This week our group taught on the topic of dance and technology. I have taken quite a few dance lessons while growing up, where I had to follow a choreographed set of moves; however, being on the other end of the receiver is really a different experience. Originally, I was familiar with the Cha Cha slide however I had never danced the moves myself, so I first taught the sequence to myself. After a couple times of practicing I was successfully able to master all of the moves easily and of course listening to the lyrics helped a lot. However, when I tried to break down the sequence into individual steps, and teach it without the music to the class, it became quite a complex task, as it was easy to miss simple steps throughout the sequence or confuse the order of the moves at times. Therefore I had known the sequence as a whole, but following a top down approach in my head wasn’t always easy. I now have a different appreciation of my dance teachers who always showed patience when they taught and made it seem so effortless. Overall, I am proud of my team and for all of our efforts. This week’s topic also included technology, and my first reaction to the thought of incorporating technology into physical education was negative. When I thought about technology I thought about convenience and laziness. Physical education is supposed to make you move, break a sweat, go outdoors, and be social. After reading the chapter, I have realized there are a lot of great apps and devices that educators could incorporate into PE, but I still don’t entirely agree with them all and by no means can any of them replace any aspect of PE. Although I am open to including technology as a supplemental tool to reinforce ideas, for example Edmodo can be used in addition to PE activities to carry on conversations and discussions about physical education, but technology such as online games that promote physical activity should never replace PE. Even management apps such as team shake or scorekeepers are all great, however I think those are experiences that children need to engage in themselves to learn these skills. Finally, physical literacy encompasses social, emotional, and physical development, and all of these can’t be achieved through the mere use of technology.

On Tuesday, the Group Teach did their lesson on technology and dance with the class. I think they did really well with their lesson; especially, great job of scaffolding our skills. They really got us moving around! I was sweating after the lesson was done. I also think that you guys all did give the clear instructions and it was easy to follow through. I liked how you guys give us some time to practice the movements as a whole class before we get together with our small group. I do enjoyed and have fun during the activity. Even though I’m not good at dancing or a dancer, I know I can just do my best. I think the main point is to go there and have FUN with the class! I know nowadays in most of the elementary schools, the students only got 30 minutes for their P.E. class. Personally, I think 30 minutes of P.E. is very short and is not enough for the students in a day. I think as a teacher, we should come up with some physical activities for students to do in the classroom as much as we can. The teachers can also integrate their iPads with their physical education and health courses and bring it to the class. For instance, they can set up the YouTube dance tutorials or go noodle routines activities in the class. The teacher can ask his or her students do those activities just at their classroom, and then they don’t have to worry about finding the place in the school. Overall, well done group!

I have to say I had the best time delivering our dance lesson. The energy and fun the students brought to the class made it a wonderful and memorable experience. When I first saw the Youtube example of the whip nae-nae dance, I knew it would be a familiar song to the class and they’d have fun with it. The moves from the youtube example were an appropriate level for grade 2/3’s and for our 320 class to learn in one lesson. This was a worry when designing the lesson, that a dance routine would be difficult to teach and for students to memorize in twenty minutes.

Our group strategically chose the popcorn dance as our warm-up, we wanted students to get outside of their comfort zone and use ribbons and free movement to express themselves. The aspect of the lesson that I was most uncomfortable with was the chapter summary. I have often found this aspect of our lessons to be dry and its difficult to include many chapters worth of information in the short time we have. From attending a Kids Can Move workshop, I learned a game where the movements could be adapted to match the movements of the dance. The game with the four animals movements acted as scaffolding for the moves in the dance, in this way we wanted to make the dance accessible for all skill levels. Part of our chapter summary was on the use of technology in the PE classroom, considering this we utilized a wireless headset so that I could lead the dance with the music playing. Although it didn’t fit my head right and was a bit inconvenient, the benefits of clear instruction did more for our lesson. I’ll consider using this type of technology next time I teach a noisy PE lesson. Overall this experience was fantastic. I love the supportive nature of our cohort!