New Years Resolutions: How Do We Get Students to Buy In?

Christmas is over and most people are setting their sights on the future and that means New Year's Resolutions! We all know how hard it can be to stick to a resolution as adults so how on earth are we supposed to get our students to buy into goal setting and a fresh start!? Let's start with what we know and then come with a solution to the problem.

Keep in mind I am approaching this from a health and phys. ed perspective, but there ideas and guidelines can apply to many aspect of the educational experience.

 According to Forbes, it's estimated that more than 40 percent of Americans make some sort of New Year's Resolution annually. Of those resolutions, the top ten include three major health goals; losing weight (1), staying fit and healthy (5), and quitting smoking (7). In reality, it's estimated that only eight percent of individuals actually succeed in meeting their resolutions. We as educators may fall into this conundrum ourselves! So how do we set a good example for our students?


Keep It Simple. Too often, our resolutions involve a complete makeover of some aspect of our lives and too much change at one time is difficult to maintain. This is even more important for our students! When we talk to them about New Year's Resolutions and setting appropriate fitness goals, we also have to talk about what makes goals appropriate and attainable. Starting off with a goal of going to the gym for an hour everyday to improve muscular strength and endurance will not be attainable and sets the student up to fail. Instead, break the goal down and determine how often a student can realistically get to gym, how much time they can spend there, and what knowledge they have of weight training to successfully complete a workout. Ensure they take their goals home to discuss with a parent! Parental involvement is key for our students to succeed in any classroom, but especially when we look at impacting their lives outside of the classroom.

The Bottom Line... Keep goals simple to start and add on to them later once the simple goals have been met.

Develop a Plan Generic goals often fail because there is no specific criteria to hold us accountable. "I want to lose weight" or "I want to improve my cardiovascular endurance" are not sufficient resolutions because it provides no details in how to obtain them. It is critical to talk to students about SMART Goals (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound). Developing a plan to match your goal will help you stay motivated and hold you accountable. Help students develop plans in class to help obtain their goals. Provide feedback and suggestions before sending it home to show parents.

The Bottom Line... S.M.A.R.T guidelines for goal setting will help students develop a plan to increase their likelihood of success.

Check In Often. When students know that you have a vested interest in their goals and what they are trying to accomplish, they're more motivated to succeed. Schedule weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly check-ins to see how students are doing. This is an excellent opportunity to provide feedback, support, advice, modify goals, and to celebrate their accomplishments! You can even make up your own classroom achievement award to give to students who meet their resolutions.

The Bottom Line... Be there as a support for your students and celebrate their accomplishments!

Be a Role Model.The best way to motivate students is to show them how you're working on accomplishing your own resolutions. So long as you feel comfortable, share what your resolutions are with your students, check-in with them, and ask them to help reach your goals. I am only in my fourth year of teaching, but I have found that being honest and appropriately open with my students helps them feel safer in my classroom and more willing to share their own experiences. Goal setting and New Year's Resolutions provide the perfect opportunity to collaborate with students to reach common goals.

The Bottom Line... Be the example for your students.

No matter what resolutions you and your students may be embarking on for 2017, remember to follow this simple advice. Resolutions don't have to be overwhelming if they're thought out, organized, and attainable. Remember to go over SMART Goals with your students and check-in often. Many blessings to each of you as we enter 2017!

Teachers Pay Teachers Holiday Linky Party!

To quote one of my favorite holiday films, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!" Clearly Buddy the Elf wasn't a Teachers Pay Teachers seller because we all know the best way to spread Christmas cheer is by sharing resources for all to hear (er, see).

With that being said, let's get right to the main event. I am launching my first {ever} Linky Party! I have participated in many amazing Linky's in the past and I'm thrilled to be able to host my first one with you all.

For this linky I am asking all participants to post one FREE holiday themed resource and one PAID holiday themed resource. They can be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or general winter themed. Once you have posted your two links, I humbly ask you to share this post with friends, fellow teachers, and other Teacher Pay Teachers sellers! A special thank you to Ashley Hughes for the border frame and clip art used for the graphic on this post.

If you would like to make this Link Up extra special, I ask you to choose one of the following causes {or a cause of your own} to donate to when you download a free resource. Each of these causes has a special place in my heart!

Alzheimer's Association | St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital | Heifer International 

Let's get this Linky Started!

An InLinkz Link-up

Giving Thanks & Tips to my {100} Followers!

Wow! I am blown away by how dramatically Teachers Pay Teachers has impacted my life in such a short amount of time. I began this journey in January 2016 and have loved every minute of it since!

As a way to say thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this process, I have a new, free product available in my store! I'll give a little more detail on this later on.

Teachers Pay Teachers has been such a wonderful outlet for me over the past year. I've always thought I wasn't a creative person or that artistic things weren't for me and TpT has showed me how wrong I was! This journey hasn't just been about selling products, although that has certainly been an added benefit. Becoming a TpT seller has made me a better teacher in my classroom! If I'm teaching a lesson I think to myself, if I made this lesson would someone want to buy it? If the answer is yes, woo hoo! If the answer is no, then why am I teaching this way? Is it benefiting my students? Is is keeping them engaged? How can I make this better for them? It truly makes me think about how I am delivering content and to challenge the status quo!

My department has noticed these changes, as has my administration! My co-workers will even come to me with ideas they've done in their own classrooms and say, "You should make this for your store!" I'll go to them and say I've made a new resource and I want to try it out with our classes before posting it for sale and they always say yes. I could not be more blessed to have so much support for what I'm doing.

With all of this being said, I wanted to share some tips and tricks I've learned from so many amazing sellers along the way for any educators who are interested in becoming a TpT seller or who are just getting started.

1. Become a Premium Seller - Immediately: I read this everywhere and thankfully listened! I purchased my membership on January 16, 2016 and it was scary. I hadn't sold a single product, but everyone was advising that it would pay for itself in the first month. They were right! In my first real month of sales (February 2016) I sold $122 worth of products and took home $103.39 in earned income. If I had still been a basic seller, I would have earned $61. Going premium is worth every penny!


