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What a Journey
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Reflecting on how this course has progressed, what can i say,intense, overload, stress, excitable but most of all i have loved every minute. delivering the fist every session (micro teach) to my final lecturer, shows how far this journey has taken me, For everyone that knows me, i seem a confident individual where as really i am humble and lack real confidence within myself, Thanks to the PGCE course my confidence as increased and yes i kinda doubted myself at times during the course, As a teacher (not qualified yet but nearly there ...hopefully) if i say so myself my sessions have improved so much by utilazing a range of assesments and teaching styles to promote different learning oppurtunties for different learners. Although the course is coming to an end, i feel that i can only get better after each session, this is a start of what i hope to be a fantastic career, and the PGCE journey as helped me develop from a boy to a man
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Its nealry all over
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What a crazy last couple of months have been, from completing assignment, to marking them the paper work never ends. This course as flown by and its nealry over before we turn around. Next week i can concentrate on students beating the deadline with their assignmnets which gives myself time to organize my teaching file and include little bit more info in the research project. The PGCE course is definetely the best thing i have attempted in my life, I know you lot as teachers are probavbly thinking this aint a blog - your right i just wanted to write on here to say that i wish everyone of you the very best in your teaching careers and that i will miss you all its been great completing this course with you all and i have meet some of the niciest people. Even though none of you could understand my accent to begin :) haha only joking. Crack on with your assignmnet and your files and i will see you all soon
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2 internal observations in one day and am done
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A huge day today where two college observations today and the five are done, during last week i realised that the weeks are flying and with being half way with my observations a decision was made, that two observation before half term will leave myself oly needed two external observation.
This morning my mentor observed my lecturer as i took 6 students to gowerton golf course to film their performance at golf, the group are level 4 and are the second years of the degree. This was the last practical lecturer i was to have with this group which was quite sad to say the least. The students were interested in letting me demonstrate the first shot on the driving range, although golf is not my strongest sport but thank god the shot was quite impressive if i say so myself, But that wasnt it my mentor interupted and decided to show his golf skills, the students were to love this unfortunately i did not what happened next was amazing as he stepped up to tee the ball he sliced it and nearly hit two old age female pensioners who looked straight at me in disgust - an apologisy was confronted to them but if looks could kill then you know what would happen. The group were shocked as they didnt expect this to happen but all in all was rather funny just lucky they didnt get caught. to brake the ice during the observation an ice breaker such as surely cant fail now, knowing that i took the blame for nearly killing two old ladies, the group showed their sense of humour and joined in, over all student enjoyed particpating in golf - time now to burn the video on disk so they are able to analyse their performance.
The final observation
Recently i have applied for a job at the college, and need every chance to do as much extra to put my name across to hopefully recieve an interview, I decided to take a risk with this observation and email the head of the Sports faculty and invite him to observe my lecturer, Very fortunately the reply was YES, which left me planning for two observations in one day. The group are the first years national diploma development coaching and fitness, The lesson was planned that students were to interact using the smart board, the lecturer was on principles of training, not many pre nerves were required during the observation, my attitude was to delivery a session as there is no time for nerves because you only get one chance to make a first impression. The students seemed to thoroughly enjoy interacting using the smarter board.The students seemed to have wanted to really get involved in the session which i loved.
when lecturer ended the group left and faculty manager called a meeting for tommorrow to give feedback, as we both were in a rush but he stated that he was very impressed. So touch wood tommorrows meeting goes well and i can write up the evaluations on the sessions - good times aye
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Question of Sport Quiz
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the last 2 weeks the ND students had been working continously on their assignmnet, when hand in date arrived i was shocked :0 that every single student had handed their work in, which is a great feeling other times they dont want to hand it in or cant be bothered to, As a past student it alway great when a lecturer praises when work rate has been good, the group were praised this morning and were readily motivated to get on with their next work,
For their hard work recently i set up a question of sport quiz, had them to draw names from a hat so they didnt choose the group, the quiz contained pictures of proffessional sports players and questions which were previously completed in their assignmnet, There was a visual footage from youtube"what happened next moment" where there was a multiple choice of answers, students seemed to enjoy this, it created freindly banter but also got some of the studetns to know oner another better, there was a prize for the group who won as its easter i thought a creame egg each would be appropriate seeing as easter around the corner,although fruit could have been another option to promote healthy lifestyle - do you think theyd prefer the fruit over eggs - dont think so.
A resource like this could be looked at as an advantage over all but only as reward if students are progressing nicely with their work.
