Jim Caswell Lab B Orienteering

Putting red Fred in the shed

What?
For my lab B I was challenged with an activity that I was not very familiar with. Although I did not like the activate that much I still had to teach it to the best of my capabilities so I took a lot of time to try to learn different skills used in orienteering to bring to my class. Upon looking at the pre-assessment I saw that most of my group were low skilled in orienteering, and some (like myself) never heard of it. So I decided to teach one of the most basics and important skills needed for orienteering, using a compass. With the cues of Set the degree, put red Fred in the shed, and follow the direction of travel arrow, my students were taught how to use their compasses to navigate from 1 point to the next. I feel that the lesson went pretty well and my students enjoyed the challenge of using a compass, some for the first time. During the lesson and especially after i watched the video I realized that i have relatively good positioning during activities. For the most part I'm moving around and all students are in view so i can observe them and provide feedback, although sometimes I tended to walk over to the middle of the group which is not good because not everyone is in my view. To be completely honest i had a very hard time with this activity, for starters I had zero interest in it, but i realize as a teacher I'm not always going to like the activity I'm teaching, but need to teach it to the best of my abilities because its not about me its about the class. I also have never used a compass before so i had a hard time explaining what was needed to use them to my class, and it showed when i typed my script a lot of times saying uh, um and stuttering while explaining. Another thing I feel that i could do better as a teacher is provide better feedback. Most of my feedback was just general feedback often saying "Good job", i need to provide better feedback that would mean more to the students. One of my biggest mistakes i felt that i made in this lab was not being completely prepared, and its not because of me being lazy it was more of an ignorant mistake. When I came up with the degrees I should of practiced them out myself and gave the students places to start so that they did not run into a wall (which happen a couple of times), or each other. This is a big mistake to make because its not safe for me not to know completely where the students will end up and if they were running injury could of occurred and it would of been all my fault. Also i should of done better with planning with equipment and gave a compass to each student not just 1 person of the group so each student was able to practice the skill more

GUT

I feel that my students learned the basics skills to using a compass, and gained interest in orienteering. Orienteering, for the most part, was very unknown in my group. Many of the students put in the pre-assessment that they have never heard of it before. During my instruction and the activities my students looked like they were interested in learning something new, and practicing it. When i was observing the students finish their last barring i was pretty excited to see when they landed directly on their first marker, like they were supposed to, and i think they were excited to get it right as well. I showed to them that i was happy by telling them good job and giving them a high five for nailing it. I also found teaching this lesson very rewarding, coming into this i had 0 knowledge of orienteering or even using a compass, so i had to work very hard to be able to confidently bring this new found skill of mine to a class and teach it to them. The fact that i was able to do so pretty successfully was very rewarding to me.

So what?
Now that i taught my Lab B, and watched myself over and over again I realized some mistakes that i made that could potentially be detrimental to my students learning. For example I was not 100% completely prepared. Experienced teachers learn to anticipate safety problems and to arrange equipment, space, and people so that the environment both is safe and facilitates learning (Rink, pg. 134) I did not completely set up my activity by not knowing that if i allowed the students to start where ever they pleased that they could end up running into the wall or table. Although i did catch it by being in good position to view everything, this is a problem that is easily avoidable and should not happen.In reading chapter 7 of the book on page 134 Rink says. " In situations where advance preparation has not been adequate, the teacher's first priority during activity is to make the environment safe." I feel i did a good job at that by being aware that students had the potential to running into a wall so i stopped them and moved them over. What i should of done, and will do from now on when teaching this activity, is practice the barrings and steps i gave the students and give them a specific starting spot so that they do not end up running into a wall or each other. One of the things that i felt i did fairly well, and will continue to improve on is, staying in good position to observe each student during the activity. I didn't stand around in one place for to long, for the most part the whole class was in view so that i can keep them safe and provide feedback. There was a few times that i was in the middle of the class for a good period of time which is never good because the whole class is not in my view and i could miss something that could of been avoided and lead to an injury. Teachers should try not to get caught in the center for any length of time. The center does not allow the teacher to remain visually in contact with the whole group (Rink, Pg 137). One of the most important things i learned about my self as a teacher, that is directly related to student participation in class is i need to provide more and better feedback from now on. A teacher actively engaged in giving feedback to learners potentially maintains a productive and usually safe learning environment (Rink pg. 133). Teacher feedback maintains student focus on the learning task and serves to motivate and monitor student responses. When the teacher gives attention to the student, that student (and others as well) is likely to be more motivated and also to remain of task. Although i did provide some feedback, it was not enough and was mostly just general feed back, like saying good job. I need to do a better job incorporating the different feedback types to provide my students with better feedback so they will have a better understanding of what is needed to be done, while staying motivated. From now on when I want to give feed back like good job, I'm going to ask my self what was good about that, and explain it to the student I'm giving the feedback to. Or if i want to correct the student on something they are doing  I'm going to start by complementing something they are doing good and add to it by telling them what needs to be fix.

Now what?
Now that I pointed on some areas i need to work on to be a better teacher i will work on them while still bringing in new information to my class. Students now know how to use a compass, so the next class I hope to figure out a little course for them to put their new skill to a test outside. I also need to have less instruction time and more activity, when doing my c-10 i saw that 47% of my lesson was instruction where as only 34% was activity. Students don't enjoy PE when its lecture, they sit in classrooms all day listening to teachers, they come to PE excited to move and be active, i need to do a better job at getting the active so that they look forward to coming to my class.

Watch me teach Lab B here!!!!