Click the image below to get the Google Doc Assessment Sheet that goes with my 10 minute bodyweight workout video. This is a great virtual lesson for middle and high school Physical Education Students!

As we wrap up our fall semester, I wanted to share with you some writing prompts (editable in Google Slides, of course 😍). These writing prompts are aligned to common core for grades 6 - 8, but can easily be adjusted. 

Click the image below to make your own editable copy. 

Please direct other teachers to this post to make their own copy!

As we begin to wrap up our fall semester, I wanted to share an activity that I am having my students complete. This is very easy to use for your distance learners, as it is editable in Google Slides. 

There are several writing prompts in this Google Slides activity for your PE students to share their ideas and thoughts about exercise during Christmas break. 

Please feel free to click the image below to make your own copy. 

Please direct other teachers here to this link for them to make their own copy. Thank you, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Free PE resources just because I wanted to share some kindness 😍:

• For 6 - 12 PE teachers, I have a 5K training program I am sharing with you today. My classes are currently meeting face to face (with other students participating online if they choose), but we are not allowed to use any equipment. Therefore, we have been training for a 5K. 
  • Make a copy of the Google Sheet for student data entry here. 
    • We share this Google Sheet with editing permissions to our middle school students. After each day’s workout, they enter their HR for accountability and grading purposes. This makes grading a breeze!
    • This is a great log that lasts for 9 WHOLE WEEKS (3 class periods per week). My students are currently on week 6, and they are doing great so far. It is going much better than I expected considering the circumstances of Covid and how upset the kids are that we cannot use equipment. 
    • The purple cells go clear once the students type in it. 
    • Obviously, you will need to change column A to fit your classes and your students. For column B, I prefilled my student names by copying and pasting from my online roster. 
  • Read the 5K training outline here (please note I did NOT make this, this was found via a Google search). 
  • We use the C25K app because it exactly lines up with the PDF document above. I do not get any kickback for recommending this, it is just simply the app I picked to use this year. I use it on my phone, and exercise with the kids around the track. I simply use my whistle to inform the students of the intervals!
  • We also create daily learning targets that go with each day's exercise and post it online on the learning platform that we use. Our at home kids and our in person kids all do this same workout! 
    • Below is a sample write-up that we post for the kids:

I hope you find this helpful, and please comment below if you have any questions, or just email me: trendingtechtn@gmail.com!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher,  Mrs Wenning's Classroom, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Lockwood's Little Learners, The Chocolate Teacher, Kamp Kindergarten, A Plus Kids, The Monkey Market, TheBeezyTeacher,  Teacher Gameroom, AR Tech Star - Eva Griffin, SOL Train Learning, Teaching Math and More,   Angelica's Resources,  Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, Julie's Learning Corner, Teach Me T,   and Trending Technology in Tennessee.
 
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 11/13/20 and is open worldwide.
​
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

In the days of Covid-19, it seems like all teachers are needing a quick download of forms to give to their substitute teachers when they have an unexpected absence pop up. 

I have created several forms that you can access below; the link will prompt you to make your own editable copy in Google Slides. Please direct teacher friends here to this website to download the forms. 

Click HERE to make your own editable copy in Google Slides! 

If you are interested in my Thanksgiving Webquest, click the image below, or click HERE!

Team Handball is a great game to play for students of all ages in PE. This lesson plan is geared towards 6-8th grade, can it can be adapted for various grade levels. Read the lesson plan below, and scroll down for a link to make your own FREE editable copy in Google Docs!

Lesson: Team Handball
Teacher: insert teacher name here
Grade Level: Middle School

Instructions for taking attendance  
Paper Instructions:

1. Use the provided paper attendance logs to record attendance. 
2. Please send a note down to the front office with all absent students for each class. 

