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#PubPD – What a great way to run PD!
Posted by shaunyk
Last week I had the great pleasure of helping Carlos Galvez run #PubPD in Shekou, China. The idea behind #PubPD has been developed by MapleSyrupEDU , you can check out their website here.
The idea behind #PubPD is to turn a Twitter chat into a real life chat. Essentially Carlos and I put the word out on Twitter that we would be meeting at a local restaurant where we had arranged some drink specials, and then on the night we all gathered together awaiting the onset of PubPD.
The night followed the following setup:
- Meeting up and introductions
- Discussion of 4 questions in the following format
- Get in a group, and discuss the question for 10 minutes
- take 5 minutes to tweet out with the PubPD hashtag the highlights of the discussion
- After the questions are finished, keep enjoying the company of new and old friends alike
It was a fantastic night, and a really great way to get informal PD and discussions going in your area. It was also a really great way to meet other educators in our home town. Check out the photos below where you can see the many many smiles generated that night.
If you want to get involved I would recommend getting in touch with MapleSyrupEDU , you can check out their website here, as they have templates for posters, slide decks and other things that you won’t have to organise alone if you ask for their help.
One final thank you to Carlos Galvez who is an amazing educator, great friend and a giant ball of positive energy.
I’ve been a huge fan of BreakoutEdu ever since I heard of it for the first time about one year ago. I honestly hadn’t heard about it until I received a BreakoutEdu box when I became a Certified Innovator. BreakoutEdu is a great tool and has a wide variety of teaching, learning, assessment, team building among many other qualities. Meeting James Sanders at the Innovator Academy was great. We even got to play a breakout in the official Breakout Edu Bus! I also got to meet Mari Venturino blog.mariventurino.com who introduced me to BreakoutEdu.com/digital and meeting my buddy Curt Schleimbaum from threesixtyedu.com who introduced to holobuilder.com.
Having learned so much from these three great educators I purchased my 360 camera and got working on what I could use holobuilder.com for. Since last July I’ve used this website, which is originally to showcase homes and construction in 360 for educational purposes. I’ve managed to use it for student assessment, school tours and a couple of weeks ago I sought out to create a 360 Digital Breakout.
Allow me to introduce you to holobuilder.com. Holobuilder is amazing for its ability to insert interactive triggers within holospherical images. Any 360 camera will take pictures like these and there are also apps like the Street View app that will allow you to take some with just your phone. Once you insert your image into the site you can easily get to work by dragging and dropping the triggers you want to insert. Triggers will appear and pop up you you hover over the image with your mouse or with the cardboard option dot when viewed in mobile version. There are many types of of triggers you can insert but your best bet are text, URL, soundbite, and images to create your breakout.
My favorite way to use it is to insert a Google Form URL into the URL trigger. This will allow viewers to see the Google Form on the side and still continue to pan around the image and play the game as you can see in my sample. Here are short step by step instructions and a also a quick tutorial on how to create your own games! Here's the one I made as a sample. 360Breakout
Step 1: Go to www.holobuilder.com and set up an account.
Step 2: Upload your image as your project and save the project.
Step 3: Add triggers anywhere on the image.
Step 4: Be sure to drag the triggers and play with the arrows to resize properly.
Step 5: Make sure to save every so often!
Step 6: Click on the share button to get a shareable URL and other extra sharing options.
For everything Breakout EDU please go to BreakoutEDU.com/
For everthing Holobuilder please go to Holobuilder.com
Follow James Sanders @jamestsanders
Follow Mari Venturino @MSventurino
Follow Curt Schelibaum @curt_truc
I hope you enjoy making these as much as I do! Have fun!
Carlos Galvez
@clos_gm
9/21/2016
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a drone in PE class?! This seems to be the case if you are a student in one of Carlos Galvez’s classes. Carlos is a Physical Education teacher located in Shenzhen, China that is truly taking his profession to new heights. With over 15 years of teaching experience, it was time for Carlos to move out of the classroom and into the sky. This is our interview with Carlos Galvez about how he is using drone video footage to provide a better view into learning and education.
What has been the path to this point in your career?
To be honest, I was 19 and made the choice to work before going to college. Being Guatemalan and speaking fluent English meant I could get a job teaching ESL quickly. I went and took a language test, passed it and was on my way. What I didn’t know was how quickly teaching was going to change my life. I found a passion for it right away and also met my then wife-to-be about two months in. After moving to Italy to teach with my wife, we took an opportunity here in China. I’ve always been into sports and fitness. Being an avid tennis player, I explored the field of Physical Education and decided it would be my next move. I completed my degree and have loved my subject choice ever since!
What does your instruction process look like?
It really depends on the skill I’m trying to build. I use a different approach for my 6th graders than I do for the upper grades because they are coming from an elementary school program where movement is key focus. I try to give students a balance of gameplay and skill development. With my upper grades I take a more specific approach to skill development. I add tactics and lots of reflection and analysis. In Physical Education, I never find myself teaching a sport but rather skills which can be to applied to many activities. I expect my students to transfer skills from one sport to the next. For example, I expect forward throwing motions to transfer from dodgeball to baseball to Cricket despite the fact that balls vary in size and weight.
