Micro-Teaching

Just have to start by saying; it was awesome!!  The last three days have ensured me that even though my degree will have taken my 8 years it was totally worth it!  I am definitely ready to spend everyday in front of students.  There is nothing better that watching their eyes light up with wonder and excitement!




This day started off great!  I had the students make name tags so I could actually call on them by name.  It is a great idea and I really enjoyed being able to interact with them on that level.  We worked our way into the interest approach which was on capillary action.  I had students use markers, coffee filters, water and Dixie cups to demonstrate how capillary action works.  In addition to the students activity I sent up celery in colored water to show how the leaves changed color.  Well to say the least that activity took WAY longer than I had anticipated! 
However, all is good I then moved into my power-point presentation.  We discussed how capillary action is used in soldering.  Then I asked what two principles capillary action requires; cohesion and adhesion.  This was something I could have done better,  I really didn't drive home what these two terms meant.
Finally, we proceeded to work through the steps and safety of soldering.  I had a worksheet for the students to fill in as we went.  This went really well and smooth, the finally activity I did to rap up was a review.  I had the students talk me through the process and captured those steps on the board.
Over-all it was a super awesome day and I was very pleased.  My take away message is time, I truly believe understanding time will only come with time and knowing your students!  I also need to learn to drive home the felt need of a lesson.


The sun kept on shining in my favor today!  Today was going to be my biggest test yet.  I started out the day with observations on the celery experiment, students documented that the leaves were beginning to turn red.  We then moved into my interest approach which was the soldering demonstration.  The students were glued and I overheard several saying oh that's so easy!  So being the kind soul I am they were the ones I choose to pick to have come up and demonstrate next... Well, they decided it wasn't sooo.. easy and that I must have used a trick to do it.  After completing the 3 step demonstration I picked partners and released them to work on the task.  Their task was to solder to joints; one using propane and the other using MAPP gas.  Well, time was once again not in my favor.  The students were not able to complete the activity, however I did get them back together before they the bell rang.  I was able to get the shop cleaned up and the students in their seats for a couple minutes.  I held the students for a couple moments after the bell to explain what I needed them to do before tomorrow.  Great day just need more time!!

Well and now the fun has to end..  My final day was good, however sad because I wasn't near ready to leave those kids!! There's that pesky time thing again!!  Today was to say the least disorganized!  I had 8 students that needed to finish up their soldering activities. I decided that the best thing to do was to give the 10 students who completed the activity an article to read.  The article drew conclusions between why propane and MAPP gas are utilized for soldering.  The students in the classroom did a great job of staying on task and reading the article.  The two groups in the shop worked through the exercise.  One group did a great job while the other chose to act stupid.  The student with the torch was heating the wrong end of the pipe just to see it change colors.  He didn't even try to put the solder on it.  I turned the torch off and sent everyone back into the classroom.  I tried to gather everyone's attention but it wasn't working well today.  Anyways, I moved into my rap up activity.  I questioned the students about the correlations between yesterday and today.  From there we did some reviewing and then I gave the quiz.  After the quiz I passed out the learner satisfaction form.  I had a few minutes left at the end and I tried to just have a conversation with the students about their experience and what they thought.  I had two things jump out me that I really liked: #1- You covered everything that was one the quiz, teachers always ask questions we didn't cover well,  This concept took me by surprise but I know from my past as well teachers do tend to ask hard questions just to see who was listening.  I think that goes to show my philosophy, which is that exams are a chance to show what you know not see what you don't know.  The second comment I liked was on my use of colored paper.  The students said they liked that because they could keep them all straight.  They liked how I would tell them to take out the "yellow" paper.  It made it easy to keep track, and from my side I liked being able to look around the room and know everyone had the right paper out.

It was a great experience and it truly helped me grow as an educator!! This experience reminded me how much I want to teach and why I want to teach AG!


Just for everyone's enjoyment the last remark I got from a student was.... "Can I get your phone number?"  I am so glad I have a good sense of humor.  I just laughed at him and said, "that's really funny!"  I mean seriously kid I'm ten years older than you!! :)