In recent years, I have made a conscious effort to build in opportunities for students to develop a wide variety of skills and attributes within my lessons. This has resulted in once simple tasks being re-thought to provide students with opportunities to be more independent learners, reducing my role and seeking to increase their personal and interpersonal communication.
One of the my favorite tasks for putting students in the drivers seats utilizes the app ‘CoachNote‘. This app is a super simple coach whiteboard that includes all of the different equipment you might find within your sports storeroom. One of the exciting features of the app is the ability to take a photo that can then be drawn over. This has resulted in me taking a photo of our school gym and utilizing it to create ultra realistic game setups. Once complete these are then shown to the student cohort at the start of the session, with the instructions being “work as a group to setup the game exactly as shown in the example below”. This seemingly simple task has not only minimized my setup time, but has provided me with countless opportunities to gather insight into how students work together to achieve a common goal. See a recent example of this in action in the diagram below.
Another useful way I have utilized CoachNote is during communication with Relief Teachers, enabling me to be much clearer with my instructions and games for the session. All in all a superb and super addition to my PE Classroom. One that I simply wouldn’t be without.
So how could you see yourself using CoachNote? What value do student led and managed activities add to your classroom? Let me know in the comments below.