Environmental and Financial Literacy

     Environmental literacy is another literacy that has seen increased attention in the last decade, with climate change on the rise and pollution becoming an increasing issue much attention has been directed to the environment. A great example of environmental literacy in schools in general was written about by Suzie Boss (2016), where local high schools work on developing a solution to climate change and then pitch their ideas to entrepreneurs and politicians. If you would like to read that full article you can find it here. There is no question that environmental literacy needs to be taught in the education system, the future of the planet is in our children's hands, they can begin the shift to a cleaner planet and better environment long after we are gone. But how can it be implemented in physical education?

How to Make our Students Environmentally Literate

Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/sites/digital-agenda/files/environment%20(1).jpg

     One way that I intend to teach my future students about the environment is through outdoor education. Taking them on hikes, going canoeing and being closer to nature allows the students to see nature first hand, and also see the impact of our actions on it. We may see garbage dispersed throughout on our adventures and pollution in rivers. By seeing this students gain a deeper understanding that their actions have a direct link to and impact on the environment. When I was in high school we went on hikes through the Bruce Trail and this is where I learned just how much we affect the environment, from plastic bags to water bottles it made me want to change how we view the environment. It will also allow them to think critically on both ways they can clean it up and keep it clean in the future so that everyone can enjoy the outdoors and the environment. After hiking or canoeing the students can create ways that the environment can be cleaned and ways in which they can reduce their own carbon footprint. Most physical education students have a passion for sports and activities so by showing them the impact the environment and climate change have on their activities they will be willing to look into it and discover ways in which they can help. By critically analyzing situations and researching they will be working on their environmental literacy which still taking part in physical education. Even going somewhere (eg. local park) and collecting loose litter gets them moving around and being active while still helping the environment and doing something that they can feel proud of. Certain issues to this may be that

     Financial literacy is the final 21st century literacy being incorporated into the modern day classroom. Financial literacy has the ability to not only help the students learning it but also their families and those around them. In an example from Nashville, a majority of students were living in rented houses when in class they were posed with a question of what it would take for them to be home owners. Financial literacy helped them through this problem and in turn lead to improved not just of the students, but as well increased the financial literacy of their parents and the community as well (Boss, 2015). You can read that full article here. This is a great example of how financial literacy can improve lives, as well as how making it personal to the students helps them to become invested in it.

Retrieved from: http://weknowyourdreamz.com/images/money/money-06.jpg

How to Make our Students Financially Literate 
     In my classroom I plan on making financial literacy personal to my students through the use of physical activity, this is something that is personal to them as they are in a physical education class. The first way to teach financial literacy would be to give them a project exploring health care and health prevention costs in Canada. From here they can calculate how much it costs to live an unhealthy life versus a healthy one. This exercise ties into moral literacy through making judgments as well as technology literacy through the research that they will be doing. A second way to incorporate technology into physical education is through an individualized meal plan, students can create a cost of what it is to eat the meals they eat now versus healthy meals in a week span. They can then compare the two and see that eating healthy can save money along with the other benefits it brings. Financial literacy can be utilized in a variety of aspects in physical education and can also help to prove a point that remaining healthy for life, something the curriculum tries to push, can also be a money saver. On the surface it often seems as though unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy food so it is often chosen as opposed to healthy foods, through this assignment students would be able to uncover the truth about healthy foods and learn to think critically and investigate deeper because what is on the surface is not always true.

References 

Boss, S. (2015, Oct 20). When financial education hits close to home. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/when-financial-education-hits-close-home-suzie-boss

Boss, S. (2016, Feb 5). Student innovators take local action on global climate change. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-innovators-take-local-action-global-climate-challenge-suzie-boss

Mental Health and Moral Literacy

     Mental health has been a major discussion point for the last decade or so, with initiatives such as Bell Let's Talk (2016) which strives to get Canadians talking about mental illness, breaking down the barriers associated with it and raising money for mental health research. Understanding mental health is a major step that Canada is trying to take so teaching our students mental health literacy is a step in the right direction. But the main issue people ask is why should we learn this, why is it so important? The answer to that is simple and direct, mental illness costs the Canadian economy $50 billion a year, as well it has shown that one in five Canadian citizens go through a mental health issue at some point in their life (Bell Let's Talk, 2016). These stats alone show why it is important to not only learn about mental health but also become mental health literate. These issues still persist because we refuse as a society to accept that mental health is a disease and that it is not "just someone being sad". Making our students mental health literate will help the future generations critically think and understand that mental health is a problem that needs to be addressed.

