My most successful lesson on prac

When some off the classes I have taken so far have gone well, I have partially attributed this to luck (rightly or wrongly) but today’s PE lesson was up against it from the start with a range of variables destined to make my life difficult. A hot and windy final period in the middle of Ramadan summed up the challenge. Thanks to a term of teaching PE at Rose Bay P.S. earlier in the year, I was feeling confident and this showed in how well the lesson went, what I was able to cover and the feedback provided to me by my coordinating teacher Leanne Salis.

I was able to follow my lesson plan (Appendix D) to the very detail, which didn’t happen for any of my other 20 odd lessons during prac. This almost unique fact, plus the following feedback:

“Excellent plan, very clear and concise. [you] had a thorough understanding of what you wanted to achieve [and] you had the class well managed at all times. Overall this was an excellent lesson from start to finish! Well planned and executed” (Appendix E)

demonstrates that it was well structured and coherently implemented in a way that engaged the students and enhanced their learning outcomes (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2004: 3.2.2).

By establishing prior knowledge through scaffolded questions (and bringing the concepts back to everyday examples) I demonstrated effective communication and discussion to probe student’s understanding of the content (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2004: 4.2.2). This is also reflected in my Professional Experience Report :

“Excellent communication skills with all children aware at all times of what was expected of them.”(Appendix F)

By clearly describing the skills that would be taught in the sessions, then modelling correct and incorrect methodology using two (fairly coordinated) students, I demonstrated professional competence in planning the teaching and learning goals (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2004: 3.2.1) and used an effective form of explanation to support their understanding of the goals (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2004: 4.3.1)