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50MInutes.com (2018) SMART Criteria, Retrieved from: https://www.50minutes.com/title/smart-criteria/

John Hattie (1999) Influences on Student Learning, Retrieved from: https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/education/hattie/docs/influences-on-student-learning.pdf

The Free Dictionary (2003) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Retrieved from: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Myers-Briggs+test

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Overall, I was extremely pleased with how the three weeks of primary school placement in Cork Educate Together National School teaching 4th class gymnastics. The three weeks were challenging but rewarding as I learned a lot about myself as a teacher i.e the teacher I want to be, how to discipline and how to deal with abnormal situations that require different forms of thinking and solutions. Although some stages were tough, it showed me how one acts as a teacher. The first-hand experience is invaluable in my aim to be as good a teacher as possible that benefits myself and the students I'm teaching. It has enriched me with knowledge that I will be able to use in my further placements as well as the rest of my teaching career.

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Learning Wall
As a group we decided to have a learning wall for every week.We based each learning wall off the S.M.A.R.T criteria i.e. specific, measurable, assignable, relevant and time-based. (50Minutes.com,2018).Our outlook was to have visible pictures of the tasks we would be carrying out in the warm-up, the two main body exercises and cool down. We then proceeded to place these on the wall so all students could easily the layout out of the class ahead. This is an example of visual learning as the students see a clear and organised layout of each exercise. The pictures were always vibrant with colour, could be easily read and were to the point to avoid any confusion. We brought the class to the learning wall before every task so we could explain what we would be doing in a concise fashion. This also refreshed their memory so they would be more comfortable in the knowledge that they knew what they would be doing.

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Feedback
"The most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement is feedback. The most simple prescription for improving education must be dollops of feedback. This does not mean using many tests and providing over-prescriptive directions. It means providing information about how and why the student understands and misunderstands, and what directions the student must take to improve. " (Hattie,1999)
The feedback I gave Rachel was carried out  during class as well as afterwards in the weekly chat. I was lucky as she was in my group every week in the sense that the way we taught each exercise was that the class was divided into four groups so each teacher could get the opportunity to get a teaching experience every exercise we did. I obviously gave feedback to every student in my class but I would make sure I definitely gave Rebecca feedback. She was always very capable at every roll and balance we did due to her gymnastics experience but she appreciated the praise and advice she got every time. She was always a very interactive student asking how she was doing so I found it very easy to supply feedback. At the end of the class when the feedback was more one-on-one, I found it to be a summary when it came to feedback. I would applaud her on her attempts and how she was always eager to take part in every exercise. All interactions were positive which led to her enjoying the classes thoroughly. I felt it was important to be positive so she would remember the classes with fond memories and to continue to be enthused about gymnastics.

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Again for this week we did the same teaching format of having six students divided into two groups of three so there was three per mat. We advanced our balances and rolls this week so the students were now more challenged meaning we all had to be even more engaged and instructive. In my group I had two boys who were friends and were messing by playing with their jumpers and were disrupting the other student's ability to take part in the class as they were on the mats. I calmly but firmly said to the two boys to either take off the jumpers as they were over their heads or to put them on properly. They listened respectfully and put their jumpers back on and were fully co-operative for the rest of the class. I was happy with how I dealt with an adverse situation as it was dealt with quickly and professionally I believe. The rest of the lesson then went smoothly and productively which we were delighted with.

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Again for this week we did the same teaching format of having six students divided into two groups of three so there was three per mat. We advanced our balances and rolls this week so the students were now more challenged meaning we all had to be even more engaged and instructive. In my group I had two boys who were friends and were messing by playing with their jumpers and were disrupting the other student's ability to take part in the class as they were on the mats. I calmly but firmly said to the two boys to either take off the jumpers as they were over their heads or to put them on properly. They listened respectfully and put their jumpers back on and were fully co-operative for the rest of the class. I was happy with how I dealt with an adverse situation as it was dealt with quickly and professionally I believe. The rest of the lesson then went smoothly and productively which we were delighted with.

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Initially, I was nervous entering the hall but quickly became comfortable as we were well prepared for the class and we all knew what we were doing. The children were naturally excited as they knew they were partaking in p.e but we quickly got them to quieten down by having them approach the learning wall at the top of the class. By introducing ourselves, the class became more personalized and everyone was more at ease. Our teaching technique enabled us to all teach so we wouldn't just be standing to the side. My role of the class was introducing rolls in which I got my fellow teachers to demonstrate the pencil, tuck and teddy bear rolls. I enjoyed the aspect of taking the lead and was pleased to see that we were all able to improve some children's rolls as well as assist children who hadn't done the rolls before. Overall, I was extremely pleased with how the class went as it was very successful.

