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3 ways to improve NCEA PE with google apps

Reflecting back on this term, here are 3 simple ways that I used google apps that have really transformed my teaching and the students learning....

1) Use forms



1.1 and 1.5 require the students to reflect on experiences that they have had in class.  In previous years the students filled in sheets over the term/year with the entries on how they thought the lesson went with respect to team work and interpersonal skills.  It was unlikely that the sheets would stay intact
until the end of the term and would either degrade into an ineligible rag or disappear completely - forcing the student to make up all his reflections in a lesson, voiding the whole purpose of the assessment!  By using forms the feedback from students has been immediately after the lesson (in term 1 we have 3 practicals and 1 theory for L1) as they go home and complete it - or even do it on smartphones on the way home, and we don't have to waste time in lesson completing feedback on the forms.  I teach 2 level 1 classes so I made a form relevant to both and emailed the link to all of the boys, they can fill it in at their leisure and I will use the form for future courses.

The way the data is collected is really easy to manipulate and it is simple for me to sort the data to get a snapshot of who has completed responses and what depth they are being filled out.  It can be exported to docs, and even shown in graphical form.  Overall this has really helped me stay on top of the paperwork that 1.1 and 1.5 seem to generate, and I am happy that the students are filling out the responses authentically, as soon as they can after the lesson.

Forms also played a part in the peer assessment and the graphical representation of data was spot on - I wrote about that here.  I have also used forms for level 2 homework - in the form of a specific knowledge test, and a questionnaire to find out what topics/standards they would like to cover this year.

2) Feedback to parents and students with spreadsheets


This has been essential for keeping students on track and making sure all work is complete - we worked on 4 different standards this term so it even helped me remember where we were at!  I changed the sharing permissions so that anyone with a link can view the table, but also hid the names and used the students NSN number which they all know.  When I want to update the table and enter data, I just unhide the names - this meant anyone could see the table, but you could only see how much work a person had done if you knew the 9 digit number.  I updated the table every friday and emailed the parents to remind them to have a look.  I usually had it up on the white board when the students walked into the class so they could all see how they were getting on.

3) Use tables in documents to help collaboration


This was great for level 1's where they had to work on new vocabulary with interpersonal skills, I shared a document between groups and then they had the lesson to work together and fill it in - at the end we put all the results on the board and filled in any blanks that groups had left.  Level 2 also used it to plan the training session that they had to take in small groups.  It was easy for me to monitor how much work they had done, and see what equipment they needed before the session.

I am already thinking of ways where we can integrate apps into our classes, but slightly held back by technology available.  Next term I should hopefully have a couple of old desktop computers available, maybe with a linux version of chrome os.

See if any of these methods will fit into your curriculum area, if you'd like to see any of the forms or documents I have created for NCEA PE message me and i'll share a template.

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