OR 

Online instructions (will vary according to your school district):

1. insert school website here
2. Find the school’s name
3. Find the teacher’s name
4. Password: insert password here

Notes

• The sub will co-teach with (insert teacher here) during any shared periods. For any shared periods, please proceed with the lesson that (insert teacher here) is currently teaching. 
• Please take attendance as soon as the students enter the gym and go to their spots after dressing out. 
• Dressing out requirements:
  • School required PE t-shirt
  • Shorts or Sweatpants (no yoga pants or leggings)
  • Tennis Shoes and Socks
    • Any student not wearing tennis shoes is not allowed to participate. The student will forfeit all participation and dressing out points. 
• Please make a note of any students that were not properly dressed out.
• Please do not allow students to enter the locker rooms after they have dressed out. They should use the restroom during their dress out time. 
• Students are allowed to get water from the fountains directly outside of the gym at any time.
• If the sub takes the students outside, the sub needs to inform (insert office workers here). 
• The sub will need to have the walkie talkie with them at all times. 
• Please pay close attention to the daily schedule, as it is different on various days. The schedule can be found in the sub folder.

Lesson Plan Intro
For classes that the sub is teaching alone (no co-teachers), please follow the instructions below:

• Students have 5 minutes to dress out and enter the middle school gymnasium. Each student should go to their assigned spot for attendance. 
• Take attendance via the instructions above. 
• Students will run 4 laps around the indoor track for a warm-up.
• Students will return to their spots in the gym. 
• Students will play team handball; see instructions on team handball below. 

Team Handball Instructions
Please note that equipment amounts, field/court sizes, and team sizes will vary depending upon your gym setup. 
Equipment:

• 20 large disc cones (5 for each goal crease)
• 4 Pugg (pop-up) goals 
  • recommended size: 6ft goals for 6th grade, 4ft goals for 7th and 8th. 
• 20-30 jerseys depending on each class size 
• 2 large gatorskin balls

Team Handball Objective:

• The objective of Team Handball is to pass the ball from teammate to teammate until a goal is scored. The team with the highest amount of goals wins. 

Team Handball Instructions:

• Divide the middle school gym into two halves. 
  • Recommended playing size: Approximately 50 ft by 40 ft
• Two goals will be placed at the end of the court (4 goals total). 
• 5 large cones will be placed around each goal to create the goalie crease (see diagram).
• Divide players into teams. 
  • Please do not allow team captains. 
• Distribute pennies to each team.
• Each team spreads out on their half of the court. 
• Paper - rock - scissors to see which team goes first. 
• The game should start on a tipoff.
  • The tipoff should be administered by the sub.
• If teams are not passing the ball enough, incorporate rules such as:
  • three passes are required to score 
  • the ball must be passed to at least 2 girls before the team is allowed to score

Rules:

• Only 3 steps may be taken at a time with the ball in the player’s hands.
• A player may not hold the ball for longer than 3 seconds. 
• If a pass is dropped or intercepted, the other team is awarded a turnover from the spot of the drop.
• After a goal is scored, two players meet in the center circle for a tipoff.
  • The tipoff should be administered by the sub.
• The goalie is the only player allowed in the goalie crease. 
• Each game should last for 7 minutes. Rotate teams around the 4 halves of the courts so that each team is allowed a new opponent each round.

​
Diagram:

This lesson plan is available in my TpT store for purchase. As a thank you for following my blog, I have made an editable Google Docs version of this lesson plan available to you for FREE. Click the link here!

Share the final websites with the parents.

• My students’ parents rave at the end of every semester of just “how awesome” their child’s website is. They are blown away that 11 and 12 year olds can design their very own websites (and some really great ones, at that)!

If you have any questions or comments about ePortfolios, please drop a comment below or email me! trendingtechtn@gmail.com

Thanks and happy designing!
~Hayley Wood

​

My students absolutely LOVE TO MYSTERY SKYPE!!! 

This is an activity that I learned about at the TETA conference in Murfreesboro, TN several years ago. Ironically enough, the person I learned it from (Dr. Katrina Keene) is actually the mother to one of my students. Go check her out here, she is really amazing!

In a nutshell, students will ask Yes/No questions to try and find the mystery location of the other school. You can read more details about Mystery Skype here. 

