I’m a PE teacher. You know, the one who just plays with kids and doesn't 'really' have to do the hard work? To be honest, I wouldn't be a teacher of any other subject. I love what I do and I love to be able to impact my students with not just teaching them how to be healthy but to hopefully one day be able to make new friends when someone asks, “Hey, wanna play ultimate frisbee with us tomorrow?” and for them to say, “Absolutely!” I make sure my students are learning how sports are played, not just played: with collaboration, commitment, integrity and confidence. I teach that the winner is not who scored the most goals but the one who understood exactly how the scoring opportunity was created. This is my belief as an educator. I’m pretty sure you have come out of a PD conference saying to yourself, “I didn’t learn many new things this time.” Well, PE conferences are not very different. It feels as if we, the experts in our respective sports, mostly tend to go to conferences to show how we do things at our school. Maybe my experiences were just bad luck? Don’t get me wrong. There have been parts of my conferences that have been very useful; in fact, at a conference in Hong Kong, I learned the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGFU) model which I continue to apply regularly. But after attending a couple of conferences where unfortunately I didn't feel that I got as much as I wanted from them overall, I wondered how else to spend my school’s PD funds. This is where my journey began. I started by doing some reflecting and finding some areas for improvement. Then I decided that going the certification route instead of the conference route would be more beneficial for my students. This would allow me learn from the best instructors in the world and learn all the nooks and crannies of the sport in which I wanted the certification. My research led me to go for coaching credentials in Level 1 Tennis and a Level 1 Swimming, my personal childhood sports of choice. I was a good athlete in both but lacked knowledge in instruction. Both certifications were three days long, had practicums and exams requiring my full attention but in the end I walked (maybe limped) out of there with a globally recognised Level 1 Certifications in Swimming and Tennis. A couple of days later I began the Net Unit with my students in PE and I was amazed at how I was able to instruct students with their errors in grip, swing and footwork. My students benefited greatly from my newfound expertise. A mere $10 balance in my PD budget proved difficult to find a third certification option under big sports federations as they tend to charge a bit more than $10. Then I remembered a friend of mine who said she had obtained a Google Educator Certification. So I went on bing.com and googled it. Haha! Just kidding I googled it on Google. And there it was, staring right at me: Google Educator Level 1… $10! And I could do the training modules myself? Perfect. Before I knew it I was two units in. I may have forgotten to mention that I live in China. Google is blocked in China and we have big issues with its use. But I didn’t let that stop me. After all, that yellow badge would look good on my resume. Four or five weeks later I take the three-hour test and pass it. I was so proud. My wife, always my number one fan, was so excited. Three certifications in one year afterall! Coming into work on the Monday I looked at my brand new Google Educator badge and thought to myself, if level 1 was $10, then how much is level 2? $30, and now of my own money? Worth it! Like I had done after my coaching credentials, I found myself immediately applying Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in my PE classes. I began using Google Forms for my students to teach themselves dance choreographies and to track their fitness results. I began using Project Based Learning (PBL) in my health classes and began to use Hyperdocs. Was I applying the things that I was learning into my classes that quickly? Yes. As I was studying for level 2, I was starting to become more practical when planning my lessons, collaborating with teachers and assessing students more efficiently. I found myself printing a lot less and even if I didn’t always use Google Apps, I was saving an incredible amount of time. I felt very confident in my day to day activities. Two weeks later there I was, staring at my level 2 certification. But wait, there was a post on my Google+ group that said, “You can now apply for the Google Certified Innovators program!” The application was long. Really long. I was asked to submit a project or proposal that I was doing at the time that could “change education”. Oh, did I mention I had about 10 days to do it? I had 10 days to do it. So I took a thorough look at what I was doing at the time and chose a project I had been working on for some months. My project sought for us, the teachers, to go the extra mile to ensure our students find their passion early on. I had started this project way before I even knew about Google for Education but this was my only hope. I filled in the application, created a slide deck, made my two-minute video and pressed submit…. Email from Google. Subject: Congratulations Carlos. Welcome to the Google Certified Innovators Program. Are you kidding me? I’m going to Google this summer? Walking into Google in Boulder, Colorado gave me chills. It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I, along with 35 other teachers, tech integrators and even vice-principals, could not believe it. This was my journey. But what about theirs? How were they seeking to change education? Three days of working with the Google for Education team along with the Edtech Team transformed me. We were encouraged and given tips on how to carry out our projects to completion. We were given motivational speeches to not be afraid to fail. We learned how Google approaches staff retention and what being “Googley” means. The most amazing thing that came out of those three days was the people I met. My cohort, our coaches, our leaders and organizers all came together to create magic. But this was not a trick. It was transformation. We now belong to a special group, within which all of us are seeking change and innovation in education. We are the #GoogleEI. My Google project? It is now growing into what I call “No Passion Left Behind.” Five certifications in one year. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the fifth: Fatherhood. My beautiful wife Cecilia and I had our boy right around the time all this was happening. Lucca is a healthy baby. He’s a happy baby. One day I will tell him about the year he was born. I’ll make sure he knows how important it is to follow his passions no matter what he decided to pursue. I’ll make sure he knows that it’s okay to hack and disrupt learning. He’s now a constant reminder mores so than ever that this is all bigger than us. All we can do is make sure our students are getting the best version of ourselves every time we walk into that classroom. That we are prepared to take our students to the next level. After all, we made the choice to be here; we should never stop learning new things, especially when our most valuable learning moments come from our students. Yes, I’m the gym teacher that plays with his kids on top of all the hard work that we all do as educators with a couple of add-ons of my own. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Carlos Galvez @clos_gm #GoogleEI [email protected]
2 Comments
Mike F
8/26/2016 05:14:23 am
Awesome write up Carlos! It was great meeting you there!
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8/26/2016 09:02:49 am
I loved it! Great post Carlos!!! It was awesome to meet you.
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