Learning experience in #UAEdTech

I used prezi to create my learning experience in Education technology. I used Prezi because I have never used this app before and I thought that it was time to use it and see the results. It is very popular also and I wanted to see how creative I can be.
The biggest take-aways from #UAEdTech is that, as I said on my prezi document, I had to organize my time very good and remember I had post to do and put them all on-line on time. I took six more classes so I had many things going on this semester and I had to be careful with this class since it was the only on-line class. I really liked to post my blogs on-line because everyone can read them and give me feedback. Also, I loved to read other's people post and get ideas for my future class.
I plan to incorporate educational technologies in my future classrooms in many ways. First of all I learned that having a educational blog is a good idea for parents to follow my thoughs and they can also give me feedback. I can upload also the homework students have and parents can make sure they do it at home, with or without them.
I will also use the cool tools I used in this class. I learned that using cool tools children can have fun while learning. It is not gonna be about reading books, memorizing and taking exams. My class is going to be about having fun while learning.

I recommend this class to other students since I learned many things with it. If I have to describe this course it would be: use technology, be creative and inspire your students. 

Here is the link of my summary of learning! Hope you all like it!

https://prezi.com/scbulyugjvsb/edit/#1_24309637

The end is just the beginning. MAJOR PROJECT 7

I am really happy with this project. Honestly, I thought that trying to high jump was gonna be complicated. When I set my goal I thought it was gonna be too high for me. But I mean, I don't wanna conform myself with something small. Go and get it!

I have to say that I achieved my goal by far. This has been possible first of all thanks to Claudia who has taught me everything I know about high jump. Also my coach Tomek that gave me some advices when watching videos of myself. Also, I think I worked hard because I wanted to know how high I could go. Same with long jump, I love to long jump but I want more and more always and I want to know how far I can jump.

This week has been great practicing. After some weeks doing this project and practicing 3 times a week the improvement was great and to my surprise fast!

I struggled so many times and I wanted to quit. As so many times, when we learn something new, it is not easy. Everything takes a process and struggles come and the idea of quitting is in your mind all the time. But come on let's be strong and remember why we start new things!

What did I learn doing this project you may ask. Well I learned that if you want something, go and get it. Do whatever is in your hands and you'll see how far you go. I learned that also you have to believe in yourself even when nobody does. The most important thing, you should trust in your coach/ friends that guide you to achieve whatever goal you want to achieve.

Finally, I could not be happier since I achieved my goal! Well I jumped even more! So I can say I am really glad with this.

As I wrote on my first post, high jump is something I wanted to do since I was little. Now because I took this class I had the opportunity to try and feel something different. It just feels awesome.

Again, I am really happy I had to take this class since because of this, I learned something new.

Now, this is not the end, this is the beginning of something new I have to take advantage of.

Everything you want, go and get it. Work hard, be patient and love what you do.

happy. MAJOR PROJECT 6

So I can say I am really happy with this week. I jumped really well in long jump these days. I mean that I practiced really good on my technique as well as in competition. I am injure since forever but now the pain is not as painful as last year so every time I practice better and better.

This happiness gave me the motivation I needed to jump well in high jump as well.

This week I practiced three times, all of those practices after my "real" practice. So, I was a little bit tired since one of my real practice was running 8 sets of 100 meters with just 45 seconds of rest. After this workout I was pretty dead so for my practice of high jump I watched videos of Texas Relays 2015 where Claudia did school record again jumping 1.87meters.

Since we both speak in Spanish we were talking really confident with each other and like really deep. She was explaining to me what she did well, what she did wrong and how can she change the negative points as well as maximize the positive points.

It is really awesome to hear from her. You can feel the passion she has for high jumping and how much she knows about it...it's crazy!

I guess we are from Europe and we are really technique and we see all the mistakes really easy when we jump. I think that at the end of the day this is so good because we can improve so much!

For the other two days, I jumped really good! The first day I jumped 1,35 and the third day of practice...I did Personal Record so I am so happy.  I freaking jumped 1.40 meters. It sounds like nothing for a high jumper but for me it is really good since I have never jump high jump!

For both days I warmed up like always ( I don't really like to change my warm ups, I like to do everything in the same way and maybe order too) and then I put my spikes on.

In fact, I was warming up and I felt great since the beginning so my mind was in a really good mood. Positive and motivated I would say. 

