The previous couple of weeks saw me plan out the unit. My rationale was simple - to try and give the students a feeling and sense that they are close to becoming teachers of physical education and moving away from being student-teachers of physical education. I really wanted to re-emphasise the importance of staying 'true' to who they are, hence the first week was going to be about reflections of them as learners and how these values and beliefs contribute to them developing their philosophies for their teaching and their thoughts on the profession. Everything else throughout the short semester from unit planning and curriculum planning, reflective practice, contemporary issues in PE comes back to this.
My enthusiasm is high - this is the one true subject (i think at least) that really focuses on physical education and its pedagogy, not sport and outdoor recreation, human movement or exercise science. It focuses on PE. For me this has been missing in many degrees for a long long time and I do not think that students are really afforded the opportunity to contextualise their discipline knowledge within PE and its contexts - so I am really glad that this can be the focus.
I was hoping that my planning for week 1 was meticulous. I had planned out the seminar and then reflected on it via notes that I had scribbled at various times in the handout section on what points I wanted to get across. I really thought my opening 5-10 minutes gave the students the feeling about how important this unit was and how I could be used to support them in my learning. I continue to offer myself up, but still students seem not to seek or want my help. Is this because of who I am? Is there some other way that I can give them access to the information (beyond MUSO and Blackboard)? How can I really engage them in developing in this way?
For me the PLR was unique and it has been an extension of what I traditionally do in classes (which is to try and find ways of connecting with students based on their backgrounds). As I walked the room there was plenty of discussion about the questions, but what were they actually learning about themselves? Many of the responses they had given were simply one word responses - I wanted this to be so much more...I am hoping that some students will go away and really sit down and have a look at these questions again because it is som important for how they conceptualise their teaching practices. I think that the stated purpose became clearer to them when we drew the links between the PLR and the importance of their philosophies (both personal and professionally). But we had so much discussion about the PLR that I really had to skip over the slides and discussion points that I wanted to get to about teaching and why you want to become a teacher. My thoughts in presenting my personal philosophy about teaching gave the students a feeling of where I was coming from personally - most of the SOR students historically have understood this, but those students enrolled in the Grad Dip have no such knowledge. My journey and approach now is that I have to 'live up' to these expectations that I have set and publicly stated to the group. I need to make sure these are explicit in my further teaching and I do hope that the students will continue to question me on these practices.
As a teacher educator one of the points that I find gets clouded in in units is that assessments are not really tied to the learning objectives. I know that these are aligned because I designed them this way, but additionally I overlaid the importance of a rationale for professional practice that would allow the students to see the link between what they were doing (in assessments) and in or for their future practices. We did spend some considerable time on the assessments (a goal that I worked for because in the past I have let students figure out these for themselves; often at the expense of my expectations for them), so I am really hoping that this discussion and time spent on the assessments here and now will guide them through their learning journey with much more clarity - only time and the students will tell? My concern though is the multiple modes of presenting the same information. It is not like changing it on the web changes all the printed materials as well. This was a downer for me. I had worked so hard on the MUSO site, that when I edited the unit guide a failed to make some minor editorial changes (three to four) and weeks of when journals needed to be completed. What complicated things more was that I have yet to change the MUSO site (hopefully it should be changed soon!). Bugger...this makes me look bad...do the students really think about this and me in a negative way?? Part of me says that it is really unprofessional and I agree, but I have so many things running through my head...
I really did not think that it was going to take so much time this seminar. My planning and timing was a little off and I did not get to spend much time explaining the philosophical readings. I did want this to occur to really clarify their understandings of a number of different levels. I perhaps could do this one or two ways; begin next weeks class with a summary of these readings and or do a podcast overviewing some of the important issues? I wonder what students would think?
I am really happy that some of the students got involved with using the technology. They were tweeting me in class, signing up for assessment tasks using their smartphones....it is really great! I am just hoping that they can see the potential for tools of the trade in their professional learning, podcasts, vodcasts, tweets and other social media. We really do need to connect with the generations and I am hoping that I can provide you with some of these skills and its applicability.
Signing off for week 1,
Trent 27th July 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment