Our first Micro teaching session took place in the Mardyke hall and the students we were teaching were fellow members of the Sport Studies and Physical Education (SSPE) class, however our lessons were designed to be delivered to 12-13 year old first year students. The class was divided into three groups and each group were told to design and deliver a lesson plan on one of the following topics: Health related fitness, Dance or Athletics.  Each lesson had to consist of a warm up, main body and cool down while we also had to include literacy and numeracy as part of our lesson. 

 I learned today that you must always have confidence whenever you are speaking to students as students not listen to a teacher who is unsure of themselves.This was evident when I instructed one of the teams during the main game to be more vocal when communicating with each other. I wasn’t firm enough when discussing this with the students and as a result my advice was ignored. 

I learned that I cannot hesitate when necessary to correct students. As a PE teacher it is my responsibility to educate students about physical activity. Feedback to students is an important component in ensuring that the students may become active participants in physical activity in the future

I must have more confidence when providing feedback to students and I must attempt to be more vocal and analytical of students throughout the lesson. 

I must play a more active role throughout the lesson while also being mindful of making sure that the lesson doesn’t become teacher centric and that the focus remains on ensuring that the students achieve their learning outcomes

 Session 2 : 7/10/2016

Our second micro teaching session took place again in the Mardyke Hall with the same students from the previous week. We were delivering another lesson plan on the same topic as last week. We took the first session into account when designing this weeks lesson plan and learning wall, reflecting on what had been successful and unsuccessful in the first session. 

I learned how difficult it can be to conduct your lesson correctly when you are teaching students who are being disruptive. We found it challenging at times to explain aspects of health related fitness to the learners when there are misbehaving students within the group. It was difficult challenge to overcome  but it was a valuable experience for me and will benefit me greatly in the future. 

I learned that keeping calm and composed is extremely important when dealing with a disruptive student. Even though it was quite challenging for us as a group to deal with the disruptive students, we all managed to remain calm while dealing withe student as we realized losing our temper would only exasperate the situation. 

I must be organized when providing instructions to students, I got confused when explaining the rules of  one of the games and this confused the students. I must ensure this doesn't happen again, particularly when I'm dealing with primary school students. 

How might I do this? 

I will have some flash cards ready for the next lesson with notes about the lesson on it. I would then be able to use these notes to maintain my focus and deliver clear and precise instructions to students.
 

 Session 3:18/10/2016

Our third micro-teaching session took place in Mardyke hall. This week each group was delivering a lesson on a different lesson to the previous sessions, this lesson would then be the one that we will be delivering to the students at Bishopstown Boys NS. This week we would be delivering a dance lesson. 

What Did I learn about myself as a teacher? 

Throughout today's lesson I learned that it can be quite difficult to deliver any lesson when numerous students don't have an interest in the lesson topic. Dance could be described as a divisive topic among students as you'll come across students that both enjoy and despise dance.
What aspect on my teaching must I work on next?
I must focus on maximizing the engagement of students in the lesson. When students are not engaged in a lesson then they will inevitably become disruptive. Ensuring the students are engaged in the lesson will also maximize their learning
How might I do this?
The use of an effective questioning strategy can increase student engagement. The use of higher order questioning during a lesson has been shown to increase the cognition activity of students during a lesson

Reconnaissance Visit to Bishopstown Boys N.S :25/10/2016

Before we began teaching in Bishopstown Boys N.S, we visited the school so we could view the sports hall and school equipment. It also gave us the opportunity for a member of each group to meet with school principle Mr.Cuthbert so we could gather more information on the school and the classes with whom we would be working with. The visit to the school is very important to allow us properly prepare our lesson for the students. It allowed us to become familiar with the school's sports hall while we were also able to find out what sport equipment was available for the lessons.

Session 4:8/11/2016

Our forth micro-teaching session was the first to take place at Bishopstown Boys N.S sports hall. This week we would be delivering a dance lesson focused on the cha-cha slide to 21 forth class students.
What did I learn about myself as a teacher?
During today's lesson I gained a greater understanding of the importance of enthusiasm during a lesson and how it can have a drastic effect of success of the lesson.From the beginning of the warm-up to the cool-down, we decided as mentors to be enthusiastically involved in every aspect of the lesson and this undoubtedly enhanced the quality of the lesson because when the students began to see us enjoy ourselves, they began to relax a bit more and start having fun also.
And as a person?
From a personal perspective, I was quite nervous before today's session as it would be my first time working with actual students. While it was quite a daunting task at first, I found that once I began engaging with the students that my nerves settled quickly and that I was able to competently deliver the lesson to the students
What aspect of my teaching must I work on next?
 I found today that I must be more assertive when I am in charge of the students. This was particularly evident when I was trying to organize the students into three lines. However some fellow teachers from my group tried to help me organize the students. This only confused the students further as they were receiving three different sets of instructions from 3 different teachers.
How might I do this?
Before the next session I will explain to fellow teachers in my group that while their assistance is appreciated, it is extremely important that their is only one teacher speaking at a time to ensure the students don't get confused.

