Preparing and Practicing to Teach
Overview
Teaching improves through practice, and in this course I got to practice teaching. Not only did I teach three lessons, I came up with my own lesson segment and completed an edTPA. Teaching this lesson segment, really had me begin to feel like a teacher. I taught my course a lesson, and assessed how well it went. |
Skills and Insights Gained
For this course, I had to teach High School learning segment of 3 lessons. I taught it to my classmates and professor, while completing an edTPA and a lesson study. The first thing I had to do, which also happened to surprisingly be one of the hardest parts for me, was decide what I wanted to teach. Geometry is one of my favorite topics, and complete geometric proofs are one of my favorite things to do, so I decided to teach my learning segment on congruent triangles.
With using guidance from the edTPA Task 1, and the Danielson Framework, I planned my lesson segment. I decided I wanted to have the students learn how to prove triangles congruent. Starting from basic definitions and going up to creating their own geometric proofs. One of the difficulties I had was that this topic incorporated many other geometric definitions and properties that I was not sure if the students had enough knowledge about in order to complete this. Some of the students in the class were science majors, and might not have done a geometry proof since high school themselves. Since in a normal setting, I would be teaching this to a class that I would have taught previous lessons to, I would be aware of what they knew already. Fortunately though, even the science students had most of the prior knowledge they needed in order to do well and learn from this lesson segment.
Once all my lessons were planned out, I taught them to my course. For the first lesson, I ran out of time, and things were more rushed than I wanted them to be. For the second lesson, I was so worried about running out of time that I cut an activity shorter than I should had since I had extra time at the end. However for the third lesson, my timing worked out pretty well. Something that happened in every lesson though, was that I had extra problems for the students to do, so in case my timing was not right, the students could always have something to do. However, if the students did not get to those problems, which happened often, then they still had a lesson filled with activity and information.
I was very happy with the way my lessons went. I thought I had great activities that really taught the students in the way that I have been learning about while reading articles in class. I had them discover things on their own, have discussions, and they were asking and answering questions. I got feedback from my professor Sr. Mary Ann, and my lesson study partner Hannah, which was very beneficial to me. I completed Task 2 and Task 3 of the edTPA for this lesson segment.
This list will summarize what I did for this High School learning segment:
· Planned a lesson segment of 3 lessons while completing Task 1 of edTPA.
· Taught my three lessons to my class.
· Completed a lesson study and got feedback on my lessons.
· Completed Task 2 and Task 3 of the edTPA which helped me reflect on my lessons and analyze students work.
For this course, I had to teach High School learning segment of 3 lessons. I taught it to my classmates and professor, while completing an edTPA and a lesson study. The first thing I had to do, which also happened to surprisingly be one of the hardest parts for me, was decide what I wanted to teach. Geometry is one of my favorite topics, and complete geometric proofs are one of my favorite things to do, so I decided to teach my learning segment on congruent triangles.
With using guidance from the edTPA Task 1, and the Danielson Framework, I planned my lesson segment. I decided I wanted to have the students learn how to prove triangles congruent. Starting from basic definitions and going up to creating their own geometric proofs. One of the difficulties I had was that this topic incorporated many other geometric definitions and properties that I was not sure if the students had enough knowledge about in order to complete this. Some of the students in the class were science majors, and might not have done a geometry proof since high school themselves. Since in a normal setting, I would be teaching this to a class that I would have taught previous lessons to, I would be aware of what they knew already. Fortunately though, even the science students had most of the prior knowledge they needed in order to do well and learn from this lesson segment.
Once all my lessons were planned out, I taught them to my course. For the first lesson, I ran out of time, and things were more rushed than I wanted them to be. For the second lesson, I was so worried about running out of time that I cut an activity shorter than I should had since I had extra time at the end. However for the third lesson, my timing worked out pretty well. Something that happened in every lesson though, was that I had extra problems for the students to do, so in case my timing was not right, the students could always have something to do. However, if the students did not get to those problems, which happened often, then they still had a lesson filled with activity and information.
I was very happy with the way my lessons went. I thought I had great activities that really taught the students in the way that I have been learning about while reading articles in class. I had them discover things on their own, have discussions, and they were asking and answering questions. I got feedback from my professor Sr. Mary Ann, and my lesson study partner Hannah, which was very beneficial to me. I completed Task 2 and Task 3 of the edTPA for this lesson segment.
This list will summarize what I did for this High School learning segment:
· Planned a lesson segment of 3 lessons while completing Task 1 of edTPA.
· Taught my three lessons to my class.
· Completed a lesson study and got feedback on my lessons.
· Completed Task 2 and Task 3 of the edTPA which helped me reflect on my lessons and analyze students work.
Lessons Learned
I learned a lot by teaching these lessons and working with the edTPA. Next semester, I student teach and I will have to teach a lesson segment that gets recorded and complete an edTPA as well. Now that I am already familiar with what lessons would be best for it, and what I will have to do. I will be more prepared and choose lessons and assessments that would work well in the edTPA.
Importance
This lesson segment helped to prepare me not only for student teaching, but for being a teacher. The more practice I have and the more lessons I teach, the more I will grow as a teacher.
I learned a lot by teaching these lessons and working with the edTPA. Next semester, I student teach and I will have to teach a lesson segment that gets recorded and complete an edTPA as well. Now that I am already familiar with what lessons would be best for it, and what I will have to do. I will be more prepared and choose lessons and assessments that would work well in the edTPA.
Importance
This lesson segment helped to prepare me not only for student teaching, but for being a teacher. The more practice I have and the more lessons I teach, the more I will grow as a teacher.