Reflective Teaching Lesson: Lab Refleciton

Talk about diving right into the content of our classes! Our first day of lab for AEE 412 we student teachers had to give a mini lesson on a random topic that we pulled out of a bag! Of course I picked Chess, something I knew nothing about. However, I quickly did some research and came up with a short lesson that I presented in front of my peers.

By now you are all wondering "well how did it go?" I will start by saying that I put a lot of time and preparation into this lesson and it was only 15 minutes long! I was surprised as to how long it took me to put this together and then how fast it actually took to present. It made me think, "should I have even put that much time into it?" The answer is absolutely yes! I think my lab went well and I yielded great results. I felt that my students were engaged and they were LEARNING. Call me a nerd, but I love that outcome and that feeling of knowing your students are "getting it" or making that connection. If that's what results in my students then I absolutely must put that time and preparation into all of my lessons. This was a good realization for me as a future teacher!

 I get really excited for lessons or activities I need to present in front of others and so I think that gives me an extra boost of enthusiasm into my presentation. I know full well that I am eccentric at times and outgoing but I think that those characteristics enable me to add some excitement to my lesson. This may all sound great but I noticed from watching my video that with enthusiasm comes speed, which I must be cautious about. I think maybe I get too excited and start talking too fast. In reflecting on my video, I was worried that maybe because I talked to fast or even went through activities fast that maybe my students did grasp these concepts enough. This is definitely something I would like to work on.

How could have my lab activity gone better? As mentioned before I could have slowed down a bit. In that back of my mind, I was worrying about the time constraint of my lab presentation. In real life we may have more than 15 minutes; however, this was the challenge and so I need to rearrange or cut out pieces in order to focus on the important content and fit it into those 15 minutes. A bit more organization overall may have helped as well. After watching my video I saw that I left part of my materials on the other side of the room and other materials on the opposite side of the room. I realized that although small details they took up time. I think if I would have had all the materials laid out in one spot the lesson would have flowed better. I also need to work on how to better integrate both my hands on materials and the visual materials I have on PowerPoint or the computer. At one point I got caught up in the hands on activity that I forgot to keep up with my PowerPoint as well. Although I thought my lab went well, there are definitely areas that I can improve on!

Overall, I really enjoyed this lab. Although I hate watching or hearing myself on video, it really is a good reflective tool that will help us become better teachers. I now I know the things that I need to work on for my next lab and hopefully improve those areas.