Wk 9 - unit planning and presentations

Little to report again this week with no lecture and no tutorial (tutorial taken up with presentations).

I am currently putting my unit of work together for the assessment. I am planning a sequence of 6 lessons. This the first time I have done this and I remember mentioning it as something I wanted to learn how to do at the start of the semester. It is proving challenging but I am enjoying the process of linking lessons and looking at the bigger picture of what I want students to achieve.

The presentations in tutorials this week gave me lots of ideas for incorporation into my teaching. Both practical activities and pedagogical considerations.

Wk 8 - class free period

No classes this week - however, I am currently doing professional experience every Wednesday at Telopea Park School.

These rolling days are giving me an opportunity to try our many of the activities and strategies discussed in the tutorial sessions. I have had fun experimenting with different behaviour management techniques in this low pressure setting. It is fascinating to see how students respond to different techniques (both verbal and non-verbal) and I am starting to develop a nice little bag of tricks as a consequence!

Wk 7 - missing in action!

Unfortunately I was unable to attend classes this week due to an operation on my big toe! It would have been nice to have listened to the expert speakers and I look forward to checking out what they had to say (lecture was not available at time of writing).

My incapacitation has made me ponder the impact that my physical health will have on my teaching. My physical condition has the potential to greatly impact on my ability to model skills for my students and to interact in games for understanding. I wonder how I can modify lessons in order to reduce the impact that any injuries may have on my teaching?

Wk 6 - Teaching Standards: What am I missing?

This week's lecture made me think about the above question… My first thought was 'whole unit planning'. I have covered lessons plans a number of times now but I have not really been shown how to produce plans for large scale sequences of lessons. How do I successfully draw together the myriad elements that need to be addressed when creating whole units of work?

Tutorials introduced more activities that will prove useful tools in creating engaging health lessons. I am happy that this unit is giving me a nice collection of resources for use in the health classroom. Where previous units have loaded up my bag of PE (games based) tricks, this unit is covering the in class side of my future profession.

Wk 5 - The National Curriculum and Behaviour managment

The Australian National Curriculum is currently being implemented for the 'core' KLAs of English, Mathematics, Science and History. While I obviously understand and appreciate the fundamental importance of English and Mathematics for literacy and numeracy skills I find it suprising that Health and PE has not been included in this first roll out, instead relegated to the very last phase of implementation. As a future HPE teacher I feel that my teaching area is of paramount importance. Though the Australian Curriculum site looks great, I am frustrated that HPE is not regarded in the same league as traditionally 'more important' subjects.

Our tutorials this week focused on behaviour management techniques. I found that many of these techniques are things I already use. It was great, however, to tease them out a little more and really analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each technique.

Wk4 - Great games for the bank

Yesterday our tutorial basically took us through a typical health lesson. Our tutor asked us to both participate in the lesson and also observe his teaching (within the Quality Teaching Framework). The tutorial provided a number of useful activities that can be incorporated into the classroom. This, for me, was the most valuable part of this week’s STS1 learning material. These activities are fantastic for interpersonal, verbal/ aural, and kinesthetic learners and will therefore appeal to a range of students. Unfortunately we ran out of time to discuss our tutor’s teaching, something he may have been (secretly) grateful for!

Wk3 - Big questions and the 4 teacher types...

This week’s lecture covered a lot of material that I had been previously exposed to. However, it raised interesting questions – primarily, what content do I think is absolutely imperative to teach to the next generation? My immediate thoughts were cultural sensitivity, social skills, respect, and developing environmental conscious. I stick by these but I catch myself often pondering this question in the last 24 hours.

Our tutorial covered an interesting new topic – the 4 teacher types. I saw myself aiming to fall in the region between Permissive Indulgent and Authorative. I was pleased when my tutor told the class that he too aimed for this region of the map. From my prac experience, I feel that most PE teaches fall into the extremes of Permissive Indulgent and Authoritarian. This is something I will consciously try to avoid.

Wk 2 - first tutorials and first post!

This week we had our first tutorials for STS1 and its now time to start blogging my thoughts. I am a HPE student and so my tutorial took place in the Lake G College gym. The session was mostly interesting though occasionally a little tiresome.

We engaged in "circle time" for the vast majority of the class and while I can see the value that circle time can have in the classroom I felt that yesterday (in the tutorial) the circle time went too long and many of us began to tire and lose interest. What I did enjoy were the introduction games and the way that everyone had an opportunity to express themselves. In addition, our tutors gave us a chance to voice our opinion on what we wanted to learn in these sessions. I look forward to covering the material that the class suggested!

The theory part of the class focused on curriculum and quality teaching. We were asked to give our own definition of curriculum in our reflective writing so here it goes:

Curriculum, for me, is all of the prescribed learning and experiences that a student engages with in the school environment. It is the means through which the syllabus is delivered. Outisde of this, but obviously closely related, hidden curriculum encompasses all the elements of school life that are not explicity prescribed.

Finally, the session closed with an activity related to quality teaching. We got off our seats, moved around and played an active game then, as a result, formed groups on the floor of the gym in order to participate in a matching activity. It worked really well and broke up the lesson nicely at the end.