2. Get on the Forums: The TpT Forums are without a doubt the best thing that ever happened to me as a new seller! There is so much information here to read up on. You can ask your own questions, introduce yourself, connect with other sellers, and so much more! Be sure to read through before asking a question though, there is a very good chance the information is already there!


3. Invest in Versatile Clip Art: Another tip I received was to pay for quality clip art. There is a lot of clip art that you can get for free, but having the improved quality for a small selection when you first get started is incredibly helpful! I invested in sports themed clip art and have used it in so many of my resources since then. Find what clip art you think you'll use the most and make the purchase. I have many sellers who I revisit because I love their work so much!
   
   
   
   
   
   Sonya DeHart Designs | Ashley Hughes | Away with the Pixels | The Clipart Factory


4. Invest in Font Options: There are a tone of sellers who makes fonts, but let me save you some time and money. Kimberly Geswein is the only font store you will ever need. She was everything. When you see a font other sellers are using an you think to yourself, where did they get that!? I will bet you 9.9 out of 10 times, it's from Kimberly Geswein. You can download all of her fonts for free for personal use only. She then offers font licenses to purchase for $5 which allows you to use her font in your TpT products. Now, this is the good part. She offers a lifetime all fonts license for $299. Don't have $299 sitting around? If you purchase 60 single font license for $5, contact her so she can verify your purchases, and she will give you her all fonts license. Basically, she's offering you a payment plan!  She offers a free font pairing guide to help show you how to pair fonts for a good visual aesthetic. She is awesome!
   
   Note: I'm working on my payment plan as we speak {slowly, but surely}... I can't wait to have unlimited use of her fonts! In order to use this method effectively (or if you've already purchased single font licenses) you'll need to purchase additional single font licenses. Do not purchase the $299 all font license at one time if you've already purchased a single font license, because you'll essentially be losing what you've already paid for. For example, I personally have purchased six single use font licenses. I would want to pay for 54 more individual licenses and contact Kimberly instead of buying the $299 license because I would be losing $30 I've already paid.


5. Hold Off on Social Media: Everyone I spoke to advised me to hold off on social media and I didn't listen. I tried to pin, tweet and blog immediately after becoming a seller and it was a mistake. I was overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything and I believe that my sales and product line suffered because of it. I am a just shy of a year in now and I've just started utilizing social media to the fullest! My blog is updated weekly, I tweet and post to Instagram what my classes are doing daily, and I can Pinterest like a pro! I would recommend having 10-15 solid resources in your store before you start utilizing Pinterest, 30-40 solid products before using twitter, and waiting until you feel comfortable utilizing your products in your classroom before moving on to Instagram and Facebook.


6. Understand Copyright Laws: I did a lot of research on copyright and trademark laws before creating my products. There is a ton of information out there and it is important to the integrity of your work, as well as the integrity of Teachers Pay Teachers. It's also very frustrating for those of us who know what the laws say to scroll through TpT and see blatant violations everywhere. If there is something popular with kids that is produced or manufactured by a major company, it's likely copyrighted or trademarked. Just because you see someone else selling it on TpT, doesn't mean it's okay or legal. Teachers Pay Teachers offers help directly from their site here.


7. Make Good Covers & Brand Yourself: This is important on TpT for many resources! When potential buyers are scrolling through a long search for a product you want to be able to catch their eye! Colorful, easy to read covers are an excellent way to entice buyers to view your product. Be consistent with your covers so buyers know, "Oh, that's a {insert seller} product!"


8. Find Your Niche: Find what you are passionate about when thinking of products for your store! If you try to make products about things you're not knowledgeable or experienced in, it will show in the product. Don't try to fit into the crowd, make resources you can make well regardless of what category that places you in!


9. Purchase a Seller's Kit or Binder: Let's be honest here, if you're new to TpT or thinking about becoming a seller, you likely have no clue what you're doing. I certainly didn't! There is nothing wrong with being new and purchasing a sellers kit or binder is so helpful! I purchased mine here and it has kept me so organized! I can track my sales by month, quarter, and year round. I can track what I've purchased, what I want to blog, I can plan out resources and units, and so much more.


10. Understand TpT Etiquette & Common Decency: You're going to log in and see so many great ideas! Maybe you've been a buyer and you've decided to create your own store or maybe you're scrolling through the search for inspiration. Whatever you're doing it's important to ensure you're not just re-making other sellers resources and selling them as your own! All of your products should be your own unique creation that add to what the rest of the community has already created, not a copycat that hurts other sellers.


11. Read the Terms of Service Agreements: Every seller should have a terms of service (TOS) agreement within their downloads. Read them. Clip art especially has specific conditions for using that source in other products you create. Read them carefully and follow their instructions so you are not violating their TOS.


12. Make a Terms of Service Agreement: Protect your work and include a TOS agreement with every product download. This allows you to back up a claim made against another seller if you ever need to. Not only that, it helps buyers understand what your rules are so they can use your resources appropriately. 

There are many more tips I can provide, but I believe this is a good base for anyone just getting started. I have learned so much along this journey and if you're considering selling on TpT I highly recommend it! If you ever want to ask me specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me at sassypeteach@gmail.com.

As a thank you to my followers, check out my latest freebie here. I hope you enjoy utilizing these frames in your future TpT creations!

VAHPERD Review Series Part 4: The Brain Game Challange

I am so excited to share my final session review from the 2016 VAHPERD Conference! This presentation was created by Andrea Samsky and I have to say that there is not a more creative person teaching HPE in this universe! For example, when she teaches soccer in class, every piece of equipment takes on a role in the circulatory system (i.e. the balls are oxygen) and she utilizes these pieces to teach two or more concepts at once. My mind was truly blown! I could have stayed and talked to her for HOURS to listen to all of the ways she incorporates health concepts into the PE realm for her elementary students. If you are ever in search of creative ideas for your HPE classroom, reach out to Andrea, she is phenomenal!

