| Date: | 29thst February 2016 |
| Group or individual with whom I worked: | Year 7 boys, 6th form class. |
BEFORE my placement …
| What am I aiming to achieve from my placement today? What do I need to be mindful of? What issues/questions need to be addressed to ensure I achieve my aim? Do I need to be aware of particular theories, or have particular skills? Have I thought about all of the ‘what ifs’? |
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Today I knew that I would be teaching most of the football lesson for year 7’s on my own. I prepared for this large episode for a passing and receiving session. See lesson plan. The lesson plan was sent to the lead teacher the week before to be double checked for suitability, the lesson plan deemed to be suitable. Taking into consideration of the behavioural problems, which seems to be a theme at the school, I had to write into my lesson plan of the small group of boys how can be difficult. Therefore I was considering teaching standard 7, Manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment I also had organised a meeting with my University Placement Tutor as required by the university.
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DURING my placement …
| What did I notice happening around me today? What was I thinking and feeling? How was I involved? Did I do anything to intervene and change the situation that I found myself in e.g. how I conveyed a point or whether I decided not to do something I had planned to do? Did my reflections at the time change the session I had planned or my actions? |
| During first lesson, the teacher who I was working with was taking the warm up whilst I set up, I noticed that the students seemed restless today this caused me a moment of worry, hoping that my plan would work and more importantly keep the students engaged.
During the second lesson, I took a much more stood back roll mainly observing but asking leading questions. Our University Placement Tutor came in for our arranged meeting and spoke to myself and Jess about any issues we had and how we were finding placement etc.
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AFTER my placement … (based on the Gibbs Reflective Cycle)
| Describe the activities you undertook whilst on placement today. Set the context, what you did and what happened. |
| During the first lesson, the main teacher registered the students, and sent them to the changing room. Whilst this was occurring myself and the TA went to the sports shed and got the equipment needed for my session: cones, bibs and footballs. Once the students were changed and registered the main teacher took the students for a warm up, this gave me chance to set up my first activity, which was a short dribbling, passing and receiving drill. As seen in the lesson plan. Once the reigns were passed to me, I immediately tried to set high expectations by lining the class up along a line to gain their full attention. I modelled the activity that I wanted them to do, split them into partners and sent them on their way to have a go. After a few minutes I brought them back in and went over the teaching points to them, I asked certain students what they thought the correct points would be and why, using leading questions to reach the points I wanted. After the students demonstrated an understanding of the teaching points I sent them back for another go. I visited individuals to give feedback, positive and constructive. I found some students were purposely kicking the ball harder at their partners so I split two pairs up. This had a positive impact as the students were more engaged after being separated. However I did find that one of the students who was separated was a SEN child with autism. This child continued to chip in with remarks throughout the lesson. To deal with this I ignored some of the quieter remarks when it wasn’t a distraction to the rest of the lesson or others around him, I then asked him to see his main teacher.
The second lesson was a very laid back lesson, where the students who have to organise a tag rugby tournament basically had to tick off everything from their list in preparation for the following Monday. This was all done quick and effectively and therefore the lesson became a “What if” lesson as the teachers: my partner, the main teacher and myself went over their scenarios from last week.
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| Document how you felt through-out your placement today. Were you anxious, confident, pleased or disappointed? |
| When I was just about to take the lead for the first time, I did feel anxious about it. However I think this was because I was more trying to impress the other teacher than the students, as I was pretty confident with my lesson plan. As football is my strongest sport, I felt that I could alter the activities on the spot if needed. However I was curious about what to do and how to discipline a class if needed, as within the school I have seen different methods, and also as it wasn’t my class.
When finding out that a certain child was autistic I did feel very on edge and worried about a potential reaction that I may get from him.
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| Evaluate today’s placement activity. What went well, what went badly, what would you have done differently? |
| I believe that my session was successful, the students could recall the teaching points back at me and demonstrated throughout the lesson that they could pass and control a ball with a degree of accuracy and control, considering that the class was a bottom set. I think that in particular the relay worked very well, because it has been noted that once an element of competition is introduced the technique can play second fiddle to winning. However during this relay the students noticed that the teams that were taking longer and not just kicking the ball as hard as they can at their partners.
The session could’ve been better if I could have managed to include extra inclusion help for the SEN child within the group. This could have been in the form of using a TA to work closer in his group, or his main teacher. In future I will consider the fact that I have a SEN child within the group and therefore there needs to supervisions considered.
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| Take a deeper, analytical and critical approach to today’s experiences. Can you make connections or apply academic theory or current policy to understand why today’s activities went well or went badly. |
| Within the lesson, SEN children need to be considered. Capel and Piotrowski (2000:47) suggest that: there are strong educational, as well as social and moral grounds for educating children with special needs. This was evidenced within the lesson, as a child who may in other lessons be deemed more of a problem can really excel in PE once he managed to take what was expected on board.
Green, K. and Hardman, K. (2005) stress how important inclusion is for SEN students, and discuss setting suitable learning challenges for SEN students. This could be why within my lesson; the SEN student could have seemed uninterested as the task was not accepted by the student or deemed suitable. As a teacher it is important to adapt teaching to the needs of all pupils, which is teaching standard 5. Therefore within a future lesson the student may have tasks which sit side by side with the rest of the lesson but different, therefore adapting my lesson to the needs of the pupil. Green, (2008) highlights that due to physical education teachers always wanting the best students, those best at the subject it can become difficult to still include SEN students. I believe that I did in fact cater for the lower ability within my lesson as well; therefore the SEN student could still participate. Green, (2008) said that SEN students can be discriminated due to a lack of ability but also a lack of perceived ability. Therefore as a teacher it is important to not just think that because a student is of SEN that they cannot cope within the lesson or could not strive.
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| Draw conclusions. What have you learnt from today’s activities and your reflections? |
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Today I have learnt that within school there are SEN students within most lessons. These students require extra planning and support within a lesson plan and it is essential for a teacher to meet TS5 adapt teaching to the needs of all students as well as planning a well structured lesson. In reflection, I believe that all teachers should need to undergo some kind of professional development to help them understand the difference between a “naughty child” and one with educational needs.
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| Action plan. How will you apply what you have learnt from today’s activities to the rest of your placement and your future professional and personal development? Do you need to undertake further research or reading? Are there courses that you need to undertake to fill a skills gap? |
| I feel that I need to improve my knowledge of SEN children and their learning patterns. Due partly to the fact I hadn’t come across this in any context in university or within placement. I believe that to be a successful practitioner in the future, learning strategies for SEN children need to be in place by myself. However, now I know that the student within that class does require extra needs, I can tailor this into my lesson plans.
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| Have any questions arisen today that I need to discuss with my Placement Supervisor or University Placement Tutor (UPT)? |
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When working with SEN children, how is the best way to keep them under control without causing them to react badly?
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RETURNING to my reflections …
| It is often useful to return to your reflections after a period of time. Revisit the experiences you had; think about how you felt (positive and negative feelings) and re-evaluate your experiences. Do you feel differently about the experience now time has passed have your feelings changed in light of the experience or do you now view the experience in a different light? |
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Returning to my reflections I should of asked the main teacher before taking on the lesson, about the students within the group. The student became an obvious difficulty within the lesson, and before hand I would have been very unaware of the different ways SEN students can react.
I feel now looking back I would have been a lot more positive throughout the whole situation, and could have given the extra support, or used another member of staff.
Looking back I do feel as if my lesson plan worked well, especially the contents of it. The lesson seemed to be a well-delivered piece of work that the students seemed to take on board and understand.
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