July 19th

I love having the first session off on Thursday because it’s a really good group of teachers who have off. We joke around a lot of talk about random things while doing some work. I look forward to these mornings because I know ill start off in a good mood.

Second session we finished the movie Honey that we started last week since we still cant use the ovals and all the inside areas are filled up during this session.

During our morning tea break Cameron had playground duty, which just means he has to go around making sure there are no fights and that kids are picking up their rubbish. Some of the kids make a huge mess and because they are just sitting on the concrete pathways and on stairs, there is trash everywhere. Times like these though Cameron and I get to talk about a bunch of different things and we get to know each other a lot more.

Session three I had my binge drinking class but for prac, not lecture. We took them to the empty parking lot, which they call a car park. Cameron told me that he is going to experiment teaching European Handball and I told him I used to play it during my P.E. classes, so he pretty much told me to teach it. I wasn’t prepared with anything but I was pretty confident that I could whip something up on the spot, especially with this class. I started off with a keep away drill playing 3v3  in coned off areas. We started off with just not moving while having the ball. To add a challenge I told them they can’t pass it back to the person they received from and then to make it harder we kept score with 10 consecutive passes equals one point. They had a pretty hard time with this but I was very happy about how much these 12^th graders were running around and really into the game. They’ve been begging to play speedball so I didn’t know how well this would go. After this exercise we pretty but did the same thing but split up into 2 teams and 4 quadrants. This time they can pass to a teammate in another quadrant but still couldn’t leave their own or move with the ball. Cameron jumped in on the game and I was the referee. I had my whistle and used it a lot because the boys like playing with contact, they are used to rugby but this is certainly not rugby. After this exercise we actually played full court games and I taught them about the 3-step rule and the shooting rules. We had 3 teams and each team played each other. I was very happy with everything we did and we actually ended up loosing track of time because the students were enjoying themselves so much and got really into the game. I was also the ref for all the games and it made me have more power in the class and be an authority figure. They 100% completely respected all my calls and I am used to being a ref since I did it at home for soccer. This session made me feel great about teaching and really gave me a glimpse into my future!

Lucky for me, we did the same thing for our next session! Not the exact same thing because this time we combined with another class and had about 40 students. We separated the lot into 3 sections and did the same exercise as the first one but these students just weren’t into it as much. They were year 8 and 9 and there were a lot more girls who didn’t have shorts and aren’t into getting sweaty. Instead of a real game at the end, we kept the 3 sections and played a modified version. Each team had their goalie sitting on the opposing teams curb and they would have to get 4 passes and then pass to their goalie to get a point. It worked well considering the space and amount of students. I split the teaching with Cameron and explained the first exercise while he explained the second because he just read about it. It was a little hard to get a few of them into the game but it worked out.

Today was the first day I started teaching outside and it was amazing! I was in my element and I knew exactly how to handle the class and what to say through out the session.