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1st External observation
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Today was the fist observation from newport, as the weeks keep coming and going the more my anxiety increases as where into march already without a sight of an observation been assessed from newport university. Until now
Myself and Mark had arranged to meet outside the Scarletts stadium, a phone call this morning saying he had taken the wrong direction, within 5 minutes until lectures began no sign of mentor and no sign of students, it would be an understatement to say the least was i nervous, but to top it up with no students, when all weekend i had planned the lecture out.
Great timing, As Mark turned up, students arrived in numbers (although only seven attended) I knew from this momnet there is no going back something inside of me just wanted to me to do a runner, I introduced Mark into the HE students and a quick tour of the stadium.
The Lecture was based on "Analysing Sporting performances in Gymanstic, Tennis, Athletics and Swimming" Time was gone before i even looked overall i am really happy with the grade achieved, i feel am gaining in confidence everyday which is really helping in achieving my goal in becoming a Sports Science lecturer,
There a many areas for improvements mainly time management, especially on my session plan where i had planned certain amount of time on each activty and either was completed to soon or later than original time set. I look to improve on this before my next observation and look to challenge myself to get a grade 1.
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Research Project
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Although the RBL assignment is still underway its great that we have to continuously plan what to carry out with the research project. NOT!!!!! it seems that due to an ectic schedule i have not got much time to plan what to carry out. Although when arranged a meeting for this afternoon with my mentor to discuss ideas that i would consider to carry out with the research project - i finally prepared what will be carried out as my research project. In recent Lectures taken students been discussing that they have no time for college etc etc and we all have these problems i take it? its three letters EMA , students expect to turn up to lecturers and collect their EMA money and not attempting their work, So for my Research Project with advice off my mentor he accepts that i can carry this out only if newport do (please god) "Future aspirations of students in BTEC first diploma and BTEC National diploma courses" this gives me a chance to look at past education achievements, current desired aspirations and their thoughts on achieving these achievements. it gives a chance within the questionaires to find out why did they come to college isit for EMA, sports academy or for qualifications.
I feel there are a number of students who are there for EMA and sports academy, but feel a small number are there for qualifications i look forward to carrying this project out and finding out the difference between the two courses.
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Tutorial or maybe not
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Another ectic week comes and goes but thats all part of the Course, After a lecture with the first years National diploma yesturday it seems that everyone is struggling to attempt the assignment, As the sports academy games were cancelled this week i decided in lecture yesturday to arrange a tutorial for the students, which will enable me to guide them in the right direction when attempting the assignment. The lecture is Exercise, Helath and lifestyle which only takes place once a week straight after academy training.There has been a bit of a problem with this lecture as students come 10-15 minutes late due to over run academy sessions, although i have been to see about this nothing seems to have changed as students are missing out on key information due to their lateness, so today was my chance to arrange a tutorial where we can have a catch up on what they have missed and to monitor how there progressing in other units.
So what happens when you arrange a tutorial and the students agree to get extra help?
YES, got it in one only 3 out of a possilbe 18 turn up, what more can you do when you offer help and they dont want to know, sometimes it frustrates me and i beat myself up over it, but the fact of the matter is like the saying goes you can lead a horse to the fountain, but cannot make him drink from it,
I keep informing my mentor and advice such as if their assignmnets are not in tomorrow only a pass they get, As a trainee lecturer i know what its like when youre strugggling on assignmnets but when the helps there they dont want to know.
although tutorial went ahead and we had a discussion about the assignment which all in all was a positive, when you see students reactions when progress is made is the best feeling ever and makes my job worth while.
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Unit7- Exercise, Health and lifestyle
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today was the first time where i was in charge of the group, luckily i take this group for sports coaching, so i have already bounded a relationship wioth them, up until now i have been only take bits and bobs of the lectures due to one staff member walking out and another one walking in.
in fiarness i really pray that i dont get observed from newport for this lecturer due to the fact the students havea packed day and have academy training before where they either turn up 5 minutes late dirty and sweaty or turn up 20 minutes late due to having a shower etc, i have tried having a word to see if they can finish ealry but no response due to it being only an hour training. therefore students are really wound up and impatient due to being hungry, i have sugguested that they should bring packed lunch and eat it after training whilst walking to lecture. I enjoy teaching this group but my GOD this lecturer can be bit of a nightmare many of them are not interested in the module and find it really hard to be motivated.
