Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

n this blog I will be reflecting on my sixth week on my work placement. My reflection will be produced around Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) [Refer to my blog ‘Introduction’ for more details on the model of reflection].

In terms of how the days went, all days had the exact same sessions through the same so the order of setting up games were all the same. The day was planned to give the children games and a competitive nature. Dids had the session plan of; In The Bin, Super Skills, Flag Tag Parents, and finally 2 Slalom Goals. The mids session plan was; Line Races, Super Skills, Colour Circle, and finally 2 Slalom Goals. Finally, for bigs the session plan was; Robin Hood, Super Skills, Battleships and finally Jump Hoop Slalom for goals. You can refer back to my ‘Week Five of Work Experience‘ blog for more detail on the day.

With regards to how I felt during my sixth and finally week of work experience, I was really confident going in as I decided to read over the registers and remember the names to make the sessions easier for me to communicate. This made me feel comfortable going into this weeks work experience. In terms of the session plan, I was happy that there was a compeitive edge to the games as it would allow me to get more involved with the children, to try and win. On the flip side, I found again that on day 2, the children wasn’t as focused compared to the other sessions. A lot of them were running around and not joining in on the sessions. This did make me a little fustrated chasing the children around, however; I learnt to use what they were doing into the game. This made it more enjoyable for the children and easier for me. Overall, the week went really well and I was happy with the progression.

This week of work experience has allowed me to dig deeper into the occupation and understand the job better. The children can have their days of wanting to release more energy but its how you use that into the sessions. Tailoring the games for them types of children are essential to making sure the children aren’t getting bored and for the parents to remain happy bringing their child to the sessions. I asked the parents for some feedback to which they all said positive things. On the other hand, most of them said to stay confident and the children will acustom to how I coach. In terms of an action plan, I seek to remain at this occupation to dig deeper into the job and gain further experience coaching with younger children with different abilities and characteristics.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

Week Five: (Started: 8:20 | Finished: 16:20 | Overall work placement total hours completed: 61 hr 40 mins/60 hr) HOURS COMPLETED

This week at DiddiKicks might be my last in terms of the hours compelted for the module, however; I have decided to stay with the company and work as an assistant coach for the company. This is to allow me to continue my coaching journey and learn more about the type of occupation. This weeks sessions were all about games rather than drills, so there was alot of races and competitions between the children and the coaches.

Here are the sessions plans…

Dids Session

The first game is In The Bin…

The children must clean up the room by putting the rightballs and cones into the right bins. They must collect a ball, dribble it into the right bin, throwing the corresponding cone too. Be sure to put each bin ‘rubbish’ as far away as possible so the children have to dribble further around the rubbish obstacles.

After the first game is the Super Skills…

After the first game, the children untake Super Skills which are balancing skills that tests the childresn control of the ball the skills are:

(1) Tough the ball with body parts for example; Head, Elbow, Foot, Knee

(2) Balance the ball with your foot on the ball for 5 seconds then swap feet

(3) Step overs with a monster stomp

The second game is Flag Tag Parents…

being chased by the coach can be sometimes scary…and every diddikicker chasing after one coach is a recipe for bumped heads. So its time for the parents to get involved… with one guardian per child, give a tag belt to the guardians with their child running after them for the first round until all three tags have been taken off. Once all parents have been caught… flip it around, and have the guardians chase their little ones. The coaches can help block the parents off to allow the diddikickers to escape the chase.

Finally the goals: 2 Slalom Goals…

(1 – Left side) Run up to the first arch and crawl through it, then jump up and run to the next arch to repeat. Race to the football and score a big goal. Develop by putting parents or coaches in goal.

(2 – right side) Run through the three pole slalom, shoot and score. Develop by putting parents or coaches in goal.

This session is ended with a cool down with the body parts song. The children then put on their space suits and blast off to space. The children must then chase the coach with the stickers to recieve their sticker for their sticker chart.

