Tag Archives: striking/fielding games

Week 4- movement journal

Friday was my first experience teaching the group in this program and it was my first time teaching PE; therefore, I was extremely nervous. Even though I thought we were pretty well prepared, I was still shaking the whole morning before class. I lead the instant activity without really paying attention to what was going on around me. I still cannot recall what happened during that time, but according to some reflections, it went well and most of you had fun dancing.

To be honest, I was focusing too much on what I thought I should and should not do as a teacher instead of paying attention to my students. I was constantly thinking of remembering to say things such as “when I say go” before giving instructions, and reminding myself to speak louder. Then I was concentrating on not saying “you guys” and focusing on the time, because I was the time keeper. Reflecting now, I wish I had paid more attention to everyone’s engagement level and given some feedback during the activities instead of focusing so much on myself.

I really appreciate how Steve showed us how to evaluate one of our games and modify it for safety issues. The brainstorming for modifications was very helpful, I am glad we got to do this here in Cite rather than during our practicum. Our focus age for this lesson was grade 2, so I was very worried the games might have been too childish for grownups to have fun. However, after class, many people told us we did a good job and that they enjoyed the activities which was very encouraging. Thank you everyone for being so supportive! 😀

Gemma’s Group Teach Reflection (September 30)

I had absolutely no idea how Wednesday’s group teach would turn out. I was quite happy at first when our group was given striking/fielding games, but after thinking about it for a while, it was actually quite difficult to put together a lesson that ensured maximum participation. There is a lot of standing around in baseball, kickball etc, so I was worried that our lesson was going to be boring. So “maximum participation” was something that we tried to keep in mind throughout the whole process. But actually, it turned out okay – having a very positive and cooperative class surely helped! And I think it was the first time  that we’ve actually worked up a sweat (good thing we decided to take out the laps around the field at the last minute!).

I had never heard of “Chuck the Chicken” before it was suggested for our lesson. Frankly, I initially didn’t see the purpose of throwing and running after an ugly rubber chicken, and how that could be relevant to fielding. But it actually turned out amazingly well! It reminds me that you have to keep an open mind and be creative when engaging kids, as the main priority is to have fun and get them moving! Although, I’d still be really interested to learn who first came up with that game (and how!)…

I have to say though, I found the lesson planning part of the process quite difficult to wrap my head around… and i’m wondering if this is a similar concern for a lot of people (given the expressions in Lisa’s class today). We’ve not really had much direction on lesson planning but it is an assignment required for most classes. What templates do we use? What resources/information do we have to include? How do we base it off the curriculum? So it took a while to get going. But maybe we do just make things up as we go along and it will get easier over time. Becoming more efficient at drafting these is definitely going to be a goal of mine for this coming year.

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