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Week 1- German clap dance 27/09/16

In today’s lesson, we taught our peers the German clap dance in a physical educational context. We began the lesson by introducing a learning wall, which gave an overview of the German clap dance. It also explained the ‘card-system’ that we had in place. In our warm-up, we focused on ‘galloping’ as this was a key aspect of the German clap dance. The main body of our lesson consisted of us teaching the dance step by step without music. We then progressed our lesson and linked all the steps together while the students danced to the music. We concluded the lesson with a cool-down and had intended to refer to the learning wall but we didn’t have time.

As a group, we gave clear instruction to the students. However, feedback could have been more frequent. The students forgot the dance sequences at times and this could have been avoided if we had reinforced the steps. For next week, personally I will improve my time management skills. I didn’t have a stop-watch today and it would have been of benefit to me if I did.

Week 2- Shoemaker’s dance 04/10/16

In today’s lesson, we introduced the shoemaker's dance with a colourful learning wall. From watching the students, I thought they were all engaged in the lesson. In the warm-up, we used movement like that in the shoemaker’s dance. The main body of the lesson today focused on the sequences of the dance, which we then progressed and linked all the sequences together with music. After we completed the cool down, we paired the students up and gave them a ‘movement analysis wheel’ which assessed their learning in today’s lesson.

As a teacher, I learnt today that not all students work well in big groups. Some students might find it more difficult to seek help in-front of their peers. For next week, I would split the class into 2 separate groups before teaching them the dance. Next week, I intend to give more support and feedback to the students in their smaller groups as I think they would learn more.

Week 3- Athletics 18/10/16

In today’s lesson, we were given the title ‘power’ to teach to our peers. We focused on the shot-put. Today, we taught indoors in the mardyke PE hall, so we used bean bags as the ‘shot-put’, as we thought it was the most realistic thing to a shotput. We began with an introduction to the shot-put through a visual learning wall. We split our lesson into a warm up, main task and a cool down. I explained the importance of throwing for accuracy and power rather than distance. I used the concept of scaffolding which includes ‘guided discovery’, I let the student throw in the way he/she taught was technically correct. This was using Vygotsky’s theory in my teaching, which I found worked very well. It worked well as the students quickly realised if the technique they were doing was incorrect/correct, after I demonstrated the technique.

One thing I could improve on from today would have been my feedback to the students. I didn’t reinforce the technique enough when the students were learning.

Primarily visit to Bishopstown national school – 2/11/16

Today was our first arrival to the primary school as a group. We analysed the PE hall and equipment. We found out how many pupils would be in our class. The size of the hall was important to note as we needed to plan accordingly for our 1st lesson as teachers the following week. One member of our group talked to the principal about the school’s equipment. We got a list of the number of cones, bibs etc which will be very useful when preparing for our lesson. We noted that the school had a projector and a sound system in place. Today we saw the kids in their PE class and I thought this was helpful as I had forgotten how energetic these kids are. One thing I would have done differently, would have been that I had taken photos of the hall. I could have used these photos when preparing for my 1st lesson, as I struggled with the layout of my activities.

Week 1 – athletics 8/11/16

Today was our first week teaching in BNS and we taught 3rd class boys the shot put within the strand of athletics. There were 30 boys in the class. For each section (warm-up, main body, cool-down), we split the class in half. I taught the main body of the lesson where I had 15 students. I split this 15 into 4 groups and practiced the technique of the shot-put, using bean bags. I used a hula hoop as the target. In my teaching, I used the concept of scaffolding, where I undertook Vygotskky’s theory for learning and development. I used guided discovery whereby I let the students throw in the way he/she taught was technically correct. This worked well as they saw where they went wrong when I displayed the technique afterwards using photos, demonstration and instruction. I thought the pictures of the shotput worked well as the students were intrigued and interested. I found from today that I must work on my tone of voice. The hall was noisy, and as my voice got louder I found that the students were getting louder. I would try keep my voice at a regular pitch as I realised students listen more carefully if the teacher is relaxed.

