The job, the career. And it begins!

We study to learn, to create a stepping stone to our career. We chose our career based on a number of influences. Hopefully it is because of a love of the job. A passion that drives us, a little whisper telling us this is what we are supposed to do. But it's not always the case. 

I remember my first education lecture at university.  One of the first questions asked was why people chose to study teaching. There were a number of answers but the most overwhelming answer was 'for the holidays'.

To be perfectly honest,  I didn't think much of it at the time. But after a number of professional experiences and a number of professional conversations with peers and mentors I have grown more and more shocked by the answer. For me, it isn't, nor has the appeal of teaching ever been the holidays. It's about the time spent in the classroom,  not away from it.
These reflections to, these thoughts are becoming more regular and more passionate for me.  And this is how I know. I know this is the profession for me.

On top of that is another aspect that often goes with any profession. And that is the specifics of any job. The things that become second nature. That may not be thought about and you don't realise how specific they are until you're speaking to someone outside of the profession. I find this very interesting.

Because only 3 and a half years ago I had very little idea about teaching. Now, I am ready to start my career and am extremely confident standing in front of a classroom. I didn't completely believe I would ever get to this point.  Where the excitement of teaching far outweighs the nerves.  But it is one of the greatest feelings!

This unit has taught me many things, but I think the greatest has been the understanding and the importance of reflection in teaching.  Without reflection we can not grow as learners, so how can we help others grow? This unit has been a complete and utter joy to be a part of and I am so grateful that it has fallen at the end of my degree. It is one I will remember with very fond memories

Thank you..

Nearing the end..

What have I learnt from this unit? What have I learnt from my experience of university? What will I take forward with me as I begin my teaching career?
Funnily enough these questions are ones that I have not consciously thought of too much over the past three and a half years. But today it dawned on me. I have learnt how to learn.
I have learnt the skills of learning. I now better understand how and why I learn as an individual, but also how and why others may learn. I learn because I want to. I learn because I have a thirst for knowledge. Because I have a drive and passion in me that makes me look towards the future. I can not help but be intrigued by the world and the people that surround me. I can not help but be hungry to learn why people and things work the way they do. I want to know.
So, in order to take this particular skill of learning and make use of it I need to understand that of my students. What drives them? How do they learn? And do they want to learn?
The last question is one that is intriguing and one that was hinted at during our tutorial last week. As a teacher, there is only so much we can do in the way of teaching. But the first step, before any teaching and learning can be done is for the students to be there. To turn up. To show an interest in learning. Beyond that, we, as teachers, need to motivate and engage our students so they 'press the button'. So they turn around and open their eyes to the learning that can be done.
Whilst learning can be inflicted it can not be enforced. If someone does not want to learn then they won't.
As I begin my career this analogy of the button and the turning chair (from the tv show 'the Voice') will remain with me. I hope that I can get my students there, to press the button, turn around and open their eyes to their own learning.

A teacher and a mentor....

The word mentor has come up regularly during my studies. And it is an important part of the profession that I am about to enter. Thinking back to my days at school, particularly those years in high school, my 'favourite' teachers were not only teachers, they were mentors. 

"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be." Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring

I think this definition of mentoring is a very good one. It focuses on the student, not the teacher or mentor. The idea of mentoring is to allow someone to recognise these things on their own. To develop as a person. A mentor simply facilitates and assists in this process.

This concept of mentoring is more than being a good teacher. It is about assisting students to recognise their own potential. For them to grow and develop academically, physically and emotionally. This is something that I am looking forward to doing. To be a mentor I will need to have the students respect. I will need to have their trust. From this, the teacher/student relationship can be formed and then mentoring can begin.


Reference:
Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring, Mentorset, What is Mentoring?, (2008), http://www.mentorset.org.uk/pages/mentoring.htm

Presence, Voice, Demonstration

'Teaching is an act.'
This statement shocked me when I heard it, only to soon realise that it is exactly what I do every time I step in front of a class. I have to speak a particular way and I have to have a strong presence. This is what I HAVE to do. Otherwise, I would be eaten alive. Though I have an 'outgoing' personality, I realised that I don't always want to be strong, or speak with conviction. But as a teacher, during a class, I have to. I have to demand students attention with my presence. I have to speak with conviction or the class will fall in a heap. It's strange to think that I will be performing for my entire career, but if I believe what it is that I am teaching then the job is much simpler.

Learning through feedback

The concept of feedback is very familiar in the sporting and teaching environment. Without it, students and athletes do not learn and therefore can not improve. Feedback for a skill can come in many forms, all of which are valuable sources of information and therefore can become learning experiences. These include internal and external feedback. How the skill feels or how it looks.
As a coach or teacher it is important to remember that feedback needs to be constructive. This is used as a motivational tool. It should motivate students and athletes to strive for more rather than give up.
Therefore the timing of feedback is important.
One thing that I learnt from a lecturer was to always finish a session with a skill that the athlete deems as 'good enough to finish on'. Never should you finish on feedback because there is no time to practice and implement the feedback immediately, therefore it is pointless and lost. By ending on a skill that is deemed good enough, an athlete will walk away from the session feeling positive. Therefore motivation is high. Rather than a feeling of negativity and failure. Never end on this!

How to train?

The concepts and principles of training are what we, as coaches and PE teachers, use to plan, sequence and teach training sessions and classes. These principles have been identified as important to the learning and progression of skills and fitness. They are:
Strength, strength endurance, aerobic endurance, speed, speed endurance, power, mobility, agility and flexibility.
All of these, when planned correctly and well contribute to a perfect training plan. However, as a teacher, there is one aspect that is vital but not on this list. And that is FUN!
If we do not make these sessions, lessons and learning experiences fun, then students will not be interested. They will not be motivated. They will not try their best and therefore the lesson is lost. So while these principles are key, especially in elite coaching and training environments, we as PE teachers need to remember that 'elite' is not what our students are. They are there for fun, to learn some new skills and hopefully to find something that they enjoy!!

The media

I read the following quote today about a performance review, it got me to thinking about how this concept has the ability to make or break anyone, particularly those in the public eye.

"For one performance review, I received a report that bore little resemblance to my own appraisal. So incongruent was its assessment of the quality of my work that I thought I had been sent the wrong review. As I glanced through the error-strewn missive, I was astonished by the ability of the author to conjure such a fictional narrative from so poorly informed points of history: innuendo, gossip, circumstantial evidence, gross inaccuracies, simple untruths and other cosmic distortions littered the document. I was confronted by invective masquerading as objective assessment. I stared at the offending document more in amazement than disbelief, but worried about how I might begin to extract myself from this hornet’s nest. I was gripped by a sense of impending doom, as if I were about to be hauled off to the Tower and my head impaled on a spike".              - Richard Hill

So how can this make or break a career? Well, unfortunately the media is a powerful source of information and distribution. And this is the main source of information for most of the public. Also, unfortunately, many people blindly follow what they read in the media. They recall the information that they hear and they take this word as truth. This is not always the case. The media are not always an accurate source of information. The media will generally only know small amounts of information or truth and from there they build their story. Therefore, we can not believe everything we read.



References:
Hill, R., http://keithlyons.me/personalising-performance-observations, viewed 16/4/2013