they had to do their presenttion on stratergies that help smoking and stress alcohol while students in ghropus were performing the others decided to throw paper balls around really testing my patience so a quick sudden change where i told the students that were presentating their powerpoints to sit down whilst i just stood there until i had complete silence, then stated that if they wanted to mess arouind then please feel free to go, but dont waste my time, there time and most of all the other students time who actually want to learn, its the same students who mess around and i said look ur task 3 in coaxching was a referal due to you not attending and laying up, if you want to do the same then expect to fail this coursework am not wasting my time helping you when you dont help yourself, your 18 years old not 12 your an adult know start acting like one. i reallly had been pushed to the limit this lecture but they realized that a laugh is a laugh but dont push me because they key factor to all of this is learning and i dont want them to spoil it.
i love what am doing but it gets its up and downs when its good its the best feeling ever and when its bad well its unexplainable.
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Football Academy
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today i managed the 2nd team, in which was a home fixture against Barry College before the game we were top of the league with Barry bottom of the league, during warm up my players seemed over confident and less concentrated, this is where i got them to go back to the changing and had a team talk stating that football is one of the funniest games in the world its all about on the day, i told my players where top of the league but things can turn in an instant in football underestimating a team can cause a major upset, i told them to go out enjoy the game and play as a team and challenged them by asking them to fight to keep this top place going.i knew before the game if we underestimate them we will lose but if we focus on our job and play like we have been then we can win.
Barry travelled down to us today with a mission that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain, like i said football is a funny game within the first 40 secounds the score was 1-1 unbeleivable.To sum this game at half time up was what i told them before the game underestimate them and we will lose score at half time was colegsirgar 1 - 4 Barry the first half they outplayed us, which was a good way of telling the players not to underestimate anyone.
team talk at half time i said positives such as when we play we look dangerous and look like causing them problems all times, i did say then we need to talk more as its as if the players didnt know anyones name, so again i challlenged them and trying lift their confidence saying football is a game of 2 halfves and we can do two things:fist is try and get back in to the game and try and win or the secound is throw the towel in and lose by a bigger margin.
what do they do? - threw the towel in and lost 9-2, could have been much more in all fairness to Barry they were much better than us today and they taught my players a lesson as in never to underestimate a team as it might come back to bite you.
Overall i didnt want to be too critically i said what i needed to say such as where better than this, but i did mainly praise the team saying today goes as a bad day at the office but look lads where top and top for a reason i know what they are capable of doing and i cherish to help the team to challenge for silverware this season.
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Marking Assignments for the first time
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Last week four first year diplomas handed me their assignments in which my tutor advised me to mark following the criteria on the spec, how long does 4 assignments take for the first time - a good 2 hours as it being my first time i wanted to double check them. Monday i asked my tutor if she was able to have a look at my marking with the grades i had given, any feedback/advice is very much needed. Today my tutor arranged a meeting and explained that the grades and feeback i had given the students were actually good, it came to bit of a surprise to me but also has given me a bit of a confidence boast especially lately when this course does take its turn for the worse at times.Marking these assignments will give me extra confidence in the neat future.
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Analysis Sporting Performance
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Todays lecture was a follow up from last weeks, where the students were introduced to weightlifting/powerlifting events, todays session give some of the students a chance to experience performing some of the events whilst being filmed, this module for me has been amazing but tough in a sense you are teaching the learners to learn but learning as you teach, weightlifting is not my main strength but alot of wider reading had taken place due to the fact thst some of the students have more experience of the techniques of powerlifting events and would be caught out if researched hadnt been evident. its a lot of stress teaching but the students make it worth the while at times as they enjoy filming one another and analysing their performance and seem to enjoy the lecture which pleases me in terms of the relationship thats been made with the group. this unit made me learn so much about sports such as table tennis, squash that in the past i had little or no experience of the sport, i really enjoy the experience of teaching, but as the saying goes no guts no glory, the pgce is definetely the survival of the fittest.
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Coleg Sir Gar - Sports Academy/Research Project
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This week has been bit of mixed emotions, there are days where i feel like death and continuously ask the question is this for me? then there are days where i cannot get enough - well maybe thats taking it bit too far.
This week the sports academy first team reached the quarter final of the British colleges cup where they defeated pembroke college 5-1, this reseults states on how far the team has progressed since playing them 2 months ago where we were defeated 2-1. the team are a fantastic bunch of lads who really enjoy the sport and are looking to make history by winnnig this cup for the college which would be the first time in the colleges history.