Well now that you've heard about how wonderful Andrea is, let me give you all the skinny on what she taught us at VAHPERD to prove it! This lesson was created for elementary students, but after going through it with her, these can easily be adapted to fit the middle school classroom. This activity is called the Brain Game Challenge and works with a station system and worksheet to get kids building, moving, and learning throughout the classroom. I did mark this as a freebie, but there are components you will need before taking this into class and I'll warn you, it requires some work, but the payoff is worth it!

Equipment:

1. Pool noodles cut into 1/2 inch sections (approximately 23 per group)
2. Rope (approximately 24-36 inches long) per group
3. Printed worksheets (one per group)
4. Pens/Pencils (one per group)
5. Station Cards
6. Cones (one per station)
7. Hula Hoops (one per group)

Setup:

1. Stations should be spread apart around the outside of your safe space with all necessary equipment.
2. Each group should find a hula hoop with their equipment placed inside of it.

Recommendations:

1. If possible, try to keep group sizes between 3-5 so students are actively involved.
2. Number your station cards so they match the question on the worksheet. You don't want students spending five minutes at a station sitting and staring at the worksheet trying to figure out where the answer is - keep it simple for them.
3. Avoid making every individual child fill out their own sheet - it keeps them still for longer bouts of time.
4. Move around throughout the activity and check on student learning and retention.
5. Review at the end of class while keeping kids active.

     If you would like to see the PDF files of her station cards or worksheet, please shoot me an e-mail at sassypeteach@gmail.com. If you know of an easy way to upload those files directly to blogger  as a PDF, please let me know! I'm still learning and can admit, I'm not sure of the best way to get you that information. You can see in the sample below that the set she gave us is for lower elementary! Over Christmas break, I will be working on a middle school version for those of us who may be interested!

     Don't forget to submit your ideas for my TpT store by December 20! E-mail sassypeteach@gmail.com with your submissions and check out the entries and rewards post here! Until next time :)

All I Want For Christmas Is...

I'm making a list and checking it twice, I promise to make what ever you like, any resource you can think of!

Welcome back everyone! This week I really want to do something special for you guys as my followers. Drum roll please...

I want to find out what resources you want to see me create! As we enter the holiday season, I will have much more free time on my hands to get crafting on TpT and what better way to utilize that time than by helping you all! Not to mention, if you offer a suggestion for a resource you would love to see, there will be an added benefit for you. As a TpT seller, I'm constantly trying to think of new and exciting products for my followers and I really want to hear from you! What products do you want to see created? What will you utilize most in your classroom? What are you dying to have, but don't have time to create on your own? I want to know it all! So without further ado, let's get into how this will work and what you can expect from me!

1. E-mail your new resource idea that you would love to see me create to sassypeteach@gmail.com. I humbly ask to keep these ideas health and PE related as that is my specialty.
2. Be creative! It can be a holiday specific item, a general classroom item, health, PE, the sky is the limit.
3. Be as specific or broad as you'd like with your request. Please keep in mind that if you have a specific vision for a project I want to know so I can give you exactly what you're looking for.
4. Be sure to leave your TpT store name or the name you would like to see credited in the creation of the project.

1. I will create your resource and place it in my store for purchase, BUT...
2. I will send you a copy of the resource FOR FREE as a way to say thank you for the idea!
3. Credit given to you in the product download!

1. Please submit your project idea by December 20, 2016. This will allow me the time I need to create your idea.

My goal is to fill my store with products that will benefit the entire HPE community! We teach such a valuable subject to our students and my goal is to help all educators achieve greatness in the classroom.

So from the Sassy PE Teacher to you this holiday season, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy Kwanzaa. I hope each of you are blessed throughout this holiday season and beyond.

Note: Special thanks to Ashley Hughes for the header borders, as well as the primary picture background and clip art.

VAHPERD Ideas Worth Sharing Part 3: Music Like You've Never Heard Before

Welcome back for part three of my VAHPERD review series! I am so excited to share this session with you all as it blew my mind when I sat through it. This edition is all about music in PE, how to edit it with iTunes, and the legality of it all. This amazing session was titled Music, Let's Get Your Gym Rocking and was presented by Patrick Lynch of Hampton County Public Schools. He was generous enough to include tutorial videos for those of us that attended! That means you'll get to read and see how to remix all of your songs for future classes.

The most useful thing we learned about during this session was how to edit track lengths in iTunes. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to use a song that I know the kids will love, only to find it uses bad language and an edited version isn't available. If only I could shorten it to the first thirty seconds or use a small segment somewhere within the track... WELL NOW I KNOW HOW thanks to Patrick.

Converting Songs from YouTube to an MP3 File (legally):

1. Go to www.YouTube.com and search for a song you would like to convert.
2. Once you have found the song you are looking for, copy the URL link from the top of the browser.
3. Visit http://convert2mp3.net/en/ and input the URL you copied from the YouTube video into the "Insert video link (URL) and select format" box.
4. The video will convert and give you the option to provide the artist name and song title. This will be automatically filled in, but you have the opportunity to edit the names if you'd like to.
5. Click continue and you will see a "download"button. Click download and the file will save to your computer.
6. Open iTunes and select File and select upload file.

Confused? Don't be because you will find Patrick's step-by-step guide on how to do everything I've just mentioned. Start this video from the beginning and pause around the 4:00 minute mark to read the next section.

Editing Songs in iTunes:

1. Select the song you would like to edit.
2. Right click, select get info and then select options
3. Once here select Adjust equalizers and then select start & stop time {this allows you to fully edit the track}
4. Select the portion of the song you'd like to use {Example: Start at 1:30 | End at 1:55}
5. Select Input into playlist when you're ready to use

Your track is now ready to play for the times you selected! Like all good things however, there is a con to this method. The song is shortened no matter what until you either make a copy of the track or go through the steps above and reset the settings you've used. Luckily, Patrick taught us how to make this transition simple:

1. You can change the track back to its original formatting after use
   OR
   
   Skipping the original steps above...
2. Select the song you would like to edit.
3. Right click, select options, and then select AAC version.
   