Mids Session

The first game is Line Races…

Line all the children up on one of the coloured lines. The aim of this game is to dribble to the different coloured lines and perform and action. E.g. dribble to the red line and put your head on the ball, dribble to the yellow line and sit on the ball. Progress this game by adding in more than one instruction, 2if they are doing well at it. E.g. to the red line with head on the ball then jump up and go to the yellow cones with elbow on the ball.

After the first game is the Super Skills…

After the first game, the children untake Super Skills which are balancing skills that tests the childresn control of the ball the skills are:

(1) With one foot on the ball: roll back and forth, then draw a circle with the ball.

(2) Repeat with other foot.

(3) Step overs

(4) Trap the Ball: The coach will pass the ball towards their feet, the children must control the ball with their feet and then pass the ball back.

The second game is Colour Circle…

Set out a large circle of cones in the middle of the room, with enough for at leat two diddikickers per colour e.g. 14 children; 2 white, 2 blue, 2 red, 3 green, 2 orange, 3 yellow cones. When the coach shouts a colour, the children on that colour will roll their ball off their cone using their foot, dribble around the circle and return to their cone putting the ball back on top. Wait 5-10 seconds between calling colours so that 2/3 colours are all travelling at once. Develop by insisting that they dribble around the poles at each end of the room. Develop by shouting multiple colours at the same time until all colours are shouted out at once.

Finally the goals: 2 Slalom Goals…

(1 – Left side) Dribble their ball up to the first arch and gently tap the ball through and meet the ball on the other side. Then dribble to the next arch to repeat. Dribble to the goal and score a big goal. Develop by putting parents or coaches in goal.

(2 – right side) Dribble the ball through the two pole slalom, shoot and score. Develop by putting parents or coaches in goal.

This session is ended with a cool down with the body parts song. The children then put on their space suits and blast off to space. The children must then chase the coach with the stickers to recieve their special sticker for their sticker chart.

Bigs Session

The first game is Robin Hood…

Have two teams in bibs (red and blue) and have them at the opposite corners of the room. One at a time the children must run into the middle, drag back a football and dribble the ball to their team as fast as they can. The next child can then go. When all the balls have been collected, count up the which team has the most and congratulate them. To develop, let all the children race to the opposing team to get their balls using the same drag back technique. The team with the most balls at the end wins.

After the first game is the Super Skills…

After the first game, the children untake Super Skills which are balancing skills that tests the childresn control of the ball the skills are:

(1) With one foot on the ball: roll back and forth, then draw a circle with the ball, finally draw a triangle.

(2) Repeat with other foot.

(3) Chest control: The coach will throw the ball towards their chest, the children must control the ball with their chest and then trap the ball with their foot.

The second game is Battleships…

With the children still in their teams with the bibs on, divide the the room in half with flat spots. Create 3 battleships on each side with cones as shown. The aim is to shoot (kick) their cannonballs over to the other teams side of the ocean and knock over all parts of their battleships. When all the other teams ships have sunk they should sit down in their team and shout BATTLESHIPS.

Finally the goals: Jump Hoop Slalom…

The diddikickers must race through the hoops on the floor, jumping from hoop to hoop, with single footsteps in each hoop, then slalom through the traffic cones, pass the ball to the coach, run on through to recieve a through ball from the coach, shoot and score, the goal scorer goes in goal and the goal keeper returns to the back of the line.

This session is ended with a cool down with the body parts song. The children then put on their space suits and blast off to space. The children must then chase the coach with the stickers to recieve their special sticker for their sticker chart.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

In this blog I will be reflecting on my fifth week on my work placement. My reflection will be produced around Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) [Refer to my blog ‘Introduction’ for more details on the model of reflection].