To be successful at Mystery Skype, I have found that it is VERY important for each student to have their own assigned role. If you opt not to assign roles, this will more than likely result in the majority of students not really being engaged. I like to make sure each of my students are participating, and assigning student roles helps me to formatively assess participation levels. Each student having their own assigned role makes them feel important, involved, and excited. I absolutely love when students are learning, especially when they are actually EXCITED about learning! 

To assign student roles, I have found it very helpful to have name tags (talk about upping the importance of their "roles"). You can get your own FREE and EDITABLE copy of my name tags here. I formatted these name tags to fit name tag holders that I found on Amazon. You can get the same lanyards and name tag holders that I use for incredibly cheap on Amazon here. I opted to get 10 horizontal name tag holders (with lanyards included) for about $10 bucks. 

If you have questions about Mystery Skype, or if you want to Skype with my class, please contact me!

You can also connect with me on my Microsoft Skype page here. 

How many times have you heard the question "How do I know if this source is reliable or not" or "I cannot find a .edu or gov website" ????

If you are anything like me, I hear questions such as these ALL OF THE TIME from my students. In an effort to enhance my students' ability to find credible, reliable sources, I put together a handy TIP SHEET to share with my students. Feel free to direct your students to this website to make their own copy! Tip: Click CTRL + L to quickly highlight the link in the browser. 

Click the image below to make your own editable copy!

Do you have any other online research tools that help you and your students find reliable sources? If so, drop a comment below!

Try using this Amazon basics Thermal Laminator for under $20 if you wish to display these as posters in your classroom.

Click the image below to access the Windows Shortcut Keys Google Slides file.

Happy Cyber Week! 

In honor of the cyber week, I wanted to pass along another freebie to my website followers! Today I am offering a lesson plan template that is FULLY EDITABLE in Google Docs! Click the image above to receive a free copy of the template.

You can click HERE to see an example of one of my lesson plans that I have created using this exact template. I hope that you enjoy this freebie and find it very useful!

Enjoy!
-Hayley 

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, but I would never recommend any product that I have not personally tried and loved. ​ ​

Now that Google Classroom has made its way into classrooms all over the world, students and teachers alike are learning the pros and cons to online classroom environments. As an experienced teacher, I have learned that sometimes the hardest barrier to overcome with ANY online platform is a very simple one: having students remember their login credentials. This is especially true for elementary and middle school students, but it does also happen fairly often in the high school environment, particularly at the beginning of the year. 

Not only am I a teacher at my school, but I am also the Google Admin for all grades 6 - 12. This means that I am the go-to person for ALL password resets for ALL students, and ALL teachers... but teachers never forget their passwords, right?! Lol! I knew that I had to find a way to hold the students responsible for remembering their password... and below you can find the steps to see just how I accomplished that.

Steps to (hopefully) never having to reset Google Passwords ever again:

1. Request permission from students and parents to hold an electronic copy of their password for their school issued Google Account (the account is not for personal use). Most districts have school issued Google accounts, so most parents and students are totally okay with this because the school has full control over the account regardless.  
2. Make an assignment in Google Classroom with the login card found below. 

• Make sure to make each student their own editable copy.

3. Ask students to fill in the card with the required credentials. 
4. Ask the students to click turn in, and to then print a copy of their Google Login Card. 

• I highly recommend printing these on a bright neon colored paper. I personally used these cheap neon orange sheets that I purchased from Amazon this year. It is a pack of 500 sheets, which comes out to about $.02 cents per sheet! This makes the login paper MUCH EASIER for the kiddos to find in their forever messy binders!

5. Assign a small amount of daily points for the first several weeks of school requiring the students to bring the login card to class each day. 

• For students that forget to bring the login card, the teacher automatically has their very own copy stored in their Google Drive account! 

Wa-lah! Magic! This little trick has made my teaching life SO MUCH EASIER, and I hope that it does yours as well.

Please feel free to make a copy for YOUR CLASSROOM ONLY. Please direct other teachers to this post to make their own copy for their class. 
​
Click HERE to make your own editable copy. 