   OR
   
   Using the steps above and working with the already edited version...
4. Select the edited track, select file, and select create AAC version
5. Rename files to say something different (i.e. Uptown Funk - Workout)

This second process allows you to keep your original file untouched, while creating a new file to use in playlists for your classroom. Confused? Not to worry, below you will find Patrick's step-by-step guide on how to do everything I've just mentioned. Skip to the 4:00 minute mark in the video to specifically see how to cut songs in iTunes.

Why does any of this matter?

Music is an essential component to each of our HPE classrooms. We have the power to change the environment we create with every song and activity. Music helps students connect to our content and express themselves while participating in activity.

Below are some ideas on how to utilize music in your classroom using these tools:

1. Workouts: Make an uptempo song clip that last 20 seconds for the students to be working throughout, followed by a 10 second slower tempo for a break or transition phase.
2. Stations: You could also use 1 minute long clips to signal for station rotations - when the song changes, students know to switch
3. Full Song Workouts: Certain songs that use the same word repeatedly are awesome for warm-ups and small workouts throughout class. For example, AC/DC's Thunderstruck says the word Thunder 33 times. When they hear the word, they perform an exercise you've specified (like a burpee), while the rest of the song is playing they perform a lower intensity movement (like a high knees march).

FitnessGram Will Never Be the Same:

Finally, how many of you have the Pacer test track memorized? Let's just be honest and admit that we all do. We hate the musical background it has and the kids do too... So let me (er, Patrick) rock your world with the following information:

YOU CAN PUT YOUR OWN MUSIC OVER THE PACER TRACK.

What!? Yes, you read that correctly. Check out the video below as Patrick shows you how to utilize Garage Band to rearrange the tragic background music of the pacer.

I hope each of you found the information from this session as amazing and life changing as I did! It has taken me a few tries to get the directions right so if you try it out and struggle with it, just know to keep trying! The more you do it, the more natural the process will become, and the more your students will enjoy music in your classroom!

Check back next week for the final part of my VAHPERD review series to learn all about an incredible central nervous system integrated activity {drum roll please...} that can be used for middle AND elementary students (with minor adaptations)!

VAHPERD Ideas Worth Sharing Part 2: Chicken Football

Last week I shared part one of my VAHPERD Review Series and this week I'm back to share another favorite! I can't wait to use in my classroom, especially as I move in to football lead up games after Thanksgiving Break. Like Crazy Kickball, this game was taught during the "Best We've Ever Seen" presentation. Unfortunately the original source of the game was not cited when presented, but we share free tools and ideas in the PE community all the time, so thank you to the creator of this awesome lead-up game. The name sounds a little strange, but this game is great for teaching so many football concepts!

This game is a great lead-up game for football because it works on moving up and down the field, while downs and yardage can easily be incorporated to advance the concept for middle school students. 

Equipment: 4-6 chickens or other item (footballs were not recommended because students tend to throw them and you may need more than 4-6 depending on your class size)

Recommendations: No more than 3-4 team members per group to avoid to much wait time.

Directions: Start with two groups facing each other on opposite sides of the "field" and the chicken in the middle. When groups start, the first member in line for each team will run to the center and rock, paper, scissors. The winner of one round will pick up the chicken and try to run into the opposing teams end zone. The non-winner must return to the end of their line. The next person in line of the non-winning team can run out to meet the winner with the chicken as soon as their teammate is defeated. Once they meet, the member with the chicken drops it where they are and they must rock, paper, scissors again. The winner picks up the chicken and runs to their opponents end zone. This process continues until someone scores. After a score, the chicken is placed back in the middle of the playing area.

Adaptations: This game is great on its own, but if you want to adapt it to have more substance it is absolutely possible. Talking to students about downs and distance, turnovers, and scoring drives can all be incorporated with ease as students move through this game. You can also use other equipment instead of the chicken.

I hope that this game is a hit for you in your classroom! Stay tuned next week to learn all about music in the classroom, as well as a tutorial on how to set the pacer to YOUR OWN MUSIC! My mind was completely blown by this concept and I know yours will be too.

VAHPERD Ideas Worth Sharing Part 1: Crazy Kickball

The Sassy PE Teacher is finally back in action! I truly tried to keep up with my store and blog during cross country season, but it simply was not possible.

I apologize for the hiatus, but I am excited to refocus my efforts and share some truly incredible ideas thanks to fellow professionals in my beautiful home state of Virginia!

The Virginia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance held it's annual conference in my hometown of Midlothian, VA from November 11 - 13 and it was an action packed weekend! I've been to many VAHPERD conferences, as well as SHAPE Southern District, and the SHAPE National Conference, but this conference was truly spectacular. I left with so many new ideas, knowledge, and research. My plan is to share many of them with you all over the next few weeks.

First up in my VAHPERD series is a game that I can't wait to implement in my own classroom! It is a new twists on an old classic and was featured during a session titled, "The Best We've Ever Seen."

Also known as "Fitness Kickball"

This game is similar to traditional kickball in the sense that there are two teams, one of which is kicking while the other is defending the outfield. This is also where the similarities end so be prepared to move and lose track of the score,

Equipment: You need three balls, five cones, and a bucket or tub large enough to fit three playground balls in. The setup is identical to traditional kick ball, except for the tub directly next to the pitcher.

Recommendations: Always have the teacher pitch. Anyone who has played kickball before knows this is the cardinal rule!

