Week 5

Week 5 in badminton consisted of:

Tuesday: Smash and Drive

Thursday: Doubles Strategies

During the Tuesday class I had the students work on reaction speed and they really seem to enjoy that. On Thursday I did partner activities during the warm-up to get them started before their double play. Concepts such as teamwork, trust and communication were addressed.

I let the students play as much as possible, in fact they are always playing. Maybe not for points necessary but they are always in game situations. Thinking I was doing well with engaging them, one student asked when it was time to actually play a game. I really could not believe my ears... it is probably the one comment I am always trying to avoid. I used the tactical approach, yet, they did not believe they were actually playing. I believe that "playing" to the students means competitive play with keeping score and in trournaments. That is what we are starting today. I understand where they are coming from and I guess next time, I need to have an organized system in play to have them play games with score and keep so forth. Perhaps even have a running total going. That is what I have been thinking about. I learned a lot from teaching this way and I learned how I can do it differently, hopefully better, even though I think the students have been enjoying themselves. I will do a self-reflection/ evaluation today and that should provide some insight.

This week we are starting our tournament play! Singles first, than doubles.

The game is on!

Chapter 2! grrrrrr

Ok, here is my chapter 2:

Right now, after 35 hours of writing I am stopping. I am handing it in and pick it up again in the Spring. I am officially brain dead! Ok, no I did not hand in all the pieces of papers of notes, no I actually did write it in a paper ;) But those pieces on the floor is what started it all! Organization is key... then... I locked myself in for a few days and did not come out until it was done. Putting on real clothes felt weird so that's it... get a life Helena or better yet.. pick it back up and start moving. I have tried to insert movement when I am writing but I just work better if I keep going. It is only with writing that I happen to stop moving, I just feel that if I move the words will fly away haha Anyway I am glad I got this far.. I have a good first draft of chapter 2, not completely finished reading articles so there is some I must add and I need to pull it all together and make it one cohesive chapter but no time for that now as Chapter 3 is soon due! Off to the next project!

Week 4

It has been quite a week as far as homework and keeping up with writing my chapter 2 of my dissertation but now I take a break and reflect on the badminton course. We are now 1/2 way done and the students received their first progress report. I checked it and checked it and think it was a very fair way of grading.

Here was the scale I used:

1) Personal/Social Management: /3 (they give this grade to themselves following a rubric)

2) Activity Logs: /3 (I was very impressed how some students really seemed that they enjoyed keeping these logs, some were very detailed)

3) Badminton literacy homework: /10 (students made a warm-up card and contest game)

4) Exam 1: /5 (most students did well, averaging 80%)

5) Skill: /2 (if they did the skill assessment, or not)

6) Activity engagement: /10 (I gave them this grade based on their level of activity in class, participation in all activities)

Here is what I like and what I don't:

• I designed this to be in 3 parts, meaning have 3 sections in the course, each with an assignment like this one.. so every 5 classes. I think that is too much. Next time, I think I will do it in 2 parts,


• The students put a lot of work in studying together for the exam and it only counts for 5 points which I think it should count for 10 and than one in the end also for 10.


• I like how the grading is really up to them. There are no complaints... if they are active, in class, participate and complete the assignments, they earn a good grade. If they don't, the lose marks.


• Students really believe that these courses are easy A's and they should not have to do any work. While they are considerably less intensive as far as the acquisition of knowledge, students are learning a lot in this approach.


• So far I have integrated the Sport Education Model with the Teaching Games for Understanding model. I really like the tactical games approach and it works well when having teams set up.


• Lots of students do not take their attendance in the class serious, which they should because we have a policy of 4 absences = F and their daily participation affects their grade. But this affects team organization, spirit and play. I kept the teams low at small 4 to 5 members per team and I note that most there are only 3 or 4. Not sure how to solve this issue. When we start the tournaments, it is difficult if teams are only with 3. I either have to create teams of 6 next time or keep them as is and figure something else out. There must be that happy medium.


• The roles are good but I do not see a lot of them play out. Mainly due because I do not reinforce them. I have the coach and the fitness leader which are done right and well but there should also be an official and a scorekeeper and those roles are not being filled. I have the space and prefer all students to play as much as possible. I truly believe they can ref their own games within. Perhaps during tournament play I will have 1 team who will be officiating each time. The scorekeeper just fills in the scores at the end and really does not do anything else. I have been thinking that next time I would like a "goal setter" and a "motivator" in place of the scorekeeper and official. This is because I think it is important to have students motivate each other in the class and if someone is in charge of that, it may enhance team spirit. I would like someone to be the goal setter for the team... he or she will have a goal setting sheet and will first make observations of game play (during the first couple of days) and starting day 3 they will ask for a weakness and a strength of each player + team. Then, each day, the goal setter will look at the goal, if it was met they will set another goal and if it was not they will encourage the students to meet that goal. There could be a team goal as well but that would be for the coach.


• That being said, I think I would like every roll to have a separate page that at the end of class they sign off on. I want to make sure the coach is intentionally coaching his or her players so he or she should write down what they worked on. Including the fitness trainer and the goal setter. The motivator could reflect on the mood and team atmosphere and how to enhance it.


• We now have 2 more classes and we start the tournaments. I am still thinking about how to create these tournaments. I am asking all the students to present their contest by teaching the game to the class and will have 1 group per day of the tournament present in stead of the warm-ups... that should take 20 minutes and then we go into straight tournament play. I will do a timed play and a type of round robin. I am thinking of perhaps doing singles and doubles as well but I have to organize my thoughts around that.


• I am thinking about not doing the 2nd exam but having them do a class assessment about the model we are using. Having them reflect and write about their experiences in class can be very valuable to me in order to enhance the course now and in the future.


• Finally, I am already starting to think about teaching my team handball course this way and I am kind of getting excited because I think it will work very well in that class. Again, attendance issues aside!

Well, that is it for last week. Tomorrow we will learn the drive and work on movement on the court.