In terms of how the days went, all days had the exact same sessions through the same so the order of setting up games were all the same. Due to the day being special in terms of the children learning the right and lefts, the games were tailored to help them with labelled stickers on their trainers. Dids and Mids had the session plan of; Sticker Kickers, Super Skills, Wall to Wall Markers and finally Red Blue Goals. The bigs session plan was; Left and Right Relays, Super Skills, Balls and Cones Racing, and finally Red Blue Goals. You can refer back to my ‘Week Five of Work Experience‘ blog for more detail on the day.

With regards to how I felt during my fifth week/first week at DiddiKicks, I felt really confident going in after my experience with older children in high school. However, going into somewhere new without knowing the childrens names can be difficult which showed during the sessions. The games were really easy to set up which helps the process of the sessions. I didn’t struggle with any of the days as all the children were really good at what they were doing. On day 2, I found that I was help alot more with the dids because they were struggling with kicking the ball with their other foot. I was sort of glad that all days had children that were capible of dribbling with the ball. Each day went really quick due the session being about something I love which is Football.

This week of work experience has made me come to the sense that you need to lower yourself down to the children in order for them to listen and get on with you. You have to become a child yourself and make the games fun enough for the specific ages. I found myself racing the children to the cones to see if they could beat me, which they did. The sessions were really enjoyable and rewarding regarding the praise and smiles on the faces of the children and the parents. This week has gave me high interests in seeking further this type of occupation. In terms of my action plan, I will seek to remember the children’s names so communicating with them is easier. I will ask the lead coach questions about leading and how they find this type of occupation and finally I will ask the lead coach and the parents for some feedback on my coaching.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

Week Five: (Started: 8:20 | Finished: 16:20 | Overall work placement total hours completed: 45 hr 40 mins/60 hr)

This week of work experience is my first week at DiddiKicks where I will be working four days a week, working four sessions a day reulting in 16 hours in total. The days I work are Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day were comprised of two sessions with dids, 1 session with mids and finally 1 session with bigs.

This week was all about the kids getting help learning their left and rights. All sessions began with the children getting stickers to put on their shoes, a right sticker (which were red) and a left sticker (which was blue). These stickers were placed on their trainers to allow them to see which foot to use when kicking the ball.

Here are the session plans…

Dids and Mids Session

For this week, the sessions are the same for both age abilities; however, the goals are slightly different.

The first game is Sticker Kickers…

The children must dribble their ball around using both feet, then when the coach shouts out a colour (red or blue), the children must pick up their football and put it on top of the colour cone shouted out. The children must then kick the ball off using the same coloured foot as the cone. E.g. ball on red cone, kick with red (right) foot.

After the first game is the Super Skills…

After the first game, the children untake Super Skills which are balancing skills that tests the childresn control of the ball the skills are:

(1) Tough the ball with body parts for example; Head, Elbow, Foot, Knee

(2) Balance the ball with your foot on the ball for 5 seconds then swap feet

(3) Step overs with a monster stomp

The second game is Wall to Wall Markers...

Place 10 orange traffic cones on the far side of the room, with 9 blue and 9 red cones in the middle of the sports hall, with one of each colour on the lines (Blue cone of left stripe of cones, red cones on right stripe of cones). The children must dribble their ball picking up one cone at a time from the middle, and put it on the correct line of orange cones. When picking up a blue cone, have them dribble the ball with their blue foot, and when they oick up a red cone, have them dribble with their red foot.

(Dids) Finally the goals: Red Blue Goals…

Set up 2 identical goals as shown. When you say go, say a colour (red or blue). The children must kick the football off the coloured cone, with the corresponding colour foot. E.g. Score the ball on the red cone using their red (right foot. To progress this, ass in obstacles along the way e.g. jumps/salom/sideways or backwards walks.

(Mids) Finally the goals: Red Blue Goals…

The games are set up as shown on the picture to the left. One of the goals is the same with the dids where the coach will shout a colour and the children must kick the ball off that coloured cone with the corresponding foot. However; the other goal is set up differently. When the coach says go and shouts a colour (red or blue), the children must knock the ball off the cone and dribble the football through the gates and go on to score. This should also be done with the corresponding coloured foot e.g. knock the ball off the red cone, they must dribble with the red foot and score with the red foot.

