Task 1
Aims - I hope to gain more experience of teaching groups either with someone else or by myself. I also hope to get more experience at the activities not only will I be teaching them about the activities but I will be widening my knowledge of the activity.
Objectives - I need to be confident to be able to talk in front of a group and tell them the safety brief or else something could go wrong if they couldn't hear what I've said. I had to be signed off for all the activities before I could take a group on my own, before that I had to be with someone else but we took it in turn to take a certain activity.
Targets - We have just had to hand all our qualifications in so they can see how much experience we have got. Our responsibilities are to make sure the groups have a fun, enjoyable time whilst learning something new. Most of our groups do not do these activities so it will give them a change to what they normally do.
Task 2
Day 1
The children arrived about lunch time, first of all we got split into our groups and there was a bit of confusion of what groups there was, they split the children up into 3 groups and we had 2 instructors for each groups, so we thought there was only going to be 2 groups in the end it worked out, I was with Vicky. They had to do an order of what people weren't aloud to go with other people, because if they were together we would never get a word in. We shows them around the college and told them about all the essential places they need to know and then they had lunch.
After lunch we did raft building we had 3 hours so first we asked them how they thought you tied the knots, they attempted but kept unraveling. Vicky did a demonstration on how the knots should correctly be tied and they watched as she did. They tried doing the knots with some help from us and they all gave a go. After setting up the raft they got it in the water having a paddle around, I was in a canoe as a safety boat. When they had got used to paddling, we played some games and as it was a hot day we thought some wet games would be in order. 10 minutes before we had to go the raft started falling apart, they loved that because that meant falling in the water more. They undid the rest of the raft and put it all away and then they got 5 minutes to mess around in the water. We headed up to the stores where we handed them back over to there teachers for the evening.
Day 2
It was a hot day this morning but thankfully we were doing kayaking which meant we could play lots of games which involves getting wet. We did a bit of racing games, which made them get used to the paddle so they could control it without going in circle, which some of them did. They did a bit of team work but incorporating it into a game doesn't make them realize they are. They got very wet during kayaking which they enjoyed.
After lunch we had high ropes is it was very hot by this moment so it has tiring being out in the sun all the time, we had sure they had lots of water and had sun cream on. When they weren't participating on the high ropes we made sure they were sitting in the shade if they were quiet and didn't distract the people participating. They all had a go even if they were scared, they still got off the floor which was a big achievement for them.
Day 3
In the morning we had team training this was quite good to have in the middle of the group because you have got to know the groups weaknesses and strengths. We did some big groups games but also some competitive games which they could race against each other for the big team games at the end of the week. It was very hot so we had a few stops for water breaks.
In the afternoon we had high ropes which I took, first of all we had a quick safety brief, and then I took them around the course telling them all what all the stations are like and how to do them. They were split in to pairs so that one person was spotting encase the other person fell off. They went around the course a couple of times each having a few times each. Then we played the waiter games which made them work as a team getting the full cups of to the other side of the low ropes course without spilling any of them, they also couldn't talk until all the cups were on the tray on the wood. They spilled the water quite a lot and I said there would be a fore fit instead of having there fore fit they threw the water all over me instead of other way round.
Day 4
In the morning we had archery they were all very hipper this morning so it was a bit hectic to start off with, we walked down the archery where they could mess around and get most of there excitement calmed down. We did a safety brief and told them how hold the bow and arrow because most of them hadn't done archery before. They did a couple of practice shots and even thought most of them hadn't done it before they were pretty good. Then we did a couple of competitive games where they were against other teams but also against everyone else. This one girl had an big operation a year ago on her legs and was still struggling to put a lot of pressure on them so she sat down through most of archery. But I didn't want her to miss out on archery, I wanted her to have at least one go. She had to put most of her weight in her crutches so I set it all up for her and held her bow, all she had to do was aim and fire. even though she didn't have control of it all she did really well and so nearly hit the target.
After lunch we had orienteering, Lucy could join in with it still because her legs were really hurting still, also Dan couldn't join in either because he had recently broken his leg and it was giving him some issues. We split them up into two groups and for the first one we went around with them just to make sure they understood what to do and that they could read the map. Afterwards they both went off by themselves and came back after the numbers we told them to get. We kept checking up on them if they were taking longer than usual, but they seemed to work well as a group.
Day 5
This morning we had a big competition of the two groups; the gutter ball race, big feet, 3 legged race and relay race. Both teams worked so good as a team and really wanted to beat the other team. It was so close in the end the other team won by 1 point but I was very impressed with my team.
We had a de-brief and it all seemed to have a good outcome and they really all enjoyed the week, their teacher had so much positive feedback to which we were very pleased off. They were such a good bunch of kids which we had a lot of laughs with. Lucy even gave me a hug and all high fives.
Task 3
Strengths - Vicky and I took it in turns to run a session which was quite good because we both had an experience of running a session instead of leaving it to on person to run the whole week. I ran Kayaking, High ropes, Low ropes and Archery whilst Vicky did the rest, sometimes one of use would add a little pointer here and there. It was like I was good cop and Vicky was bad cop, I was the one that made them laugh and joked around with them in the right format whilst Vicky was sensible in any situation.
Area's of improvement - Not in this week but in another week I had the work experience guy with me, he was a great help at the beginning but halfway through the week he'd say something completely opposite from me, for example when setting up the gun run I'd say you need to put the clips in or else they'll fall out but he was like no don't worry about that, you're be fine. That wasn't a dangerous situation but if it was then it could be quite risky.
Further development - By the end middle of July I was pretty confident in taking a group by myself and teaching them all the activities. The only one I wasn't too sure on was river crossing and just with more experience, and trying it more I would become clearer to me.
