Saturday, November 29, 2014

Field Blog 4


Over the last few days I did 10 observation hours with Mr. Gainey. He was my assistant coach my last three years of high school basketball and therefore we have built a strong relationship. Because of this relationship I was comfortable asking him about different things he and his co-teacher, Mr. Shelley did during their physical education classes. This was my first experience observing in an elementary phys. Ed class because when we went to the elementary school as a class I ended up being there during a seventh grade class. I have been excited to see an elementary class because I feel that is what I would want to teach the most.  Through my experience I have found this to be true.

While doing my observation I saw every grade level from kindergarten to 5th grade. It was interesting to see the huge differences between the age groups. Mr. Gainey started off by telling me how they try to set up every class. The usually start with a  warm up activity and then they will either teach a new skill or review a skill they have previously taught and then have to kids participate in a game that has them practicing the skill they just learned. This is the second time I have seen this format and it seems to work well with the students. Introducing or review the skill and then letting the students’ practice it in a fun activity seems like the best way to get students participate.

What I learned most out of these few days with Mr. Gainey was how to properly address students of that age when a problem occurs. In elementary school the students have issues that seem insignificant to us but are a big deal to them. The students would often complain how their "friend", as Mr. Gainey calls students who choose to partner together, was not doing something or being nice to them. When this occurred Mr. Gainey would have the students step out of the activity when there was an appropriate time and have the student with the complaint explain to the other student how they were feeling. The students would usually just shake it off and want to get right back into the activity. When Mr. Gainey would talk with a student one on one he would bend down so that he was on their level. Having a teacher stand at 6'3 can be a little intimidating to a student but, I feel the students feel much more comfortable talking to him when he is down on their level.

Mr. Gainey and Mr. Shelley both did a great job of keeping the students attention and having control over their classroom. They used a trick that I have seen used many times but in a little different way. They would clap to get the students attention but they wouldn't just do it when got extremely noisy but yet every time they needed the students’ attention and if the students didn't stop talking they would silently wait until the students quieted down. Using the clap every time sent the message to the students that it was something they should respond to all the time not just when they felt it was important.

This experience was different than the ones I had previously had in class because I was very comfortable asking Mr. Gainey any question I had without hesitation. I also knew many of the kids from my summer job at the Boys and Girls Club and that gave me an advantage because I knew how they behaved how they were there and how they were behaving in the classroom. With many of the kids they were completely different because of the structure that was in the classroom. Observing Mr. Gainey has reconfirmed my thoughts on wanting to work with elementary students over any other age group.

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