I have attended 2 three-hour placement sessions since my last blog posts. I have agreed with my mentor that over the next few weeks I will do longer hours in order to see a few full school days, and the variety of classes that visit in one day.
On one of my placement days, the department was understaffed. Three of the PE teachers were on a skiing trip, meaning some classes were sent out to other departments. I was given the chance to observe a National 5 PE class in the classroom. This involved looking at their volleyball training programme. I was able to go around the class and help pupils add in more practice drills. I enjoyed this as I took PE as a subject when I was at school, and it was good to be able to pass on my knowledge. However, next time I will try to be more open and more confident when helping the pupils. I was a little bit hesitant because I hadn’t thought of volleyball for a while. The pupils were then to explain to the class what they had added to their programmes and why. After this we watched some videos on how to perform the perfect pass in volleyball. The next class played badminton, which I was able to set up while the teacher spoke through the rules of the game.
The next week all staff were back, meaning there were more classes participating in activities. This time I was helping in a 1st year volleyball class. I collected the volleyballs they would be using and set up the net. This was their first-time trying volleyball. They started off with a few partner passing techniques, then began to pass over the volleyball net. It was good to help encourage pupils and make sure they were managing okay. The teacher spoke me through every drill and why they were doing it/how it would help them improved. I found this helpful as it allowed me to expand my volleyball knowledge even further. It also gave me an insight to what kind of activities are good to use when pupils are learning a new sport.
It looks like a challenging but also exciting environment to work in. Happy to hear more of it-Sara
It is great to see you’re in a challenging environment and already reflecting on your performance at your placement. Hopefully this will build your confidence even more.