Session 5: 15/11/2016

Our fifth micro-teaching session took place at Bishopstown boys N.S.  This week we delivered a lesson based on Health Related Fitness so that all students would be able to participate.
What Did I learn about myself as a teacher?
From today's lesson I learned that ensuring all equipment is in working condition before beginning the lesson. After we had put out the 'Treasure' for the treasure hunt, we noticed that one of the bean bags had a hole in it and was leaking. This presented a tripping hazard to the students and it compromised the safety of the game. It was a harsh but valuable lesson as I'll know from now on to inspect all the equipment carefully before I use it in a lesson.
And as a person?
I felt a lot of empathy for some of the students today as they experienced some difficulty with some of their Fundamental movement skills. At times we can take for granted the difficulties some people have with F.M.S.
What aspect of my teaching must I work on next?
For next week's lesson it is vitally important that we have a learning wall prepared for the lesson. Not only is it a valuable pedagogical tool for teachers to constantly reference throughout the lesson, it is also a valuable resource to students as it tells them what the theme of the lesson is. They are also more likely to retain the teaching points of the lesson when they are referred back to the learning wall at the conclusion of the session
How might I do this?
Along with fellow members of my group we will design a colorful and relatively simple learning wall. The colors will help to spark the interest of the children while keeping the language simple will make it easier for the students to understand.

Session 6: 22/11/2016

Our fifth micro-teaching session took place at Bishopstown boys N.S.  This week we delivered a lesson based on Health Related Fitness so that all students would be able to participate.
What Did I learn about myself as a teacher?
From today's lesson I learned that ensuring all equipmentis in working condition before beginning the lesson. After we had put out the 'Treasure' for the treasure hunt, we noticed that one of the bean bags had a hole in it and was leaking. This presented a tripping hazard to the students and it compromised the safety of the game. It was a harsh but valuable lesson as I'll know from now on to inspect all the equpiment carefully before I use it in a lesson.
And as a person?
I felt a lot of empathy for some of the students today as they experienced some difficulty with some of the Fundamental movement skills. At times we can take for granted the difficulties some people have with F.M.S.
What aspect of my teaching must I work on next?
For next week's lesson it is vitally important that we have a learning wall prepared for the lesson. Not only is it a valuable tool for teachers to constantly reference throughout the lesson, it is also a valuable resource to students as it tells them what the theme of the lesson is. They are also more likely to retain the teaching points of the lesson when they are referred back to the learning wall at the conclusion of the session
How might I do this?
Along with fellow members of my group we will design a colorful and relatively simple learning wall. The colours will help to spark the interest of the children while keeping the language simple will make it easier for the students to understand.

Session 7: 29/11/2016

For our seventh  session we delivered a lesson on health related fitness.
What did I learn about myself as a teacher?

Ensure that I maintain control of the students. Disruption during today's lesson did have an effect on my pedagogy the and the students learning during the lesson. It is important that I use effective classroom management to maintain order during the lesson to ensure optimum conditions for learning.
 And as a person?
Ensure all students understand what is happening in a lesson before commencing. My explanation for today's warm up-could have been clearer and as a result some students were still confused when the activity commenced. This hampered the success of the game and students enjoyment of it.

Post Primary Teaching Practice Reflection:

The teaching placement and peer teaching have been a hugely enjoyable and educational experience,particularly the teaching sessions in Bishopstown Boys N.S. For many of us, it was our first time doing a PE lesson with students.However our peer teaching session at Mardyke helped us to get used to running a PE session together as a Teaching group and undoubtedly improved the quality of our teaching sessions in Bishopstown. From a personal point of view, the teaching sessions in Bishopstown have given me excellent experience of delivering a PE lesson to students. This experience will be hugely beneficial, particularly when I will beginning my teaching place in a secondary school in January. School placements are a key component of teacher training, with Korthagen pointing out that " In order to help student teachers become acquainted with the ‘environment’ relevant to the professional development of a teacher, it is important to offer them a suitable learning environment "(Korthagen, 2004). The experience we all gained from teaching placement in Bishopstown will undoubtedly benefit us as we continue our training.It gave us the opportunity to learn how to manage a classroom and to develop our own individual pedagogies. 