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~The student who was my case study for the three weeks of primary school placement was Rachel in 4th class. During our first chat I found out that she is 10 years old and that in actual fact her favourite sport that she does outside of school is gymnastics. This was an extremely happy coincidence as she was already so knowledgeable of the sport but was still eager to participate and interact in the class. I greatly appreciated this as she already had a high skill level of some of the tasks we were doing but instead of acting bored she instead enjoyed herself even more as she has such a great affection for the sport.

~She attends Douglas Gymnastics Club twice a week , Wednesday evenings and Saturday morning where her favourite apparatus is the high bars but she said the thing she loves most is getting to meet her friends and have fun whilst also doing a sport they enjoy. this is incredibly important for all young children that they find a healthy activity enjoyable as it reaps so many benefits.

~Within school her favourite subject is Maths and aspires to be a Maths teacher when she grows up. She told me how she finds it highly rewarding when she finds the right answer for a Maths question. I was amazed at her vocabulary as she spoke and I clearly identified that she was a very intelligent girl. Each week her feedback was always very vast and positive as she described her favourite part of the class as well as the parts she found challenging and new. This broad feedback made the chat very easy and it flowed constantly for the few minutes we conversed. Obviously, the first week she was initially shy but quickly became more assured when she found out she just had to talk about something she already knew so much about.

~During the actual classes themselves, her quality of skill level stood out for every task due to her experience. She was always very capable but still remained a humility instead of looking down at other students who were having some difficulty. A great example of this was how complimentary she was towards her fellow students during exercises. I often heard her say "well done" or "good job", sometimes along with myself. This shows a great leadership quality within her that can be enhanced as she gets older and a very useful trait to have for a budding teacher. From these observations, I would describe Rachel as an extrovert due to the fact that when she did inquire about specific areas of the task being carried out, I felt she learned better from seeing a physical demonstration rather than just being told how to do something i.e. she is a visual learner. The term extrovert comes from the Myers Briggs Theory. (See photo attached) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI) is a widely-used personality inventory, or test, employed in vocational, educational, and psychotherapy settings to evaluate personality type. (The Free Dictionary, 2003)

~Although Rachel had a close friend group with two other girls in the class, Lucy and Jane, she was till at ease and herself around other members of her class. This was something I noticed with nearly every student in the class as well. Every week we randomly picked groups but yet in each group, engagement and interaction could be found within every group. When I asked Rachel about this she seemed surprised that I found it to be something of interest. She replied saying that it had always been like that within her class as everyone would always be interacting in the classroom also. I believe this  is an ethos of Cork Educate Together as I also came across it when observing other classes.

~Rachel was an ideal candidate to have when it came to offering feedback at the end of each session. She always had an opinion and it was easy to get answers due to her having no problem with co-operating in order to help me out for my own work. As mentioned in my questioning strategy, I always tried to use high order questions to give her the best opportunity of relaying back opinionated and broad answers. This was always the case with Rachel as she would explain how she liked a certain element but also expand on that and say why she liked it. Likewise, on a part of the class she found challenging she would say how and why. I would relate Rachel to the theory of connectivism from my observations especially in the fact that she is growing up in the digital age and her learning looked to be from within and from other networks.

~Rachel was a great example of how I enjoyed my first three weeks of placement. I was very lucky to obtain a student that was very open and intrigued by both the class itself and the questions after. My life was made a lot easier completing this padlet as I obtained a plethora of information that I could use. I hope this positive experience continues into my further placements and long into my teaching career.

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Questioning Strategy
I approached my questioning strategy  professionally and with competence in order to attain a successful outlook  from my student. I waited until the class had finished to ask Rachel the questions as she would have a better understanding of the class that had just occurred and would also be more comfortable answering questions she would have answers to. Asking the questions after class also gave her privacy from her other classmates so she wouldn't feel embarrassed or she wouldn't be seen as singled out or called 'special'. I made sure the questions were open as well so as to not to get yes or no answers and it would give her the best opportunity to answer as extensively as possible. Instead of saying 'Was that good?', I asked 'How did you find that?'. This allowed me to then get her opinion. and her thoughts of certain exercises and the class as a whole.