Due to the semester schedule at my Practicum school, the first week has been mostly comprised of preparation for week 2. Exam week gave me the opportunity to be involved in invigilation, and provided me with my first real glimpse of how much work goes into administration and planning.

I began work on my first unit for P.E. 10 (Self Defense). This provided me with an opportunity to plan for what my expectations for the students will be over the course of my tenure as their physical education instructor. Self Defense sets really high expectations (from a behavioral standpoint), as this unit is split between my instruction and specialist guest instruction and therefore the students need to be properly prepared to adhere to “dojo” level expectations.

Self defense and martial arts is not something I am familiar with and as a new teacher, the tendency is to teach from transmissive perspective (see TPI). This being the case, I spent some time in the wrestling room during exam week learning how to properly execute striking combinations.

The goal for this unit is to instruct my students to be FEARLESS and INTENSE. Emphasis will be placed on coaching and mitt work from a performance perspective, but students need to be reminded that when defending oneself, there are no timeouts or breaks in the action (This is the most valuable lesson they should learn from this unit).