This week, we dove right in to the nitty gritty of how we can become better teachers.
On Wednesday, we taught a random lesson that was given to us, in order to test the waters and see where we are as #PSUAgEd19 in regards to our teaching.
Thursday, we were given the task of presenting a 6 minute presentation to the "school board" which was undergoing budget cuts and looking to cut funding for the Agriculture program.
"Work it Wednesday" brought both gems and opps regarding my teaching at the start of my senior year.
Gems:
1. The activity that I planned for the class period was an appropriate length of time. (We were given a 15 minute time period and I was asking for suggestions on ways to improve my lesson at the end of the 15 minutes.)
2. I engaged my "students" in a group setting while introducing a new topic at the start of the lesson before asking "students" to complete an activity on their own without my assistance.
Opps:
1. While "students" were working independently, I could have played music so that there wasn't awkward silence throughout the lesson.
2. I also could have planned a little bit better when writing things on the board; instead of having students awkwardly watch me as I drew on the board. I also could have planned a little bit better and drew the image on the board prior to the start of my lesson.
3. I also recognized during my lesson that some of the parts of my image were not sequential in my slide show. So I could have double checked my slideshow prior to class in order to ensure that the slides were sequential and made sense.
I walked into my teaching lab on Wednesday feeling fairly put together- which, by the way, is rare for me. During my lesson I felt as though I had not gone deep enough into my lesson and had left my "students" guessing on the test that they were given to prove what they had learned. However, after reading through the comments made regarding my lesson; all of my "students" had mostly positive things to say. The only opportunities for improvement were very minor details such as playing music while students were working independently, or giving students more time to find the answers instead of "giving" the answers.
Lessons will continue to get better.
But until then:
Hi Kayla! It is great that everything went so smoothly. Those little insights are awesome in the fact that as you get more experience it will make everything run more smoothly and you will feel much more in control. But such great insights as you establish the flow of your classroom. Congrats! -Diane
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your feedback Mrs. Cornman!
DeleteKayla,
ReplyDeleteYour enthusiasm for teaching students is well described in your first week of classes. It is exciting that there were so many positive aspects you can reflect upon. Your modifications to lessons are examples of your desire to extend student learning to prepare them for their futures. Good luck next week!
Kayla, I love the quote at the end and I agree that it is a great quote to start our senior year! I'm glad your lesson went well! What is one personal goal you'd like to work on in lab this semester?
ReplyDeleteKayla, your quote at the end of your blog post is once of my favorites and embraces the spirit of the growth mindset that we will continue to embrace and chase during the course of the semester. Nice job using your opps as a positive learning experience and including what you would do to turn them into gems the next time you taught this lesson!
ReplyDeleteKayla, I really enjoyed your lesson and I look forward to seeing you continue to rock out your gems and continue to grow in your opps that will eventually evolve into gems!
ReplyDelete