17th- 24th May

This week commenced with our first practical assessment in softball. Everyone was feeling a bit nervous before we started and this was made worse when our tutor, Dr Attard called us one by one to be assessed, under the observation of everyone else. I feel I did particuarly well in the pitching and batting activities and was even asked to pitch for the other batters, which couldn't have been bad. All in all, the assessment went fine and I would feel confident teaching softball to children. On the tuesday, we had another theory class  with Mr Riolo. I have became very fond of these classes as Mr Riolo is very passionate about physical education. He discussed the developement process of children, making referance to the child, coach and parent as important factors in this process. He often tells us that physical activity is not an inbuilt part of the Maltese culture, therefore people like him have to work harder to ensure interest is generated from children. He also told us that it is important that sportsmanship is integrated into coaching lessons. This can often lead to educating the parent also.
Furthermore, we also had our final hockey session before assessment next week. Our final session was all about shooting and goalkeeping. Saviour (one of the Maltese students) was fully kitted out in goalkeeping gear and we all got an opportunity to ping a few at him.
On thursday, we had another assessment. We were split into groups of two, one group for coaching volleyball and one for uni-hock. I was in the volleyball group. We were to coach around 20 students a particular skill in volleyball. We had already planned our session and included a lesson plan for the tutor. During my session, I intoduced the 'three pass rule' to the children. The first task was simply to get into groups of three, throw the ball between each other and then on the third pass, throw the ball to the oppsong team of three. I then made this more difficult by telling the children that while the opposing team was passing between them, they had to lie on the ground, get up again and recieve the ball before it hit the ground. After my session, Mr Riolo informed me that I had done very well, seemed confident and my positioning was good and instructions were clear . However, he also stated that I could use demonstration to better effect and that this could be done by using one of the more skilled children as an example.

After a hard week of being assessed, it was finally time to have some fun at the weekend. First up, we had a residence prom. This was organised by mainly some of the American girls and they did a great job. Everybody used it as an excuse to get dressed up and we all looked very smart. Going to the prom also meant you had to get a date, whom had to be proposed to in a public way.                                             With this in mind, I decided I would get into just shorts, spraying "Prom?" across my chest with whipped cream, and a flower in my mouth. Mary was the lucky lady....thank God she said yes! At the prom, we all had our chance to get photos with our dates and their was even a prom king and queen, but I didn't win. On the sunday, Ray, the night receptionist had organised a sports day for the entire residence. For most of the events, we were split into our countries. This was all well and good until Becca decided to go with Ireland instead of the UK.....me and Matt were not pleased! So, as the Irish were giving us stick, Matt and I decided to get changed into our Northern Ireland tops and get the flag out, which caused some reacction from not  only the Irish but everyone else, who also seemed to know the rivalry!                                                          

But all was taken in good steam and it turned out to be a great day. I even managed to win an event, the three legged race with Elaine, despite getting off to a slow start (narrowly beating two of the italian girls). After, memorably beating Becca and Matt in the semi after about three replays, we won the final against the favourite's, Federico and Ilaria.
All in all the day was a great success and hopefully more events like this are organised again to get the residence together for some good clean fun!