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Following my weeks of teaching in Bishopstown I can look back at my experience fondly. I thought that the key to any successful lesson I did was when I was organised and when I had effective classroom management. According to Kyriacou (2001) when your lesson is planned it will reduce the amount of time you have to think on the spot considerably. Effective classroom management is vital when attempting to teach a successful class and while disruptive behaviour is inevitable, good managers can keep it to a minimum (Good, L, T & Brophy, E, J, 1997). I also felt that the more enthusiastic I was and the more I enjoyed it, contributed greatly to the student’s attitudes. I also feel that the best way to have control of the class is to engage with the students as the relationship between a student and a teacher in terms of discipline is just as important as the relationship between a student and the activity. I also think that voice projection is key to controlling the class. I think this experience was invaluable. Ironically I found the times of “crisis” were the most informative and made me find out most about myself. It is times like these that teachers have the ability to make things better or worse (Bill Rogers, 1995) and with good management and an organised approach, good, knowledgeable lessons will be a normality.

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Date: 29.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Date: 29.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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This was by far my most comprehensive and coherent lesson. I personally felt that there was a flow in the lesson from start to finish. The students seemed to be more comfortable than ever before around us. There was definitely a sense of decorum. As a group we were well prepared for this lesson, we really worked on our organisational skills and we ultimately reaped the fruits of your labour. I learned today that one of the best tools I have to engage with a student is time. Students having the ability to call me by name and I could do the same made a massive difference. Although the majority of things went well today I feel that I could personally work on my production of a learning wall. I think I personally need to be more creative with it so that it is more inviting to look at, and students will engage easier.

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Date: 22.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Date: 22.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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In today’s lesson, I built on the previous week’s lesson. As a group, we decided that last week had went reasonably well so it was only a matter of simplifying our cool down game and making our lesson more coherent. We did this by involving team challenges throughout the lesson. This week we brought in two rules, one being that when a teacher is speaking that the student must listen and if there was a question the student has to raise their hand. I felt that the children felt far more comfortable with us this week and the lesson was the calmest it has been since we started. I think next week I must just work on my organisational qualities as I felt there was too much equipment lying around and an accident may occur.

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Date: 15.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Date: 15.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Today’s lesson proved to be another eye opening but enjoyable lesson. We had no restriction in what we would to teach in this lesson as we were given a licence to design a lesson that we felt most appropriate for our class. We had to make sure as a group this week that the lesson included everyone as one particular student can’t take part in any activity involving music or dance due to his religion. I learned today about myself as a teacher that control of a class is all about balance, the balance between being fun and also being assertive on rules and health and safety. I felt that I did this quite well today. The explanation of our cool down game took too long to explain and although the game was good, the flow to the lesson was disrupted.  Next week I think I must simplify the game so that there is less time spent on the explanation.

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Date: 8.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Date: 8.11.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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This was most certainly the most rewarding lesson that I have done to date. I feel after reflecting on today’s lesson that I am definitely studying the correct course for me as I thoroughly enjoyed today’s lesson. Today I got to teach a 4th class group in Bishopstown Boys National School. I learned that being enthusiastic is a very important factor when teaching children as it seemed, the more I smiled and enjoyed the lesson, the more the children engaged and also enjoyed the PE class. My warm up was too hard to understand for 10-year-old children and will need to be addressed going forward to next week. I also think the terminology used during our session may have been too advanced for today’s lesson and will also have to be addressed. These issues can be re-addressed by replacing terminology used in the session with more child-friendly words. The cool down needs to be made into a simpler and a more understandable game. After doing this I feel our lesson would be very successful. I also had a child in my class that couldn’t participate in dance due to his religion, next week I must make sure that he can take part.

