July 27th

The morning started off a little rough. I taught a basketball lesson but we only did one drill for about 5 minutes because for the last day, we wanted to play as much as possible. Explaining the boxing out drill was harder than I thought and dividing the number of students into equal teams I kind of blanked on. Once they got going though, they did exactly what I asked them to do and they actually did it pretty well. We did continuous basketball again but we had the whole court. 2 games went on at once using half courts and one team stood in the middle waiting for a team to get a basket. It was a great way to have everyone moving. I blanked for a good 3 minutes and Kim pretty much took over making even teams, she also knows them a lot better and did it by ability.

Second session was free but I helped Tim (the head of P.E.) set up all the food for the faculty meeting. Once morning tea came, we had to take all the food over to the student center, where the entire faculty met up and the principal went over a few announcements.

I finally learned speedball during session 3. The students in this class have been talking about it since day one and since European handball is part of it, we decided it was good timing to start the game. It’s played on a soccer field and It has a combination of soccer, European handball, AFL, and Gallic football. If the ball is on the ground, it’s soccer rules. Someone can flick the ball up above the knees and if it is caught, that person can run with the ball. That person can get tagged with two hands and it would be a change over. To score, you have to kick it on the ground or out of your hands like a soft punt. With this class, the games always get really intense and since I was learning the game, I joined in. It was A LOT of running but it was tons on fun.

Cameron asked if I felt comfortable enough to teach this session since we were doing the same thing but I really didn’t feel confident enough in explaining the rules since I was very confused for a while. Session 4 was a bit more challenging. Last session we had maybe 20 students, now we had 45. They are also younger, more immature and more girls who just stand around and do nothing. We started with 3 stations of punting, dribbling and juggling the soccer balls. We split them up into three groups of 15 for the games. It took a lot longer for these students to understand the game and get into it. Hopefully next time we play, we can give another option to those who rather do something else because having so many people stand around ruins the game.

Sometimes I wish I could always just play the sports or activities with the students instead of reffing. While everyone was playing basketball first session, I really wanted to join and thankfully I got my chance in the afternoon and had an amazing time. It also makes my relationships stronger with the students when you join in.

July 26th

Today was a pretty awesome day but with the weekends coming tomorrow, students are getting a bit distracted.

Second session we played a big game of soccer with the 3 classes out on the ovals that are finally open. Half way through, I suggested giving the students who are just standing around the option to walk around the track. Once those students were out of the way and happy, a really good soccer game was going on. There was no real instruction part of this class and there are already 3 teachers there. I gather once all the ovals are open, we will split up and I will teach only my class.

During the third session, we had our final rounds of European Handball with my year 12 students that really love the game. With two games going on at one, no one was sitting out and everyone was having a good time. At times some of them got to rough or just silly and I would just give them a short break to get themselves together.

Fourth session I did another final lesson of European handball with my sex ed class. I told the deputy principal to come and observe me during this session and even though I knew exactly what I was doing, I also knew there were two students that could make things extremely difficult. I wasn’t nervous really but I went into the lesson trying to be proactive with those students and then it turned into being reactive once or twice giving them consequences. It was good for the principal to see me handle behavior problems though. During the warm up activity, I tried to add an addiction rule with 10 pass and make a number order but it didn’t go as well as I hoped for simply because the students weren’t moving around that much. I decided to switch over to playing real games. I put them on two teams 8v8 and the students actually got really into the game once they got the hang of it. It became competitive and more fun when everyone was putting more effort into it. Although something might not have worked or I had two kids fooling around the whole time, I think those are both important things for a supervisor to see how I deal with that. I think it is actually one of my strengths dealing with discipline and managing so I hope the principal agrees!

Great reports back from my principal! Makes me feel that much more certain that I chose the right path for myself!

July 25th

First session we started dance with three classes in the student center. Beka and I were really excited about this class because it has a lot of ballroom dancing and partner dancing. We also both had Mrs.Cahill and will be bringing our experience into this class of students. Mr.Boaza taught the tango and the boston-2-step, so I was learning as well. For each dance, he had a boy and girl demonstrate in the middle of the 2 circles. The inside circle is always boys and the outside was girls. The students were dreading this a bit but you can tell they were all having a great time once they started. They were also pretty good at the dances for learning them in a half hour.