Read more about my love for Google Classroom. ​

5. Lumens Ladibug Doc Cam
The easiest to use plug-n-play document camera! 

Document cameras have been around for ages, and I have kept thinking that they would eventually become obsolete. However, this just doesn't seem to be the case. The math teachers at my school rely on their doc cam nearly every single day! We have multiple brands of document cameras floating around our school, but I can say that the Ladibug is the most user friendly one I have installed. I have also found my own personal use for this doc cam because of its built in microphone and camera! I use it to record tutorials of how I create clip-art, fonts, etc!

Key Features (just to name a few): 

• Lightweight
• Plug-N-Play
• Portable
• Built in Mic
• Built in Cam
• Record Videos w/o any extra accessories 
• 4X Digital Zoom
• Lifespan has been great!
• Works with PC and Mac
• 5 Year warranty
• Active VGA pass through (with the push of a button, teachers can flip the display on an Interactive whiteboard from the doc cam to the computer monitor).

6. Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse 
The clutter free way to control you computer from around your classroom. This is also a much cheaper alternative to purchasing a stand up desk!

This keyboard and mouse combo is probably one of my most used tech items in my classroom. The package is incredibly affordable, it is cord free (sing praises my OCD readers), AND it makes you a much more mobile teacher. How does it make you a more mobile teacher? WELL, stand up desks have evolved into quite the hype recently. After doing some research, the ones I found with good reviews were well over $200 bucks. SO, I got creative and decided to make my own MOBILE standing station that could also remotely control my computer. This makes presenting instruction on my overhead so much more effective; better proximity control, plus I am standing up! I simply used a rolling cart that I found in the office at our school, and this Logitech keyboard and mouse combo. You simply plug a USB into the computer, and you have range from anywhere in your classroom. The battery life is also a huge plus on both they keyboard and the mouse. 
There are also really convenient shortcut buttons on the keyboard like the calculator, volume, and email!

7. Mobile Device Organizer
A simple, affordable way to manage student devices in the classroom.

Okay, this is not exactly a tech "tool", but more so a tech solution. These hanging shoe organizers are incredibly cheap, and they make the perfect solution for managing students' mobile devices. My students like that their device has its own numbered pocket so that it does not get mixed in with other devices! You can get a cheap hanging shoe organizer on Amazon, at Wal-Mart, the dollar store, etc... I also made the labeled numbers in Google Slides and then laminated them. I then hot glued them to the inside of the pocket!

8. Tilting iPad Stand
An easy way to keep your tablet or iPad away from desk clutter!

This handy little tablet/iPad holder is my favorite way to interact with iPad. I like to be able to see the notifications from when my students turn in assignments on post comments in Google Classroom. The desktop version of Google Classroom does not send notifications, so I like to display my iPad on my desk away from all of my desk clutter. This little gadget also makes it easier to control and manipulate my iPad. Best of all, it is super cheap and Amazon always puts this item on their lightning deals! 

9. Lightning to VGA Adapter
A hard-wired way to connect your iPad or iPhone to your interactive whiteboard. 

Sometimes, a hard-wired connection is the best way to go, especially when you need to make sure that you don't lose connection over a network. For me, this is especially true when my students are participating in Mystery Skype. I use this nifty little adapter to guarantee that we can Skype other schools via my iPad and also allow my students to view the Skype camera on my Promethean. This is also a great tool to use for PD sessions or in places that network connectivity can get glitchy!

10. Logitech Wireless Laser Clicker
A reliable go-to clicker for presentations for admin, guest speakers, and teachers. 

I am not a huge fan of the "lecture style" of teaching, although I do find the need for a clicker in my classroom from time to time when presenting certain lessons to my students, or when my students are giving presentations. However, I have also found that my admin team always relies on the use of a clicker during our meetings or PD days. After doing extensive research, I landed on the Logitech wireless clicker with a laser pointer. It works with ease with a simple Plug-N-Play procedure. You won't be disappointed.