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Date: 25.10.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Date: 25.10.16 Venue: Bishopstown Boys National School

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Today was a bit different to previous weeks as I wasn’t physically teaching a lesson to my peers. This week I got to view Bishopstown Boys national school, the school in which I will be teaching in the coming weeks. This was an important day as I got to view the sports hall, meet Brian Cuthbert (school principal) and view a P.E. lesson taking place. I learned today that my organisational skills must be at a very high level if I want to have a successful lesson as the children I observed today had very high energy levels. Today’s lesson was also beneficial as I was able to sort the transport barrier over the coming weeks and I am now prepared to get to this location in time for the teaching days in the coming weeks. This is the list of equipment available to me in whilst on placement;

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Date: 18.10.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall

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Date: 18.10.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall

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In today’s lesson my group and I had to make the adaption to a new area of teaching. I moved from health-related fitness to dance. This proved to be more challenging than previous weeks as there wasn’t anyone from my group from a dance background so I based our lesson on knowledge I gained from my first-year module in dance and in my own research. After reflecting on today’s lesson I am confident in saying that I am now comfortable with my voice projection and learned that when conscious about a part of your teaching it is then easier to perfect. I must now work on my spatial awareness as a teacher next. Today I felt I had my back turned to students for too long of the session and if misbehaviour had occurred I wouldn’t have been able to be aware or reprimand the student. For the next lesson I think “Management by Walk About” will be key as I can see every student.

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Date: 04.10.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall

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Date: 04.10.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall

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Today’s lesson brought new experiences. I learned today that absolutely anything can happen in a classroom as a pre-determined fight took place during my part of the lesson. I spoke to both individuals involved and persuaded them to stop and to carry on with the lesson. After further discussion I learned that if this is to happen again I should leave another member of my teaching team involve them in a different activity but still keep them involved, this should stop the boisterous behaviour. My voice projection improved from last week and this led to a more comprehensive lesson. To improve for next week my group and I shall plan for students who are misbehaving and have a strategy in place. I also learned a lot about myself as a person from this week’s lesson as thankfully the incident that took place didn’t hamper the rest of my teaching.

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Date: 27.09.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall 

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Date: 27.09.16 Venue: Mardyke Sports Hall 

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Today’s lesson proved to be very informative for me as it was my first micro-teaching experience. Prior to this experience I was quite nervous about the responsibility and how I would manage when I was in charge of the particular part of the lesson as I was working with eight others. After today’s lesson I feel more confident and competent to do the same next week. I learned today that without organisation, the lesson will not run smoothly. After the feedback I received I understand that although my instruction was clear, I must work on the projection of my voice. Another tactic I will use going forward is to bring the students in close when speaking rather than shouting to each end of the hall. I think I can work on this by being conscious of it by having a small note in my pocket as a reminder along with experience.

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I am really excited about this module. I look forward to put everything that I have learned in my time in UCC so far into practice. I feel that this module will give me a different idea of what the life of a teacher entails. I have been put into a group with 8 others and hopefully working with them will make my teaching in the coming weeks easier and help me gain confidence. Our first area that we get to teach in is health related fitness. I am also looking forward to writing up lesson plans and having a genuine understanding of them as they will be significant throughout my career. Initially we are teaching our peers and then moving onto Bishopstown boy’s national school. I hope that by the time I get to the school that I will be confident enough to take my part of the lesson and have control over the class.

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During my time at Bishopstown boy’s national school I had the opportunity to observe a 4th class student. For privacy reasons, he will be known as “pupil 1” throughout this case study. I got the opportunity to have a conversation with this student and I also got the chance to speak to his class teacher about him. Throughout this case study I will discuss his interests and his family life. From a holistic point of view, I will also discuss his engagement with Physical Education whilst I was on placement under the headings such as physical ability, social and emotional and cognitive ability.