Week 2- Dance 15/11/16

In today’s lesson, we taught ‘the haka’ to the 4th class students in BNS. We began the lesson with a pulse raising warm up. We then taught the students the haka dance in stages. They first learnt the steps separately and then put all the sequence together with music. We split the class into 2 groups and at the end of the lesson the students performed a ‘dance off’. The students engaged well with this task and it was clear they enjoyed the lesson. However, our time management skills didn’t work well as we didn’t have enough time to do a cool-down. We may have spent too long on teaching the techniques of the haka. I will improve and be more conscious of my time management for next week’s lesson.

Week 3- Team challenges 22/11/16

Today we focused on working as part of a team. The lesson’s up to now were all individual activities. We introduced the students to this lesson with a learning wall. We began with a warm-up game called ‘link-tag’ which involves students communicating and working together. The main task of the body involved students forming a ‘human letter’, this worked well as all students worked together in a fun and enjoyable manner. If I was to teach this lesson again I would give more feedback to the students in each game. For example; I would give the student extra tips to make a ‘human letter’, as they found it difficult at times.

Week 4 – The cube 29/11/16

We introduced today’s lesson with a colourful learning wall, explaining our lesson and asking open questions such as “have ye watched the cube on TV before?”. We began with a warm-up to raise the student’s pulse rate. We split the group into 4 separate teams, giving each team a separate colour bib. We set up a ‘circuit-like’ lesson. There were 4 different stations in the hall. My station was a target game where the students threw bean bags into 3 hula-hoops, and each hula-hoop rewarded a different number of points. At each station, 2 teams competed against each other. It was clear from today’s lesson that every student enjoyed themselves. Today was our last week teaching but if I was to teach this lesson again I would improve my tone of voice. I thought my voice was lost in the hall today as it was very noisy because of the many different stations.

Post lesson reflection

Throughout this module, I was constantly learning. Each week brought something new to my attention when I was teaching. I found the peer teaching helpful and I think it will benefit me when I am on placement in January as the age group I will be dealing with is similar to the age of my peers. In Bishopstown national school (BNS), I noticed students learnt better when they were divided into smaller groups. This may be due to social interaction as every student is interacting and learning from each other. Vygotskys social development theory explains this. Vygotsky outlines that social interaction plays a role in learning. In BNS my group played ‘the cube’ TV show game with our students. I observed that the students engaged better with each other and with the task in this game than other weeks as they were split into 6 small groups, as opposed to 2 groups. For example, in my ‘target game’ I noticed some students learnt from their peers and got ideas from the way they threw the beanbag. Vygotsky proposes that students construct knowledge actively, and it is constructed in a social context. After my peer teaching and primary school placement I have learnt that having a positive teaching style is important. Developing a relationship with students in the class is an important aspect of teaching. Having most of the students on my side while teaching influences the few students who are misbehaving to engage in the lesson. Having a positive approach as a teacher retains a sense of perception. In BNS I praised the good work of my students and did not allow poor behaviour to distract me while teaching.

References

Cowley, Sue. Getting The Buggers To Behave. 1st ed. London: Continuum, 2001.