How exactly are you using Coach’s Eye?
I started using Coach’s Eye to do motion analysis. More specifically, throwing, kicking, and basic movement. Some of my colleagues were also using it to analyze swimming strokes. The interface is very user friendly for both myself and my students. Here at Shekou International School, we have a great team of innovation coaches who have helped not only teachers but our students become very tech literate. In fact, I don’t quite remember having to teach my students how to use the app. They are very curious themselves and are able to figure it out easily.
How has your use of video progressed over time?
Before Coach’s Eye, I used to just use normal videos and sometimes annotated over them with iMovie. We had iPads but having someone film meant less active time. So video analysis in general was not happening very often. Since then, our team has purchased GoPros which students wear as part of their gear. These devices paired with the drone, take care of gathering the footage thus allowing students to maximize their active time. My PE team members at SIS, Mark Knudsen and Meaghan Wilson, both take advantage of this approach and it has enhanced our curriculum considerably. I recently used Coach’s Eye to analyze my students’ bowling motion during our Cricket unit. I took footage from a professional bowler, then had some of the students do the same movement to analyze it. This was just a reflection piece so they didn’t turn in any videos. I’ve used Coach’s Eye now for four years and haven’t needed anything else.
What made you want to try out drones in your class?
I’ve always loved high angle replays in sports such as in American Football where you can see plays develop slowly. So when a friend of mine told me he had bought a DJI Phantom, I definitely saw the opportunity. Thanks to the help from our Innovation Team at Shekou International School, I was able to sit down with Martin Ruthaivilavan and Mark McElroy beforehand to plan how we wanted to fly the drone to get the best angles and more importantly to make it fit seamlessly into my class.
How do students interact with the videos?
I establish the parameters of the assessment and the understandings that I’m looking for in their videos. The most valuable part of Coach’s Eye is that once my students have the footage and my expectations they can go off and do it independently. Students love to see themselves from new angles. Making these assessments with students this year has not only helped them see things from a different perspective (pun intended) but has also shown that our PE team is trying to maximize the effectiveness of technology to increase their understandings. Parents are highly impressed when they see these videos during student-led conferences. They like to see their children show they’re learning in this way.
What has Coach’s Eye meant for student learning and development?
Coach’s Eye is an exceptional flipped classroom tool because as students see themselves in slow motion and annotate over things like arm movement or gameplay, they get to reflect on exactly where they can improve and self-assess. I especially like to use mentor athletes’ footage that the students can compare their movements to and juxtapose that to what they are doing to detect their own errors and set new goals. Coach’s Eye is a must have for the educator seeking to empower students through their learning by self-assessment, observation, and reflection.
What big opportunities do you see for technology or video as teaching tools?
Tech is evolving rapidly and we need to always remember that technology is not a substitute to teaching but rather an added value to understanding. I have been playing around with Google Cardboard this year, but 360 cameras and videos are going to take a bit to catch on in regards to Physical Education.
What does this high-tech classroom experience mean for students?
Q&A with Students:
How did it feel to be able to see game play from a drone camera?
“To be able to see the game play from a drone felt better than a camera in the ground. It felt better because you could see the whole court and every player and their movement. While from the ground it was not as good because sometimes players would block other players or the camera.” – M.S.
“From a drone, you can see the entire field. You can see every little motion that each player makes, and this really helps me analyze the play deeper and improve my skills in strategy-making overall as well.” – I.L.
What do you think about using Coach’s Eye in class?
“I think Coach’s Eye is perfect for this because you can edit anything. And the fact that you can voiceover makes it clear when you want to describe something. Like if there is a person passing a rugby ball you can circle their movement of the ball and talk at the same time which helps people understand. I find it simple and easy to use.” – M.S.
How did watching game play from the top help you carry out the assessment?
“With a bird’s eye view, it’s very easy to see what strategies and skills the players are using, because nothing is blocking our view from the entire game. The whole game is laid out in front of you. All you have to do is analyze their moves and how they synchronize to become a good team, which is helpful with Coach’s Eye.” – I.L.
Full article with video and images can be found at: http://blog.coachseye.com
8/25/2016
I’m a PE teacher. You know, the one who just plays with kids and doesn't 'really' have to do the hard work? To be honest, I wouldn't be a teacher of any other subject. I love what I do and I love to be able to impact my students with not just teaching them how to be healthy but to hopefully one day be able to make new friends when someone asks, “Hey, wanna play ultimate frisbee with us tomorrow?” and for them to say, “Absolutely!” I make sure my students are learning how sports are played, not just played: with collaboration, commitment, integrity and confidence. I teach that the winner is not who scored the most goals but the one who understood exactly how the scoring opportunity was created. This is my belief as an educator.
