Student Practice Reflection - Lesson #1

     On February 28th I conducted my first lesson I prepared by myself. I was quite stressed beforehand even though I already had experience teaching. Conducting a lesson is one thing, but having to prepare all the materials, the lesson plan, and all the activities is something completely different. I knew I had good rapport with the students, but I still had to test my skills of preparing a lesson. The microteaching experience taught me what I still need to work on and I am ready to improve. 

    The lesson I prepared was an English language lesson about natural disasters related to climate change. We began by doing an introduction and a revision of what they learned about global warming before. We then watched a short video that introduced the topic and some of the vocabulary they would need for discussions about different natural disasters. We then discussed 6 different natural disasters in detail - drought, cyclone, flood, landslide, acid rain, and wildfire. Some of these were already familiar to the students, but we talked about what they are in detail, worked on some example sentences, and for each, we discussed how climate change makes them more devastating and happen more often. At the end, we did a revision exercise. I would show the students pictures and they would have to shout which of the natural disasters I'm showing. We were able to get through all the steps I prepared, introduce new material, have class discussions, and revise, so I am quite pleased with the execution of the material.

    I wanted to also discuss more in depth how the lesson went and what I could improve on for next time. First of all, I was able to do better with time management this time around. I'm glad I got to experience this issue during microteaching and grow from it for my own lessons. Even though time was not an issue, I still did struggle with the amount of questions, responses, and ideas from the students. Whenever someone wants to voice their opinion or ask a question, I always let them, which sometimes takes a bit too much time or derails the conversation in a different direction. I try to create the best atmosphere I can in the classroom, so I am still figuring out how to move faster through the material and not take all the questions without discouraging the students. I will definitely try to work on this for my next lesson. Connected to that, I sometimes have a hard time controlling the noise in the classroom. I can be quite soft-spoken and relaxed in the classroom, which allows students to get away with more than they could do in other classes. I don't think it ever gets to a bad place because of it, but I do have to remind them to stay focused from time to time. They have a good time in the classroom and it gets rowdy sometimes, but I'd rather them be engaged and have to bring back the quiet from time to time than have my students be bored to death. I do still think it's good to find a middle ground, where the lesson is fun, but still controlled. Finally, the last point I wanted to discuss is getting startled by questions. The topic of my lesson is quite scientific and the students I work with are very smart, so they sometimes ask very tough question that I do not always have the answers to. I think I come to class as prepared as I can be, but at the end of the day, I am not a scientist and I do not know the answers to all the questions. It's fine to not know everything, teachers are humans, but I think I need to handle answering such questions better. Instead of getting startled, I should give the best answer I can and say that I can look up the answer after the lesson. I think I tried to do that, but maybe it came out a little awkward. I still need more experience with such moments, but I'm sure I'll get there in time and I'll be able to handle difficult questions more professionally.

    My first lesson is done and I am very happy with the results. There are things I can improve on, but that will always be there. We never stop learning and I am glad I am able to recognize my own mistakes or shortcomings. The class finished successfully, I was able to teach everything I wanted to, and now I have time to reflect and prepare to do even better next time.