Pupil 1 was born in 2007 and is 9 years old. Pupil 1 is the eldest of three children (one brother and one sister) in his family. Although he goes to school in Bishopstown he lives in a neighbouring suburb known as Ballincollig. Pupil 1 is of Sudanese heritage. Both of his parents are originally from Sudan but he has lived in Ireland all of his life. I got the impression after speaking to this student that he was from a very “close-knit” family as when I asked him about his family he spoke confidently with an enthusiastic manner. I also feel after speaking to pupil 1 that he is very mature for his age as he took great pride in being the eldest child and had a parent-like charisma about him when he spoke about his younger siblings. Pupil one also took pride in telling me that he takes part in maths camps during his time off. Pupil 1 is clearly a very intelligent student particularly in maths. I noticed when I spoke to him, it took him a number of seconds before he processed what I had said and to respond. I found this to be interesting and asked his class teacher about this.

His class teacher spoke about pupil 1 as being a “genius”. I wondered was it my accent or was I speaking too fast since the “genius” of the class seemed to struggle to respond to my questions. I questioned his teacher about this and he nodded and expressed that “this happens every day, I regularly ask him questions and whether he knows the correct answer or not, it will take him some time to respond”. His class teacher also expressed that he felt pupil 1 could do with help in this area, but this is not possible due to his circumstances and his parents beliefs which also needs to be respected.

Unfortunately, the inability to process information in sufficient timecomes into the PE hall and this effects his ability in activities and sports. Pupil 1 engaged well with other students and was quite popular so although he struggled in some activities in the PE hall he was motivated by his peers. He struggled most with the basics of movements otherwise known as fundamental movement skills. I recall doing a dance lesson with his class and he really struggled in executing a “criss-cross” with his legs. I also noticed when we were doing games or activities that involved running that he was very slow to start and lacked power in his initial take off. Likewise I noticed that his balance and hand eye co-ordination was very poor. When I instructed him to stand on one leg, he would lose his balance almost immediately and when there was any game involving a ball he found it very difficult to catch and to throw. Pupil 1 seemed oblivious to his inability to carry out these tasks effectively. When he failed to execute a skill he still looked like he was enjoying the lesson and continued to have up-beat personality. In my opinion I think that it is so important and I am delighted that pupil 1 enjoys PE no matter what the case but I feel for him to be more physically literate, he should be assessed by an occupational therapist which will lead to greater things in life in the field of health and physical activity, I also think that he could enjoy PE even more.

The class teacher also expressed concern about the student’s social difficulties however I thought that pupil 1 was a very friendly and up-beat student, I also thought that he interacted well with other students and seemed to be quite popular. It was after these types of observations that I thought maybe physical activity is the key for this young boy to “come out of his shell”. After his team successfully carried out a task he would cheer and congratulate his other team-mates. Pupil 1 also spoke passionately about playing soccer, he spoke about how he plays with Ballincollig United and said “I love it”. So I think ultimately although pupil 1 isn’t as competent as other students, PE and other physical activities are a way of social interaction for him.

To help this student in the areas where he is weak I would breakdown the skills completely for him for example instead of telling him to “run” or “throw” I would go through the steps of each skill so that he can be eventually be competent and efficient at that particular skill. It is really important that pupil 1 can do these effectively as FMS are the foundation for developing future specialized and context-specific movements (Burton, 1998) and are ultimately the building blocks to physical literacy.

Overall pupil 1 was a pleasure to teach as he was friendly, obedient and applied himself to the best of his ability at every task. I am delighted that I got this opportunity to do a case study on this pupil as it proves that you can learn so much more about an individual when you focus and take time to show an interest and speak to them, this is also backed up by many theorists.

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According to Kyriacou (1997) a crucial role to preventing misbehaviour is to establish clear rules before the class concerning classroom management. When I outlined a set number of rules prior to the lesson I thought it was extremely effective. This ensures safety as it eliminated boisterous behaviour. I enforced 4 rules while in Bishopstown boy’s national school throughout every lesson and I thought they helped the lesson flow, they were:

1: When a teacher is speaking, the student must listen.
2: If a student has a question he must raise his hand.