Directions: Start the game with the three playground balls inside the tub. One at a time and at 3-4 second intervals, pitch the balls to the kicking team. {You can vary the rules on how students have to kick for your classroom, but a general rule of thumb is to ensure the ball moves forward (bunts count).} Once the ball has been kicked, students are trying to run the bases one time as quickly as possible. When they return to home base, they move to the end of the line. Don't worry about this line part, it moves very quickly... The fielding team is trying to collect all three balls into the tub at the same time. Once they do this successfully, the teams will switch roles and continue play.

Like all games there are certainly pros and cons to this one. What I love about this game is that it gets kids moving! Unlike traditional kickball when only one student is running at a time, this version allows kids to constantly move on both sides of the ball. Student interest and involvement is off the charts with this as well! Cons of this game revolve around the lack of standards content. You can definitely argue that fitness concepts can be incorporated, but without adaptations this game will not be content focused and therefore shouldn't be played on a regular basis.

Adaptations: Now, the good news about the cons is that we can make some small changes to incorporate standards. Incorporating health standards into PE content is an excellent way to make fun games more educationally focused. Tell students that the playground balls are oxygen, the kickers are arteries who have to send the oxygen through the body, while outfielders are veins who need to take the carbon dioxide back to the lungs {the tub} to be dumped so blood can be oxygenated. All of a sudden, your students are learning about the circulatory system while improving cardiovascular endurance in a fun, engaging way.

I hope that this game is a hit for you in your classroom! Stay tuned next week to learn all about Chicken Football, an exciting warm-up game that teaches basic football movement, cooperation, and critical thinking.

Inclusion Coaching: How to Run a Cross Country Team Without Making Cuts

The fall sports season has quickly arrived and with it come the hopes and dreams of kids across the country who want to become part of a team. In sport, cuts are necessary for all kinds of reasons that range from transportation limits, to manageable team sizes, and play time practicalities. Some sports are fortunate that they have the ability to accept more students than others and one of those activities is cross country.

I am taking over my middle schools cross country team for the first time. The won the regular season and post-season titles last year and the expectations for runners in my area are high. Although I run independently in various distances outside of school for fun, I have no experience coaching running. I’ve always been a soccer player (and coach). You’re also probably wondering why I run for fun and if I’m honest, I’m just as baffled by it as you are. Yet somehow here we are with a fresh cross country season and I have 101 athletes on my roster with two coaches and an assistant. Is your mind as blown as mine is? If so, don’t fret because we have a plan and I’d like to share it in case there are any other overwhelmed cross country coaches out there.

Before I dive too deep into the world of no cuts and increased participation I feel the need to clarify a few things. First, I’m coaching middle school {AKA} the formative years. I certainly won’t deny that I’m far from the varsity level and fully admit that because of that, I choose to coach a little differently. I also don’t necessarily carry this no cuts philosophy into other sports. I coached girls middle school soccer last season and kept 20 players out of a potential 75 that attended tryouts. Enough with the background, let’s get to it!

In case you forgot or thought I made a typo, I currently have 101 athletes on my cross country roster. ONE HUNDERED AND ONE! I knew we had a lot of interest in cross country, but I truly had no idea we were going to have over 100 athletes. My mind immediately raced to think of how to properly supervise all of these runners, let alone condition them!  Here is what I’ve found:

1. Divide the team into three smaller teams based on a time trial. We have worked it out into an A, B, and C team. The A team consists of the top seven runners for boys and girls for a total of 14 athletes. The B team consists of the runners who finish in slots eight through 25 for boys and for girls, which brings the A and B teams to a total of 50 runners (25 boys and 25 girls). Runners who finish in the 26^th slot or higher make the C team.
   
   
   How does the time trial work?
   
   I’m so glad you asked! We walked our athletes through the home meet course the day before we planned to time them so they knew exactly where to go. This took the majority of practice, but trust me, if you want an accurate placement from your time trial, you will take the time to do it. The following day students are divided into male and female heats. They run the course while a running timer is kept. As athletes finish, they’re given a card or popsicle stick with their finishing place on it. We then keep a spreadsheet with their times that are printed through our machine. We use a basic handheld timer from Seiko to manage this. They aren’t cheap, but are worth the investment! You can see the timer we use for sale on Amazon here.
   
   
2. Set Away Meet Rules & Guidelines. Obviously some issues prevent a team of 101 athletes from traveling to away meets. We notify athletes and parents at the beginning of each season that only A and B team members will travel to away meets. Our buses have a capacity of 52, therefore 50 athletes and two coaches fit perfectly on said bus.
   
3. All home meets act as a new time trial. It’s important to give athletes a goal, as well as the opportunity to improve! You’ll already be tracking who finishes where anyway, so count these scores as a new time trial so athletes can move up or down. This helps keep your A team honest and gives top B and C team members a chance to improve and move up!
   
4. Make accountability a priority in practice. We specifically design our practices so that students can measure how far they’ve been. We can accomplish this in a few ways through circuits and guided runs.
   
   
   Circuits: These allow us to keep all of our athletes moving at once while keeping track of how many circuits they complete. One of my favorite workouts involves cones spaced 5 yards apart down the length of a football field. Athletes run to the first cone (5 yards away), complete a set of the exercise posted, and run back to the start line. They repeat this, adding 5 yards between each station until they’ve reached the end. Afterwards they complete two laps around the track, get 3-5 minutes for water, and complete the circuit again, keeping track of how many total circuits they complete.
   
   Guided Runs: These runs allow us to map a course of a specific distance and document each time an athlete passes by. We can then record their total distance and hold athletes accountable, especially once you’ve completed the workout a few times (i.e. last time you completed 10 laps as opposed to five, what’s going on today?)
   
5. Enforce team rules and policies. My personal philosophy about sports teams is that they are a privilege to be a part of and we want as many kids active as possible. Due to this, my athletes are held to higher standards for academics and behavior.
   
   Academics: Students on my teams must maintain B averages or higher in all coursework. If a grade falls below the B level at any point during the season, they have two weeks to pull the grade up (or show improvement) by attending tutoring or receiving help from the respective teacher. If the grade does not improve, they are removed from the team.
   
