Design For Learning 2

The first week of placement is always exciting and I was very eager to meet the classes I would be working along-side. Unfortunately, I was meet with my first major challenge early on - this was around reduced teaching/class time. Due to sickness juniors were rostered home Tuesday, and due to weather warnings kura was closed early on Wednesday for the remainder of the week.

This was a struggle for myself and my ability to form working-relationships. I felt very disconnected from ākonga (as I was yet to meet many of them) and fellow staff as I had not yet been given the opportunity to form connections. Highlighting the importance of whanaungatanga and forming a strong community both physically and online.  

This week I successfully reconnected with my AT’s and the HPE department. I began to successfully build working relationships with ākonga, who surprised me with their willingness to share and acceptance of my involvement in their class. This openness could be a result of a single-sex school.  

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I also reflected upon participation, and how at a single-sex school we appeared to have more ākonga participating within physical education to a higher standard. I also took the time to chat with individual ākonga about this and if they would enjoy having males in their class. Overall, the female ākonga were happy about their choice to study at a ‘girls' school’ as they believed it provided them with more opportunities to succeed.  

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Week three provided me with many co-teaching opportunities and my first chance to take a full lesson. It was great to finally feel connected and a-part of the wider-school community, affirming my place and learning journey.  

From week five onwards, I decided to add an additional yr11HED class to my timetable. This was to allow additional observations of my associates so that I may observe some senior health as well as more teaching strategies/tools that I could use within my own teaching practice.  

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I found adding this class highly beneficial as it allowed me to unpack what creates a successfully scaffolded lesson for critical thinking. Health requires lots of ‘big picture’ ideas and often links classroom topics to ‘real-world’ examples. Through enabling critical thinking, we are helping ākonga search for a deeper meaning and gain a larger level of understanding, one that goes beyond the superficial. It helps them explore the ‘why’ within the HPE discipline and create more independent learners. 

The major challenge this week was once again around reduced teaching time. Due to an additional public holiday, house sports day and the house performing arts competition disrupting and moving classes. It showed that whilst my kura highly values academic success they also value sporting and house competitions/success as they help to build a sense of school-pride and inter-connectedness across year levels as they enable the whole school to come together and celebrate! I believe the reward of continuing to have these events after delays was hugely positive for morale and was an amazing way to finish placement and feel the whanaungatanga within the kura. 

Kura moved to online learning for week 2 of my placement due to the flooding within the Tasman region. This posed new challenges and provided an insight into what it was like for kaiako during the peak of covid-19. The major focus was ākonga welfare followed by learning tasks - however the main challenge with this was around getting in contact with classes. Ākonga disengagement and low attendance during video calls proved prevalent across all my classes. The lack of contact with ākonga and staff once again made it challenging to form relationships within the school. 

On a positive note, I took advantage of my additional time and successfully created an introductory poster for my junior classes who I was yet to meet with the hope of beginning to form connections - and for my senior PED classes I created several resources including an ‘energy systems’ worksheet and ‘SPORT-FITT principles’ PowerPoint. Noting how important it is to use any additional ‘free-time’ wisely during my future teaching practices.  

My focus for the week was around gaining as many teaching opportunities as possible before the seniors leave for exams. Senior classes therefore had a focus on preparation for exams and squeezing in what content we can before the end of term. This focus did place additional pressure on ākonga and kaiako alike to efficiently use what time we had and heightened stress levels across departments.  

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Therefore, I highlighted the importance of balance, time-management, and study strategies during classes to help create conversations around stress and mental health. A valuable tool for ākonga and a valuable conversation to have within my classrooms, especially if I want to create a positive classroom culture in the future. 

One challenge this week was around marking and moderation. I was given the opportunity to mark several yr12PED biomechanics assessments and yr9PED energy system tests. It was an incredibly beneficial experience to mark papers and have key professional learning conversations around what quantifies an achieved, merit, and excellence. The learnings I took form these conversations were so valuable, and I will take them through to my future teaching practices. 

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An additional challenge this week, was when I taught for a full five-period day of back-to-back lessons. The day was extremely rewarding but also very tiring and puts into perspective how busy secondary kaiako truly are. The hardest aspect was around finding the time to follow up the small details from lessons, making pastoral notes/entries and planning content for the following lessons. Therefor in the future, it will be important to keep note of these details in a dairy and follow them up at the end of the day.