3: Students must obey teacher’s instructions.
4:Have fun

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A student will “suss you out” after just 20 seconds of your first encounter (Twomey, 2016). I was very conscious of making a “good start” and ensured that I gave the right first impression of being firm but also being fair. This is so important going forward as the chances of a student disobeying is far less when you have their respect. This special first impression strategy can be followed by this acronym:

Shake hands or greet them

Posture: Stand up straight, this will give students the immediate impression that you’re professional.

Eye contact. Look into their eyes for the entire conversation and look engaged.

Charm: Smile and make a joke, ensure students don’t view you as the enemy.

Introduce yourself: This can break the ice and can act like a crutch if you are nervous.

Ask a question: I knew that it was a dominantly rugby and soccer area so I asked “What did ye think of the Liverpool match last night”.
Listen: Listen to what the students have to say, I found that sometimes they had very interesting and informative things to say (Dovico, 2016).

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The gather and disperse strategy involves bringing all students in close to you, in an area where they can both hear and see you. This strategy, like the use of a whistle was hugely beneficial in regards to the use of my voice and was much safer for the kids as they were conscious that I could see and hear everything they were doing and saying so therefore eliminated any disobedient behaviour. It was vital in my opinion to engage with the students before each activity to ensure they enjoyed the lesson. I found this particularly beneficial if the lesson was difficult to understand and contained several rules.

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Using a whistle proved to be very beneficial for me in my time teaching. I thought students responded to the sound of a whistle more so than any other form of communication. Assigning different meanings to the amount of times the whistle was blown also proved to be very rewarding for example; when I blew the whistle once, students had to run and when I blew it twice they had to freeze. This was vital for safety reasons as if I felt the game was after getting too dangerous and the pace was too fast I was able to signal without losing my voice.

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Management by walk about suggests that you continue to move throughout your lesson, observing students at all times, ensuring that your back is turned to any student for as little time possible. This strategy is particularly relevant in PE, as the hazard risk with PE equipment is far greater than the equipment used in a classroom. This was hugely beneficial for me during my teaching particularly when I was in Bishopstown boy’s national school. I felt that it was like a crutch for me as there was several occasions in Bishopstown where I felt my presence alone prevented disruptive behaviour.

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One of the major barriers to managing a classroom or a PE hall is disruptive behaviour. Disruptive behaviour can be defined as anything that prevents students participating in educational activities, affects the learning and the running of a class and isolates students from their peers (Garner, P & Hinchcliffe, V, 1995). This can all be prevented with good classroom management and in particular using certain key strategies.

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The formation of a learning wall was the greatest learning process for me throughout this module as I had to improve on it each week. A learning wall should be inviting for students but also informative, it is important to make it colourful and not too “wordy”. The best way to use the learning wall is to introduce the students at the start of the lesson and then retreat to it at the end. Below is an example of one of my learning walls.

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In my treasure chest game, one student was running incorrectly (running with his hands by his side). I brought him out of the game and showed him that using his arms in a bi-lateral form is much more beneficial.

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During one of my “treasure chest” games, one student wasn’t understanding the rules and was interrupting the flow of the game, I took him aside and re-explained the rules. He was then able to take part in the game again.

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In one of my games, I requested the students to “frog-leap”, they seemed frustrated that they were not able to get good distance in their jump, I told them that if they use their arms as well, they could propel themselves further.

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During our peer-teaching lesson in week 1, my peer found it very difficult to catch a ball while on the move, I told her to keep her eye on the ball when moving rather than solely concentrating on her movement. She improved vastly in this skill after the feedback.

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There was one student who found a particular dance sequence very challenging in the national school. So, I gave him the feedback that he was doing some parts excellently but just to focus more on the “Kris-Cross” move. Although he didn’t perfect this move he improved drastically and seemed far more satisfied.