Kozulin, Alex. Vygotskys Educational Theory In Cultural Context. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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Questions are used to motivate interest, to instruct and to evaluate. There are many reasons as to why teachers should ask questions. Questions can be used as inquiry approaches- they stimulate student exploration, discovery and critical thinking about subject matter. Questions should be asked before and after a lesson. The teacher gains a better understanding of the student’s current knowledge by asking questions prior to a lesson and can therefore base the lesson on this knowledge. Asking questions after a lesson indicates to teachers whether the student understood the lesson or if the teacher needs to speed longer at that topic. While I was on placement, I asked my peers and the pupils in BNS many questions. For example; one question I asked was “why is the distance and accuracy of the throw important?”. I noticed not many students could answer this, both in my peer teaching and primary school experiences. I asked the same question after my shot-put drill and noticed that most the class could answer the question. It was evident from my placement that questions broaden the student’s knowledge. Another question I asked my students while on placement was “Where can the skills of balance, coordination and speed be seen throughout the game?”. I asked this question before and after the agility game within ‘the cube’. It was clear students had a better understanding of this after the game. Week 1 in BNS I oversaw the cool-down, I asked the students before the cool-down “why is it important to do a cool-down?”. The students didn’t have any answers which surprised me. I noticed in week 2 and week 3 the same group of students had a greater understanding of the importance of a cool-down.

Feedback says to a student “somebody cared enough about my work to read it and think about it”. Throughout my placement, I regularly gave my students feedback. Feedback can be very effective if it is done well. Good feedback gives students information so they can understand where they are in their learning. 1) While I was teaching the shot-put in BNS I constantly gave feedback to the students. One student wasn’t transferring his weight onto his front leg while throwing the ‘shot-put’ (in this case bean-bag), which affected the power of the shot. However, this student had a very good arm technique. I told him that his elbow was pointed up and the beanbag was close to his neck. I then corrected his foot work by explaining what he did wrong. While I taught the haka to the students in BNS I gave positive feedback. There were some students who didn’t engage as much as others, as they might not have been as confident in dance. I encouraged them to participate and explained the different moves of the haka again. During peer teaching I noticed that everyone in my group was performing the shot-put correctly, instead of saying “that’s good” I explained why it was good eg; transferred weight onto front foot. Another example of feedback I gave was simply telling a student in BNS that he wasn’t performing a stretching technique correctly, which was easily changed.

To enhance pupil learning while I was on placement I designed a digital learning wall. In my opinion, digital learning walls are more effective in the fact that they are more clear and student friendly. I designed a colourful and fun learning wall as I thought it would be of interest to the student’s. It should help the student learn. The aim of my learning walls are to get the main message across to the students in a brief, concise manner. An example of one such learning wall which I used while on primary school placement was a digital learning wall about ‘The haka’. This learning wall had a video attached which the students really engaged with. The video showed the haka dance and the student immediately became interested. Students generally find it more interesting to learn from pictures/videos.

References

Brookhart, Susan M. How To Give Effective Feedback To Your Students. 1st ed. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008. Print.

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2) Management of the learning environment 

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2) Management of the learning environment 

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“Kounin (1970) first found that the key to good management is use of techniques that elicit student cooperation and involvement in activities and thus prevent problems from occurring”. This is the way in which teachers organise their approach to learning and organise the classroom as a help to that learning. Good management of a classroom allows the students to get a clear understanding of what is going on and what is expected of them from their teachers. Good management allows students to clearly see the consistent consequences of their own behaviour, both desirable and undesirable. It is important that your students are learning in a safe environment and this can be ensured with having key strategies in place to manage your classroom. The 5 key strategies I would use to manage a classroom are as follows

1. Being well prepared.

When things go wrong for teachers, even minor incidents, they detract in the student’s mind from a concept of the teacher as an efficient and effective manipulator of the learning environment. Being prepared is essential if a teacher wants good management of a classroom. While I was in Bishopstown national school (BNS), I noticed when we were very prepared and everything went right for us, the students behaved well and listened carefully. For example, one week when setting up our digital learning wall, the audio-visual equipment failed to work for us. The students picked up on this and began to talk while we were trying to fix the problem.

2. Settling the class before the lesson

A quick, decisive start can be very effective when managing a classroom. It focuses students on the learning task. Every lesson should begin with capturing the learner’s attention – this can be done in a visual or practical way. It is important that it is interesting. For example; while I was teaching in BNS I found it was much harder to engage the students than it was when peer teaching, as the students were more distracted. In BNS my group used a digital learning wall, where we showed pictures and videos related to the lesson we were going to teach, for example; videos of the haka before teaching the actual dance. We found that the 4th class students were immediately intrigued at the task given to them. This strategy improved the learning environment.