Since I felt great I thought " ok Ana today can be a good day so let's enjoy and jump high, let's break some bars!". I started to jump and at the first jump I jumped 1,35meters so I was like ok if I jumped this height on my first jumo that means that I am gonna jump really high today!

I just kept jumping and feeling great so I jumped 1,40meters and then I decided to stop because I was really tired and I wanted to save the energy for another day. Who knows... maybe next week I jump so much higher!

I can say I am really glad I am doing this project. I love to learn new things and of course, never stop getting better!

As Bo Jackson says, "Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there." 

So close. MAJOR PROJECT 5

This week I practiced three days. I am so happy because I am really close to achieving my goal. I remind you that my goal is to jump 1,35 meters. I said I am close to my goal because I jumped 1,30 meters. That means that I just need 5 more centimeters. And I said I am happy not just because of that. I have still 5 weeks left to work on this project and just 5 more cm to jump. That means that probably I will jump more than my goal, which it would be amazing!

This week I jumped twice and I ran another day.

The days of jumping I did pretty much the same. As I always do, I warmed up (jog 6 minutes, stretch and drills) and then I put my spikes on.

Then, I counted my approach and I put a tape on the floor just in case I forget about it. The most stressful thing in the world is the fact of about to jump and don’t find your start mark! Then I jumped for two hours and in the middle of jumps I did some specific drills according to the mistakes I was doing. It is always fun actually. It like I don’t know what I am doing but at the same time I learn so it’s cool! I also don’t understand how some people can jump as high as Claudia does!

Anyways, I jumped really well these two days, for me of course, and I am happy. Hopefully next week I can jump my goal!

Regarding the third practice of the week, I had lifting and sprints. You don’t need to be like Usain Bolt to high jump but you need to be faster than a turtle. So I did some sprints with the high jumpers. I don’t need to run sets of 300 meters cause I need speed and no resistance. I ran 6 sets of 40 meters. I was pretty good since I am sprinter too. After this workout, I saw videos with the high jumpers about my last two practices and they taught me some keys to jump higher! Basically they told me that I have to imagine myself touching the sky or the roof or whatever. Doing that I will raise my hands higher and that would help the whole jump. The other example that a teammate gave me was that I had to imagine bills of 100 dollars floating in the air. Higher bills of 200 dollars, higher 300 dollars bills and like this.  So the higher my hand goes, the greater the bill! That was pretty funny but those examples are actually the best to explain some exercises. 

The thing that I learn of this week is that first you have to believe in yourself as well as in your coach and workouts. I can see the light basically. I see that if you set a goal and you plan how to get there, you can achieve whatever it's in your mind.

Getting close. MAJOR PROJECT 4

This week I practiced three days, on Wednesday 11th, on Friday 13th and finally, yesterday which was Monday 16th.

This week was different than the other weeks because Claudia and Tom were not in Akron so I couldn't practice with them. They were at the NCAA Track & Field Championships and actually, Claudia did personal record placing second with a jump of 6 feet 2 inch! I can't believe she is second on the nation!

Moreover, I was watching the meet through a web page and I recorded the video! The funniest thing is that I recorded the video and I posted it on my Facebook. Then, a guy that I personally know took my video and he uploaded on his Youtube page. Later, the Spanish Track and Field Federation used MY video through his post on Youtube. I talked to them because this is my video and all right, I am not going go to denounce anyone but other people can do it and someone can ruin them since that's ilegal. It impressed me because we talked about copyright two weeks ago and now it happened to me. Here is the link to watch the video. If you turn up the volume you can hear with no problem my voice saying a :"noooooo". I was like I can't believe she jumped that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLapFxjIO0

Since they were gone from Tuesday 10th until Sunday 15th, I practiced on Wednesday by myself and on the 13th I practice with the others high jumpers. Finally, yesterday Claudia had day off but she came to the field house so she could watch me and correct mistakes.

Basically, on the 10th I jumped just for fun. I felt like I was doing so bad but I was having fun! I jumped like 10 times and I recorded all of them so as soon as Claudia is here we can watch them together. I warmed up and then I put my spikes on!

The 13th was really fun since I warm up with all the high jumpers! I did specific drills and exercises. We used a lot short hurdles to do technique exercises. Then I did lifting with them as well and I did exercises like hang clean, power clean and squats. In between we always do transition exercises and they could be box jumps or with the bar in your back, jump really high and fast.