   Behavior: Poor classroom behavior is not tolerated on my teams. Detentions will be issues and receiving two causes for dismissal from the team. There are no exceptions
   
   Parent Pick-Up: Our parents are expected to be prompt when picking up their children from practice. If we end at 4:30pm, all athletes should be picked up no later than 4:45pm. Parents are allowed two late pick-ups before their child is removed from the team.
   
   Some believe these policies are harsh, but we have the opportunity to show so many athletes would good discipline can do for them in sports and in the classroom. We hold them to a higher standard because we know they can achieve it!

I hope this information is helpful to anyone who may currently be coaching cross country or who may be thinking about coaching cross country. It's important for all coaches to develop their own philosophies and styles! What works for my program may not work for yours and vice versa. Regardless of how you decide to form your teams, GOOD LUCK.

I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from a man who inspires me daily:

"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must;  just never give up" - Dean Karnazes

Back to School Newsletters

It sure has been a while since my last post. I will briefly fill you in. Since school let out, I have been swarmed in camp. I am the program director for a local YMCA camp and that means I'm responsible for writing ten curriculum's for three age groups. Yes, that is a lot of additional work and it has really taken me away from my store and my blog, but I'm back!

Today, I want to focus on a topic that I'm noticing is somewhat controversial and that is Back to School Newsletters (or Meet the Teacher forms). My thought process began when the TpT Facebook page posted an ADORABLE newsletter format on their page. I loved the concept, went immediately to the sellers site, and purchased the resource. It was so fun and colorful and also completely editable!

Now, I decided to not only leave feedback, but to comment on the facebook post to share my excitement! I was shocked to see so many negative comments on the feed about the concept of Meet the Teacher newsletters. Advocates against expressed that it was too personal and parents didn't need to know all of this information about them. Proponents for the newsletters felt it was an excellent way to let parents know who they're giving their children too for the next nine months.

This brief synopsis leaves the question: To Meet the Teach newsletter or to not?

My simple and profound answer is that we need to do what works for us in our classrooms and respect others for their decisions as well, whether they agree with us or not. I was really taken aback by the negativity on the original FB post. We are a community of educators who all share a common goal. The teacher responsible for the newsletter they shared replied to my comment simply for being supportive. Isn't that how each of us should be?

Now for the good part {in my humble opinion anyway}... The contact box is covered for obvious reasons. Y'all don't need to know EVERYthing.

It dawned on me after I finished my version that this newsletter concept is generally geared toward elementary teachers... yet here I am in middle school loving the idea. Now that I'm in a school and a department that values work and collaborates together (as well as being in my fourth year of teaching), I have a lot more time to focus on the "add-ons" to my classroom.

The idea of a Meet the Teacher newsletter is amazing, but I also like the idea of sending home a monthly newsletter as well to keep parents up-to-date on what we've been working on. Who says this method has to be limited to elementary teachers? I'm ready to set higher expectations for my students, my parents, and for myself. I'm excited and ready for the upcoming school year.

Plickers in PE: Using QR Codes For Quick Assessment

If you have not be exposed to the glory that is Plickers, then you are missing out on a PHENOMENAL resource for your classroom. I just learned about them in a professional development seminar prior to this school year, so I haven't implemented them in my PE classroom yet, but I use them daily in my health room!

Plickers are a QR code system that allows each student to answer questions placed on your projector/smart board. The question can be generated online or through your mobile device! Another benefit of Plickers is that it is free to use! Visit Plickers here to sign-up and download your free printable cards.

You can also purchase a set of laminated cards for $20. If you want to download and print the free cards to laminate yourself, you can, but it's important to note you can only use matte finish laminating paper. The traditional laminating sheets will cause the Plickers to malfunction due to the glare off the gloss finish.

Recommendations for creating your Plickers set:

1. Buying the matte laminated cards is a worthwhile investment. They are sold through Amazon. The only downside to purchasing them through Amazon (recommended from the Plickers site) is that they only sell the standard pack of 40. If you need more than 40 unique cards, buying two sets will not fix this issue.
   
2. If you decide to print the cards yourself, I recommend printing on card stock as opposed to traditional computer paper. This will help maintain the integrity of the cards for a longer period of time, especially if you decided not to laminate them yourself.

Getting Setup & Organized:

1. Build in an organizational tool in your gym. I am a huge fan of pocket charts for this purpose. They're easy to hang and make taking Plickers out and putting them back in a breeze. S&S has a great packet chart here. It's 20"x 24" and features 30 clear and 30 yellow pockets.
   
2. At the beginning of the school year, assign each student a number (per class period). When students enter the gym, they grab their card (huge help for attendance to avoid squad lines and down time). Take your phone, scan any leftover cards and instantly know who is not in class today.
   
   

   
   

   This will also keep students accountable for managing their attendance. If a student forgets to claim their card and is accidentally marked absent, it opens the door for the conversation about accountability and personal responsibility.
   
3. Teach students how to use the Plickers. (A) Each Plicker has a number on every corner of the QR code. This is the number I assign to students. (B) Each Plicker then has a unique letter on each side of the QR code (A, B, C, D) (C) You can ask true/false questions with A = true and B= false.
   
   
   
   TO ASSIST MY STUDENTS, I WRITE THE LETTERS ON THE BACK OF THE CARD. This prevents them from flipping back and forth for every question. You can see a sample of this below. Now, students can simply look at the back side of the card to know which answer they should be holding up.
   
4. Now, you can easily scan the QR codes with your phone to gather formative feedback while teaching in your classroom.

How to Implement in PE

Now comes the tricky part.. How do you keep track of all these cards while in physical education class!? So many of us in phys. ed are hesitant to use Plickers in the gym because it seems like too much of a headache, but in reality Plickers are easy to implement!

You can enter questions ahead of time or enter them real time as you see needs developing in class. You can do this online or on your phone. You'll then need to click on the application on your phone, select the appropriate question, and scan to collect your data.

