Creating+21st+Century+Learners+in+elementary+Physical+Education

By: Dan Duncan

Dr. Bill Stepien has created a 'Manifesto' to help guide educators design a class environment that creates 21st century learners. Most of the elements in the 'Manifesto' can be connected to one another in multiple ways, but the goal of this project it to select one element and elaborate on how one will incorporate this ecosystem into their class.

I am an elementary physical and health education teacher, but I call my class "Wellness" because I combine these two subjects on a daily basis. Typically student engagement is not a problem within my class, but my focus in this class was asking myself, "how do I take the already engaged student and make their learning experience one to remember for a lifetime?" To meet this goal, I am going to create a learning environment that will **empower** my students. This ecosystem element is necessary to help foster student ownership of the learning process. I do not want students to just show up to the gym and be active, but instead realize that wellness occurs throughout a lifetime. The skills I am teaching will help my students live a long and healthy life. I believe this ecosystem element, empowerment; will help students take ownership of their life choices (physical activity, nutrition, friendship, making responsible choices, being respectful, etc.). In order to empower my students I will design a learning environment that will take place in my class, in their home classroom and at home. Many of the elements within the 'Manifesto' can be connected. The other ecosystems that I see being impacted by my ideas for the future of my Wellness class are for my students to be connected, collaborative, strong communicators and innovative.

Throughout this course I have been using technology to help create 21st century learning occur in my class.

This is a Knowmia that I created. This is an idea I will putting into place throughout the school year and I believe this project with help students use the my goal elements to become 21st century learners. I want to present this Knowmia to the staff at my school to present my idea! After our breakout sessions with small groups to discuss our ideas I have been made aware of different ways to form groups, choose topics and how to go about conducting my class to make time for this project. It will be necessary for me to collaborate with classroom teachers to choose topics that the students could present. It would be beneficial if these topics were struggle areas for students so they can see the information presented in another form. Cross-curricular development: Connecting PE and the classroom.
 * Artifact 1:**

This is my GoogleSite. I will be using it to go paperless in my classroom. It will be used for many reasons that will help create 21st century learners in my class. I will be using my site to help empower my students to learn beyond the classroom. They will be able to study our health topics, learn our locomotor and manipulative skills, and I will have physical challenges on there to help students be active outside of class. I will encourage my students to visit this site weekly because I will update it to inform all of the units we will be in for that week as well as important dates. There will also be updates for test dates, whether it is health or for FitnessGram or having skill assessments. This way they can prepare and take ownership of the learning process. I will also encourage parents to visit my site so they are aware of my program.
 * Artifact 2**:

I have created an Edmodo page for most of my grades (Ferson Creek 1-5, Wasco 4). This will be another way to communicate with my students. My initial idea for this site was to put quizzes and polls (below is a screenshot of a poll I have created) on this network to create time to practice for the tests, but as I explored more I noticed the badges idea. I think this is a great way to empower students to earn badges for asking questions in class, being great leaders, or participating during discussion. I will also display discussion questions for the students to help them work on communication. The project I was relaying in artifact 1 could be used with Edmodo as well. The students could communicate through Edmodo to discuss their topic and game ideas. This would empower them to take their work outside of class.
 * Artifact 3:**