-Ivy Baker Priest
I like to start these with quotes, because it is just more fun to have a goal or theme in mind when I am writing these. This is not the last micro teaching, but everyone must feel like the end is coming. So, I found the above quote to be very fitting for this reflection. ^^
For my micro teaching, I was very embarrassed. I couldn't believe that I just started in the middle of the lesson. I had been practicing what I would do, I practiced how it would be said and when I got up in front of everyone I just started in the middle. I couldn't believe it and I was flustered.
I didn't handle it very well, and I started to repeat myself, saying "restarting, my fault..."
I felt like I had messed up really bad, but looking at the video, I realized that I was the only one who thought I did terribly and repeating myself.
In my speech to students I feel like I am a little stilted. when I speak, the sentences sound like there are breaks when there shouldn't be. I want to emphasize what the key parts of a sentence are, but it makes me sound like a robot.
I have been struggling to find a balance between over emphasis to help lower level students and speaking like a native speaker and not like a robot.
In my next class I feel like I should speak simply and quickly. Not breaking in between talking, but not speaking so much as to hamper understanding. I am not sure if that will be successful by next week when I have to teach this again.
When students were in small groups I feel I did a good job of helping to guide conversations. I asked the students what their answers where and I took note of who missed an important detail. Some students were more difficult to keep on task, due to my presence immediately causing a silence to fall on the group. I quickly had to move to the other side of the room and try to listen to them from there.
Next time I should have the students jot down some notes from their partner or make a star next to the words that match their partner. Simply to get them to listen to each other more and give me a quick visual for understanding.
The one thing I would redo if I had the chance would be to redefine synagogue. One of the students was not content with the definition and I would like to reemphasize the use of "Like a..." to help foster a better understanding of the word. Like a church, is better than Jewish church, which I did accidentally say.
That being said, I feel I did my best to represent the cultures fairly and evenly for this small lesson.
if I had more time in the micro teaching I would have liked to have the students change pairs and see what matches and what is different. Then at the end have them compare it to their own culture.
Thanks for reading! ^^