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How to Make our Students Mental Health Literate 
     This literacy can easily be incorporated and taught in the health section of physical education. Much like media literacy, when I was in high school mental health was not properly taught. The teacher was uncomfortable with the subject and it was only briefly talked about; there were no in depth discussions, no information for outreach programs or even any learning on the subject, it was simply just another concept that we knew we had to learn for the impending test. In my future classrooms I will be teaching mental health in a variety of ways. Firstly, bringing in someone who has struggled with mental illness to guest speak is a great way to introduce the concept and get students to realize that this happens to normal people and that it is nothing that should be associated with a stigma. After that, class discussion would be beneficial in order to further get students thinking and analyzing mental health and the impact it has, (this can go had in hand with media literacy if you look at how the media portrays it). Finally, I believe that using class time to have students group up and research various common mental illnesses to present them to the class would be beneficial for them to learn about them as well as to reduce the stigma associated with them. One issue in incorporating this literacy may be the hesitance from students to learn the content however once they are involved and their own built up stigma about mental health is broken down they will become more willing to learn and become critical of mental health and how they can help reduce the stigma themselves. Creating an open and inclusive environment will be crucial in getting students to both feel comfortable and willing to learn the subject so this is also an important aspect that I will have to generate in my class.

     I have also generated this blog post to discuss moral literacy. A literacy that I did not think much about in my career prior to my fourth year in university. This literacy did not stand out to me before because it is used in everyday life, simply making decisions and the knowledge behind those decisions never really registered with me however now I know that it is just as important as the other literacies that are being discussed. Becoming moral literate allows individuals to make ethical decisions and judgements in various situations (Tuana, 2003).

How to Make our Students Morally Literate
     For me, I believe that working on moral literacy in physical education can be hard, it is tough determine activities that can be completed while at the same teaching students about morals and their decisions. When I look at the health aspect however I can begin to create questions that so hand in hand with the other literacies being taught in the course; for example "is it moral for food companies and media outlets to portray food and the human body the way they do?" Questions such as these can be implemented in a variety of exercises and begin to get students critically investigating morals what what they believe is right or wrong at the same time that they are investigating other questions as well. I believe that this is a good way to get students thinking about morals and digging deeper into them in a health class. As well, sport specific examples can be brought up periodically when things occur. An example would be "was it ethical for him to hit the opponent from behind, why was his judgement to go forward at hit him?" Questions like this also get the students investigating the situation and their thoughts on it. Finally, instances with steroid use (Lance Armstrong) can be discussed with students in regards to why he took them, if it was fair to the other competitors, was it ethical? This can relate to media literacy (how the media portrayed him) as well as moral literacy, students are able to uncover for themselves and think critically into instances and determine if the actions were moral or ethical.

References 

Bell (2016). Bell Let's Talk. Retrieved from: http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/ 

Bell (2016). Bell Let's Talk: Let's end the stigma. Retrieved from: http://letstalk.bell.ca/en/end-the-stigma/facts/

Tuana, N. (2003). Moral Literacy, Penn State News. Retrieved from: http://news.psu.edu/story/140744/2003/05/01/research/moral-literacy

Multicultural and Global Literacy

     Global and multicultural literacy are two important ideas to be literate in because they allow you to see how other people view the world as well as how the world is interconnected. By implementing these literacies into a physical education classroom we can begin to get our students to look at situations from various angles as well as why people look at these situations from their respective angles. Many people are under the assumption that their view is right or that everyone shares their view, this makes for little empathy and understanding among people. By working on becoming globally and multi-culturally literate we can begin to show our students that not everyone has the same views, that everyone's view needs to be respected and that they themselves may not have a very good view of a particular situation. Canada is an extremely diverse country and in order to understand everyone and look through situations using various lenses to see why people think certain ways we need to become literate in these two areas.

