Going into my practicum, I thought that I would excel in teaching PE and struggle with teaching socials. However, once I started, I realized how it is the complete opposite to my expectations. I’m not sure if it was because I thought I would struggle with socials, so I put more effort into creating more fun lessons, or if it’s just the dynamics of the classes that I’m teaching. With my PE class, I’m noticing that some students just want to play full games of volleyball, they did not feel motivated to try the drills and activities that I set out for them to do. I am curious on how they will respond when I put my inquiry into practice this coming week by getting them to create their own games/drills/activities to teach their peers. I wonder if they will rise to the challenge or if they will choose to want to play a “real” game of volleyball again.
Putting the theory taught at UBC about classroom management into practice, I realize how well some of the theories actually work really well. The students in my PE class that seem to disengage the most actually do what I tell them to when I use teacher presence by standing close by to them or look in their direction from time to time. Similarly, in my socials class, students will stop talking after I try to get their attention. When I fail to get their attention, I just stand in the middle or front of the room quietly, with my hand up and/or looking directly at the people talking the most.
This coming week I hope to find a way to engage all of my PE class to participate and have fun, by engaging them all at their own level. This is why I would like to try putting my inquiry to practice.
An interesting phenomenon you have noticed regarding your perceived success in PE vs. Socials. You speak of the S’s who just want to play games vs. doing drills and you seem to speak of a level of disengagement from some of your PE students. Maybe you are putting more time into planning interesting lessons in Socials and need to do the same in PE. But maybe there are other factors at work. Perhaps some of the students view PE through the narrow lens of a break from regular class learning and just want to blow of steam. That doesn’t mean that you as a Physical Educator should compromise your standards but you might want to be aware of this. If it is occurring with your good athletes, could be that they find the drill too simple and need more challenge. It might be that some students do not feel comfortable or confident with their existing skill level and their response is to “goof off” and not work hard at a skill so that their perceived shortcomings don’t show up. Others, in fact, might be less physically gifted and find it difficult to learn new physical skills and they find the skills or drills too difficult for them so when they can’t, in their mind, see any improvement or progress they give up because them find it too hard. Each of these situations would be dealt with differently and this is a challenge for a PE teacher.