Teaching at Paul Revere

This past week, I got the opportunity to teach two periods of P.E. class at Paul Revere Intermediate School.  I taught one class of fourth graders and one class of fifth graders.  We were just finishing our unit on floor hockey, so we began our class period with a review of hockey rules and techniques.  I began with a warm-up where the students ran 6 laps around the gym and then walked one.  When the students were finished they sat in their squads.  Once everyone was finished, I started the review by reading the questions one at a time and waiting for students to raise their hand to answer.  I awarded each student who had a correct answer with two "Panther Points".  The students did very well on the review and I was confident that they would do well on the test which was the following day.  After the review, I divided the students up into four teams and directed the teams to their respective courts (I had the gym divided into two courts).  After assigning positions to the students, we began play with a face-off.  The students had a lot of fun.  I tried to get the games going quickly because I wanted the students to get as much activity as possible.  Each class period is only thirty minutes, so trying to maximize your activity is key. Between the two classes, I only had one real instance where a student's behavior became an issue. In one class, this particular student, who is a year older than all the others, was playing too rough and I received more than one complaint from other students.  He was also screaming very loudly throughout the game for no good reason. I pulled him aside and asked what was going on.  I informed him that other students were upset with his rough play and that I thought his screaming was unnecessary.  After that, he seemed to behave better.  Overall, it was a great experience.  For the most part, the kids there are great.  I knew it was gonna be a good day, when I first walked in and many of the kids were excited to find out that I was teaching class.  If I was nervous beforehand, it went away when I found out that the kids were just happy to see me.  I noticed in particular that a lot of the male students were happy to have a male teacher and when I thought about it, all of the teachers that I have met at Paul Revere are female.  So I think its good that I can fill that male role model void that might be there for some of the students.  Many of them know that I am a soccer coach, so that alone draws a lot of their interest.  After this experience, I look forward to teaching more classes.

First Week at Paul Revere Intermediate School

     After spending some time at Paul Revere Intermediate School in Blue Island, I have been able to learn a lot about teaching and about students in general.  I have been working with third thru fifth graders in their P.E. classes.  My cooperating teacher has been awesome and I have been able to learn a lot by observing her methods.
     Class periods are only 30 minutes long, so it is important to maximize the time in which the students are active. Each class begins with the students running around the gym while music is playing.  The students begin running when the music starts, and when it stops they begin to walk.  Following the cardio warm-up the students sit in their "squads" and prepare for the core workout portion of the warm-up.  The students follow a CD with instructions for their sit-ups and push-ups.  Following the warm-up, the teacher will give the class their directions for the day's activities and shortly after, the activity will begin.
      So far we have gone through two different units.  We just recently finished our soccer unit and have now begun the hockey unit.  Following the soccer unit there was a review day and a test over soccer concepts and rules.  I graded these tests and the majority of students did very well and demonstrated that they understood the concepts. I was able to teach a class period this past week and that was very exciting.  The class went really well and the students all understood the game we played and they had lots of fun.  I will be doing part of the hockey review later this week, so I am anxious to see if I can help the students prepare for their test over the hockey unit.
       It has been a great experience so far and I am looking forward to continuing my work at Paul Revere.  The diverse student population and an excellent cooperating teacher have helped to make this experience a good one for me so far.