September 17th, 2012

Today was the second lesson of the rugby unit I am teaching. The first two classes I felt went quite rough. I started implementing circuit training for the students, having one station be a certain type of pass, or parts leading to a ruck, things of that nature. This type of activity is great because it can maximize the amount of time the students have interacting with each other as well as the activity. I though felt it to be so taxing! I love to teach, and to just be able to go around from station to station was not too stimulating for me. This made the first two periods quite rough for me. My host teacher said that can happen during circuit training so I should just loosen up and try to make it fun for myself. The last two periods I did this, and it was like teaching an entirely new lesson. I enjoyed the circuit training, and it seemed as though the students enjoyed it too. I am starting to feel really comfort ale with the students here. They are a great bunch of kids, and I can tell some are starting to respect me more. This is a great feeling. I have noticed those students who respect me have taken initiative with their classes, and have helped me maintain the class discipline. It is great to know that the students respect me enough to help me out with that.

September 14th, 2012

Today I felt was much better for me as far as teaching goes. It was the final day of my rotation through all of the classes, and I tried to use all of the techniques I learned in my other classes to really try and make these last few classes the best. I came in this morning and my host teacher told me I would be watching him teach the second class of the day. During the first class I would teach my class, and he would be keeping track of my instruction time versus my activity time. He would also be keeping track of the amount of appraisal and reinforcement I would give the students. I would then do this same thing to him in the next lesson, then I would see the improvements I could make to my last lesson. The first lesson I taught that day I thought went amazing. I have this one student that is highly respected by his classmates, and it was amazing, because at the begging of the class I reminded the students of their personal and social responsibilities and he took charge helping me to maintain control of the class. Without him the class would have went well, but I do not think it would have went as well. During the activities I really motivated the students to push, and communicate as one functional group. Overall I felt the lesson went quite well. Watching my host teacher was amazing. He had such control of the students, and his transition time between each activity was clean and precise. He allowed the students to challenge themselves during the activities by giving them options, and he had the students analyze one another in an almost peer assessment type of situation. I did not feel so good about my lessons after this, he assured me though I was doing fine. In the last class I tried and use many of the techniques I observed from my host teacher. During the lesson I tried to challenge the students, and when I was showing them the skill I would have them tell me exactly what it was I was doing. I felt as though this made them pay attention more, and understand the skill better. Overall I felt as though this was one of my bests classes. Next Monday I start my second lesson, and I hope that is my best yet. "Keep Moving Forward!"

September 13th, 2012

Today was the second day of my lesson, and I feel as htough each class is better then the previous. I learned a lot from yesterday, and I feel as though my transitions between each activity have become much better, and more efficient. My first class today was probably the one in which I have the most out of focused students. I have been trying techniques like taking those students and using them during demostration, and trying to get right into the activity by shortening my instruction. Now this worked somewhat, but I had to take a lot of time out of the lesson for behavior management. This resultede in not being able to teach the entire lesson. At the end of class i brought the students that were not focusing in class and I asked them what grade they should recieve for themselves. At Victor the students are held for 20% of their grade being Personal and Socail Responsibility. The students in question were obviously not following this. The students were much more hard on themselves then I would have been, and I found this quite interesting. I explained to them the grading system and told them that we are now wiping the slate clean, and that they should act as role models to the other students, trying to give them a responsibility in the clas to try and steer them away from trouble. I am not sure if this will work, but I will keep trying to rmind them before class about their Personal and Socail Responsibilities. Other then that the classes today went quite well, and the students were quite cooperative.

