Week #8

Week 8 of teaching was GREAT!! Knowing that I am one week away from the end of my first placement is bittersweet. I am really loving my first placement and can see myself teaching in the high school setting, but I am excited to start at a new school to gain more knowledge in a new environment. There are a few points I want to touch on from this week that has help me gain confidence.

The first point, I wanted to touch on was being able to chaperone a field trip to the sports medicine symposium. This was fun and exciting for me because I was able to see my class in a different setting other than in the classroom. During, the symposium I had the opportunity to protector practical exams on various sports medicine assessments (i.e. taping, anatomy identification, first aid skills, and orthopedic exam). I was able not only to interact with my students but was also able to interact with students from other programs/schools and educate them on the world of sports medicine. The conference allowed me to also interact with some of my old colleagues and mentors. While talking to an old college preceptor about teaching physical education, she mentioned that they may be having some open next year at their school. It was really awesome that she stills is helping me further my career after all these years. My students really enjoyed the conference because they were able to see that all their knowledge and hard work has been paying off. I was excited to see my students interacting with other professionals in sports medicine and ask questions about different careers they could pursue in the near future. 

The next point, I want to touch on is talking with my cooperating teacher about parent-teacher conferences this week. We all sat down to discuss how the process works and what was all needed in order to have a successful conference. I'm not going to lie, I am a bit nervous going into the conferences because this is my first time leading the discussion when talking to the parents about their students. My cooperating teachers said I will take the lead but they will jump in to help me if needed; this gave me a bit more confidence and readiness to take on parent-teacher conferences next week. Additionally, we went through and made sure we had all the grades posted and any feedback written down to present to the parents with questions. I am really looking forward to finishing the last week of my first placement and completing my third observation during week 9.