1. Teaching a new skill? Great, Plickers can allow you to see who is grasping essential concepts and who still needs more practice.
   
   For example, let's say you're teaching how to plant your non-dominant foot beside the ball in a soccer unit. You want to see if all of your students understand why that's important instead of calling on a few kids who raise their hands. Propose the following question: True or False - placing your non-dominant foot next to the ball in a soccer kick allows you to direct the ball properly. Students would hold up their Plickers with A for True or B for False and you now know exactly who gets it and who doesn't. Now open up the discussion to help those students who don't understand why!
   
2. Formal Formatives? Don't have time for a sit down quiz, but want to see where your students are with rules or concepts of a sport? Read (or display) the question, give the answers and record student responses in no time.
   
3. Class Exit Tickets? Great, save paper, incorporate technology, and avoid grading by having exit slip questions plugged into your Plickers account.
   
4. Polls and classroom surveys are also possible with Plickers. This is perfect for testing a new game or drill to see how your students respond to it. For these types of questions, it's simple to mark every answer for a question correct or leave one as incorrect (personal preference of the teacher) to see if it's a hit or a flop.
   

This is just the tip of the iceberg for possibilities with Plickers! There are so many additional resources that you can find through Gopher and SHAPE America. These were just a few tips to help you get started and I would LOVE to hear how you incorporate Plickers into your own classroom!

Specific Feedback: Why It Matters & How You Can Implement It

Teachers across the board hear these expressions often... "Great job! Good work! Nicely done! It looks great!" Some of us might even say them to our students often. Even though we're trying to reinforce students and their learning, we're actually doing them a disservice by not being more specific!

Specific feedback was discussed in every undergraduate and graduate teaching class I ever took. We practiced how to give specific feedback, how to recognize examples of unspecific feedback, and how to rework unspecific feedback into specific feedback. All of this practice, all of this repetition, and yet, from time to time, I find myself still providing unspecific feedback to my students. I typically catch myself and rework the feedback each time, but it still happens even though I know all of this! Why?

Unspecific feedback stems from rushing to get to as many students as possible without providing enough individual attention to give them a specific critic or emphasis. It's the easy way out for feedback and every educator has fallen into the trap at some point, but we need to be diligent about providing specific feedback. Our students engagement is depending on it!

According to an exert of an article by Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller in September 2012, researchers have discovered that video games are widely successful because they provide large amounts of specific feedback:

"Many parents have observed the irony that a child who shows little perseverance when practicing piano or doing homework will joyfully commit countless hours to mastering Guitar Hero or other video games. In fact, by the time the average U.S. adolescent turns 21, he or she will have spent 10,000 hours playing video games (Prensky, 2001)—which is, as it turns out, about the same amount of time necessary to fully master a sport, musical instrument, or area of professional expertise (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993).

According to Prensky (2007), the addictiveness of video games can be partly attributed to the constant stream of feedback they provide. At each level of the game, players learn what works and what doesn't, and they can immediately use that knowledge to advance to more challenging levels. And researchers have found that the same dynamic applies in education: One of the most powerful keys to unlocking student motivation and perseverance is feedback."

I recommend reading the entire article here. I wish I could quote the entire thing within this post, but I will let the eloquence of the original authors shine through. There is a lot more evidence cited as to why specific feedback is so important!

So this begs the question, how can we incorporate SPECIFIC feedback into our classrooms? 
(Note: I am approaching this from a physical education perspective, but all classrooms benefit from specific feedback).

In my classroom, my class size ranges from 19 students up to 31 students. Many teachers, especially in physical education, have class sizes double or even triple that! Getting to every student can be an enormous task, but there are a few tricks to help us out, regardless of how large (or small) our classroom may be.

1. Pick one item to critique each class period. Learning is a step-by-step process and our physical education classrooms are no different. When we're teaching students the steps in how to swing a baseball bat, they aren't going to get every step right the first time! In teaching the baseball swing, start in steps and critique/provide feedback as you move through. For example, day one of teaching the swing, focus on providing feedback for their hand position. This will allow you to be specific while still reaching each child. If you try to focus on all seven to eight components (depending on your style) you'll never reach every child and you'll be forced to provide unspecific feedback.

Specific feedback sounds like:

• "You're doing an excellent job of keeping your dominant hand on the top of your grip while swinging the bat."
• "I can see you're working very hard on your swing, but remember to place your dominant hand on top of your non-dominant hand while holding the bat during your swing."

2. Avoid standardized feedback cards. I'm noticing a trend on TpT of seller's offering feedback cards with cute phrases like "Great job in class today!" or "You rocked PE today!" and while I'm sure those are nice, they don't tell your students WHAT they did a good job with. If you want to provide feedback cards to your students (which I think is awesome) you need to provide them with specifically created cards for them and your activity. Does this take a lot more time? Yes, but aren't our students worth the investment? We're teaching to make a difference! Making specific feedback cards takes longer and therefore I provide them once per unit. This is a picture of a feedback card I typically give to my students. They are not available for sale on my TpT store, but I would anticipate them becoming available over the summer. 

3. Complement long-term feedback with short-term feedback. The research is showing that students respond best to immediate feedback. Provide informal, specific feedback daily to every child and then compliment that feedback once a skill has been mastered (or improved) in the long-term. In my classroom, I provide daily feedback on the skill focus of the day and I provide long-term feedback with my cards at the end of the unit. 

4. Assess students clearly and provide specific feedback. When my students participate in an assessment, they are told exactly what I am looking for. In our bowling unit, I assessed four key areas of importance to me (hand position, three-step approach, stepping in opposition, and follow-through). When I assess, I utilize a trials method of two trials per skill. If the skill is present students receive a 1, if the skill is questionable or absent the student receives a 0. The best trial is scored for their overall grade. These skills are the focus of the unit and each receives specific feedback in the four days leading up to our overall assessment. My students know what is being assessed, what is being looked at, and how to perform each skill. I do not provide feedback during assessment, but instead utilize the specific feedback sheets after assessments have been given to share what students did well and where they can improve.