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How to Make our Students Multicultural and Global Literate 
     In physical education we have to opportunity to implement both of these literacies in creative and fun ways. One way to implement these would be to have an Olympic games event. The countries can be selected and the activities that the students will participate in will be popular games from those countries. For example if the chosen countries were India, Canada and Malaysia the sports could be floor hockey, cricket and sepak takraw (a volleyball type game where you can hit the ball over with any part of your body other than your hands: video found here). Most likely the students do not have much familiarity of the games other than hockey so it is a great way to learn about different countries as well as what games they find important.
   
     A second way that global and multicultural literacy can be incorporated through an integrated curriculum with history. When learning the history of themselves and their families, students can trace back to where they came from and the history on that chosen country (such as that countries government, exports, imports, population), as well they can research the countries national sport or sports that are very popular in that country. They can give a presentation to the class on the information they have discovered and then the class can partake in the playing of the countries popular game, This gives students a chance to learn about a variety of countries as well as why they may view situations differently from other countries and also allows the students to have fun exploring a variety of games that they do not normally have access to. When I was in school it got very repetitive and boring playing the same games year in and year out in physical education and would have loved to explore and learn about games from different cultures.

     After the lessons and the games have been concluded we can look back and reflect on the experiences, much like Andy Vasily suggests and can see which games worked better and were more enjoyed by the children. These games can then be implemented in the course next year along with others so that you are constantly providing students with exciting games that they have no prior experience with allowing them to learn new skills and strategies. They can also begin to look critically on skills/strategies that transfer across games and in turn gain a better understanding on sports as a whole.

Media and Technology Literacy

     Media and technology play a major role in today's society and are becoming a bigger and bigger part of it everyday. Long gone are the days where you would come home from school and run around outside with your friends until dark, it is becoming more and more prevalent to see sedentary children using technology and looking at the media. Nielsen (2016) debunked many myths associated with social media that they are "ruining brains", phones and technology have simply made it easier for students to interact so why would we care about this? why would we need to teach them these literacies if they are already fluent on technology? The short answer is that we need to address the negatives that come along with these advancements, as well as to develop higher order thinking skills such as problem solving and evaluation in our students.

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The Downsides of Media? 
     With the media being everywhere and social media consuming young people's lives it is important to make sure that they are using it safely. Students are constantly shown images of skinny models and buff men in the media and are lead to believe that those pictures are the norm. This can lead to issues such as unhealthy weight loss, eating disorders, unhealthy workout practices and steroid use not to mention decreased self efficacy, self worth, self esteem and lowered body images. The negatives related to the media are both physical and psychological, in order to make our students understand that they are who they are and no one is as perfect as shown in the media we need to teach them how to be critical of these messages and how to go about safely loosing or gaining weight if it is something that they are intrinsically motivated to do.

How to Make our Students Media Literate? 
     In a physical education setting it is relatively easy to teach media literacy throughout the course of the semester, the main way being through health. One way that I plan to implement media literacy into my health class is through class discussions, after getting the students to bring a media image to class we can begin to talk about how the images make them feel, why the company produces that type of image as well as the ulterior motives that they may have behind it. Once students begin to critically analyze the media and why they portray images the way that they do they can begin to develop their own ideas on the media and will be able to generate their own thoughts on it, not just have thoughts put into their head. By being critical students can begin to pick and choose what they wish to believe, begin to make better choices and begin to feel more positively about themselves.

    Another way to teach media literacy in physical education is to use the media revolving around unhealthy and healthy foods. For example the commercials for fast food companies versus commercials for healthy foods, why do the fast food commercials look so much better? Why are there limited commercials on healthy foods? What messages are each commercial trying to get across? By playing various commercials and allowing the students to view them while thinking about the questions stated above, they can once again analyze and uncover for themselves why commercials might be made out this way and they can also come to the conclusion for themselves which option is best for them.

     Some people may be opposed to teaching media literacy because they believe that we are changing student's opinions on various ideas but we as teachers are simple giving them the tools and ability to think critically for themselves and create their own informed opinion on the media and the advertisements that are being brought to them on a constant basis. A struggle of implementing this media literacy in my physical education room is that being a high school teacher the students have already had 15-18 years viewing these media sources with no critical thought. They may have notions that they already believe to be correct but as a teacher I will give them the tools and questions needed to analyze the media and hopefully they will discover answers for themselves.

