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The learning walls we created helped us greatly in our teaching. We used some images along with words in our warm up and cool down learning walls. This was done to create a clear picture of the benefits of both warming up and cooling down.

For the other learning walls we had various pictures of the possible balances and rolls that could be attempted. These images provided a basic demonstration to the kids and made the technique clearer.

During the sessions we left these learning walls up and could use them as a point of reference for ourselves. Along with this they enhanced the learning of the students as they we able to come up and look at them when they had time to create their own sequences.

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Week three capped off our teaching experience well. The students took part in a fun warm up and that set the tone for the lesson. The main part of the lesson comprised of students working in pairs to create a sequence. Observing the students working cooperatively it was clear that they we able to learn from each other not only learn from the teacher. Following this they took part in informal performances that exceed our expectations. Each group were able to preform sequences compromising of three different rolls and two partner balances. From this informal assessment it was clear that the students had progressed their psycho-motor skills and also their cognitive skill with knowledge of various gymnastic related terminology being heard from various students around the class

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Week two did not run as smoothly as week one. In our warm up we incorporated elements from last week. We didn't play 'the floor is lava' despite the desire of a majority of students.
For the main body of the lesson we went over the rolls that they did last week and then did some partner balances. I don't feel the students engaged in this well. They were messing and chatting rather than partaking in the task at hand. I feel the reason for this is that they were bored, it was also apparent that they were not enjoying themselves as they were the previous week.

If the activities are presented in a manner that fails to elicit and sustain their
interest, or if the activity lasts for too long and fails to be stimulating, or if the activity
is too easy or is felt to lack relevance, then pupils are likely to become bored.  (Kyriacou C. 2007)

If we were to do this again we would do better to choose a different way of presenting the lesson to engage interest and learning. We saw that in week one they very much enjoyed the game in the warm up, I feel that if we were to incorporate the partner balances the students would engage more and we would end up with a more productive lesson.

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For the warm up in week one we played 'the floor is lava'. It was evident that the kids really enjoyed it and were all thoroughly warmed up after. The only minor issue was that some of the students failed to obey the rules fully.

For the main body of the the lesson we did rolling. We had 24 students in the class so we split the group in quarter. Each teacher then had a smaller, more manageable group of 6 students to work with and teach.
Students were able to perform easily enough the pencil and tuck rolls but had trouble with the teddy-bear rolls, to try help the students I performed the roll again myself and also got one of the more capable students to demonstrate. This slightly improved the students but not all.

A challenging aspect of week one was voice projection, advisably

A fairly quiet but audible voice level is
best as it encourages listening, discourages background noise, and makes varying the tone and volume of your delivery easier. (Kyriacou C. 2007)

but in a small compact hall with 30+ people I found it hard to gain students attention. This could be combated with use of a whistle.

Overall I feel week one went well and Emma also said that it was her favourite lesson of the three

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Warm up & Cool Down

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/47181394_268213763887861_4098044252364210176_n.docx/Learning-Wall.docx?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=70dc629c96bdb15d5a12b9268a8b4812&oe=5C00F2BA&dl=1

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Overall I enjoyed my first taste of school placement. I learned a great deal and can't wait for the next challenge

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Fundamental Movement Skills in Children and Adolescents

David R. Lubans

Philip J. Morgan

Dylan P. Cliff

Lisa M. Barnett

Anthony D. Okely

2012

Ways of Learning
Learning theories
and learning styles
in the classroom,
Second edition,
Alan Pritchard 2009.

Essential teaching skills , third edition, Chris Kyriacou 2007.

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Emma's previous experiences of movement (cheer-leading,swimming,dance and gymnastics) has allowed her to develop strong Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS). Her background in gymnastics also made her competent and familiar with the rolls and balances that were to be performed in the lessons.

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are considered to be the building blocks that lead to specialized movement sequences required for adequate participation in many organized and non-organized physical activities for children, adolescents and adults.  Lubans et al (2012)

It appears that Emma has a good building blocks for movement and because of this there will be many pathways open to her in her future life with regard to keeping active.

As Emma was competent in performing these skills, I asked her to demonstrate at times for the class. This allowed the rest of the class the view one of their peers performing the correct technique which makes the task easier for them to complete and also motivates them.

Emma also relayed to me that this is her preferred way to learn. She finds learning easiest when a skill is first demonstrated and then broken down into simple parts.

