Day 18...Exceeding Expectations (4/8/10)

Just another day in the life of student teaching and a pretty uneventful day at that.

My first class continued their baseball/softball unit. I really enjoy teaching this unit and to this class. We reviewed the overhand throw and grounders that we worked on the first class. It’s nice to know that regardless of how many days between doing this unit, the students still remember how to perform the movement. This shows me that the students are learning and remembering what I have taught them. That is always exciting! After five minutes of that, we moved into learning underhand tosses. It was a struggle to keep the kids under control and not throwing the ball hard at their partner or very high in the air (mainly the guys and one or two girls). I then gave them a challenge of moving and throwing to their partner.

Afterward, we practiced base running for the last 10 minutes of class. We played a base running game called “The Run Around.” In this game, the students are to set up their bases to fit their needs; they can be far apart or close together. Each group has five or six students but preferably five. There are four students that are on the bases and one at home plate. The person at home plate is the “batter.” When the catcher says go, the runner starts running the bases as fast as he/she can. The catcher throws the ball to first base, first base to second, and so on until it gets back to the catcher. If the runner makes it around before that, he/she gets a point. If not, it’s like an out. The students then rotate with the runner going to first and the catcher being the next runner. The students really liked playing this game and it was nice to see how creative the students were in setting up their bases.

What’s even more is that out of 21 students, I managed to receive 12 homework sheets back. I was so surprised at the amount I got back. I was expecting a lesser amount. This class is a sixth grade class. Maybe they don’t know how it’s supposed to go in PE. They are still too young to know. You are suppose to be resistant to what the teacher gives you and does for you. Come on kids, it is PE. There is no homework in PE (yeah right). :)

Once again, my honors class never ceases to amaze me. Today we worked in hip hop dances. However, they are still pretty basic steps and line dancing but using hip hop songs. In the beginning, after the warm up and initial instructions, I introduced them to a new song and new combination of steps to “Let’s Dance” by Lady Gaga. In the first initial steps and including my instructions, it looked like it was going to fail and fall apart. However, it just took a little bit of adaptability, thinking on my feet, and warming up by the girls in order for it to turn out good. I also had to tweak my instructions a bit for the girls to understand it.

There was a girl who came in and I noticed that she was crying. I had the girls start teaching their steps to one another for just a review, especially since a few girls were absent the first time. During this time, I pulled her aside to ask what was wrong. Of course, she didn’t want to tell me so I just told her that if she ever wanted to talk about it, I was there. I proceeded to tell her that whatever she needed to do to make things better she can do it, whether that is to sit out or continue doing what we were doing. She sat out for quite some time. When we got to the partner dance to the Lady Gaga song, she got up and started dancing with her friend. She was smiling and having a good time. I was glad to see this, but deep down she was hurting inside. I am glad that she found something that could take her mind off of what was bothering her.

This is the class where the higher skilled girls are trying to silence the lesser skilled girls. During the dance unit, all of the really high skilled girls are placing themselves closer to me and the front. The lesser skilled girls are the ones who stick near the back of the class. They still look like they are enjoying themselves. However, I want to get these girls more involved and more intermingled with the rest of the girls. I am going to have to make sure that the next time we dance, they get different partners; one that they have never partnered with before. Either that or try incorporating line changes so those girls will get a chance to be in the front and the others in the back. One way or another, I have to try to break this oppression by one group over the other.

The third class also decided to do a soccer unit. I took them outside and did the same lesson as I did with the other class but this time I told them that I have to start with the basics so that I can see where their skill level is. If I think that the majority of you are doing a good job, we can progress quickly to playing games. The students seemed a little more at ease at this statement and seemed to be more willing to work with me instead of putting up a big fuss about not being able to play. We worked on basic skills such as passing with the instep and trapping the ball. As I walked around to each pair or group, I noticed those who needed more help than others. The ones who did really well, I told them that they could start moving and passing instead of being stationary. At the end of the class period, we played short sided games.

I even spoke a lot more in Spanish with the students today. I am still hesitant to speak in Spanish with them but slowly that hesitation is diminishing. I can see that they are becoming more comfortable with speaking more Spanish with me as well. It’s nice to see that we are making this kind of progress, but it saddens me that it took this long and my time at the school is drawing to an end. Guess I have to make the most of it and keep practicing!

Like I said, today was a pretty ordinary day. Nothing too major popped in my head or made me think about things in another light. Today though, everything exceeded my expectations. The majority of my students in the first class completed their homework, my honors class really liked the dance lesson enough to ask to do it again the next class period so they could finish the dance, and my Spanish-speaking students are beginning to talk to me in their language as well as me talking to them in theirs. The students definitely exceeded my expectations and I exceeded my own expectations. It’s always nice to have days like these; when everything just seems to be falling in place and going right for once.

Until tomorrow!