Pi Day @VIS

Blog Post Author: Cindy Hollingsworth, Math high school teacher

High School Students at VIS celebrated Pi Day on March 14th. Pi is the mathematical constant with an approximate value of 3.14, and it is celebrated worldwide on this day with contests, games, food, and fun activities. The VIS classes calculated Pi with the round foods they brought in, watched a video about the history of Pi and did activities that showed off their love of Pi. They also used the day to commemorate the birthday of the famous scientist and mathematician, Albert Einstein.

Round foods were the choice of the day, with doughnuts, cookies, pizza, and a special Pi Day Pie.

Technology in PE@VIS

Blog Post author: Liam Fleming, PE teacher

A common thought is that PE can only be and is only a class where students run around and “play” games. However, here at Vision International School (VIS) we are constantly trying to break the mold for PE and push our students toward a greater understanding of performance and how their bodies move and work. In our Grade 7 boys class, we began to use Google Forms as a tool for peer assessment. As a number of our students play and watch football they will constantly be assessing their own performance, the performance of their peers, or of their favorite players on TV. The action of watching a performance and assessing is one that is fairly common to our students but formalizing it during their PE challenges the norms. By critiquing other player’s performance, out students engage in higher level thinking during their PE classes, get to create success criteria, and to understand what it takes to get from good to great. 

Not only were our students being asked to assess using Google Forms but they were being asked to provide FIFA-like statistics for one another. This would tie in nicely with Mr. Liam’s new Ultimate Team idea where students can earn their own FIFA Ultimate Team card. To have this higher level thinking in PE is exciting and the initial results seem extremely positive.

We have started to put together ‘highlight reels’ of our performances in PE for us to showcase around the school and to our parents at home. The VIS PE Department is extremely dedicated to providing high-quality PE to our students. This allows them a better understanding of the benefits of being physically active throughout their lives. 

Physical education plays an important role in educating our students holistically.

This post was submitted by Liam Fleming, PE teacher, VIS

Hello world!

 

We are a group of dedicated teachers at Vision International School (VIS), Qatar.

Our brand new teacher blog, called Teacher VISion, provides us the platform we need to share successful instructional practices and lesson ideas with each other and with the world, helps us connect with educators worldwide, and will help us grow as reflective professionals.

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