This session is ended with a cool down with the body parts song. The children then put on their space suits and blast off to space. The children must then chase the coach with the stickers to recieve their special Right and Left sticker for their sticker chart.

Bigs Session

The first game is Left and Right Relays…

Split the children into 2 teams, then 2 teams again. At the opposite side of the room there are 3 red cones and 3 blue cones with balls on top (one for each team member). 2 at a time will race to the cones, drag back the football, pick up the cone and dribble the ball back to their team, putting the ball on top of the cones so the next 2 can go. If they pick up a red cone they must use their red foot (right) and vice versa. The winning team is the one that retrieves all their cones and puts their footballs on top. Repeat swapping blue players for reds.

After the first game is the Super Skills…

After the first game, the children untake Super Skills which are balancing skills that tests the childresn control of the ball the skills are:

(1) With one foot on the ball: roll back and forth, then draw a circle with the ball, finally draw a triangle.

(2) Repeat with other foot.

(3) Chest control: The coach will throw the ball towards their chest, the children must control the ball with their chest and then trap the ball with their foot.

The second game is Balls and Cones Racing…

With the children still in their teams with bibs on, put all the balls on top of either red or blue cones. Each team must collect a ball and their teams colour cone, giving the ball to their coach (not using their hands) and putting the cone onto the correct pile. The team that gets all their balls back to their coach is the winner. The team must sit next to their coach with their hands on their heads and shout “FINISHED” when complete.

Finally the goals: Red Blue Goals…

The games are set up as shown on the picture to the left. One of the goals is the same with the dids where the coach will shout a colour and the children must kick the ball off that coloured cone with the corresponding foot. However; the other goal is set up differently. When the coach says go and shouts a colour (red or blue), the children must knock the ball off the cone and dribble the football through the gates and go on to score. This should also be done with the corresponding coloured foot e.g. knock the ball off the red cone, they must dribble with the red foot and score with the red foot.

This session is ended with a cool down with the body parts song. The children then put on their space suits and blast off to space. The children must then chase the coach with the stickers to recieve their special Right and Left sticker for their sticker chart.

Welcome back to my blog!

Due to the circumstance that arose during my work placement as Wellfield High School, I feel as if being a P.E. teaching in high school is something that I would want to do as a future career. This has led me to seek other work placements to fulfil the rest of my 60 hours doing work placement. Teaching kids football has always been an interest of mine so I seeked somewhere that revolves around this interest. For the remainder of my work placement I will be continuing at DiddiKicks.

What is DiddiKicks?

DiddiKicks is a local pre-school toddler football company that follows the ethos of: engage, encourage, inspire and develop beyond football. The company focuses on developing the fundamentals of football and school for children from the ages of 18 months to 5 years of age. Fundamentals include; colours, numbers, balancing skills, and basic football skills (dribbling, shooting, passing). Within this, the ages are split up into three groups; Dids (18 months to 2.5 years), Mids (2.5 to 3.5 years), and Bigs (3.5 to 5 years) where the ages are different and abilities vary. The sessions are comprised of a; warm-up, game 1, core skills, game 2, and finally a cool-down.

What will I be doing at DiddiKicks?

During my time at DiddiKicks I will be in the position of an assistant coach, to help the children with the games and skills, and to help set up all the games for the children. The assistant coach is primarly about making sure the children are having a good time but getting involved with all the games. I will be working four days which comprise of 16 hours in total meaning four sessions each day. The days are all made up the same in terms of the ages that I will be coaching. This means that my 60 hours will be completed within two weeks.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

In this blog I will be reflecting on my fourth week on my work placement. My reflection will be produced around Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) [Refer to my blog ‘Introduction’ for more details on the model of reflection].

