My Journey towards a structured curriculum

When I started a career, I never thought that the school should have a structured curriculum for PE. The students should go to the ground and play. This is the exposure and experience I had in my initial years. The reason behind this was diversity of the strength that each class had. As a teacher I did not have a constructive program to accommodate the multiple strengths that a batch of 50 – 60 students exhibited. Even though the students were asked to work on fitness and games, there was no planning and documentation.
And so, the program was free flowing or rather more appropriately said, unstructured. The other reason, I was sub-ordinate to another teacher and so changes in program or novelties were not well appreciated.
Alkhor International School, Qatar showed me a new way as I was the only anchor. Though I would not say that PE program as the best structured program, my first step towards a better structured program was taken with a serious intent there. Neither this stint, I would say was truly satisfying. Yet a constructive first step was taken.
It was newly started school. Space, time and resource for new initiatives were abounding in the new setup. In this school for the first time in my practice, in my mind, I had scheduled timing for different games and different skills. The students as a result of this small initiative from my side took a lot of interest in learning different skills and activities that would help them play many games. This had not only given a great confidence boost to my learners, but the abounding interest levels also made me think further on bringing in new skill-based PE activities. None of the above details though had a document form to it.
Mallya Aditi International School really gave me exposure to documented planning. This is due to the practice already existing in the school, the team teachers who really believe in planning and documentation. The extremely supportive administration and timely expert inputs is best in the field which really help me as a teacher to work on a structured planning and documentation. This also helps me to work more efficiently. The other aspect that worth mentioning is the professional development programmes the teachers were exposed too is a fantastic part of any teachers’ career. In this way the school helps the teacher to update their knowledge in the field of education. This development programmes helps me to work as a confident teacher. Here I have really understood the importance of the structured planning and documentation of the curriculum.