Yesterday I taught a Microteach lesson on KSA #8 Treating Students with Human Dignity. I started by defining human dignity and talked briefly about our responsibilities as teachers when creating and moderating the learning environment. I used group discussion as my primary instructional method for the rest of the lesson. I wanted the students to come up with their own ideas and insights. I asked them to identify positive and negative teaching behaviours. I gave them scenario cards so they could think about how they would tackle difficult situations in the classroom. It's easy to talk about equal right and respecting others but how do we make sure it happens in the classroom? How do we deal with racism, homophobia, sexism, or religious intolerance? As teachers we need to be prepared to tackle these difficult subjects. The last activity was creating I statements. I wanted my lesson to be based in the real world. I wanted it to be practical and useful. For these reasons we ended by determining how we would personally tackle these issues in the classroom. Not just after things take a wrong turn but before. What kinds of preventative measures can we take?
It was glaringly evident to myself that I made some mistakes. Overall I was happy but there was a lot of room for improvement. I should have completely explained our group activity before telling students to move. Once the students started to move I could not give them more instructions. I had to wait. Instead of telling the whole group about the scenario cards I had to tell each of the groups individually. This mistake eat up precious time. One of the groups finished discussing their scenario early. I checked in on them and gave them an additional discussion question so that they weren't idle. I could've also given them an additional scenario card or give every group multiple scenarios so they have the option of continuing their discussion.
I had to change my plan for the end of my lesson. I originally planned on using a sharing circle but I had not taken the time to set up a large enough area for that. Instead I asked the students to return to their seats. I told them we would go around and hear from every set of partners. Almost immediately afterwards I changed my mind. I reevaluated how much time I had and realized I wouldn't be able to hear from everyone. I abandoned my early instruction and just asked the group to volunteer to share some of their I statements. I could have structured my time differently to have more space at the end or I could've just asked for individual volunteers. My mistake was in changing on the fly but I did feel it was necessary.
This was a really valuable experience for me. It was great to start teaching others. I feel that I'm starting to develop my practice and discover who I am as a teacher. I told more jokes at the beginning than I thought I would but it felt appropriate with the group. While planning the lesson I was preoccupied with perfection. If was a relief to get in there and make some mistakes. I enjoyed adapting my lesson to the needs of the classroom.
It was glaringly evident to myself that I made some mistakes. Overall I was happy but there was a lot of room for improvement. I should have completely explained our group activity before telling students to move. Once the students started to move I could not give them more instructions. I had to wait. Instead of telling the whole group about the scenario cards I had to tell each of the groups individually. This mistake eat up precious time. One of the groups finished discussing their scenario early. I checked in on them and gave them an additional discussion question so that they weren't idle. I could've also given them an additional scenario card or give every group multiple scenarios so they have the option of continuing their discussion.
I had to change my plan for the end of my lesson. I originally planned on using a sharing circle but I had not taken the time to set up a large enough area for that. Instead I asked the students to return to their seats. I told them we would go around and hear from every set of partners. Almost immediately afterwards I changed my mind. I reevaluated how much time I had and realized I wouldn't be able to hear from everyone. I abandoned my early instruction and just asked the group to volunteer to share some of their I statements. I could have structured my time differently to have more space at the end or I could've just asked for individual volunteers. My mistake was in changing on the fly but I did feel it was necessary.
This was a really valuable experience for me. It was great to start teaching others. I feel that I'm starting to develop my practice and discover who I am as a teacher. I told more jokes at the beginning than I thought I would but it felt appropriate with the group. While planning the lesson I was preoccupied with perfection. If was a relief to get in there and make some mistakes. I enjoyed adapting my lesson to the needs of the classroom.