Reflection #4

This week’s reflection is going to be fairly short because it’s only a reflection of one class day. My thoughts on the junior high reflection are contained in another document which I have submitted on Canvas and have appropriately titled, “Junior High Reflection”.

On Monday we began the “teach something #2” series of lessons. Everyone seemed to do better than they did the first time. That’s good, I guess that means that all the teaching techniques we’ve been learning have actually stuck with us. Or at least some of them. Maybe our confidence has grown because we know our classmates better. Whatever the case, I’d say we’re improving.

I watched my teaching video and I must say, while I am usually very self-conscious and embarrassed to see and hear myself recorded, I felt pretty okay about the teaching video. That’s a good sign for me. Specifically, I feel that I was relatively comfortable during the experience and as I watched the playback, I didn’t see as much awkwardness as I have traditionally seen in videos featuring myself.

There were a few things that I didn’t like. I feel like the wood wand actually limited me because I didn’t move around too much except for the few instances when I moved the stick. I stood in or near one spot the whole time, which I didn’t like. Another small detail that I noticed was that I would often talk about something on a slide before actually displaying it on the screen, which maybe didn’t bother the class but it bothered me as I watched myself. Which means that at least one person in the class probably noticed. My tone inflection was a little flat as well, which limited my captivation factor.

For future teaching experiences, I want to work on my physical presentation (i.e. body/hand movement, walking around, etc.) and my emotion (speaking with varied tones, etc.). Also, involving more mixed media and taking advantage of a certain topic to use other forms of media is something I want to work on (i.e. having something carved to show the class in the case of wood carving, or allowing for audience participation in the craft). I guess I could say I’d like to work on my teaching creativity.

Those are all my reflections.