August 1st

First session I think went pretty well for Beka and mine’s first time Co-Teaching. We needed to get the general sense of how we work together and teaching the Cha Cha was a good start to that. The students warmed up doing the two dances they learned last class and then Beka and I got into the cha cha. We tried to be as basic as we could but it took a bit longer for the students to get it than we anticipated. By the end, they did in fact get most of the steps and did it to music. One thing Beka and I spoke about after is how to get the students quiet and we just said that I would get their attention because I have a very loud voice and the kids don’t want to hear a teacher scream. There are always pros and cons to a lesson but it takes time for two teachers to get a feel for how the other one teaches. We are going to teach one more dance next class before the students split up into their assignment groups.

Second session I ran a GREAT basketball lesson. I got a white board to use so I can draw out the two different defenses, man and zone. I asked a lot of questions of why they would use each one and the advantages and disadvantages of each. I then did a big demonstration of each defense using a 5 v 5 and had the rest of the students sit on the base line. The students were really well behaved today and I tried to keep the lecture down to a minimum so they can play a lot today. I did each defense while the ball moved around with one group and then brought up 10 new students to do it again. We went right into continuous basketball and since we had the full court today, we were able to have 2 games at once with a team waiting to go on. I asked Mr.Finley (the male teacher that we combine classes with) to help me to make teams because I am still struggling with that. I divided up the 5 best players on different teams and then tried to divide the rest equally on those five teams. I will most definitely be able to get this task down with time and learning their abilities better.

Free for third session! Woohoo….I already planned my lessons for the week so I read and researched during this period.

Fourth session I had rugby again. Even if I am just sitting and chatting with the boys, its always an entertaining period.

July 31st

Another cruisy day…

First Free, Second weight room, 3^rd Rugby and 4^th was Binge drinking.

During second session there were two female fitness students running a circuit with the students and I actually learned a few things. These two girls challenged me and we chatted with each other about New York and their program.

The rugby boys are always entertaining. They are actually really nice boys but they LOVE playing pranks on each other. The most popular thing to do is turn other peoples backpacks inside out and put the stuff back in. This happens on a regular basis and it’s pretty funny but it got a little out of hand and I told them to stop. They are really respectful of what I say after getting to know each other. They also gave me a few ideas of what to do while I visit Sydney.

During session four we used the beer goggles to demonstrate the lack of control and coordination they have while intoxicated. We had them having a catch outside, walking on a straight line and pouring glasses of water. It was a lot of fun  and the students were having a good time as well.

July 30th

Mondays are relatively “cruisy” as Cameron would say. First session is supervising the weight room and second session is Cameron’s sociology class. They weren’t on their best behavior today so they stayed after the bell.

The certification fitness students run the third session, so we don’t do much during this session either.

Usually fourth session I would be teaching the sex ed class but today we had a special guest. The Nurse came in to talk about contraception and how to use condoms. The students have been asking about this lesson for the past two weeks and were very excited. Surprisingly, the students were really well behaved unlike every other class that they laugh through. Almost all the students volunteered to be part of the demonstrations. It was an interesting and entertaining class. Next lesson: Sexually Transmitted Infections!

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.