My First week observing

Being an observer during class is rather obvious, and the kids will let you know. Straight away.... they were asking "Are you a student teacher?", and "Are you going to teach here next year?” For something which I felt was going to be relatively easy and not so invasive, I certainly felt like I stood out, rather than blending into the background to watch the class as it unfolds.

Right away I could see how the classes would suddenly become segregated by the children in it. The kids who liked sports would just want to play field hockey rather than listen to the instructions, there were others who felt as if the gym time was cutting into their social hours, and then there were the others who I could see their pain when having to participate in an activity with children who didn't care for them and vice versa.

The teacher for this hockey class, I felt, was doing a good job in keeping all the students involved, and she seemed to allow for the students to remain in their cliques, but she did often mix them up, allowing for them to get to know each other a little better. She would use their names and offer encouragement very often and with a small teaching cue thrown in there too. It was a small class and they seemed to socialize more than I thought they would, considering the obvious groups they put themselves in to. In the end I felt as if the teacher made the lesson very attainable for all abilities, and she kept them all interested even if the lesson was covering the very basics of dribbling and passing in field hockey.

Introduction.....

Hi my name is Aidan, i'm 27 years old and currently a junior in college going for a Bachelors in Physical Education, with the end goal being a gym teacher.
During my college courses i'll be subjected to observation hours in schools, and then eventually i'll be student teaching. Right now i'm still in the observation stage, but before i know it, time will just fly by and i'll student teaching.

My current observation puts me in a middle school close to where I live. This school has around 950 students from grades 6-8. Each class i'll be observing ranges from 15-25 students per teacher, but obviously there maybe more than one grade at a time, so possibly there could be 45-75 students in a class. Wow, what if it rains? there's only 1 gymnasium...... that's a big game of dodgeball, or mat ball (should be interesting to see how that's handled).