Teacher of the Year Loriann Minka 2016

To plan, I use the National Lesson Plan Creator to choose the Shape America Standards, technology integration, and activities that we will address in order to meet the standards. I also have incorporated into my physical education website a page that includes all the standards and grade level outcomes to share with students and their families the expectations for the course. My methodologies are changing as I’m currently transitioning to Solo Taxonomy, and using creative assessment tools like green screening to allow students to share what they know, understand, and can do. Green Screening using Touchcast is probably the most innovative tool I’ve ever used to get students to think more deeply about the content and to force them to verbalize their learning in a creative and fun manner. Last year we created green screen projects around using our new Polar H7 Heart Rate monitors and it was a memorable experience. Students had to research, write a script, and share out their learning on videos while using images to enhance their presentations. Some students were willing to not only share with the class but also with the world on their YouTube Channels.

Conducting a balanced and sequential curriculum has always been a challenge. However, our district supervisor, Dr. Baker, asked us as a group to revisit our scope and sequence and allowed us the freedom to make it our own. Using 21st Century Skills and technology helps track monitor sequential curriculum. With Schoology, our new learning management system now in place, and by using the National Lesson Plan Creator, I am now able to design units that build upon one another. Within the individual, dual, or team activity units we include a health and skill related components of fitness. We can provide both in-class and out of class activities to ensure that students become physically literate. Meaningful homework can be assigned and collected in a usable fashion, and students can even save their best work into portfolios to demonstrate their learning by using digital evidence.

Every year I try to self-assess how effectively I taught and assessed each of the standards. I am always looking for holes in the curriculum and try to effectively come up with new and innovative ways to meet the standards.

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