I learned quite a lot about my own pedagogy over the course of my peer teaching and school placement. The importance of ensuring that students are engaged in a lesson and organization stood out to me over the course of peer teaching and school placement. Student engagement in the lesson undoubetedly had a positive impact on how much students learned from the lesson. It also give them a positive experience of physical activity and will encourage them to become active participants in physical activity as they grow older. The teaching placement also highlighted the importance of organization for a teacher. If the teacher is not fully prepared for their lesson then this can have negative consequences on their lesson. It may lead to confusion amongst students, not only will this impact upon students enjoyment of the lesson but it will also effect how much the students benefit from the lesson. As a group, we always ensure that we were fully organized at the beginnig of each lesson as we aware of the grave consequences it could have had on our lesson.

Ultimately, the experience I gained from the school placement will benefit me greatly as I continue on with my teaching training. It gave me the opportunity to further evaluate and develop my own pedagogy throughout the course of the placement.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

5 is the youngest of three children in his family.He gets on well with both of his older siblings who are in secondary school. From the very beginning 5 made it very clear that he is a very sporty child. He plays GAA, soccer and tennis outside of school so 5 has a very busy schedule and he was telling us that his only days off are Tuesdays and Sundays . While 5 admitted that his favorite sport is soccer, he also stated that he enjoyed almost all sports. Up until recently he was also involved in rugby but now he is thinking of joining a basketball club as he enjoys playing it at home. In fact he was telling us that he was looking forward to getting a new basketball hoop for Christmas. Therefore it came as no surprise to us when 5 told us that Physical Education was his favorite school subject,particularly soccer. When talking with 5 I asked why he was so heavily involved in sports. He explained that while he enjoyed playing each sport, but what was interesting was that also told us that he enjoyed getting to meet up with his friends in each club. It was  extremely positive to see that 5 also enjoyed the social aspect of playing sports.

 

From talking and observing 5, it became quite clear that he had a high interpersonal intelligence. According to Gardner's theory of Multiple  Intelligence, 5 can effectively " discern and respond to the moods and motivations of other people" (Gardner & Hatch 1989). This suggested to me that 5 is a social learner, meaning that he learns new information through his interactions with other people. This came as no surprise as 5 seemed quite comfortable socially with both people his own and age and older people. As a teacher, this observation allows us the design ways in which we can further develop 5 and other students within his class.

 

5's involvement in extra-curricular sport was visible when observing the students during their lesson. Compared to some of the other students in his class, 5 had quite well developed Fundamental Movement skills (FMS).FMS are the basic movements we perform during activity and are very important in the development of young people as it allows them to perform more complex movements as they become involved in various types of physical activity. The Aistear Síolta guide to FMS states that " FMS are important for enjoyable and successful participation in physical activities and sport in life" (n.d) His involvement in extra-curricular sports was undoubtedly a contributing factor to this. However despite his relatively well developed FMS, 5  still needed further assistance to fully develop his movement ability. It i important as Physical Educators that we recognize technical faults in the movement ability of our students, including students with well developed FMS. These faults become more difficult to rectify as the student gets older and can consequently have an impact on their success in physical activity in the future.However in the case of student 5, I believe some reciprocal learning may be helpful in allowing him to further develop his movement ability.

 

Reciprocal learning involves allowing students to work together so that with each others assistance, both students will reach a new zone of proximal development. This is also known as Scaffolding. Reciprocal learning involves matching students together and designing a task which is suited to their needs. Under reciprocal instructional method, students are responsible for demonstration and feedback. This instructional method would undoubtedly appeal to 5's high interpersonal intelligence. It would give him the opportunity to learn information from his partner and it would also allow him to further enhance his own FMS by providing demonstrations and feedback to his partner. Another benefit of the reciprocal instructional method would be that 5 may enjoy the literacy and numeracy components more if there is a social aspect to it. During my discussion with 5 he told us that he didn't enjoy Maths in school.  This would suggest that he may not enjoy the numeracy components of a PE lesson. However if he is working with a partner  during the lesson then he will probably find the numeracy components more enjoyable then if he was own.

 

It was very obvious from the beginning of my teaching placement in Bishopstown Boys N.S that 5 enjoyed physical activity. He actively engaged in each lesson and caused very little disruption during our teaching sessions. His high interpersonal intelligence meant that he particularly enjoyed that social aspect of physical activity and I would suggest that activities targeting his high interpersonal intelligence would be most successful in further developing his movement ability.