Microteaching Lets Learn All There is to Know About Rabbits!

Today was the first of three days microteaching at Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, PA.  Going into the first day I felt a bit nervous, overly anxious, and questioning myself if I had prepared enough to go in and personally have a good experience, but also rely the content I wanted to get across to my students.  My topic of choice was rabbits!  Now for those of you who know me probably wouldn’t say that rabbits are my forte!  However, sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zone and this microteaching experience is a great time to do something like that. 

Day one began very well.  I got to the school in ample enough time to set up my camera go over my lesson plan one last time and shuffle through my handouts to make sure they were all there.  Shortly after that was when I hit my first snag.  I had drawn a complete blank and could not for the life of me remember where to press the record button on my camera.  If it had been a snake it would have bit me.  Literally, fifteen minutes prior I had pressed the record button out in the hallway while setting up.  I guess the reality of teaching in front of 27 students sank in as they sat in complete silence watching me fumble around looking for the record button. 

After what seemed like an eternity I had found the record button and it was time to begin just a few minutes behind schedule.  I would have to say that it took me probably until my second activity to get myself calm and recollected and that is when I felt like I had gotten into my groove.  With the clock ticking I shortened my first activity and somewhat rushed my students on the next activity of writing key facts on the big post it notes.  One thing to note is that 45 minutes goes by really fast!   When you’re already rushing yourself and have a mound of content to get through it can be a little stressful.  I noticed that while they were presenting their post it notes the students needed a bit extra time taking notes about the rabbit industries from their peers. 

Throughout the entirety of the lesson I think that I made good use of the classroom not standing in just one spot.  I think that I also succeed using my teacher voice.  There was a few times where I should have told students to be quiet and continue with the activity they were doing.  This sounds hypocritical from my statement earlier.  I liked the fast pace of my lesson in the sense that my students were not doing one activity for a very long chunk of time.  I think this worked in my favor and I did not lose disconnect with them.  I also failed to state my objectives at the beginning of class, but luckily remembered to do it at the end during my wrap up.  Something to work on tomorrow and the next day is stating at the beginning of class what we will be doing.  I also thought having the students give me a thumb up or a thumb down was a good way to gauge the success of my lesson. 

I am excited to go back tomorrow.  As long as I come prepared and keep them engaged things will be good.  Microteaching day 1 is officially in the books.