Later we did sprints. I ran 40 meters, then 50 and then 60 meters all twice.

Yesterday, I watch the videos with Claudia and Tom. Tom said I can improve a lot and Claudia too so I am happy for that! We saw some mistakes and they told me how I can fix it. The main problem was, again, that I kick the bar with my feet! I pass the bar all the way with my back and then I kick it with my feet. They told me to focus on that so I set the bar really low so I can do it exaggerated! 

This week more and better! 

Flying high. MAJOR PROJECT 3

Music plays an important role on an athlete. At least every time I have a meet everyone put their headphones on when they are about to warm up. Same on practice, almost everybody on the team use their iPods, phones or whatever they want to use to listen to music. In my experience, I always play music when I warm up as well as in a meet because it gets me excited. So, that's the first thing I did this week because I wanna be motivated to achieve my goal! Play some music, motivate myself and ROCK IT. 

This week I practice three times. I always practice after my "real practice" is done. Doing this,  I prevent any kind of injury or negative effects in my long jumping. I have to make sure I keep healthy for outdoor season. 

Thursday 5th was the first practice of the week. Then, I practiced on Saturday 7th and the last one was on Monday 9th. I did the same kind of practice for all these days. For everyday I warm up in the same way. In competition and on practice. Doing this I can have the same feeling always and I can know what is wrong and how can I change it. This is an example of a warm up:

- Jogging 6 minutes

- Stretch in movement and stretch sitting on the floor during 10 minutes. 

- Drills for 25 minutes. Everything really active.  Here I include high knees, " buttkicks" , exercises with hurdles and all kind of aerobic stuff. 

- Technique exercises. That means really specific exercises by doing so many repetitions of a exercise and looking for mistakes. I use cones and small hurdles to do these kind of exercises. 

After the warm up, I put my spikes on. Actually spikes are really important to jump. Is like the key you need to open the door of your house. Every event in track is different. Really different. It is actually the reason of my passion. It is one sport that combine different events: throws, jumps, distance and sprints. All right so every event need a special shoes. You cannot use the same kind of shoes for jumping triple jump than long jump or high jump. You don't use heels to go to the pool or you don't use flip flops to go to a wedding. It is the same! I need good shoes to jump well! So I am changing my long jump spikes for high jump spikes! The main difference is that in the high jump spikes there are 4 spikes on the hill and the sole is thicker vs just spikes on the front and a thin sole. 

           <-------HIGH JUMP SPIKES

LONG JUMP SPIKES ---->

Once I put my spikes on, I counted the steps of my approach and I left a mark on the track. Doing this I know where I have to start jumping all the time. If I make mistakes, I would have to move the mark.

I took a few jumps just to try how I was doing. 

The first day I use to arch my back very well but I always kicked the bar with my feet. There was no way to fix it! The first and second day, I was able to jump 1,25 meters already and I didn't kick the bar with my feet. This was thanks to Claudia's advices and because of the videos she showed me. I record myself and then we compared the videos with her videos jumping. It was really fun! 

I spent around 10 hours this week practicing. It sounds a lot but watching videos and talking about my mistakes and how can I improve is practice too. I am proud of all the work and now I just have to keep working so I can FLY HIGH!

NEVER STOP GETTING BETTER

practice, practice and practice. MAJOR PROJECT 2

I spent this week around 6 hours just practicing. I didn't jump all the time of course! I had shin splints for a while so I am taking it easy.

Practice does not mean just to do exercise. So many people think that practice means going to the weight room and lift all the time. It's funny that when people ask me: so... do you run all the time every day? I am like nope! track doesn't mean just to run! There are throws, jumps, races... I just don't run or jump for practice. Of course I run and jump but I also watch videos of another athletes and I watch my own jumps as well of practice and competition. Doing that, I can analyze the technique, see mistakes as well as things that I do/did good. With that, I can correct the mistakes and maximize my strong points. 

This is what I did half of the time this week. Claudia and I met at the track and she showed me a lot of videos. Some were of herself and some were from different athletes of the world. I have to say that

I never practice by myself. Claudia meets me every time I need to practice. Moreover, my coach join us always that he can make it. I really appreciate it because they are the ones who can explain to me the best idea about high jump, how can I jump and what is the best way to achieve my goal. 

