Micro-Teaching

The past week I have spent hours observing and interacting with Mrs. Bechtel and her students from Williamsburg High school. The first day was observing and the next three were teaching an Ag Science III class who were learning about white-tailed deer.

From observing, from the first minute I could tell I was going to have some students who had no desire of being there. I am thinking to myself how am I going to get these students engaged and active when they do not even want to be in the class.

Day 1 of Teaching: I did a lesson on aging white-tailed deer by there jawbones. We related it to aging humans other than using their date of birth and talked about how researchers and biologists use this to determine herd health, stability, and genetics.  When I first started the lesson this one student in particular was just there. The student sat with the group but was off in another world. I asked the question "What are the front teeth that deer have called?". This student perked up, raised their hand, and was excited to answer. Of course I was going to take all I could with this burst of excitement. The answer given was right and we talked a little more. Getting that student to be excited to answer was a thrill for me. It might have only been for that one particular part but it was a start and being they wanted to answer meant they were paying attention even though it might not of looked like it.

Day 2 of Teaching: This day we learned about scoring antlers. We discussed how just like jawbones, scoring antlers added information to the research and biologists end of things with genetics and heard stability. We also talked about how it was used to set records  for trophy kills. The students were able to hands on learn the scoring process which was a site seeing them work in group and determine what counted as points and where to measure the circumference.

Day 3 of Teaching: This lesson was designed a little different by creating the learning through a game and than plotting out data on a graph which helped promote our discussion that talked about how habitats affect populations and what happens when there is a decrease and increase.

Some strong point from my micro teaching were getting students engaged in their own little ways for example the student who was into dental and was on top talking about teeth who normally is just there. I liked my balance of powerpoints and lecture to the hands on learning aspect. I felt my questioning was good because even though I got answer I wanted them to dig deeper so we would add to their answers with more questions.

Some areas of improvement would be making sure I really state and elaborate on the "Why is this important; why do we need to learn this?" for the students to really be able to understand the important behind it. Another one I think would be my speed of talking and maybe some clearer questioning