Tag Archives: PE 10

Practicum weeks 9 & 10 thoughts

Posted on by

These last two weeks have been a blur.  It was an emotional roller coaster where I knew I was going to pass my practicum, but I still had to work hard to make sure that I maintain the best reputation that I could.  These two weeks made me feel the most connected to my students and it was a bittersweet moment when we had to part ways.  I so moved that students who I thought were unreceptive to my teaching actually came up to me and started telling me how much they think I’m a good teacher, also other students who I knew enjoyed my lessons would come up to me and ask if there was any way I could stay and teach longer.  These comments made me feel like I had actually accomplished something in the time that I was with them.  I was even more moved when one girl who usually didn’t care in class came up to me and handed in all the homework that she had missed.

Another thing that made me burst with pride was when two students with IEPs got class average marks on the last unit test that I gave them.  This was probably the biggest accomplishment that I had this whole practicum.  One of the two students finished his test and said to me, “I’m surprised at how many questions I felt like I knew the answers to.”  This particular student got below 50% on all his previous unit tests with me, and then he suddenly had some sort of epiphany and the content stuck.  These two students with IEPs had also started gaining confidence to join in discussions and to answer questions out loud in class by the 5th or 6th week that I was with them.  I became so proud of them that every time I marked their work, I cheered every mark they got correct and  begged them in my head to get a decent mark.

This practicum has helped me grow in many dimensions.  I was able to connect with students on a personal level while still maintaining the structure, command and order that a classroom should have.  I found a balance between what I wanted to try, with what my SAs and FA wanted me to do, and what students wanted to do in class.  I cannot express my gratitude for all the mentorship that I got from different staff, not just my SAs, and also my appreciation for the students who accepted me as their teacher and learned from me.

Practicum week 8 thoughts

Posted on by

For week 8 I was challenged to reflect on my practicum by my Faculty Advisor,  here were the questions to consider and my answers to them.  It definitely made me think about what I had actually achieved in the short amount of time that I was at McNair Secondary School

1.How have you contributed to the school community (what were you involved in outside of the classroom)?

I have contributed to the school community by guest judging in McNair’s singing competition, playing on the teacher’s lunch hour intramural sports team, and coaching and sponsoring the grade 8 boys’ volleyball team

2.Describe the different ways that you addressed diversity in the classroom (provided individualized instruction – adapted or modified- or helped students that needed additional support)?

In PE class, I did not need to address individualized instruction as all students were able to understand through my demonstrations, and all students with disabilities had their own personal Educational Assistants who would help them.

 In Socials class, I addressed diversity by teaching with different multimedia tools and using a variety of activities that accommodate different types of learning styles.  I additionally supported students by offering myself outside of class time (e.g. lunch time, after school), in these situations, I would sit down with students and guide them to appropriate answers for projects and assignments by asking guiding questions.  For in class work or test time, I allow students who need/ask for extra help to go to the learning resources room.

3.List some of the different assessment practices you used beyond tests, quizzes, and questioning.

Think-pair-share

K/W/L

Carousel activity

Jigsaw activity

4.Give some examples of how you used group work in your lessons.

Paired projects

Group presentations

Creating a “talk show”

Jigsaw activity

Carousel activity

5.Give some examples of interesting hooks that you used in class to capture the students’ interest (how did you motivate the class)?

Video clips relating to course content (e.g. instructional, skits, songs, movie clips)

Picture analysis

Quote analysis

Current events/interesting thought or video (unrelated to course content) of the day

6.Give some examples of innovative teaching practices and/or creative activities that you used to engage students in learning (aside from lecture, power point, question & answer, lab experiments)

Jeopardy review

Kahoot

Creating a talk show

Drawing comics

Writing short stories

Simulations

7.Describe a lesson that you are particularly proud of.  Why are you proud of this lesson and why do you feel it was so effective?

I was particularly proud of my simulation lesson of French culture and social classes before the rise of the French Revolution.  My simulation generated feelings similar to that of the actual people of the French society of that time.  I had students try to start an uprising on the people who were “wealthy” in the simulation.  The actual words said during the simulation were, “Can we start a Revolution and take their money from them…” I was pleased because I did not expect the feelings to actual rise up in this way, I just wanted them to get an appreciation and general idea of how different social classes felt.  This lesson was effective because in lessons after that, I could refer back to their feelings during the simulation to give them a more personal perspective on why different events happened the way they did during the French Revolution (e.g. why did certain people rise to power, why did the general public allow these people rise to power, what sort of things were promised to the general public that would sound appealing to agree to let these people rise to power, etc.)

8.What professional development activities have you participated in?

Professional development day at Cambie Secondary School

Collaboration day meetings

McNair staff meetings

Networking with veteran teachers from various schools and TOCs by sharing ideas and receiving practical advice

9.Is there any other information that you would like to share that would help me with your report?

All teachers and TOCs who observed my lessons have told me that I do a good job building strong relationships with my students.  Most students respect my authority and work hard to do well in my class.  Two out of the three classes that I taught were disappointed when they found out when I announced when I was leaving and specifically asked if I could stay longer.