3. Voice projection

This is one of the most important aspects of classroom management. It is the medium through which children are helped to learn. The teacher communicates to their students through his/her voice. Some teachers have a natural voice projection while others are trained in this area. While I was peer teaching in BNS, I found that I was shouting to get my message across to the students. I noticed that the louder I got, the louder the students got.

4. Full class co-operation

Engaging your class in the lesson is very important. If a teacher has the full class co-operating with them, the class will run smoothly. A teacher who has 70% of their class engaged is doing a good job. Teachers could call the name of an individual to keep everybody’s attention. The teacher must be firm. In my primary school placement, I thought it was hard to have full class co-operation, as there were always few separate conversations which were prohibiting the learning and it was hard to learn the student’s names in such a short space of time.

5. Be alert to what is happening in the classroom.

Moving around the classroom is an effective way of ensuring students are attentive. If a teacher sits in a seat at the top of the room for the entire lesson, students will begin to misbehave. Good classroom management involves paying attention where trouble is. Having a definite routine is essential in managing a classroom. In my peer teaching, Cian was asked to ‘act out’ so we could try deal with his disruptive behaviour. As teachers, we had to be alert to his behaviour and manage it straight away.

References
Good, Thomas L and Jere E Brophy. Looking In Classrooms. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

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In my visits to Bishopstown national school (BNS), I choose one pupil in 4th class

and I focused on how he learns through observation in the PE class. I found out about this student’s (BNS pupil 17) backgrounds and interests by talking to him directly and to his classroom based teacher. It was clear that this student was very well behaved, he listened carefully and had good cognitive skills and attitudes. He was attentive and concentrated on tasks given to him.

From my conversation with my paired student, I gained a better insight into his background and interests, which helped me focus on how he learns. I had a general conversation with him where he was very open about his background and family. It was clear to me his family are high achievers. Although he is only 9 years old, he is competing at a high level in tennis. He is part of the Munster un10 tennis team who train 6 hours a week. He also has an interest in judo and rugby. This level of activity was evident in the PE class, as he clearly stood out in his class in regards to his skills and attitude. He has 2 siblings. He plays the same sports as his brother, and his sister is part of the Ireland national youth ballet. I noticed from my brief conversation with him that he was very passionate about sport, especially tennis. I didn’t have to ask many questions regarding tennis and his interests. He spoke positively about his active lifestyle which illustrated to me his love for sport.

I observed that BNS pupil 17 was one of the best, if not the best in his class at the different tasks and fun games in the PE class. His fundamental movement skills were exceptional and some of my peers even noticed his high capability. As mentioned already, he plays tennis with the Munster un10 team. This was evident and certainly helped him in a physical educational context. His movement ability was of a high standard and there is a high possibility this is because he trains at a high standard outside of school. The use of ladders and drills to improve his fundamental movement skills in tennis training, helps with his movement ability and this is portrayed in the PE class as he is one of the better students in regards to movement. He performed each skill confidently and competently, EG: the hop in ‘ship, sea, shore’ game was performed perfectly. He was competitive, active and interested in all the games. I observed that his physical ability is above average and he had a high engagement in PE. Each week I observed him, he was consistent in his movement ability. He was capable of each task given to him every week, albeit dance or health related fitness which involved many different fun games. Compared to other students in his class, he was interested in dance from the beginning of week 1. I noticed some students were reluctant to participate in the dance tasks, as they may not have felt comfortable participating in-front of their peers. However, the student I was observing participated and enjoyed every aspect of the PE class which was taught to him each week.