Second session I had my basketball lesson and I was a little nervous because the last one did not go as well as I hoped for and was a little boring. This lesson went awesome though! I had three mini games going on at once and taught through playing instead of with drills. The numbers divided pretty well and I gave them very specific instructions step by step this time around. I talked to the students after these games about getting open but I lead the discussion with questions to get them thinking.  Once the students came up with the ideas of a pick or jab step, I brought students up to demonstrate each. I had to demonstrate a pick on and off ball a few different times with different students so that they really understood. After another round of small game using picks, we played continuous basketball. Regular game of half court basketball and once a basket went in, losers jumped off and a new team came on. It would go fast sometimes and slower other times depending on how hard they played but they all pretty much got into it. I was very happy with the two classes today but I did have one problem with a student. He simply doesn’t like participating in anything for any class and he decided to mouth off to me about the activity sucking and me sucking. I chose to bring this to the head teacher’s attention because I did not want to make him sit out, since he wanted that. My teacher decided to make him sit outside alone while he copied a random power point on paper and then he had to apologize to me at the end. He was nice about it and I said I accepted it but at the same time I told him my expectations for the class. I hope he will not be a problem anymore so I don’t need to write him up or anything.

Third session was a good planning session for tomorrows lesson that Donna will be observing.

Fourth session I watched the rugby boys practice and I got to talk with a few of them who were sitting out. They were just asking a bunch of questions about New York and the states. Good conversations and got to know each other better.

July 24th

During my free first session I planned a bit more for my decision making lesson and looked at some great lessons I can use for my sex ed class. I got a whole list of websites that I can use during class or for myself.

Second session was in the gym but this class really tries hard and they all get a pretty good work out. I learned a lot about the students while I went around talking to them. Found out what outside activities they do such as competition dancing and aerobics, and soccer. I also had a conversation about the uniforms with a few girls because all the girls where the boys uniform rugby shorts instead of the uniform girl shorts. Apparently the girl shorts are see through.

  We only had half of the third session for rugby class because the other half was assigned to ECP sign up. ECP is basically parent conferences when the parent and student come in to talk to a teacher. Students are assigned to a teacher even if they don’t have them. They will sign up for times between 1pm and 8 pm, which means I wont have to be in school till 12:30!

Last session I did a lesson on decision making in my binge drinking class. I found different scenarios that were a beginning to a story and the students had to finish the story. I let them do creative writing and make it as silly or serious as they want. I then read each scenario and would have 1 group member finish. Depending on the story, I would have the students think about what they would do if that happened to them or what could happen. Some of the stories they came up with happened to be really serious and we would get into a discussion about death after drinking and suffocating from your vomit or jumping off balconies into pools. When the students had to be serious, they were and asked great questions and had good answers. I really enjoyed teaching decision making through different stories that can happen because it makes everything more realistic. Sitting there telling year 12 to say no is really unrealistic especially since they have 2 weeks after graduating called “schoolies”. These 2 weeks the students go away somewhere and it’s equal to a college or high school spring break. I have to talk to them about decisions they make after they start drinking, dangerous situations and helping friends.

I feel comfortable taking over the binge drinking class but I don’t want to get too repetitive with what I teach. I also don’t want to sit and lecture, I need to continue making activities for them because that is when they pay attention more, they aren’t bored and we are all enjoying ourselves while learning.

July 23rd

Today was a pretty simple and quick day I suppose. Started off in the gym supervising the girls and boys on the machines and working out. During this time Cameron showed me how to work the attendance program on the computer so I can just take it every class now.

Second session Cameron has Sociology, which I don’t really do much in but sometimes chime in with a really heated debate. Cameron asked me to go get the 2 boxes of textbooks in the library and to meet him at the class. Of course I got lost, my luck. It’s the one classroom I haven’t really learned the route to yet because im so used to always being near the gym or student center (gymnasium). I wandered around with books on a trolley for about 15 minutes until I just decided to look at my schedule back in Bribie and ask where to go. Cameron laughed at me about 5 times through out the day about this.

Session 3 I had a class I haven’t really met and we did basketball in the student center. The cert 3 fitness students ran the session while we supervised. Cameron and I also planned a little bit of what well do next session with our sex ed class.

Today’s Topic: Male and Female organs and reproduction system. As a HUGE surprised, there was not much laughing during the lesson like usual. At some points there was a little but usually these students laugh through the entire lesson. I also think that I finally got through to the loud mouth last class because he was super good today. We printed out blank diagrams of the systems and organs for the students to fill out and sheets for them to explain what each part does. Majority of the students didn’t know much and then continued to not write down the information, so there are a lot of students doing homework now.

At the end of the day Cameron and I agreed I would take over the rest of the sex ed and binge drinking lectures and then I will continue running the team sports classes. There are about six to eight activity classes, so I will have my work cut out for me!

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.

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.