Practicum week 7 thoughts

Posted on by

This week I attempted to put my inquiry project to use and had both my PE 10 and PE 11/12 do an inventing games unit.  Over the span of four days, the students invented games that were very genius in nature and their peers seemed to have a lot of fun playing the different games.  Based on my observations, the grade 11/12s had no problem doing the unit, in fact they seemed to enjoy it because it gave them a lot of “free time”.  My grade 10 students on the other hand did what was required of them, but they seemed to be going through the motions.  I explained to them that this was the testing of a new concept of teaching and that most of my colleagues are also trying it out at their practicum schools.  At the end of the unit, I asked them for feedback and they all thought that it was not as enjoyable as actually playing traditional games.  Upon conferring with other colleagues, one had the exact same response from her grade 9s and a few others will report back once they have tried their inventing games units with their classes.

I think one problem that has been brought up before by other UBC BEd students and former BEd students is how much they disliked the amount of theory that the program teaches us about.  At the retail store that I work at, I get a lot of teachers as customers and they all say very similar things about the program.  I wonder if there is a way to actually take away theory and actually test things so that every year, the new teacher candidates will learn things that are not theoretical, and instead will learn things about what was tested by the previous year’s teacher candidates.  All the theoretical things taught to us seem so interesting, exciting and new to us, but to the students, it seems like we’re taking away their enjoyment of PE.  I believe that if we are to be true to our goal of developing life long activity in our students, we need to take away theory and use previous application experiences to guide our teaching methods.

Practicum week 4 thoughts

Posted on by

This week it was an interesting teaching week.  There were a few lessons where I thought they were mediocre, but other teachers told me I actually did a good job.  What seemed to be good about my lessons weren’t necessarily what I perceived the students were getting out of my lesson, but more so how I handled individual situations as a teacher and trying new things in my lessons.  It was encouraging that veteran teachers were asking me where I was getting some of my resources and collaborating ideas with me.  One example was when my PE 10 class did their fitness unit this week.  I printed out some pre-made superhero inspired workout routines that I found online and I had two different teachers ask me where I got the routines from.

The UBC courses taught us to listen to our SAs advice and take their ideas, but it was interesting to see that a lot of the teachers look to us student teachers for new/fresh ideas, resources, and an inside on what new teacher candidates are learning that’s different or the same as when they went through the program.

Practicum week 3 thoughts

Posted on by

This week I wanted to address a situation that is related to my inquiry.  As stated two weeks ago I planned to test my inquiry question out on my PE 10 class.  What I thought worked well was allowing students to create their own activities/drills/games in my volleyball unit.  However, there seems to be reluctance from the students to want to try the TGFU model of teaching.  The TGFU model that I tried implementing was creating mini games for students to learn game concepts.  I am finding it difficult to implement my inquiry because it is about motivation and the TGFU seems to be demotivating a very motivated group of students.  I plan to try a different approach to my upcoming unit of basketball in two weeks.  What I plan to do is to have the students to get into teaching groups and to teach each other the skills and rules necessary to play the game.  I will shorten each unit to one week and each day will look as follows:

Monday – explanation of expectations, dividing class into 6 groups, assigning topics to each group, work in class to create 20 minute lessons

Tuesday – groups 1 and 2 teach (total of 40 minutes teaching time), last 20ish minutes of class is scrimmage time

Wednesday – groups 3 and 4 teach (total of 40 minutes teaching time), last 20ish minutes of class is scrimmage time

Thursday – groups 5 and 6 teach (total of 40 minutes teaching time), last 20ish minutes of class is scrimmage time

Friday – whole class game play

Instead of being evaluated on how they do their skills, I will mark them on their understanding of the skills by what they teach to the class.

I think that the UBC inquiry classes have not prepared me well enough to try and implement it into practice.  I feel like I need more guidance and flexibility to try different models of teaching before deciding on what my inquiry question should be.  I felt like they really forced us to pick a teaching models even before we begin to do actual inquiry.  I would like to have had the opportunity to try many teaching methods and models to come to my own conclusions before deciding to choose TGFU or inventing games models as my main focus.  Of course I will continue to try these models, but now I feel like my inquiry is not going well and I may have to change my inquiry question.

 

Practicum week 2 thoughts

Posted on by

This week was very interesting to experience.  There were constant highs and lows that were not things that I felt prepared for.  I felt like all my highlights for the week were all little things related to establishing myself as a teacher in the classroom.  Little things like being asked by students if I had time to stay after class to ask questions, or having students email me questions just to make sure that they are on the right track for their assignment made me feel like I was officially viewed as their teacher.  This made me feel good because the students feel comfortable and trust me enough to ask me questions now.  The low points of this week were all related to executing lessons and getting lesson activities done in the time I allotted for them.  Three days in a row I didn’t manage to dismiss my PE class on time, causing students to be late for their second block.

I find that none of the UBC courses actually prepared me enough for either of these situations.  For my PE methodology class, it prepared me to create a lesson, have back up and extension activities, but it didn’t really teach me how to think on the spot to modify my lesson so that I would be able to teach everything that I needed to cover while still being flexible with my time.  I found that this was the main source of my trouble with dismissing students on time this week.  On the flip side they also never prepared me enough for the joy that we would feel about all the little milestones and successes along the way, such as with students asking me for help and questions outside of class.

Practicum week 1 thoughts

Posted on by

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.