In terms of how the day went, the day was really easy as I only taught handball to two classes; year 7 and year 10. Year 7s were focusing on how to throw and catch and implement it into a game, while the year 10s focused on jump shots and how that can be portrayed in a handball game. The day finished with a badminton after school club to which pupils played badminton games for an hour. You can refer back to my ‘Week Four of Work Experience‘ blog for more detail on the day.

With regards to how I felt during my fourth week at my work placement, I felt more confident with my teachings due to the increased amount that I was doing. I was able to teach the techniques, coach the pupils playing handball and help them to be better and, I was able to progress pupils and challenge them which was part of last weeks action plan. Despite these improvements I’ve been seeking due to the set aim and objectives, I’ve fully come to the decision that teaching in high school is not something that I would like to do as my future career. This is due to the dull and tedious curriculum that is set in place with the lessons. I find it very constant and repetitive which for me is something that I would get bored of very quick. I also feel like with the student at that age, I am finding it hard to cope with the amount of trouble that they can cause. Despite my confidence in teaching and speaking in general improving, I feel as if this occupation is not for me.

In terms of an action plan, I have just found another work place that interests me as a possible future career. This will be announced in my next blog!

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

Week Four: (Started: 8:20 | Finished: 16:20 | Overall work placement total hours completed: 29 hr 40 mins/60 hr)

Week four on my work placement was very easy. Due to the two timetable rotation, I had two lessons due to the amount of free periods during the day. The first lesson was the year 7s who were on handball (throwing and catching) with year 10s on handball as well (jump shots).

The first lesson was for year 7s where their lesson was planned around throwing and catching. It was a fairly simple lesson where they began by getting into pairs where they threw and caught the ball around the sports hall. This was then progressed by splitting the pupils into four teams with the addition of the sports hall splitting in two to allow two games to occur. The aim of the game was to throw and catch down the width of the sports hall to catch the ball in the touch down zone. This was then progressed by implementing additional points for the different types of catches they performed. The lesson ended with a game in a rotation of the four split teams.

For the year 10s, the lesson was planned in a drill setting where there was two goals either end of the sports hall with two lines facing them. One at a time, the pupils had to dribble the ball towards the ‘D’ and perform a jump shot all within the handball rules and regulations. This was developed by putting a pupil in net to act as the keeper, with further progressions by adding in a defender. This lesson was finalised with a game where three teams were on a rotation to play against each other. Handball rules were applied and pupils were awarded extra points if they successfully perform a jump shot.

Finally, when the school finished there was an after school club. This club focused on badminton which was open to all years. Unfortunately, there was’t any teaching due to the pupils only playing games with each other.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

In this blog I will be reflecting on my third week on my work placement. My reflection will be produced around Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) [Refer to my blog ‘Introduction’ for more details on the model of reflection].

In terms of how the day went, the day was fairly easy as I mainly taught handball to two year 9 classes and a year 8 class. The first year 9 class learnt how to do a jump shot in handball, the year 8s learnt how to throw and catch in handball, while the other year 9 learnt how to attack and defend in handball. The only difference in terms of lesson topics was for the year 11s that had theory on the topic of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory systems. You can refer back to my ‘Week Three of Work Experience‘ blog for more detail on the day.

With regards to how I felt during my third week at my work placement, I felt more confident with my teachings due to the increased amount that I was doing. I was able to teach the techniques, coach the pupils playing handball and help them to be better and, I was able to progress pupils and challenge them which was part of last weeks action plan. Despite these improvements I’ve been seeking due to the set aim and objectives, I’ve currently been feeling quite bored of the teaching in high school aspect. This is due to the dull and tedious curriculum that is set in place with the lessons. I find it very constant and repetitive which for me is something that I would get bored of very quick. I also feel like with the student at that age, I am finding it hard to cope with the amount of trouble that they can cause. Despite my confidence in teaching and speaking in general improving, I feel as if this occupation is not for me.

