Micro Teaching Unit Reflection

Micro Unit Reflections

Where to begin with this one . . . This experience made me realize that I really am excited to be teaching.  During my time with this experience I wrote notes as I taught on ideas and personal feedback in preparation for teaching.

George's In Micro Teaching Reflective Lists

• Don't Set Yourself Up To Have a Bad Time 

Something I learned getting ready for this week is that as a guest lecturer, don't give students the chance to do stuff which the teacher in the room won't see.  For example it may be a fun idea for them to put fun facts in the inside but be prepared for some crazy facts.  Instead have them share it with the class.  The self contained peer pressure of "keeping it appropriate" will help your students succeed and keep you own sanity.

• Consumable Supplies Cost 

Even though everyone in the dairy industry would disagree when it comes to supplying your room with products to be used, I panicked slightly when I thought that with 20 kids all of the supplies I would actually need. In reality I actually over planned for 3 Days which was good for me because then that meant that I didn't spend everything I thought I was going too spend.

• Think about the containers products come in and weather or not students will know them

So my lesson was on identifying the differences in dairy products but . . . I may have left them in their original containers. And the students may have guessed what was inside the containers based upon what they see at home. And one of the products may not come in a plastic jug but instead in a paper carton.  Let's just say some times it pays to plan a little more ahead of schedule.  Cause like the skeptical kid above the students were skeptical as well. They just also played nice because it was the first day.  Next time I may pour them into new containers to "Mess with them"

• Guided Notes - A Win / Lose Scenario 

Thinking ahead (*cough**cough**SLO**cough*cough*) I decided to try guided notes with the students. Day one they looked like this:

And on day two this was the reaction they have me:

I think what my problem with the guided notes on the second day was they really didn't have a chance to use them like they did on the first day.  I think the big take a way is guided notes are good with presentations but not good with hands on activities unless its a paper strictly for them to record observations.

• Some times a Fire Alarm will ruin your lesson

My First Reaction to the Fire Drill that went off at minute 10 of the classroom instruction:

What I learned this micro unit was that you can't plan for everything to go 150% perfectly 150% of the time. What I learned though was how to go from a great lesson => taking a little break => right back into a great lesson.  So instead I took one objective and said "Let's cover that tomorrow" and completed what I could. The results:

Insert "Zero to Hero" From Disney's Hercules

Corny 90's Videos are useful for completing assignments

This is more or less of a shout out to Dr. Rice who recommended I use an old 90's video in my lessons. The students actually liked it a lot.  This taught me that even the classics can be relevant to student learning. Thanks Dr. Rice.

• It doesn't take a lot to make milk have a garlic off flavor "The Cows went to Olive Garden for Lunch"

My activity on Off Flavors in milks worked really well. Actually a little too well.  The Garlic flavor milk was a bit too much garlic.  One of the kids said the quote above and I found it to be the best analogy that I may have used it on the quiz the next day . . .

• Alternative Quiz Styles are useful

• It isn't a good idea to allow students to have multiple answer questions.

These two go together. The last day I created a Kahoot for a quiz. What I learned doing this kind of quiz is that its actually kind of fun.  In fact I'm thinking about doing this kind of quiz with my students at Cumberland Valley next spring.  I could also use this in preparing my CDE teams for test questions. What I also learned it tricks kids up if you put more than one answer on the board. Though I will say the one I would still keep was "A- No, B- No, C- No, or D-No."

• Students aren't 100% "evil" . . . or are they

This one to me is a big deal. Walking into Micro Teaching I expected the students to tear me apart. But they really didn't. I think my big take away hear is that as a student teacher I will be in charge but in the beginning I can see by cooperating teachers stepping in and intervening with some aspects of misbehavior.  I also think that if students like what they are learning they are going to want to learn it even more.  That too me is key as well.

So now that Micro Teaching is over what is next? Well I have two more lessons to blog about and another two reflective blogs to write. But now that this fun adventure is over I'm excited for the rest of my experience this semester.  Weather I'm ready or not December is here so I'm going to be working hard to be hardly working next spring. 

To Be Continued . . .