Whew! I made it through two weeks so far. It is amazing at how quickly time goes. When I get back from the conference and spring break, there is only 5 weeks left. It is so crazy. I remember my first steps on this campus and wishing that I would be graduating and now that it’s here, I don’t want it to happen. Agh! Why do I do this to myself?
For the past couple of days, I have been thinking about how I want to teach the students and the direction I want to go. I have been giving the cooperating teachers various ideas about how I want to do it. Taking what the students are saying into consideration, I didn’t want to just focus on doing the same things every time. I was thinking about doing 1 day aerobics, 1 day weights, and 1 day skill/game; 1 day aerobics, 1 day skill, and 1 day game; or alternating 1 day aerobics/weights and then a skill/game day. However, with every idea that I have been presenting, the male cooperating teacher keeps shooting those ideas down. He is still so stuck in the traditional views of physical education on how you have to have a unit, do that unit every day, and then give them skill and question based testing at the end. However, at the end of the day, my cooperating teacher came up to me and told me that whatever I have planned to teach and whatever way I want to implement it would be fine with her. I was so relieved to leave today knowing this.
My first class of the day finished the Tae-Bo unit and weight room. They did a lot better today with the video because it was the last day. It kind of feels like watching your own kids (or in my case, my nephew). I love it when the light bulb finally goes off and they understand things. It makes me so happy to see this reaction in students. However, this was one of the classes I talked to the day before about picking up their intensity levels and they definitely did so during this class, but who’s to say it was my little speech to them that made them pick up their intensity levels? It very well could have been because the teacher was in and out as well. They still don’t really participate when she leaves the room.
As I was running with the kids during this period, I thought to myself “Just because you had to do it when you were younger doesn’t give you the excuse to not do it now.” You can’t tell your students to do something and when they start complaining, you use this excuse. We need to practicing what we are preaching; we have to be living what we are telling our students to do. It really upsets me when a teacher, or anyone for that matter, tells someone in lesser authority than them to do something, but then they can’t do it themselves.
The second class also finished up their last day of Tae-Bo and we went outside and did the walk/run. I was very pleased that two of the boys (high skilled) wanted a challenge during the walk/run so I told them a little bit about fartleks. They were interested in doing them and I helped them do it. At the very end of the walk/run, they were completely gassed, but they said that they enjoyed doing them. Then during Tae-Bo, there was one girl who just wasn’t doing it. She was even complacent to not do anything when we went outside. I pulled her aside and talked to her about why she didn’t want to do Tae-Bo and why she wasn’t giving her best effort when we went outside. She proceeded to tell me that doing Tae-Bo makes her feel weird. I asked her if she liked to run and she said yes. “Then why don’t you do so outside.” She just shrugged her shoulders and went back to her spot during Tae-Bo. Most of the students who dislike Tae-Bo have said it makes them feel uncomfortable and weird. I wonder if it’s from the moves, the guy in the video (his wardrobe), or they just think that they look crazy doing some of the movements.
There is also a group of girls in this class who have created their own little “click.” They are mean in the stuff that they say and how they act towards other people. I have tried talking to a few of the girls, but it seems as if nothing is helping them to change their attitudes towards others. Maybe I am just not trying hard enough or if I don’t have the respect from them yet.
The third class did all run kickball and needless to say, they absolutely hated it. Periodically, I kept asking them how they could change the game to make it better for them. They just kept talking about going back to the way they knew how to do it (one kicker, one base runner) as opposed to all running. It was like pulling teeth just to finish the class off right; they didn’t want to run anymore. They were really tired after the class was over. With this class, we probably won’t do that kind of activity again. I will have to find another way to teach the students about different intensity levels without using that game.
I was rather proud of my thinking after this class was over. Rather than take what the kids were saying about the activity as a personal attack on how I teach and what
I teach, I listened to them and took their suggestions. Just because they didn’t like this activity doesn’t mean they won’t like the others. It was just that for this class, this activity did not suit them as well as it did for the other class periods. Part of my problem though is comparing everything to what we did in 466 and how the students reacted to that. I know I can’t keep doing that because not only was it a really small class and there were lots of us college students, but the students were older and more mature during the activities. I know I just have to give it time, but it’s hard to wait!!!
Today’s assembly was like a pep rally. My job for these assemblies is to make sure students have the right pass to be admitted to the gym. Me being me, I like to joke around with the kids such as saying “That’s your signature and not your teachers. Sorry you can’t go in.” or “Sorry we are at the max, you have to turn around and go back to class.” These students do not know how to take simple jokes and a little sarcasm from me as a teacher. I don’t know if they just aren’t used to a teacher joking around with them or they just don’t understand a joke when they see one.
The first speaker was instructing students how to participate in a pep rally. However, the speaker was quite monotonous and boring. There was no pepping up the students like she should have. Throughout the assembly, various teachers and faculty were trying to silence the students. That is not what a pep rally is; it’s not what you are to do. You can’t tell kids how to participate in a pep rally and then try to silence them.
Well, we get to have 2 weeks off now. It will be interesting to see how I adjust to coming back and getting into the groove of things again. I hope it goes by quick. I just want to be done already.
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