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Feedback is also a very important part of teaching. I constantly gave my peers and students feedback throughout this module as it gives the person a sense of whether they are going in the right direction or not. Feedback was evident throughout this module at every stage as we are constantly learning, here are just 5 examples that I recall from placement;

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This normally requires more detailed answers and is a great way to assess how much students have taken from the class. I asked the students during a particular lesson “what is the difference between static and dynamic stretching?”

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This is another type of questioning that is very helpful during a PE lesson as it can be very informative for students. I asked the students “What would happen if you leaned too far forward when you are running?” they then answered confidently that “you would fall over”.

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This type of questioning requires students to think critically. For example, in one particular game in my final lesson, I played a game where each student read out a fact about fitness during the warm up. At the end of the lesson I then requested them to “Put up your hand and name 2 things each that you can remember from the warm up game.

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his is a much more basic type of questioning; this questioning leads to one word answers a lot of the time. For example, on placement, I asked the students after their lesson “Did ye enjoy that?”.

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This type of questioning requires a longer thought process from students, as there can be many different answers. I used this type of questioning on placement by asking the students “What happens during exercise”, different students gave answers like “We start breathing heavier”, “We start sweating” and “We feel warmer”. All of these answers are correct but yet all different. This type of questioning also presents the opportunity for students to learn from each other.

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Questioning students is a great way to see if they understand. This should be done before after and during the lesson, post lesson reflection is an excellent way to see if the students have understood the lessons content. Questioning not only does this but it also ensures that students stay engaged throughout the lesson and don’t “zone out”. There are several types of questioning that I used while on placement, they are:

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Before going on placement, I read the primary school curriculum. This proved to be very informative for me as I was planning for my lessons in Bishopstown boy’s national school. The primary school PE curriculum is divided into six strands:

Athletics

Dance

Gymnastics

Games

Outdoor and adventure activities

Aquatics

Our first lesson in Bishopstown boy’s national school was on the strand of dance, the primary school curriculum document was very helpful for me in this area as dance isn’t my sporting background. I noted that dance in education involves the student creating, performing and appreciating movement as a means of expression and communication (NCCA, 1999). I will make sure that this occurs in our lessons in the coming weeks. I also looked at the different aims of this document for example to promote the physical, social, emotional and intellectual development of the child and to develop positive personal qualities (NCCA, 1999). I hope to have an amical relationship with every student so I can attempt to develop their personal qualities. A great way to develop the students’ intellectual ability is to promote literacy and numeracy within the lesson.

It is vital to note that we must develop literacy and numeracy skills in all children and be conscious that literacy and numeracy is far more than being able to read or count. I will attempt this by helping them understand the difference in meaning of words that are spelled the same for example getting them to understand that the term strike in sport is very different to the term strike in a protest. I also hope to this through dance like showing them a word and they must do the dance move that correlates to the word. I also hope to integrate numeracy into these lessons by bringing problem solving into the games for example when we move onto team challenges; giving them a “treasure chest sheet”, where they must find the different and right number of objects around the hall. We have also planned to bring in numeracy in their first lesson of dance, by counting the number of steps they must do in a particular movement.

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Department of Education and Skills,. (2011). LITERACY AND NUMERACY FOR LEARNING AND LIFE.

Dovico, A. (2016). Making a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. first impression. Phi Delta Kappan, 98(3), 55-59. doi:10.1177/0031721716677263

Garner, P & Hinchcliffe, V (1995), What Teachers Do, developments in special education, Chapman Publishers LTD, Liverpool.

Good, L.T & Brophy, E.J (1997), looking in Classrooms, Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc.

Kyriacou, C. (1997). Effective Teaching In Schools. London: Stanley Thornes Ltd.

Kyriacou, C. (2001). Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltanham: Nelson Thornes Ltd

NCCA, 1999. Primary School Curriculum.

Rogers, B.  (1995). Behaviour Management: A whole school approach.  Melbourne, Australia: Ashton Scholastic

Twomey, A. (2016). Approaches to Discipline and Classroom Management. Lecture Notes. Cork: UCC