Although this post was specific to physical education, specific feedback should be given in every subject area across the spectrum. In ELA classrooms, teachers should be writing constructive and specific feedback when editing writing assignment. As the article I linked eludes to, simply writing awkward next to a sentence doesn't give the student much to work with. What about the sentences was awkward? How can they fix it? Is it the whole sentence or a small part? Is the verbiage awkward or is the sentence structure awkward? I know grading essays can take a very large chunk of time, but are we really help students writing improve by providing such vague direction? 

I personally suffered through this during my IRB process in graduate school. One professor edited my drafts and provided unspecific feedback and when it came time to turn in the final, the second professor gave me an incomplete and required me to rewrite the enter paper. Her logic was "he should have known better." So why was I, as the student, being punished for something she blatantly admitted wasn't my fault? 

Specific feedback is what helps guide students in the learning process. It allows them to process information, correct their wrongs, and move forward to more challenging topics. It is our responsibility as educators to ensure our students are able to "level up" and progress in our classrooms.

Classroom Favorite's: Treasure Island

I don't know about the rest of you, but it just won't stop raining here in Virginia! Thankfully, my class was in health last week so the rain didn't have a huge impact, but now we're back in PE and the rain is really messing with our spring sports rotation. What can we do that is still educational, fun. and engaging for students while accommodating three classes in the gym? TREASURE ISLAND.

This game focuses on cooperative skills such as communication, teamwork, non-verbal communication and cues, as well as critical thinking. Students ask to play all the time as it is a class wide favorite and all ages (elementary, middle, and high school) can benefit from this activity.

Equipment is minimal and can be easily manipulated depending on your class size and equipment availability.

Equipment Needed:

• Cones (Optional)
• Hula Hoops or Mats
• Pool Noodles
• Jump Ropes
• Poly Spots
• Scooters

You can easily substitute any of these items for other equipment you have in your school. If you want the game to last longer, you can also add more types of equipment to this list.

Activity Directions:

     Students will attempt to get their entire team from one side of the gym to the other. That must use all of the equipment to get across and no part of their body is allowed to touch the floor. If they touch the floor, that individual must go back to the starting point. The mat (or hula hoop) in the middle acts as an island. They are allowed to stand in the island to assist teammates in crossing, but the island cannot move. Once the group has made it across once, they must select one of their items to give up. This should be a team decision, not just one or two people. They will then attempt to make it back across. Once completed, they will repeat the process of giving up an item and returning across until they have only one item left!

There are a few rules to remember as we move through this activity:

• Students should not be allowed to stand on top of scooters! Bottoms, knees, and bellies only.
• Honesty is key when acknowledging that a body part has touched the ground.
• Students are allowed to pick which piece they would like to forfeit.
• Encourage students to be creative while adhering to the game rules.

     Below you will find some of my favorites from my own classroom. I love how creative the kids can get with trying to make it across. We've seen "rockets" and jump rope balance beams, pull systems and rope lassos. There is never a dull moment in treasure island!

     I hope you are able to utilize Treasure Island in your own classroom with as much success as I have in mine! It's a fun game that works on so many different social and cooperative skills... The kids won't even realize they're learning.

How to Create Review Game Slideshows

Do you ever wonder how all of these review games are made? How do they link all the slides together? Where do you even start!? Well folks, you're in luck because today that's exactly what I plan on showing you.

1. Start by opening PowerPoint. I will be using PowerPoint 2010 for Windows, but the commands are virtually the same if you're using 2007.

2. Select your design.  I always do this first so I know how everything I set up will work. Click on the design tab and then pick your favorite. If you want to design a custom slideshow you can select your fonts under the design tab and your background by right clicking on the slide itself and selecting the file from your own computer.

3. Input your introductory information. This is pretty simple and no different from any other PowerPoint creation. 

4. Create your table. Now you can create your review game menu! Create a new slide and in the center area, click on the table icon. 

 This will bring up a dialogue box where you will select how many rows and columns you'd like. I'm selected four columns and five rows. This will create a four category, four question review game. If you'd like more categories, select more columns, if you'd like more questions, select more rows.

Your finalized table will look like this:

5. Input your categories and point values. This is simple insertion and is completely up to you and what you want your game to be about! I prefer my tables to be centered. Go to layout and then select the two centering tools.

Once I have my table set, I input the data I am going to hyperlink!

6. Add the number of slides you will need for your game. You will need two slides per question, one for the actual question and the other for the answer. I recommend labeling each slide as you go because it will make hyperlinking in the next step that much easier.

Once you have your slides set up, you're ready to hyperlink! Go back to your main menu slide and highlight the "100" for your first category. Once highlighted, go to the insert tab at the top of the program and hit "Hyperlink."

Once you've selected hyperlink a dialogue box will appear. You will need to select "Place in this document" and select the slide matching the game menu. For example, if you highlighted Weather 100 (like I did), you will want to make sure you select the Weather - 100 slide (this is why titling your slides in the previous step was so important).

After you've successfully hyperlinked your slide to the game menu, you will need to create a "back to menu" link as well. Go to the answer slide for the 100 question you just hyperlinked. Go back to insert and select text box. Draw your box in the bottom right corner of the slide and type in "Back to Menu." 

Repeat the hyperlinking process by highlighting the "Back to Menu" and select hyperlink, place in this document, and select the game menu slide.

7. Repeat for each slide. Repeat the hyperlinking process until you've reached the whole slideshow! A shortcut you can utilize is copying the text box "Back to Menu" and pasting it on the return slides. The hyperlink will stay in tact and it will save you a lot of time.

     See! It's that easy! If you're looking at these steps and thinking, "this is too much for me... I don't have enough time to do this" don't worry. I have review game templates in my store for four and six categories (with four questions per category).

Good luck with your creation!