July 20th

My morning started off good with teaching my basketball lesson but I am being a bit hard on myself and wished I could have prepared some other things. The previous class we only used half court and I think that mislead me to believe that these students didn’t know basic basketball. While some of them really do need a lot of help, most of them are pretty decent once they have the space to move around. We combined with the same class but we had the entire court this time. We played dribble knock out as a warm-up and when the student’s ball got knocked out, I had them do a few laps and push ups to get back in. I made the area smaller and smaller to make it harder but also to force more students to put some effort into it.  I was really good at transitioning from the warm-up to getting their attention and sitting them down so I can teach a few basic skills. I had students come up and demonstrate with me and also showed what not to do based on what Ive been seeing. I had four stations involving dribbling, shooting and passing. One was dribbling with your left and then right hand weaving through cones, the next was passing with a partner using chest and bounce passes. The last two were shooting foul shots at one basket and shooting outside shots from another. I used cones to set up each one and when it was time to switch stations, the students listened very well. I noticed it getting a little boring for them, which is why I wish I had more game like activities planned and taught through those. My judgment of where their skills are was apparently wrong or mislead by the small court. I only kept them at each station for about 3 minutes so they didn’t get to bored and then we broke up into three teams to play full court games. It is so much better having the whole court, everyone is moving and there is more space to dribble and pass. All in all for my first real lesson, I think it went well but I will always come out of lessons wishing I did something different. I had Beka’s teacher there and the other classes’ teacher and they were both impressed by my ability to manage and control the students. They said I get their attention and I keep it because I will not speak over the students, I will wait there while the students waste their playing time. The students know this and will zip their mouths right away. The male teacher asked if this was my second placement because I handle the students very well, im confident and seem very comfortable. That made me feel great but not everything will go my way during a lesson. Kim mentioned keeping directions short, sweet and specific. To make sure students know exactly where to go and when. I saw a few lost students after I gave directions so I agree with that and I kind of beat myself up for not being specific. I will definitely work on those things though and also try to use the tactical approach by teaching through mini games so the students have more fun.

Session three there were about seven P.E. classes at once with limited space to use. We planned on playing European handball because it went amazing yesterday and we want to keep doing it for four or five weeks. Instead we combined with another class and played the ever so popular dodgeball. There was a class on the other side of the gym but when they left about half way through, we set up handball for just our class. I refereed the games again but because the court is much smaller inside, it was easier to shoot from further away. The games were not as good as the ones yesterday but the kids really enjoy playing. They actually wanted to play handball over dodgeball but we just didn’t have that option in the beginning.

During session 4 Cameron went to observe another teachers class because Mountain Creek has every teacher do an observation once a term I think.  So he basically handed me the class even though there was a sub and another class with their P.E. teacher. We agreed to do the same handball lesson as we did yesterday with the last session because there were two classes. While doing the 3 mini games of keep away and 10 pass, it was hard to get these year 8 and 9 classes motivated. They really wanted a scoring method such as a basket or goal. Eventually we did chair ball with the goalie sitting and it motivated everyone a lot more.  I managed these two classes just like I do with any other class, I wont sit there and scream at them and will not talk over them. They got the point of my rule and how I am going to teach the classes for the rest of my time here. Two of the courts did great but one court plus one other girl was giving me a really hard time. They had awful attitudes, wouldn’t follow directions and put no effort into anything. Since they said it was boring, I made them all sit on the curb in silence and if they talked they would get lunch detention. I really needed to make an impression on these kids and make sure they know that just because im new and a pre-service teacher, doesn’t make me anything less than an average teacher there. Eventually Cameron was back and came over asking what happened and he decided to make them all sprint to the front gate and back . He had a talk with them about respect, following directions and putting effort into class once they finished. During this situation, the other two courts were having a blast and the games got really intense. Even if I had to explain the last game a few times, I was happy with the results. During the last ten minutes the two teachers had a talk with everyone about positive attitudes towards new sports and effort. They also spoke about the tactical side of this sport because the other class is focusing on that. Since a few girls were talking during this, they got lunch detention. Lucky for them, no teacher wants to spend their lunch with students so they got the option to pick up 10 large pieces of rubbish instead. They got off easy but I don’t think that will be an option next time. I felt much better about this lesson compared to my basketball one even though I had some troublemakers. Walking back to Bribie Cameron and the other teacher Emma gave me a few tips about discipline and consequences. They even gave me a few ideas for consequences. The two of them were also impressed by my ability to gain control, manage and speak loud enough especially outdoors. These seem to be my strengths, which I kind of already knew but it never hurts to be reminded.

Today was a jammed pack day of teaching but I am happy with myself and will only get better with practice. I love getting feedback from the teachers because even though I am my biggest criticizer, they have been doing this longer and have some other methods/ideas on how to help my weaknesses and continue my strengths.