I have now completed 4 weeks of my practicum, and after a month of teaching I am feeling both confident with my abilities and comfortable with my students.There were both pros and cons this week, but I certainly feel that I am a significantly better instructor than I was 4 weeks ago.

A couple of negatives that stood about this week of teaching were 1. My overall organization, and 2. Experiencing technological difficulties in the classroom. The schedule at my practicum school can be extremely difficult to memorize and blocks rotate on a daily basis compounded with the fact that not all blocks are the same length in time. This makes the pacing of lessons and monitoring the time critical. I lost track of time once this week and dismissed my students later than they should have been dismissed which could have subsequently lead to issues for those students in their other classes and possibly even issues for me because I was the one responsible for their tardiness. My plan going forward is to be more synchronized with my organization. I have already designed a personal timetable that sits on my desk so that I am aware when my classes for the day begin and end. I am also using an alarm on my cellphone to make sure I dismiss my students on time. The second issue that I had this week was dealing with continual technological issues. This can be frustrating in that I feel technology can provide a different means of experiencing P.E., but it certainly does not need to hinder the experience for students so long as an alternate plan is already in place. I do not want students to miss out on a potentially exciting experience however, so if valuable video or other form of media cannot be utilized in a particular class, I need to ensure that I note it and make sure the class gets to view it during the next class.

A noticeable positive for the week is that I feel my classes are beginning to work as a community. There is a sense of happiness that is translating to purposeful fun and engagement in the large majority of students. Students are beginning to take responsibility of their own classroom and this is evident in my grade 9 classes as they finalize their tumbling routines, and in my grade 10 class as they are having votes during their long block on Thursdays to determine the fitness activity they wish to do in the second half of class.

Next week I will be taking over a boys fitness 11/12 class that is comprised of some highly motivated individuals as well as some of the schools better athletes. I have been team teaching for the first 4 weeks to help build a rapport with the students and I am hoping that with my personal training expertise, I will be able to create a new and exciting class that will create motivated fitness enthusiasts and future fitness leaders.