From observing the class I noticed that his cognitive ability was very good. His problem-solving abilities were above average. For example: in games where the student had to ‘de-code’ a message, I noted that my student understood the concept of the game straight away. He was decisive and made quick, sharp decisions. He was always thinking ahead in regards to the game/task. The student I was paired with had particularly good visual and spatial awareness. He used his space efficiently and effectively. For example; in warm up games when the students were ‘hopping’, my student started away from the group and made space for himself to avoid colliding with others. He was smart in how he used his space. He had a good ability to hear and see the teacher. He was well able to become aware of something through his senses. His perception was of a high standard.

While I spoke to his classroom based teacher, he mentioned to me about this student’s social skills particularly and noted his friendly behaviour inside and outside the classroom. The teacher outlined that the student I was paired with has many friends and he gets on well with others in his class. He works well in group work and this was evident throughout the 3 weeks in which I was observing him. It was noticeable to me that he had good social skills and found it easy to get on with others in PE. From my conversation with this student it was evident to me that he was an academic student. He told me about his daily routine and his homework was a key aspect of his routine. While I talked to his teacher he outlined that he got on well in the classroom in regards to schoolwork and in regards to working with others and communicating effectively.

In my opinion, this student moves very well and he also moves often as he is plays tennis, rugby and judo. I would encourage him to listen to his trainers as they seem to be doing a good job already, in regards to moving well. My approach to help him move often would be to inform him of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and of course I would encourage him to keep playing as he is already at such a high standard at a young age.

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Kerr defines curriculum as “all the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried out in groups or individually, inside or outside the school” (Kelly 1983, p.10). This learning can be seen throughout the following 6 strands, athletics, dance, gymnastics, games, outdoor and adventure activities and aquatics. Aristotle categorizes the student’s knowledge into 3 disciplines, the theoretical ie; the syllabus, the practical ie; the process/praxis and the productive ie; the product.

Knowing what is involved in each strand helps inform my planning. The strand of athletics consists of the essential movement skills of running, jumping and throwing. Students develop these as they progress through primary school. While on placement in Bishopstown national school (BNS), as a group, we taught the strand of athletics to our students. We focused on the shot-put within this stand, progressing the students throwing ability. This strand is suitable for different ability students as the progress is measured individually and each student can see their own personal improvements.

The dance strand consists of creating performing appreciating movement. Expression and communication are key elements in dance. The students engage in creativity along with learning body actions and shapes. The students should express their thoughts and feeling through dance. The dance strand is split into 2 sections consisting of folk dance and creative dance. In BNS we taught the students the haka, which was under the strand of dance. We ensured the students enjoyed themselves while understanding and appreciating dance.

Gymnastics is a popular strand as the students move in creative ways individually and with others. It focuses on body actions such as jumping, swinging, balancing and turning. It involves the control of body movement.

The games strand in primary school engages students in social interaction and informal activities. The child can then progress onto formal games in post primary physical education. IN BNS this strand helped students understand possession, teamwork, attack/defence and use of space.

The aquatics strand consists of one complete unit, without division into class levels. This strand recognizes that there is more to swimming than learning strokes. Before learning the different strokes, the student must acquire fundamental skills, attitudes and understanding.

The outdoor and adventure activities consist of walking, cycling, water-based activities, orienteering and outdoor challenge activities. Orienteering can be of benefit to students and it consists of geographical skills, physical activity of walking and the adventure of exploring. This strand might appeal to the students who are not as interested in physical activity.

In week 3 of BNS placement, my group taught the topic of the ‘the cube’ TV show game. In one section of this we played a brain game where students had to interpret what was presented to them and de-code words eg; ‘winter’, in a relay type game. This game focused on literacy. Literacy is extremely important to include while teaching PE. Everyone must have the skill of literacy or it would be impossible to read/write. In week 1 of BNS placement, as a group we taught the shot-put within the strand of athletics. Our lesson focused on accuracy and distance of the throw. This lesson involved numeracy in PE as the students measured the distance of their throw and were aware of the space around them. It is important to incorporate numeracy into a PE lesson.