Mini Lesson Reflection

What went well in your teaching? Based on what you learned as an instructor, what changes would you make next time?

I didn't feel nervous while giving my mini-lesson, which was definitely a positive aspect of my teaching. I felt like I was able to articulate my thoughts very well in a way that the students could follow and understand easily. Feeling confident when teaching was a struggle that I've had in the past, so it felt great to be able to overcome it and feel comfortable in front of a classroom.

In the future, I would offer a printout of the technology I presented, in this case, the Hero's Journey story mapping application. I hadn't thought of printing out the finished product, but both Erika and Nicole M. demonstrated how helpful that strategy was for students' understanding.

I didn't show the copy and paste procedure because I had done all of that prior to the presentation beginning but I couldn't start the application over without losing all the work that I had done. I determined that it would be of more instructional benefit to go through each step of the application and detail the elements verbally instead of toggling back and forth between the application and my word document, copy and pasting the text. Also, I took on more of a role of a teacher-trainer in the presentation, and discussed the possibility of a teacher having students brainstorm story ideas instead of asking my colleagues to do so.

LifeSaving Lesson

Based on my learning experience from the LifeSaver lesson, one attribute of inquiry learning is the creativity it inspires in students-my group came up with many ideas of how to perform experiments with LifeSavers candies, and they were all different and viable. One thing I have noticed about inquiry learning is that it is more motivating than just doing the steps the teacher says to do. Rather, students have a great time exploring interesting qualities or characteristics of what they are learning about when they are given more choice to decide how to inquire.

I can incorporate inquiry into curriculum planning by allowing students to ask questions and explore answers on their own instead of always providing or expecting a specific answer. I can promote inquiry learning by giving students opportunities to ask questions about the things that interest them and then seeing how they come up with answers to those questions.

Image source: http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/media/life-savers-by-bewarethecheesedotcom.jpg