In terms of improving myself for next week, I will seek other work placements that intrigue me for future occupations. In addition to this, I will carry on with my work experience at Wellfield until I complete 30 hours to see if anything improves in terms with inspiring me to go on the path of becoming a P.E. Teacher.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

Week Three: (Started: 8:20 | Finished: 15:20 | Overall work placement total hours completed: 21 hr 40 mins/60 hr)

This weeks work experience was fairly simple as the day was specific to Handball. This meant that all practical session were planned around different topics in handball. The first lesson was year 9s where their lesson was objectified on jump shots. The lesson was planned in a drill setting where there was two goals either end of the sports hall with two lines facing them. One at a time, the pupils had to dribble the ball towards the ‘D’ and perform a jump shot all within the handball rules and regulations. This was developed by putting a pupil in net to act as the keeper, with further progressions by adding in a defender. This lesson was finalised with a game where three teams were on a rotation to play against each other. Handball rules were applied and pupils were awarded extra points if they successfully perform a jump shot.

The second lesson was for year 8s where their lesson was planned around throwing and catching. It was a fairly simple lesson where they began by getting into pairs where they threw and caught the ball around the sports hall. This was then progressed by splitting the pupils into four teams with the addition of the sports hall splitting in two to allow two games to occur. The aim of the game was to throw and catch down the width of the sports hall to catch the ball in the touch down zone. This was then progressed by implementing additional points for the different types of catches they performed. The lesson ended with a game in a rotation of the four split teams.

For a break off handball, year 11s had their theory lesson where it was based of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory systems. The lesson started with a brain teaser questionnaire to prepare them for their next activity. The main activity was to (as a class) complete a revision sheet based off the two systems. After completing the revision sheets, they were made to complete six mark, exam styled questions to prepare them for their GSCEs.

The final lesson of the day was another year 9 classs, however; their lesson was different due to their set being higher than the first year 9 class. The lesson was planned around attacking and defensive tactics within handball. this started with the pupils splitting off into two teams and lining up facing the other team on the half way line. Whilst throwing the ball back and forth to both teams, when the teacher blew his whistle, whoever had hold of the ball had to attacking whilst the others ran back and defended. This was progression off a lesson they had already completed prior so their knowledge on how to attack and defend was already present. The defending team had to decide just prior to the main phase by deciding whether to defend 5 back or 4:1 with the 1 pupil chasing the ball down. The lesson ended with the teams playing a full handball match with extra points if they defended the ball successfully.

Welcome to my blog on my work experience!

In this blog I will be reflecting on my second week on my work placement. My reflection will be produced around Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) [Refer to my blog ‘Introduction’ for more details on the model of reflection].

In terms of how the day went, the day was fairly easy as I only taught two and a basketball match periods. The year 7s has fitness (circuit training) in the sports hall whilst the year 10s had badminton to which they learnt how to perform the serve. The day ended with a basketball match against Worden where they lost by a significant amount. You can refer back to my ‘Week Two of Work Experience‘ blog for more detail on the day.

With regards to how I felt during my second week at my work placement, I felt more confident with my teachings due to the increased amount that I was doing. I was able to teach the techniques, coach the pupils playing basketball and help them to be better and, I was able to progress pupils and challenge them which was part of last weeks action plan. All around I was jovial with my second week there as I was able to be a P.E. teacher. Despite the first lesson being the same as last week, I was able to progress the pupil which, in my opinion, made the session more enjoyable and not as boring for the pupils. The only downside to the day was the lack of lesson that I was in. Due to the fact that there was only two lesson towards the end of the day, the begining of the day was very boring as I found myself not doing much.

In the idea of improving myself for the remaining weeks, I believe that the only changes that I would make would be to occupy my time more efficiently and dig deeper into the occupation. I could also plan a lesson at the beginning of the day for the lessons later on to give better structure and time for myself to prepare and gather the correct information. For my action plan, I am going to ask the other teachers about the role of their occupation and see if I can help during my time there. I will also interact more with the pupils to help improve my confidence in teaching to allow a friendly environment to occur.