Place Based Lesson Plan Reflection

Morgan and I decided to teach a lesson about pollution and centered it around the New
River, the closest large water source to our students in Christiansburg. When showcasing our
lesson to the class, though, we tailored it toward the Duck Pond as this was a more accessible
water source and our lesson plan works with any body of water that has been affected by
pollution. As we reviewed the video of our lesson, I picked up on many habits I employ, both
good and bad, and instructional methods I employ.
Because our lesson was very flexible, we spent the majority of our time walking around
discussing observations with individuals and small groups. I thought I split my time evenly
between everyone, while also being able to have meaningful conversations. I noticed that I was
able to use probing questions to really direct my student peers toward the goal of the assignment
and encourage them to think more deeply about the impacts of pollution. Another aspect I
thought I handled well was time management. I gave everyone good warning before switching
activity and transitioned well between activities. In addition to my observations, Morgan pointed
out that I looked very comfortable, projected well, and made good use of hand motions. This last
point, specifically, was good to hear as I feel I am prone to overuse hand gestures.
Other aspects of my teaching style were not as commendable. I noticed that I tended to
want to give all the instructions at once rather than to space them more purposefully after each
activity. This can be overwhelming for students and forces me to have to repeat myself
unnecessarily. I also forgot to give safety instructions before sending everyone out to observe
individually, which meant I had to take time to go to each student to make sure they were
informed and acted responsibly. While explaining guidelines individually isnt inherently bad, it
is a waste of time when it could have been spent discussing the activity sheets or addressing
student questions. Another aspect of my speaking that I think needs improvement is when I finish
announcing something, I have a habit of trailing off or somewhat nervously repeating a final
thought. Finally, the most annoying habit I have, in my opinion, is that I touch my hair or pull
my shirt. While this is more of a nervous tick, it can still be distracting to students and I would
like to eliminate or mitigate the number of times I do either.
While I do have a fair number of things to work on, overall my teaching translated well to
my student peers. Everyone appeared engaged throughout the lesson and participated fully in our
group discussions. They helped each other identify and work through the problems on the
activity sheets. Furthermore, they truly seemed interested in the environment, their observations,
and the activities that followed. In terms of our goals for the lesson, Morgan and I accomplished
everything we wanted in terms of engagement and exploration. Ideally, we would have liked to
devote a longer period of time to the lesson as a whole and incorporate a project based on
remediation of a form of pollution, effectively tying in engineering and STEM concepts.
In terms of INTASC 5, I think our lesson integrated critical thinking and problem solving
well by asking students to choose a pollution issue in their community and devise a solution to
remediate it. There is also a lot of room for creativity in this project as we gave them free reign to
develop a solution and present it however they saw fit, whether that be a video or invention or
any other method they liked. Earlier parts of the lesson also encouraged creativity by giving them
a chance to illustrate, either through drawing or writing, what the environment would look like if
no one cared about pollution whatsoever. Because every part of our lesson revolved around a
local body of water and its corresponding watershed, all the problems were very relatable to the
students. The lesson allowed them a chance to explore local issues and discuss them on a global
scale.