need of the internet Resources: ∙ Data Collection Sheet (Paper): This would just be a scratch sheet for students write any needed information to further their progress in the lesson. This also could be where they document their data prior to making the chart online. Computer: Students will be placed into groups of four and create a bar graph on the Internet comparing the sugar, salt, and fat of all breakfast cereals. Printer: This will be used to create a hard copy of each group’s graphs. Internet: Teacher will use this to access the YouTube video, online information, and tutorials (Media). Students will also use this to access the website where they will create their graphs. Handouts: ∙ Data Collection Sheet: Students will use this to record their data for each of their cereals. Media: Web: American Heart Association ­ Understanding Food Nutrition Labels: This website is an easy explain on how to properly read a nutrition label. This is for the students to refer to if they need help identifying information on the website. YouTube Video: How To Read A Nutrition Label: This is a YouTube video on how to read a nutrition label. This is also a reference for the students to more familiarize them with nutrition labels (Nutrition Facts). Online Tool: ChartGo (Create Graphs): This is a website that is free and easy to use to create graphs, The students will use this website or online tool in order to complete the task of creating graphs for this lesson. YouTube Video: Tutorial ­ Intro To ChartGo: This is a YouTube video that gives an explanation on how to use the website “ChartGo” in order to create their graphs.
Time	R​equire Learner Participation	Notes
10 minutes	Opening	N/A
2 minutes	Introduction of class topic and objectives	Explain to my students step by step what they would do for this lesson.
8 minutes	Have students get into groups of four (4) then randomly selected (counting off 1 through 5), but also trying to have an equal amount of genders in each group as much as possible. Know the grains that are causing your gains: Each group will be given images of all six different breakfast cereals with its corresponding Nutrition Facts label. Based on the images, students will complete the following data sheet of all cereal’s fat, salt, and sugar. Give students time to share their thoughts on each cereal and their corresponding nutrition labels.	Allow students to work on their own while supervising from afar and maintaining order. This will hone leadership skills.
43 minutes	Class Activity: Clear, detailed, steps with examples of what you might ask, say do and how you will complete.	Allow students to work while still making sure that you are available to assist if needed
3 minutes	Learning About the Nutrition Facts Label: Groups will now be given time to examine the Nutrition Facts Label on their breakfast cereals. They are to specifically look at the fats, salt, and sugars because this is what the project is mainly focusing on.	Use a scratch sheet of paper for notes.
10 minutes	Web: American Heart Association ­ Understanding Food Nutrition Labels​: This website is an easy explain on how to properly read a nutrition label. This is for the students to refer to if they need help identifying information on the website. YouTube Video: How To Read A Nutrition Label​: This is a YouTube video on how to read a nutrition label. This is also a reference for the students to more familiarize them with nutrition labels (Nutrition Facts).	Ask short questions for review and understanding.
5 minutes	Salt, Fat & Sugar Data Collection:​Students will now collect the data on the amount of salt, fat and sugar found in the cereals. They will record their data on Sheet. Once groups are done with their data collection, they will have access to the computer to create their bar graphs with “ChartGo.”	Double check collections of data
25 minutes	YouTube Video: Tutorial ­ Intro To ChartGo: This is a youtube video that give an explanation on how to use the website “ChartGo” in order to create their graphs. They will refer to this video for assistance with creating their charts. Online Tool: ChartGo (Create Graphs): This is a website that is free and easy to use to create graphs, The students will use this website or online tool in order to complete the task of creating graphs for this lesson. They will access this online to create their charts. ­ Then Group Print Assignment	See before they print their group charts
7 minutes	Closure: Whole class is engaged in a summary that ties together the purpose/meaning and concepts learned from activity – need to see you encouraging students to use the data they found to support their statements.	Begin discussion by asking if anyone saw similiarities and differences in the types of cereal and what their thoughts were.
7 minutes	Review & Reflect: As a class and also within their groups, we will review and reflect on the assignment or lesson. We will also compare and also deeply analyze which cereals are the best and which are the least best to choose when considering health conditions.	Reiterate what was covered for the day and ask questions that will check for understanding.
	E​valuate and Revise
	Student Performance: ∙ Student/Group performance will be evaluated on how well they worked with their peers throughout the lesson. ∙ Group bar graphs will be graded using the following rubric. Media Effectiveness: ∙ Was the YouTube video an appropriate choice? Were students interested and engaged? ∙ Was the online tool to create the bar graphs easy to use for all students? Instructor Performance:  ∙ Did the lesson run smoothly? Was it well planned (timing)? ∙ How did the students respond to the lesson (interested, engaged, bored, etc.)? ∙ Were the learning objectives met? ∙ What are some improvements?

Rubric for creating a bar graph

Category	4	3	2	1
Title	Title clearly relates to the information being graphed	Title relates to the information being graphed	Title is present at the top of the graph	No title
Label on the vertical/horizontal axis	Labels are neat and clear and accurately describe the information presented.	Labels are clear and describe the information presented.	The labels are present, but may not describe the information.	Labels are not present
Accuracy of graph	All bars are correct size and are easy to use	All bars are correct size and are easy to see.	All bars are correct size.	Bars are not correct OR extra bars were included.
Neatness	Graph is neat and attractive	Graph is somewhat neat and attractive	Graph is present but appears plain and regular	Graph is present but is messy and appears to have been thrown together

A Physical Educator's experience of online education games

The overall experience of this group project was a good one. My group was fully involved from start to finish, even though we were not all in class when we had to start. All members of the group were involved in every step of the process from thought collaboration to the final production of our presentation. Finally, I felt like everyone involved has a strong basis and idea of how the game worked and were all in a sense "experts of the game." Dockterman (2012) found that "that half of all kindergarten through eighth grade teachers are now regularly using digital games in the classroom," and that "nearly one in five are using them every day." I feel as though most of today’s surveys and research finds that we are using more and more technology in the classroom. We faced very few challenges in putting together a rubric because we were all in class together, but I feel like the biggest challenge was putting one together because nobody in our group had made one before. We had all been given one or two in our previous classes, but we never have had to put one together. I felt like another challenge we had was just getting it started and thinking about how heavily to weigh each item that we came up with. According to Hayes(2007), "gaming is an untapped resource for enhancing young people’s motivation and ability to participate in a wide range of sports and other movement-based activities," however; the game we chose might not be directly applicable to my field of study because I am pursuing a degree in Physical Education and Health, but I feel like it could be a great game to use in a classroom setting with computers and downtime to spare. Like I said earlier, I probably will not be able to use this in my general physical education classes because of the curriculum but I feel that if I were to maybe have an adaptive P.E class, then I would be able to pair up special education students with general education students and have them work together to advance in levels. We learned about so many different communication tools in this class, so we did not have difficulty finding some to use. We had a few different media that we used and it really helped when we could not all meet together and it kept us on the same page for when we actually met up and made our collective group changes and practiced our presentation.

Dockterman, D. (2012). 5 Ways Teachers Can Evaluate Educational Games. Retrieved March 06, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2012/05/18/educational-video-games-how-to/#HV3KrZdO7uqr

Hayes, E., & Silberman, L. (2007). Incorporating Video games into Physical Education. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 78(3), 1st ser., 18-18. Retrieved March 06, 2016, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794565.pdf