It’s time to share the work and commitment of another dedicated educator! For this month’s Eduporium Featured Educator, we hear from Jim Hambel, who’s a physical education teacher in the Bronx, NY. You may have seen Jim's guest blog on our site last spring as he shared his thoughts and experiences with teaching PE remotely and, if not, no worries—you can learn about his creativity in this post as well! Like almost every other educator, Jim has certainly had to adapt his teaching style to accommodate distance learning and he definitely found some success with what he tried.
Jim Hambel
Physical Educator, PS 457, Bronx, NY
Q&A:
Please share any innovative EdTech project(s) you've completed with your students or plan to complete.
The first week of remote teaching, I had students work on Fitness Drumming. I showed them a video of me doing it and then asked them to map out four beats of the pattern or create their own. In addition to this, they have the regular course work from other educators. The responses I had were amazing! By being flexible with submission of work, so many students completed the assignment. Some wrote on the assigned PDF on Google Classroom and others took videos and pictures of themselves drumming. One student even made their own amazingly epic Power Point presentation!
What is a challenge you faced or are facing with your EdTech use? What resources did you use or are in need of?
I work as an educators at a Title 1 school. Getting access to technology has been a challenge as well as guiding parents and students on how to use and access lessons and content while learning is taking place remotely. Resources like Google Classroom and other electronic forms help a lot, especially with receiving feedback. I've recently started using Pear Deck as well, which helps all of us. Videos and resources for activities relating to PE would be helpful as I generally have to create them all myself.
What are some of the real-world skills you've seen your students develop through regular EdTech use?
Aside from learning physical literacy and PE specific concepts, students are learning how to solve problems on their own. What do I mean? Some students can't access Google slides or Google documents. Many times, this results in them recreating the writing prompt on a piece of paper, taking a picture, and uploading it so I can see it. This shows a lot of dedication to getting the task completed and serves as a great example of real-world problem solving. This means they are willing and able to go above and beyond for their education.
What interests you most about Eduporium?
To me, Eduporium seems like a lot more than just an online store. There are numerous resources on their website to help myself and any other teacher effectively add STEM to the classroom. The grant they offer every month seems amazing as well and can certainly help a lot of educators.
We thank Jim for taking the time to share his thoughts and experiences on PE, EdTech, and remote learning with us and for always showing enthusiasm for all kinds of learning. We know his efforts will continue to inspire other educators to try some new things as well! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more updates on the great things educators are doing with EdTech. Also, if you’d like to apply to be highlighted on our blog and social media channels as an Eduporium Featured Educator, we’d love to have you fill out the application!