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The Downsides of Technology 
     Technology has also become a staple in the twenty-first century and has made human lives much easier with the ability to do just about anything imaginable from your computer screen. With technology comes inherent risks, some of which apply to adults (theft, viruses) as well as some that apply to students (mainly cyber bullying). Cyber bullying cannot easily be caught by teachers as it can be done from anywhere at anytime, it no longer has to take place on student grounds. Cyber bullying is a major issue and is one of the reasons that we have to teach our students how to become technology literate.

How to Make our Students Technology Literate 
     Technology can also be implemented into the physical education classroom to teach our students technology literacy. Students can be asked what is your favourite sport and who is the best athlete in that sport of all time? There is no simple answer to this question, students will have to do research and gather points on why they believe this to be so. Through researching on the computer and creating spreadsheets with stats of players to show why they are the best at their respective sport, students are learning how to use technology in real world applicable ways as well as how to interpret information that they are viewing online. They develop critical thinking skills based on which stats they believe to be important and why as well as analyzing and evaluating all of the information in front of them. This is a great way to implement technology into a physical education setting while still keeping it sports related and teaching them how to be technology literate.

References 

Nielsen, L. (2016. March, 30). Everybody Panic! The 5 Ways Social Media is Changing our Brains. The innovative educator. Retrieved from: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2016/03/everybody-panic-5-ways-social-media-is.html

Lisa Nielsen: Innovative Educator

     The third blogger that I have been following is Mrs. Lisa Nielsen. In her blog The Innovative Educator she discusses a lot of pressing issues in the modern classroom such as an increasing reliance on technology as well as the impacts of the media and technology on students. She also posts blogs that provide you with trending posts so that you can look at what is trending in regards to the education system and provide you with information and insight that you may not have previously had access to or knowledge of.

     In Mrs. Nielsen's blog post from March 30th Everybody Panic! The 5 Ways Social Media is Changing our Brains she debunks popular myths associated with social media and the way it impacts our students and children. Although social media plays a big part in people's lives in the twenty first century, it is merely taking over for things that people have been doing for decades in an easy accessible form. She argues that instead of reading the newspaper, checking voicemail and talking to people on the phone we now do all of those things on one device. I agree that social media and phones are not a major hindrance on students and that they are not doing anything that has not been done before. I also believe however that the constant access to these media devices leaves students more exposed and vulnerable to media messages and ideals.

Retrieved from: http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/images/body_image_boys.jpg

     In physical education we have to be particularly worried about media and the impact that it has on our students. What the media portrays as healthy is often not and can lead to reduced body image, self confidence and self esteem if students do not know how to deal with the images that they come across on a day to day basis. Things such as bulimia, anorexia and unhealthy weight loss can become a major issue as well as unhealthy weight gain and steroid use. It is crucial to teach our students about media and how to become media literate so that they can see pictures like the one posted above, create their own ideas and opinions on it and realize that relatively no one is as picture perfect as the media makes them out to be, In a physical education classroom this can be done in a number of ways, the major way being discussing it through health class. When I was in high school I was never given the opportunity to address these body issues in the media, I was simply given the definition of terms such as anorexia and bulimia and told I needed to know them for the test. If we are to truly teach our students about the media and their impact they must be exposed to the pictures out there as well as the truth behind them, they need to be able to develop their own individual thoughts and ideas on them so that learning actually occurs. Bringing media sources in and having class discussions on them and their true meanings is a simple way to begin to develop this media literacy in our students, they need to be media literate in order to have their own individual thoughts instead of those thoughts being placed there by the media and as a result lowering self-confidence and body image. As someone who has been affected by this it is extremely important to me to teach a better understanding of the media to my classes and with social media being so prevalent in their lives it is an extremely relevant topic.

References 

Nielsen, L. (2016). The innovative educator. Retrieved from:  http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/

Nielsen, L. (2016, March 30). Everybody Panic! The 5 Ways Social Media is Changing our Brains: The innovative educator. Retrieved from:  http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2016/03/everybody-panic-5-ways-social-media-is.html

Suzie Boss: Educational Blogger

     Another blog that I have been following is from Mrs. Suzie Boss who is a frequent blogger with particular interests in project-based learning as well as social justice. The idea of project based learning is becoming more and more popular in education and I personally believe that it is a great way to increase motivation as well as interest in the learning experience for students. I have attached a link so that you may find her blog and posts here. 

