#EdCampPEClass + SuperBetter Concepts to Create Our PE Fitness Options for 'At-Home' Remote Learning
Our efforts were inspired by the gamification movement in education and the book by game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal who is among the millions of people who play video games, but it's more than a hobby. In her book, "SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient--Powered by the Science of Games," McGonigal uses what she learned about the psychology of games to tackle life's challenges.
For many of us, fitness is one of those challenges. A small core group of PE I students are trying to tackle the enormous task of applying her concepts to our fitness efforts during remote learning. We hope to share a product with the community by Quarter 2 in November. A playlist of options that focuses on making fitness more fun through gamification principles.
For many of us, fitness is one of those challenges. A small core group of PE I students are trying to tackle the enormous task of applying her concepts to our fitness efforts during remote learning. We hope to share a product with the community by Quarter 2 in November. A playlist of options that focuses on making fitness more fun through gamification principles.
Applying Design Thinking Strategies To Our SuperBetter Fitness Project
Our Class WAKELET To Collect and Share!
WP SuperBetter Fitness Project 2020-2021 During 'At-Home' Remote Learning
Small Group Meetings: Volunteers Work to Create our SuperBetter Fitness Project
Once our volunteers make suggestions, and Ms. Minka creates brainstorm ideas, the lesson for the following week's whole group class actives
Week Two: IMPROVED For 2nd Marking Period
The assignment shown below in Seesaw was easier to grade and more easily viewed in the learning journal. The 'Crowd Sourcing' activity in the Google Doc was super confusing for students.
Week 4 Battling Bad Guys - Crowdsourced Google Slides: Identifying Bad Guys (Preventing Activity Time) and How To Fight Them. Examples of Student Work
Week 5: Recruiting Allies to help our SuperBetter Fitness efforts.
Students were asked to recruit at least one friend, family member, or one teammate to help them with their SuperBetter efforts. If they didn't have anyone agree to help them, I offered to be their ally in hopes of reducing their anxiety. Students were asked to give each ally a specific job to help them with their efforts. I asked my niece to send me texts asking me how I was doing with my 'Power-ups' and 'Battling my #1 Bad Guy', the terrible teacher desk. It's amazing that by helping me, my niece realized that she wanted to get more cardio into her day before work :)
Week 6: Reflection Through Journaling
Students reflected on their efforts in a journal of their choice and were asked to track their SuperBetter efforts too. Paper or digital - both were acceptable! Below is a screenshot of how Ms. Minka went about the process. Evernote with the check boxes makes the process easy to tally at the end of the week :)
Week 6: New Collection Tool in Seesaw & Added a Reflection Piece Too!
Many students reported that they wanted to do a better job with their SuperBetter efforts! Their responses will help me lead into week 7 - planning our 'Epic Wins,' which is timed perfectly to our goal setting lesson. Total coincidence & mind blown that the two collided at the same time. Our #EdCampPE Lesson & SuperBetter lesson can become one making our Zoom time easier, with fewer moving parts!
Week 7: We will attempt to design an 'Epic Win' around our SuperBetter efforts to add more physical activity, movement, and exercise into our days.
Students will design their own 'Epic Win' in hopes of improving their weekly fitness point totals. Many reflected during week six that they wished they had done better. Hopefully, using goal setting techniques within the game's confines will help them create a roadmap to follow during the rest of our time together and once they leave my class!
Side Note: Looking for ways to review our efforts to date!
We are trying to pull it all together during our last five weeks together designing and playing our version of SuperBetter - applying the concept to our fitness efforts! A word cloud is a great tool to review and capture our efforts and journey together! I did not ask the students to do one of these, but may by the end of the course!