There have been many sugguestion within the college staff room, considering that the sports academy within the college have fantastic partenrships and links with the rugby having links with scarletts and football having links with llanelli reds where they college players are representating their partenertships academy of u19s.the question that is mainly popped up is that many students are playing for the sports academy and enjoying representing u19s of the proffessional clubs but one problem is students education is being affected with their attendance and assignments levels decreasing.
This leads me to my research project where i really want to look in to the soloution of the future aspirations of students within the sports acadfemy and find out whether they intend to go to university after college, get a job or play proffession sports. it seems that so far the students whilst had a chat with certain ones they have admitted the only reason they attend college is to represent llanelli fc or the scarletts where they get a chance to impress where they can get given a chance at making a carreer out of playing. the college has stated that the sudents can only represent the sports team whilst still being enrolled on the courses if work suffers then so does the sport.
Past students have made it big in sports such as Darren Daniels and lou reed who were both past students and attended college just to improve their chances of success where they are currently both playing proffessional for the scarletts.
is it fair that students only come to college to play sport - where there wasting their time and lecturers time knowing they dont want to attend college but the only way they can play sport for college is if they attend college - its like a no win no lose situation.
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Observation
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teaching the sports coaching unit for the 6th week, Observation number 1 complete for this module. stress isnt the word when it comes to worrying about being observed, the last time i think i was this nervous was possible when i took my driving test where every part of my body was shaking,
the class are mixed ages between 16-21 and over the previous weeks i feel i have made a good relationship with the group, they are an interesting group and have the privalage of teaching them.The session was based on their 3rd task of their firsrt assignment in which was now being set as from todays lecture, to begin the lecture i put them into groups and give them a technique we previous worked on in previous lectures each group with a different technique, they had to feedback to the rest of the class what they had learnt in lectures before christmas.
the powerpoint i felt went well along with the group activities throughout the session and giving all students a chance to feedback to the class, throughout the previous weeks students impressed me on how much they learnt and impressed me even more when they told handed task 3 in thinking i had set a date for the task.
once the lecture was over my mentor sat down with me and give me some verbal feedback strengths and weaknesses follow:
Strengths
- good relationship with group, gained in confidence compared to first lecturer,good knowledge
weaknesses
- session plan needed more depth
- use a variety of teaching methods rather than chalk and talk
- same students talking
- need to get students learning from doing themselve
throughout teaching this year i need to learn from mistakes in order to progress until the next observation, although it quite disheartennig looking at the weaknesses i totally agree with them, i will take on board these weaknesses in order to help me progress as a teacher.for next lecture i will improve on dusing different methods.
from my expereince as teaching so far its kinda reminds me of driving, you really learn more when you have passed your test same as teaching you learn more when the class is all yours.
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First Practical Session - On my own :)
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over the last couple of weeks i have been taking the lectures but being observed by lectures guiding me in the right way, which i really appreciate, i have been involved with the module Analysis of sporting performance for the last 3 weeks, the class is the 2nd year of the foundation degree.
Todays session was a follow up of last weeks where week 1 = history of individual sport week 2 = practical (learning basic skills of the sport,) and week 3 is again down the leisure centre for 2 hours plannig a competiton for the students to participate in sqaush.
In all honesty there are days when i feel teaching is getting me down and then there are days like today where i feel there is nothing better teaching.The students were being filmed whislt performing and the competiton that was set up seemed to go down well with the students. Each student was filmed at least once in order to watch their performance back in the oncoming week and analyse their performance. It was a pleasure teaching the 2nd year (HE) the group are very mature and made life easy for me, considering what i was like when i was in college (a nightmare).
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My First Lecture for the Module -Practical Sports Coaching
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BTEC National Diploma Year 1 - Development fitness and coaching 9:15 - 11:05 am
The lecture was based on the third task of their assignment, which is techniques that are used by coaches in order to improve performance.The first session and techniques i decided to concentrate on was "Observation Analysis".
Having observed this class for a couple of lectures i understood that i was dealing with an interesting group of students, very energetic and inpatient, saying this i used the observation week to get to find out more about each student and try to get my point across .
Beginning of the lecture nerves seem to take over me as the classroom was rather small and 16 students all cramped together, seemed to get a positive relationship with the students which was a a plus, 2 hour lectures students seem rto get inpatient and very talkative but in fairness i didnt really have to stop the lesson to inform the students of their level of noise.
In reflection the class could see i was nervous to begin but after 10 minutes i felt in my comfort zone and began to slow down, i need to concentrate when giving sporting examples, that i use a range of sports rather than using mainly football.
Overall i am pleased with how the lesson went, time management was better this time, and students had met their objectives. quite a lot to improve on, but its a good start.