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     On February 5, 2016 Mrs. Boss posted a blog on project based learning and global climate change. In this blog, high students were able to develop their own ideas on energy saving and pitch their potential ideas to a group of entrepreneurs and experts. The top teams that presented will even receive funding and job opportunities to make these ideas a reality in the near future (Boss, Feb 5, 2016). This blog post and project are an excellent example of both project based learning as well as environmental literacy. Environmental literacy can be taught through this exercise and can help students better learn about the environment as well as their own ideas on it. They can decide for themselves what they believe are the major issues facing our environment and global climate change and then create a project on how they may stop the progression of environmental change. The project based learning in this example can also be applied to any of the other 21st century literacies that are being integrated into the everyday classroom. Projects on finance or the media and technology can also be incorporated into project based learning and can help students to become more literate in various areas. 

     Throughout Mrs. Boss' blog it is evident that interest and project based learning are very important to her and are the focus of many of the blogs. As well, various 21st century concepts such as technology, finances and the environment play a big role in her blog making it the perfect read for anyone interested in the 21st century literacies/concepts and ways that they can be incorporated into your own classroom. 

References

Boss, S. (2016, Feb 5). Student innovators take local action on global climate change. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-innovators-take-local-action-global-climate-challenge-suzie-boss

Andy Vasily: PE Blogger

     The first blog that I am going to discuss is from an educator by the name of Andy Vasily. Mr. Vasily runs a blog that focuses on teaching practices specifically within the physical education domain. His blog is highly influential in physical education and has even been awarded the best PE teacher blog and top PE contributor in the past. Although in the blog Mr. Vasily does not specifically address any one of the 21st century literacies in a direct sense he does discuss a major idea that can help any teacher to implement them into their classroom, and that idea is reflection. Reflection is a necessary tool for teachers in order to look back on lessons that they have taught and review them in order to make improvements. When implementing these 21st century literacies in your classroom, you as a teacher must reflect on and critically analyze your lessons and how they unfold in order to gain a better understanding of what went well and what didn't. Once you have done this you can make improvements and alterations to what didn't work as well as continue to use what did in order to implement these literacies with great effectiveness in your classroom. My personal favourite post from this blog is entitled "The Story of Alice and George which you can access here. 

     In this particular article Mr. Vasily discusses two people who are polar opposites from each other but they work together constantly trying to disprove each other so that they can both grow and create the most solid possible case for their ideas. Without the constant feedback ideas would remain stagnant and there would be no growth on either side. It is crucial to constantly be critical and surround yourself with fellow educators who do not necessarily see eye to eye with you. By doing this we are constantly questioning each other about what we do and why we do it, this helps us to further reflect on our teachings and analyze how we can alter them to make them better both for ourselves and for our students. This constant pushing of reflection can better help us to understand how we are going to implement the 21st century literacies into our classrooms and why we are going to, just saying "because they are important" is no longer acceptable in the teaching world and having this reflection will help in finding deeper meanings within our teachings. Refection will be a major concept in my future classroom both during and after an exercise. By reflecting in the moment and after a lesson (on moral literacy for example) I can begin to piece together what went well and what didn't in my head before it becomes cloudy. This clarity and thought can produce ways of overcoming issues that were faced and will surely better me as a teacher as well. 

     Mr. Vasily is clearly passionate about physical education as a whole as well as the use of reflection in his practice. In his blog there are multiple ways in which to utilize this reflective practice both as a teacher and as a way for your students to reflect, as shown in his blog post here. I believe that reflection is a great way to learn how to better incorporate the literacies into your own classrooms as well as to better your teaching practice as a whole. If you would like to explore Mr. Vasily's blog you can find the link to it here. 

References 

Vasily, A. (2016). PYP PE with Andy. Retrieved from http://www.pyppewithandy.com/pyp-pe-blog

Vasily, A. (2016, Feb 5). PYP PE with Andy: The Story of Alice and George. Retrieved from http://www.pyppewithandy.com/pyp-pe-blog/the-story-of-alice-and-george