After three weeks spent observing and conversing with Emma I have assessed her personality type according to the Myers-Briggs model.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system is a means of establishing an individual’s
personality profile...... a tool
for investigating the many different strands of personality type, .......which can be
interpreted along the lines of some of the other learning style descriptions. Pritchard (2009)

I would describe Emma as E (extrovert) ,I (intuitive), F (feeler) , and P (preciever). This is an estimate of her personality and to find out fully I would need to either spend more time with her or else have her complete the MBTI test. What we can gather from this is that Emma is someone who enjoys being around and working with other people ( this was evident in the group/pair work), she likes to use her imagination and to think outside of the box (expressed this when creating her sequence by adding elements of her own creation to the performance), she likes to develop positive relations with the people she is around and she  likes to try new things (this was made clear to me when she said her favourite lesson was the first one as she likes doing 'new stuff').Determining her personality will then allow us to discover how best she learns,

If I were to be teaching Emma in future the strategies I would employ in order to have her moving well and often would be to allow her work with friend/group. She thrives in this environment and also helps the others in the group progress. I would provide her with a variety of different activities to keep her interested, If Emma were to receive the two elements of teaching I think she could develop into a very good student and also live a healthy and physically active lifestyle.

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Emma is a lively and energetic 7 year old girl. She is currently in first class in Cork Educate Together National School. Emma is a very pleasant girl to deal with and provided me with much information about here day to day life and activity levels.

Emma has moved into a new house in the suburbs at the beginning of this year. With her relocation her hobbies and physical activity levels have changed. In her previous hometown she took part in cheer-leading. This kept her active twice a week. With her move to Ireland that has now ended but she has substituted it with other forms of club activity. She is now a member of four different groups here in Cork. She has joined a gymnastics club (which made her very competent during our lessons), the beavers, an art group and also a dancing club. As a member of these groups Emma's PA levels are of a high standard.

Emma also goes swimming regularly with her parents and has a big garden in which she plays games with her younger sister

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The most appropriate ways to give feedback are to be positive and to try and improve the student all the time, it is not a matter of pointing out what is done wrong but rather what they can improve on.

Constructive and helpful feedback also needs to be given to pupils to support and
encourage further progress

(Black et al., 2003; Gardner, 2006).

I used constructive feedback with students in various occasions throughout this module. I would first compliment them on two aspects they had completed well for example "Well done guys ye had excellent movement in your sequence and responded to the rhythm of the music very well", then I would proceed and give them one thing to work on in the next attempt "but maybe next time ye could incorporate more levels into your sequence" This form of feedback provides them with praise but also presents them with a higher level to improve to.

When students were undertaking tasks but not completing them to a high standard I would provide them with quick corrective feedback, I would then pay attention to their next effort and be sure to praise them if an improvement was shown.

When dealing with a student who could not complete a task or not know what to do I would first show them a quick demonstration and follow up with " If you are finding the tuck roll difficult you might just try and pay more attention at the beginning of class when we show you". What is important here is not not sound patronising as it may end up demotivating the student.

When dealing with students who were quite competent in areas I would first praise them and then add " Can you add anything more to that sequence to make it even better?" This would boost their motivation and also encourage them to put even greater effort into improvement and development in that area.

When the school placement came to an end we had the students informally assessed through performing a sequence to their peers. After each group performed they received a round of applause and positive group feedback. This meant the majority of kids left with greater self confidence and a boost to their self esteem. On leaving the hall smiles we evident on all their faces .

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The key points I took into consideration when posing questions were my tone of voice and expression  "Asking a question with interest conveyed in your tone of voice and facial expression, as opposed to sounding tired and bored, makes a world of difference to the type of response you will get", (Kyriacou C. 2007), the timing and length of wait time, distribution of questions around the class and also varying between higher and lower order questions.

The most important times that I used questions was at the end of the lesson. It was at this time where we could assess if they actually were learning or simply going through the motions.

Only when exercise books are collected in, or
questions asked at the end of the lesson, might it become evident that much less learning was going on than appeared to be the case.

I used the following questions throughout my placement

" Has anyone here done some kind of Gymnastics before? " This was to get a general feeling of how competent my students would be.

" Can anyone here remember which rolls we did last week? " This was a question with multiple answers to involve more students and also to link the two lessons.

"Can ye remember the key points in performing a good teddy-bear roll?" This was a subtle hint to the students that they were not performing it fully correctly. When they could not answer in total I prompted them to help.

"What were they key things ye learned in today's class?" This was used as a form of assessment along with observation during the lesson.

At the ending of our last lesson I asked the kids if they enjoyed the lesson and received a great responses, I then followed up using a higher order question, "Why?"