SPSU9W6 – Sports Work Experience (Spring 2020)

Due to me still working during the world pandemic I have tried to get up each morning and have a structured plan to my day so that I remember to set some time aside for University work. This is a very strange time and I feel its important to keep occupied or I would simply drive myself insane.

I wasn’t sure how the powerpoint presentation was going to turn out because of the circumstances and us having to do a voice-over instead of a class room presentation with some of our peers to observe, but overall I am happy with my result and this was probably the best solution for us.

I have nearly finished my report, I am waiting until my next day off to sit and read over what I have written and finish it. I have found that while writing this report, looking back at the powerpoint I made and the blogs I have written that this module was a great way for me to enhance my skill-set as overall I’ve become more confident and organised.  Therefore, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone in the future. This is my last piece of university work to submit as today I completed my dissertation and submitted it which I am so relieved about. This was my priority the past few weeks as I didn’t want to rush it but now I have a couple of weeks to look over this report which is ideal.

When I am not at work or completing course work I have found that doing home workouts have really helped me stay positive and stress-free. Face-timing with friends and family also helps as its important to stay connected or I’d feel very fed up because I go out with my friends pretty much every weekend so this is weird for us. Very random but I have also started a Marvel movie marathon which has been great and a good way for me to occupy the weekends as i have some free time.

I hope everyone is staying safe and that this clears up as soon as possible so we can get back to some sort of normality.

The past few weeks have been interesting ones. Several weeks ago, I carried out my presentation over a video I recorded. I found this quite difficult as I didn’t feel as though I could connect as much with my audience as I would have if I had been doing it in person. Even though I struggled in this aspect of the presentation, I did feel that the ability to rerecord as a positive. This made me feel slightly calmer when recording it, as I knew that if I made a mistake I could go back and fix it, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if it was in person. As I got the results of this presentation back today, it has made me feel proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish under the current circumstances.

I will be starting the report in the next few days, as I am currently finishing off an essay for a different module. I am excited to write this report as it will be good to reflect back on my experience as a whole, plus learn more about the field through academic literature.

I am currently at home with my family, who have moved my Nana into the house so she isn’t lonely during the isolation period. While my parents have been working during the day, my Nana has been helping me with university work and keeping my mind occupied. As this report is my final deadline to hand in, I will have more time to spend with my family and I am looking forward to it.

This is stressful and uncertain time, and knowing I have essays and reports to complete has kept me sane. I am nervous for what my mental health will be like when I have nothing to focus on, but I am sure with the help of my family and friends I will be fine.

I am still in Stirling at the moment, as I had many deadlines due one after the other and it looks very complicated to go back to Italy. I could really not deal with all the stress and the many hours of travelling while still have a lot of work to do. I, therefore, decided to stay in Stirling for now.

I started working on the report a few weeks ago and I have done some research. However, I had to leave it last week to focus on three additional deadlines I had in the same week. I have my last exam today and I will start working on the report again tomorrow. That will be my last deadline and I will try my best to figure out a way to go home afterwards.

Although some days go slowlier than others, I try to keep myself busy all the time and not overthink. I study most of the day and I am also still working in a supermarket. This really helps me getting distracted from the monotony of the routine. When I am not studying or working, I either go for a run or for long walks alone in nature. I really do it, especially in the early morning. I am also trying to learn some new skills: I am learning and practising to play the ukulele and it is harder than I thought! It really takes some of the stress off and it keeps me busy for a few hours every day.

When the weather is nice, it really helps my mood although we are still not allowed to spend much time outside. I’ve also started to meditate occasionally and it seems to help me cope with the situation.

Sometimes I still get concerned about my family and relatives back home and I get a bit stressed about the idea of maybe not being able to see my family soon. I hope the situation will improve in the next weeks so that I can go home and stay with my family without any issue.

Apologies for the late blog post – better late than never.

I was quite sad to leave placement early at Wallace High School due to the schools closing – thanks coronavirus. However I completely recognise that health comes first and that it was for the best. I feel that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience while I was there and now have a better insight into the life of a PE teacher, and have developed some key skills which will help me when progressing further through my degree and career, even though the experience was sadly cut short.

My mentor had said that she was happy to sign off that I had completed the placement – only have covered 26 hours. However, under the current circumstances, I feel that this is understandable and there isn’t much more I could have done at home remotely considering it was in a school.

I felt that from my placement I still had a lot to take away from the experience and talk about for my presentation.

Preparing for the presentation I didn’t find to be overly difficult, as all you had to do was reflect on your time on placement and what you gained from that, I didn’t find it difficult to talk for 10 minutes, it was especially useful having the blogs to look back on as it reminded you of your journey throughout work placement, helping write the presentation dialogue. I made a PowerPoint and used the audio recording – which took more than several attempts, as I am not the best with technology personally. It was good as I didn’t have the pressure of having to present in front of a class – which can be nerve racking. However, I found it not as effective as it could of been, as an audience could have asked questions to help bulk out your presentation and given you different angles to talk about.

Overall, the experience has been very beneficial to my personal development and I would recommend anyone to take part in the work experience module to get some hands on experience. It is also a great addition to any CV.

With the recent spread of the coronavirus, I was advised to stop going to my placement sooner than I had hoped. However, luckily I had already finished the 30 hours that was required. Even though I had completed my 30 hours, I was asked if I would like to stay and continue helping out every week for the foreseeable. Due to these current circumstances I have been unable to do this, which has been quite disappointing for me as I enjoyed my placement a lot and felt as though it gave me great experience in the teaching field.