September 12th, 2012

Today was the first day of my Teacher Work Sample. I am constructing my work sample around a rugby unit. I chose my first class, also my smallest class of the three day cycle to be my sample class. I performed a true pre-assessment on the spin pass, and flick pass, video taping the students initial attempts at the skill, and then later when I had free time I graded the students in accordance with a four point rubric system. I then gave the students a cognitive assessment in the form of a quiz, which is exactly like my post assessment, this way I can see if learning took place. Affective assessing was done in the form of a four point grading system dealing with question that had to do with teamwork, self confidence, confidence in others, and how much confidence they believe the other students have in them. This class went well, and after the main paperwork of my teacher work sample was complete I did the task I love the most, teach. With this class I was only able to get through about half of my lesson, but the students were quite attentive during the entire lesson, and I believe they enjoyed it. The next two classes I taught the beginning part of the class, and my host teacher came in and helped me teach the last two activities, which were line passing, and 5 to Glory which is a "keep away" type of game. This helped me better understand the activities, and gave me model to work my lessons upon. The last class was now my time to break out and perform an entire lesson on my own. The first part went quite smoothly, the teaching of the two types of passing, spin and flick. This class was my largest with thirty students, so the time I had to take with them was somewhat larger then the rest of the classes. We were able to perform the line pass activity with great success, and the students loved it. We unfortunately ran out of time for the 5 to Glory activity, but I will most likely use this as a type of instant activity for the students in the next lesson. Overall it was an amazing day, and I feel I am impacting the students for the better.

September 11, 2012

My first class today was quite positive. I truly thought today was going to be a rough day for me, because the exhaustion of all these long early days is starting to wear on me. Even though this may be the case the first class went quite well. This was a rambunctious class, but I found that if I was stern, but at the same time fair the students respected me. I normally try and talk loud and clear so that everyone can hear me, but instead today I decided to talk softly. This made the students really listen to exactly what it was I was telling them. It worked quite well. I used this technique throughout the day. I found that the students learned more from the video, and actually behaved better. Like I've said  before here at Victor classes are run on a three day cycle. My host teacher told me that every class you should reflect and improve upon the next lesson. I feel the same way about this, because that is the only way to be a successful teacher, by reflecting and improving. My last lesson for the day I thought was the best, and was in true form of this idea.

September 10th, 2012

Today I mostly taught the classes by myself with little interjection from my cooperating teacher. The classes thus far have not been too in depth. Due to the three day cycle we have here at Victor it takes quite a while to introduce the program, and perform beginning of the year tasks like handing out lockers. I have found that the once scared and hesitant seventh graders have now become quite comfortable with classes, and are starting to become more open. This is good for some, but not for others. I have had many "helpers" the past couple of classes that get to be near me for the duration of class. I am trying to be stern, but fair for the first couple of classes, especially with the seventh graders, because it will set the tone for the rest of the year. I am starting to become comfortable with the routine of being a teacher. I find it funny, because I know in many jobs I have had before I lose interest, and it becomes almost a task for me to go into work everyday. This feeling though has not hit me, and honestly this is probably the most effort and work I have ever put into something. I think being a teacher truly is my calling. I do not have superpowers, like I have wanted since I was a child, but being a teacher allows me to be a hero in someones eyes. That for me is the greatest gift in the world.

September 7th, 2012

I am writing this daily journal today because yesterday was quite a long day for me. We had a home game against Spencerport in volleyball. I felt like watching the sport in a game setting helped me to understand the "ins and outs" of it all much better. Our Junior Varsity team did quite well, we had a few errors, but in all our communication was much improved eventually leading to our victory. The Varsity though did not do so well. The amount of errors that they performed was unacceptable. Many people were out of position and of course when that happens, plays tend to break down. I never knew how intense of a sport volleyball can be, and I actually have found that I enjoy coaching and being part of that sport tremendously. Teaching went quite well. We showed an overview of rugby and assigned to the students lockers for the year. Now videos are usually not the best way to teach, but in the way that we did it I feel it was quite effective. For the first class my host teacher went over the video with the students, pointing out scrums, rucks, and line outs. After a while the students would start to recognize these and point them out themselves. This helped me to get an idea of what I should say. Toward the end of the day I ran an entire class. My host teacher was right there with me, but he did not do anything, not because he refused, but because he did not have to. I did not realize this until after I had run the entire class beginning to end. It was quite an amazing feeling. I have no background in rugby, and when I was going through the video I found myself relating the different techniques back to other sports like soccer, football, and wrestling, sports I know about. The students actually caught on better this way as well because now they had a reference point to work from. During the video I tried to incorporate math problems that had to do with scoring, and the students caught on quite fast. Overall it was a long, but good day.