Genius Hour Progression

Reflection                                                                                                

This week in my hour allotted to working on my Genius Hour project I did the background research for my question. While I am very interested in getting more people involved in physical activity and living a healthy lifestyle I first decided to research if Canadians were having problems with being active. It surprised me that through my research I discovered that Canadians were being less active as they aged. I thought that as people aged they would see the benefits of being physically active and live this lifestyle. Learning that as you age you become more physically inactive concerned me as it can lead to greater health risks in the future.  The information that I researched provided me with more enthusiasm and motivation to find out ways to increase the physical activity levels in the community. While I may not be able to develop a plan to increase the activeness of all participants my research has led me to hope that I will be able to offer suggestions on how individuals can increase physical activity in their daily lives.

                                     

Questions from my research

The research that I conducted was surprising to me but it did not raise a lot of questions. The two main questions that I had while researching physical activity levels were what was the cause of the decline in activity as one ages and what was the parental role in physical activity? While these questions both came up I will be focusing more on the decline in activity as a person ages and hopefully creating suggestions to reverse the trend.

What is to come!

After my preliminary findings on the physical activity levels in Canada I decided that I should research the ways to increase the levels and what is already being done. I hope to discover suggestions that can be made to alter the decline of physical activity in adolescence. I plan on doing more research into what is being done to increase the physical activity levels in schools and other tips on how to live a physically active life. I also intend to research on what the benefits of being physically active may have on a person. Researching these benefits and providing facts to people may cause them to want to be more active in order to increase their health. While I hope on being able to complete this research I am aware of the time constraints and do not want to take on too much. I will keep the main focus on providing suggestions to increase physical activity levels throughout the research. 

Starting off Genius Hour

The genius hour question I decided on was, how can I get more people involved in physically active? Being in a classroom for five days’ week and the additional hours that people spend doing homework pushes physical activity to the side. My goal for this project is to learn how I personally can be more physically active but also how to get others involved in a healthier lifestyle. The goal will to be to increase my physical activity level as well as at least two other people by the end of the next two months. The two other people would only be the start of a much larger goal but hopefully will give me a good idea of what was needed to increase the physical activity level of the individuals. To measure the progress that is made throughout the activity I will record the physical activities that the people are involved in at the start as well as at the end and compare them to see if there is a difference between the two times.

            My motivation for this project is the lack of physical activity that occurs throughout the school year. During the summer many individuals have the opportunity to be outside on a constant basis interacting with others and being active in their everyday life. When the school year starts in September many people, myself included, lose the focus on physical activity and its importance because of the demands of education. I hope that his project will help me find ways to increase the physical activity levels that people have throughout the school year and ways to keep that level up.

            A lesson that I would use in a classroom as a teacher is the different resources that Google offers. The multiple aspects of Google were unknown to me before this class. I feel that the use of blogger, slides, hangouts and draw could all be used by students to enhance the work that they are already completing. To adapt this material to a younger age in the classroom I would have to make sure that the students fully understand the uses of the Google presentations before allotting them time to complete the assignments on their own. From first hand experience I know how confusing and difficult it could be to navigate these many resources if you do not fully grasp the concept of what each can do. Planning and management considerations that I would consider while completing the activity are making sure that I am available to the students if they need help, creating an atmosphere where they feel comfortable asking their peers for help and provide them with clear instructions and directions on what is expected of them. Through these adaptations and considerations I feel that these lessons would be an interesting avenue for the students to use in class. 

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What I learned about Copyright

Copyright laws protect an individuals work and has been put into place in many countries around the world. Copyright notices or symbols do not need to be place on the work to ensure that these laws are followed. Creative Commons, an organization that was established to allow open sharing of information created six different licences that allow the creator to establish how the work is intended to be shared if applicable. There are four types of copyright; attribution, share alike, non-commercial and no derivative works which were established to group work into one of the six licenses that was created.

When teaching students about copyright the most important thing to teach them is that all information on the internet whether it is images or text is owned by someone. This would teach them that all information is property of the creator and there are certain steps that must be followed if they intend to use the content.

Funnel, Paula (18 July 2005). School. (online image). Retrieved from, http://bit.ly/2czKERa

Lipofsky, Steve (1987-88 NBA Season). Jordan. (Online Image). retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jordan_by_Lipofsky_16577.jpg

Welcome Post

Hello, I am a teacher candidate in the two year consecutive Teacher Education program at Brock University Hamilton Campus. I graduated from McMaster University in 2016 with a B.A in humanities and am excited to start at a new school. My teachable subject is history and I am currently enrolled in the Junior/Intermediate program. I hope to teach in the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School board upon completion of the consecutive education program.  In this class we are learning about "genius hour." Genius hour is a time where we as students get to work on a project of our choosing that we are passionate about. The video below is a source that describes the Genius Hour project more in depth.