I was also due to interview some of the pupils that I was teaching as part of my dissertation which I can no longer do. These interviews allowed me to provide the PE department with some valuable information on students’ reasons for dropout and motivations for participation. However, I have told my placement that I would send them a copy of my finalised research project so that they were able to evaluate the data that has been generated from pupils in their authority.

In regards to the presentation assignment that was due last week, I enjoyed the idea of getting marked on my presenting skills and effort made that day as it was something different that I have never really experienced before. Even though we didn’t get to present our presentations in person, I hope the effort put into delivering these assignments was reflected in the slides and handouts.

So what has been quite a hard week stuck in the house I have mainly been doing assignments. However, thankfully I had finished my placement before the pandemic of the coronavirus had kicked in and made up all of my hours. I felt the placement was very beneficial as it gave me a lot of experience in working within a P.E department and has helped me to build key skills for the future which will go a long way when I apply to my postgraduate degree. The only disappointing thing was that I got asked to continue coming along every Wednesday to help out which would have benefited me more, however with the circumstances I obviously can’t fulfil this anymore. In regards to the recent presentation submission, I really enjoyed it as it was something different having to record myself and present through my laptop.

On the 17^th of March I received confirmation from my mentor that I could no longer attend my placement at Dunblane High School. I had expected this news as I had already been made aware that Active Stirling were implementing measures to aid in slowing the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Despite being prepared to receive this news I was saddened by it, as I had found great enjoyment in my placement.

Unfortunately, due to a delay in starting my placement, I had only completed 10 hours by this point and was concerned as to what impact this might have on my successful completion of the module. I contacted my mentor to enquire about completing my remaining hours via remote working but was told this would not be possible under the current circumstances. I felt slightly concerned at this point, however, was reassured following an email exchange between myself, Hazel and Romie which explained my situation.

Once I had cleared up the situation with regards to my placement I began to think about my presentation. As I had only completed 10 hours on placement I was concerned I may struggle for content, however managed to complete the presentation regardless. I constructed my presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint through which I was able to create the slides and record an audio narration. I felt I was able to discuss what I did while on placement in adequate depth however did have some concerns on my personal reflections section. Initially I was happy to do the audio recording as opposed to physically presenting to a group, however on actually attempting the recording it felt odd not being able to direct what I was saying to a group and interpret their responses and feedback. Also, I felt I began to second guess some of what I was saying which led me to re-recording certain sections several times.

While clearly not ideal, I feel the disruption in my placement and within the module has reinforced the need to remain resilient and adaptable in the face of adversity, something which will serve me well in my career going forward.

So obviously, with the recent pandemic of the coronavirus my work experience placement has like many others been cancelled. I found this out when my mentor phoned me on Monday the 16th of March, which was obviously not ideal as I had planned a lot of stuff for the upcoming sessions however, health definitely does come first. I had no issues with accumulating my thirty hours as I had already done so and there was no work I could do from home. To add to this I received lovely messages from the schools I was working at to first of all apologise for my placement getting cut short (despite it not being their fault, no one can control this) and also to say thank you for working in their school for this semester. This was very touching and basically told me that I had made an impact in these schools despite only being there for a short period of time.

Obviously, the big task for this module recently was the Power-point presentation which we changed from an in-person presentation for a voice-recording over the top of the power-point, which was definitely an interesting experience and my first time recording a presentation like that. However, for someone who is not great with technology I was really happy with the end product and the effort that I put into it. I went over a few things with my mentor (over the phone and email of course) to help me get most of my experiences across in the best ways possible in such a short period of time (presentation only being 10 minutes long). This was a great help to me as well, as it allowed me to see just how much I had learned and experienced during my placement and how much I had developed not only as a coach but as a person throughout the placement.

To top it all of I happily accepted a part-time job offer to become an active schools coach in North Lanarkshire. This was a real surprise to me as we heard Craig talking in the seminar to tell us just how hard getting in to active schools organisations really is which showed me that my hard work really has paid off and I can’t wait to get started again.

Finally just a small note to whoever is reading this, hope you are well and coping with the chaotic times that we find ourselves in just now, stay home and stay safe.

This blog post is very different from the others as unfortunately covid-19 has resulted in university shutting down and a lot of online learning has to be done that involves online seminars. For this work placement module we had an online meeting to discuss how we should write our final report for our work placement. Luckily I had completed all my work placement hours beofre this awful pandemic had began so it did not affect me not being able to complete my work placement.

Due to the covid-19 and with the closure of u iveristy this meant I was unable to go into university to do my presentation about my work placement. I was a bit annoyed I could not go and physically present this to my lecturer and placement mentor as I was really looking forward to dressing up smart and going to present. Instead of going into the university to present we had to voice record ourselves presenting the presentation which I thought was ok, but I for sure would have done a lot better if I could physically present it.

I am going to talk about the end of my work placement as a strength and conditioning coach. Towards the end of my work placement I was very very tired and it had been a very long but very enjoyable week. The last day of the work placement was cut short due to a team cancelling their training that day. I sat down with my mentor josh and had a sort of debrief meeting and Josh asked how I found the placement to which I was able to say it was very very enjoyable and very interesting and I for sure learned a lot and learned how I can implament some of the coaching I learned during the work placement to my current job as a fitness instructor. Josh also then gave me feedback on how I got on and it was all very positive feedback which was nice to hear.

I have throughly enjoyed this module and my work placement and would for sure recommend it to other students as this will for sure help with my future employment!