“Mini-teach review”
I will admit: I felt very, very uncomfortable watching the video of my mini-teach. I picked out so many aspects of the lesson that I really did not like. At various junctures of the video, I kept thinking: why did I DO that? why did I not say it THIS way? why did I mention THAT fact? why did I sound so unsure of myself? In general, I felt that the lesson I gave did not do justice for the amount of planning and rehearsal I did prior. Despite (or perhaps because of) my strong negative reaction to my review of the lesson, an idea suddenly clicked for me: I lack performance self-efficacy (Ormrod, 2008, p. 137) for teaching in front of a classroom! I hope that persistence, future successes in the classroom, and some constructive criticism from my mentors this year will help me improve my self-efficacy for teaching. An improved self-efficacy will help me persevere and achieve as a life long educator.
Though I may lack performance self-efficacy for teaching, I believe that I have a very strong learning self-efficacy (Ormrod, 2008, p. 137) for learning (i.e. learning about how to teach and learning about how students learn.) Over the course of this summer semester, I feel that I learned more than I thought possible in such a short period of time; I broadened my knowledge about what affects student learning (like educational psychology and educational reform), about what kind of learner I am, and about which methods my teachers used in my educational journey. I also engaged in more reflection on these topics than I ever had before. I approached my courses with confidence and a keen interest in the subject matter. I feel that I not only have a deeper knowledge about teaching and learning now but I also understand these topics well enough to apply them to my practice in the near future.
I also felt quite self-efficacious when planning my lesson for the mini-teach. I purposefully choose a topic that I thought would grab and keep the attention of the listeners because the lesson had personal significance to all of their lives. I tried to assemble the information in a way that would be easy for the listeners to absorb and to make sense of. I started with local Philadelphia historical landmarks, and then moved on to Pennsylvania state geography, county geography of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and finally neighborhood geography of the city of Philadelphia.
Upon review of my mini-teach recording, I realize that I executed my lesson using a very direct, teacher-centered format. I believe this happened unconsciously because a majority of my personal educational experiences were structured in this way; it is just the teaching style that I am used to. I did have a plan to involve all members of the class in a more direct way, but I ran out of time to do this. Essentially, I was going to assign each person the name of a specific neighborhood in Philadelphia, then instruct everyone to assemble their desks in a manner that would geographically resemble Philadelphia (to the best of their abilities). I felt this would be an example of the class members constructing their own knowledge; I provided them the map of Philadelphia but they would have to figure out where they/their neighborhood was located, who they/their neighborhood bordered on the map, who in the classroom they had to sit near, and which direction everyone was situated. I was hoping my lesson would be able to reach the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. I will keep this goal and activity in mind for future classes in which I will have more time and more content with which to work.
Reference:
Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.
Though I may lack performance self-efficacy for teaching, I believe that I have a very strong learning self-efficacy (Ormrod, 2008, p. 137) for learning (i.e. learning about how to teach and learning about how students learn.) Over the course of this summer semester, I feel that I learned more than I thought possible in such a short period of time; I broadened my knowledge about what affects student learning (like educational psychology and educational reform), about what kind of learner I am, and about which methods my teachers used in my educational journey. I also engaged in more reflection on these topics than I ever had before. I approached my courses with confidence and a keen interest in the subject matter. I feel that I not only have a deeper knowledge about teaching and learning now but I also understand these topics well enough to apply them to my practice in the near future.
I also felt quite self-efficacious when planning my lesson for the mini-teach. I purposefully choose a topic that I thought would grab and keep the attention of the listeners because the lesson had personal significance to all of their lives. I tried to assemble the information in a way that would be easy for the listeners to absorb and to make sense of. I started with local Philadelphia historical landmarks, and then moved on to Pennsylvania state geography, county geography of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and finally neighborhood geography of the city of Philadelphia.
Upon review of my mini-teach recording, I realize that I executed my lesson using a very direct, teacher-centered format. I believe this happened unconsciously because a majority of my personal educational experiences were structured in this way; it is just the teaching style that I am used to. I did have a plan to involve all members of the class in a more direct way, but I ran out of time to do this. Essentially, I was going to assign each person the name of a specific neighborhood in Philadelphia, then instruct everyone to assemble their desks in a manner that would geographically resemble Philadelphia (to the best of their abilities). I felt this would be an example of the class members constructing their own knowledge; I provided them the map of Philadelphia but they would have to figure out where they/their neighborhood was located, who they/their neighborhood bordered on the map, who in the classroom they had to sit near, and which direction everyone was situated. I was hoping my lesson would be able to reach the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. I will keep this goal and activity in mind for future classes in which I will have more time and more content with which to work.
Reference:
Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Human learning (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.