This week I learned the exactly steps that my approach is going to have. First of all they explained to me the bases of the approach and then I tried the approach. 

They told me I cannot have a long approach because I will get tired really easy. I cannot have either a short approach because I am not a pro and I cannot jump high without speed. So, I need a approach that give me enough speed to pass the bar as well as a not long approach, so I can save energy. Saving this energy, I will jump more times without getting tired. 

Also I learned how to run my approach. High jump has a really weird way to run before jumping. High jumpers run in curve and then...JUMP! It sounds easy but I really think is the most complicated part about high jump. They tough me that I have to do two long steps in the middle of the approach. It will give the energy I need to pass the bar. And why? They explained to me that after these two steps, the body has a good strength, better than usual, so the speed increases and I am more powerful. 

As I explained on my first post, my goal is to pass a bar (1.35 meters) and to achieve it I need to figure out every step. The first one is to have a good approach. Once I got it, I can move on. This is like a math problem. You have to figure the first step out to get the final solution. If you don't know how to do 2+2, you cannot do 3x5. 

And the good news is that, after a long two practices watching videos and running, I GOT IT!

I am ready for next week and I can't wait to start jumping!

Learning something new. MAJOR PROJECT 1

I am a Spanish long jumper. I have been practicing track & field since I was six years old. I started to compete in a  high level when I was fifteen years old. Sports works different in Spain than in the U.S. Education and sports are not related to each other. I used to go to school and once I was done there, around 5pm, I drove where my club practice. Back home, I start to practice every day around 6pm. Sounds late but for us it's kind of normal. Just think that Spaniards eat dinner around 10pm... Now make sense right? Anyways, track and field is my passion, it's my other half. It is not my life tho. I know I cannot depend of a sport. However, I do love it because track has given me the opportunity to meet incredible people as well as travel, and the most important one: living the american dream.

I am an international athlete. I represented Spain in the I European Trials in Moscow, I Youth Olympic Games in Singapore as well as European and World Youth and Junior Championships as well as Under 23 Mediterranean Games in France. The most important thing, track is making me the person that I am today. Strong, brave, hard working, with perseverance and patience.

When I was little I tried every event and then I saw that I was pretty good in long jump as well as in sprints. Because of this, I just focussed myself in these two amazing events.  However, I have always had the feeling of trying high jump. It is a event that make me feel really excited and I always wanted to try it. I couldn't because I was good at long jump and my coach did not allow me to try high jump just in case I got injure. 

Since I have the opportunity to learn something new, I pick how to high jump. It is a really good time because my coach here in Akron was a high jumper. Also we have on the Akron Track & Field team the current number one on the nation. Now it's the time! I know I am not going to jump 6 feet but I want to learn the basic concepts. My goal is to jump around 4 feet 35 inch. 

This week I practiced twice a week. The first day was on Tuesday and the second practice was on Thursday. We based the first practice by talking.  My teammate and my coach explained to me some key terms: the technique that I should use, how many steps my approach is going to have, the speed that I should run, how to arch my back and how to hold my feet on the air. They want me to have the perfect idea of high jump instead of jumping. In the second practice I did some exercises on the high jump pad as well as with hurdles. 

Here I leave a short interview of my teammate Claudia Garcia Jou. She is currently number 1 on the Nation in High Jump Division 1.

- What means to you "high jump"

- High jump it's not only my passion. Throughout my whole live has become an essential part of my live as well. High jump is one of the first things that I think of when I go to sleep and when I wake up in the morning. It means challenging myself, setting goals, getting better and over all, personal growth.

- How many days do you practice in a regular week? What do you do on practice?

-I practice every day of the week except for Sundays, when I give myself some time to relax and get recovered from the week. My workouts are focused mainly in two points. Leg strength and technical skill development. This means that some days I lift at the weight room in order to gain the strength that I need to assure an explosive takeoff. Whereas other days I can spend the entire workout doing drills that resemble the different phases of the high jump, like the approach, the takeoff or the flight.

- If you have to give me a advice to achieve my goal. What would you tell me?

- Besides following an appropriate workout plan that includes weight lifting and technical development, I would definitely work on what they call invisible practice. Don't get obsessed with your goal, take some rest periods when needed, eat healthy, trust your coach and what is more important, enjoy every single jump! It's amazing how your running technique can change when you feel happy and relaxed without even noticing it!