My level of effort and engagement today: Merit
Why have you placed yourself at this level? Give supporting evidence.
I have placed my level of effort and engagement today at a Merit because of a few different reasons. I got changed and out there pretty quickly which was a good start. I have always really liked the game of dodgeball, ever since I was in primary, and hadn’t played it for a while, so I was quietly looking forward to it when I found out. When Mr Ackroyd first blew the whistle and nobody started running I was sort of confused, but slowly everyone eased into the game and it was much more enjoyable towards the end. When everyone (in my class) became more relaxed, we started playing better and catching more balls and I personally noticed that I actually started thinking about when and where players were most vulnerable (when they weren’t concentrating and picking up another ball etc) in order to have the best chance at striking someone successfully. I’ve noticed some girls pussy- foot around a bit during dodgeball (not in the usual way you do in dodgeball), it’s a bit odd, so I’ve got to say that that doesn’t make much sense to me.
Factors that influence participation: fun & enjoyment, challenge, social factors (being able to play with and against my mates)
Factor 1: fun & enjoyment + Factor 2: social factors
Like I said above, i’ve always really enjoyed the game of dodge ball and it brings back some good memories. I’ve kind of found that i’m also relatively good at it, for a girl, and so you always find you enjoy something more when you’re slightly good at it. Dodgeball is quite a social sport too in terms of the fact that it doesn’t stop you having a chat here and there with your mates or having a good laugh at people- so I enjoy that aspect of it too. This influences my participation in that it puts me in a good mood and makes me see no harm in putting effort into and really engaging in what I’m doing.
Factor 3: challenge
Because the other team were much bigger than us and we appeared much less confident, they had the upper hand and it was not until we were given two of their stronger players that we started playing well. So it was challenging for me, not being able to throw the ball at such a speed so they’d be hesitant to catch it (though sometimes i was surprised that they did). So I had to find other ways of hitting them with the ball by catching them off guard. And i’ve never been very confident in catching the balls when they’re going 12874017941026824 miles an hour so I was trying to put a bit more faith in myself and just going for it. A good challenge always influences my participation in terms of making me want to overcome it- so basically making me worker smarter and harder.
Bearing in mind the criteria in Resource 1, what could you do to improve your future participation?
I think to improve my/our participation I definitely think we could have worked more as a team. I looked over at the other class who had their stronger people up the front, with two people near the start of our ‘out’ line to hit anybody who got caught in. I noticed this was very smart. When they noticed that we were running low on players and we’d starting shooting at the basketball rim, three or four of their taller players would hang around that area and try and deflect or catch any incoming balls in order to not let us get the whole ‘out’ line in again. Just these small things gave them the 1- up over us, so I definitely think not really working as a team cost us.
alexandrasorewa 