Friday August 17^th 2012

Day Thirty at Mountain Creek State High School

I have been a bit worried for session 1 today due to the fact I have some of the students who were around during the kangaroo poo situation. I just got nervous that people would be talking about it or that it would still affect me. I learned quickly that it just did not matter. I grabbed my equipment for handball, got students to help carry it, and went down to the oval. Today I asked my teacher if we would combine with another class to give me more students to work with. Last Friday I only had about 10 students participating and it just dragged out. So basically this morning it was me teaching 40 male students. The class we combined with is a group of year 11 boys entering the fitness program. To say the least, they are very rowdy. But in a good way! They were all eager to participate and have fun. We were playing handball and got into game play quickly. It was fun to see my year 12 REC students participate more due to the fact that these year 11 students were showing them up. There was also something different about this session! The teacher we combined classes with had a pre service teacher as well. This pre service teacher is somewhere around 25 years old, and we got along great! He is pretty cute as well!! This was my first interaction with an Australian pre service teacher and it was cool to talk to someone who goes through this process here a bit differently than me. The class went great and I was happy to see all the boys listen and participate well. There was no poo in my bag at the end which was also a plus. Aerobics again went well and the students have now gotten a hang of our daily routine. Year 8 HPE was not exactly ideal today. I took the students out to teach them lacrosse. This was my last lesson to teach them before they start to take over the classes and begin their assessment of teaching us the games they created. Basically the students went wild. I learned a lot today. My teacher has been writing and giving my feedback lately during each class. Because I have now taken over each class 100%, my teacher has more time to sit and observe more thoroughly. Basically the students have never played lacrosse before which gave them energy and excitement. I tried to be firm in the beginning, but clearly was not firm enough. Once we got up and into the warm up game, rules were immediately not being followed. I have to have them drop their sticks and run to the end of the field and back. Once they got back they were to sit in front of me while we discussed the rules that were broken. I had them give the warm up game another go, and they were still having problems. Literally after every section of the lesson we had to stop, bring it in, and sit for the next directions. I was getting very frustrated and annoyed. I tried to set up the next drill for them to pass and catch with a partner. The one main rule I had for them to keep two hands on the stick at all times due to safety. This rule kept being broken and in result the only punishment I could think of in the moment was to run. Basically they were not listening or obeying at all and I was pretty fed up by the end. We never even got into game play due to lack of listening. I sat the students down at the end of the lesson and had to yell at them all. I was unimpressed with their actions and very disappointed with how the lesson ran today. Basically at this point all the students were looking up at me with their sad faces, silent as could be. I suppose I should have started off a bit stricter from the beginning to resolve some of the misbehavior problems I encountered. I hate yelling at the students, but sometimes it just needs to be done.