I’m pretty sure you have come out of a PD conference saying to yourself, “I didn’t learn many new things this time.” Well, PE conferences are not very different. It feels as if we, the experts in our respective sports, mostly tend to go to conferences to show how we do things at our school. Maybe my experiences were just bad luck? Don’t get me wrong. There have been parts of my conferences that have been very useful; in fact, at a conference in Hong Kong, I learned the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGFU) model which I continue to apply regularly. But after attending a couple of conferences where unfortunately I didn't feel that I got as much as I wanted from them overall, I wondered how else to spend my school’s PD funds. This is where my journey began.
I started by doing some reflecting and finding some areas for improvement. Then I decided that going the certification route instead of the conference route would be more beneficial for my students. This would allow me learn from the best instructors in the world and learn all the nooks and crannies of the sport in which I wanted the certification. My research led me to go for coaching credentials in Level 1 Tennis and a Level 1 Swimming, my personal childhood sports of choice. I was a good athlete in both but lacked knowledge in instruction. Both certifications were three days long, had practicums and exams requiring my full attention but in the end I walked (maybe limped) out of there with a globally recognised Level 1 Certifications in Swimming and Tennis. A couple of days later I began the Net Unit with my students in PE and I was amazed at how I was able to instruct students with their errors in grip, swing and footwork. My students benefited greatly from my newfound expertise.
A mere $10 balance in my PD budget proved difficult to find a third certification option under big sports federations as they tend to charge a bit more than $10. Then I remembered a friend of mine who said she had obtained a Google Educator Certification. So I went on bing.com and googled it. Haha! Just kidding I googled it on Google. And there it was, staring right at me: Google Educator Level 1… $10! And I could do the training modules myself? Perfect. Before I knew it I was two units in. I may have forgotten to mention that I live in China. Google is blocked in China and we have big issues with its use. But I didn’t let that stop me. After all, that yellow badge would look good on my resume. Four or five weeks later I take the three-hour test and pass it. I was so proud. My wife, always my number one fan, was so excited. Three certifications in one year afterall!
Coming into work on the Monday I looked at my brand new Google Educator badge and thought to myself, if level 1 was $10, then how much is level 2? $30, and now of my own money? Worth it! Like I had done after my coaching credentials, I found myself immediately applying Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in my PE classes. I began using Google Forms for my students to teach themselves dance choreographies and to track their fitness results. I began using Project Based Learning (PBL) in my health classes and began to use Hyperdocs. Was I applying the things that I was learning into my classes that quickly? Yes. As I was studying for level 2, I was starting to become more practical when planning my lessons, collaborating with teachers and assessing students more efficiently. I found myself printing a lot less and even if I didn’t always use Google Apps, I was saving an incredible amount of time. I felt very confident in my day to day activities. Two weeks later there I was, staring at my level 2 certification. But wait, there was a post on my Google+ group that said, “You can now apply for the Google Certified Innovators program!”
The application was long. Really long. I was asked to submit a project or proposal that I was doing at the time that could “change education”. Oh, did I mention I had about 10 days to do it? I had 10 days to do it. So I took a thorough look at what I was doing at the time and chose a project I had been working on for some months. My project sought for us, the teachers, to go the extra mile to ensure our students find their passion early on. I had started this project way before I even knew about Google for Education but this was my only hope. I filled in the application, created a slide deck, made my two-minute video and pressed submit….
Email from Google.
Subject: Congratulations Carlos. Welcome to the Google Certified Innovators Program.
Are you kidding me? I’m going to Google this summer?
Walking into Google in Boulder, Colorado gave me chills. It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I, along with 35 other teachers, tech integrators and even vice-principals, could not believe it. This was my journey. But what about theirs? How were they seeking to change education? Three days of working with the Google for Education team along with the Edtech Team transformed me. We were encouraged and given tips on how to carry out our projects to completion. We were given motivational speeches to not be afraid to fail. We learned how Google approaches staff retention and what being “Googley” means. The most amazing thing that came out of those three days was the people I met. My cohort, our coaches, our leaders and organizers all came together to create magic. But this was not a trick. It was transformation. We now belong to a special group, within which all of us are seeking change and innovation in education. We are the #GoogleEI. My Google project? It is now growing into what I call “No Passion Left Behind.”
Five certifications in one year. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the fifth: Fatherhood. My beautiful wife Cecilia and I had our boy right around the time all this was happening. Lucca is a healthy baby. He’s a happy baby. One day I will tell him about the year he was born. I’ll make sure he knows how important it is to follow his passions no matter what he decided to pursue. I’ll make sure he knows that it’s okay to hack and disrupt learning. He’s now a constant reminder mores so than ever that this is all bigger than us. All we can do is make sure our students are getting the best version of ourselves every time we walk into that classroom. That we are prepared to take our students to the next level. After all, we made the choice to be here; we should never stop learning new things, especially when our most valuable learning moments come from our students.
Yes, I’m the gym teacher that plays with his kids on top of all the hard work that we all do as educators with a couple of add-ons of my own. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Carlos Galvez
@clos_gm
#GoogleEI
carlitosgalvez@gmail.com