3 Days...Sink or Swim

I was able to have my first experience, in front of students, in the classroom, right before Thanksgiving break. We were able to participate in a 3-day Micro-teaching unit at Central Mountain High School. We had to complete all of our clearances and every piece of paperwork that teachers need. I felt at one point I was signing my life away. But, after all that was finished, I was able to plan and get all of my lessons together. I planned a three day mini unit on Forest Management. I set the first day up for addressing factors of the forest and different items to consider when managing occurs. The second day would be to look at case studies dealing with different forests, and how they would manage it. The last day would be to finish up the case studies, review the different objectives discussed, and take a final assessment. I was very nervous from the start, but I had a good feeling about the classes ahead. I really wanted to make this an experience to remember.

As the first day came, I was ready to get started. I was keeping these students inside for the three days, so I was very hesitant. I began the lesson with a lot of enthusiasm, and showed the importance of what I was going to be teaching. I built some rapport with the students asking them what they wanted to do in their future, and told them about myself. In my mind, it was a very engaging lesson with the group moving around, answering questions, and viewing the importance of the lesson. I was pleasantly surprised with the first day. At one point a student said, "wow, I'm actually learning something here." As a teacher, I was on top of the world! We all want each lesson to be like the one I had on my first day, and I really felt like I could conquer the world. I understood the students had a little bit of the "guest speaker" mentality, because the students were so good from a management standpoint, but I still had their respect. I had some momentum going into the second day, so I was off to a good start.



As the second day began, I was hit with a shorter period then the first day. It was about 10 minutes shorter than the day before.  That might not seem like a lot, but it really made a difference in my lesson. I had way too much information to cover, and I found myself trying to rush the lesson. After class was over, I was told by my observer, "it's not about quantity of information, it is about the depth." He also said, "anything that you put in a lesson has to have some importance to you and the subject, so take the time to learn it until the kids understand it." I took this to heart, because it seems like we over plan for every lesson, which is a good habit, but I was trying to get through it all. Another great quote from my observer was, "there's always tomorrow." I really didn't have this mentality because it was only a 3-day unit, but if I were teaching for longer I wouldn't have to worry about getting done. The second day of teaching went pretty well, not as good as the first day, but I was still able to engage the students and get them to address the objectives I set.

The final day of teaching was done sub par of what I imagined. I had to change up my lesson a little bit to compensate for the lost time the day before. I kept going with the case studies, addressing more issues and questioning the students. I had really good questioning technique, but I failed in the sense of getting the whole class involved with the questions. I got through the case studies, and had a small review. The students really didn't want to review, so I just let it go and gave them the assessment right away. Looking back, I am not sure if I should have done a more in depth review, but my content was not the best to stage a review. The assessment went fairly well and the class grades seemed to be good for the most part. The last day had ended, revealing my relief because I SURVIVED!

      Overall, my experience with Micro Teaching was worthwhile. It was nice to go through the whole process from lesson planning to final classroom instruction. I was happy with the outcome, and I thought I built good rapport with my class. I gained a great deal of knowledge from the feedback, and I am looking forward to teaching in my cooperating center in the spring.