Ben Taylor

Education 2500

March 29, 2016

Microteach Self Reflection

The microteach I performed was a health lesson that I taught in my
practicum for grade fours. Specifically my lesson was focused on the topic of
avalanches which was part of a broader topic of extreme environmental
conditions. Other examples in this topic could have been thunderstorms,
pollution, or earthquakes. After performing the microteach and receiving
feedback from my classmates I was able to select the components of my
microteach that I did well, and the areas I had to improve on.
The first area I believe I did well was that I had prepared well for the
microteach. I did this first by my lesson planning, secondly by preparing my
presentation and materials ahead of time, and finally by practicing the
instruction in front of my family and also teaching the lesson to the real
students. This preparation made me feel much more comfortable to perform
in front of my peers; my nervousness for speaking in front of peers was nonexistent, and I feel like I was better suited to teach as my mind was solely
focussed on the presentation, and not on my personal performance.
The second area that I felt I did well in was that I had plenty of class
involvement in my presentation. I think that in teaching classroom
involvement is important because it engages the students in the topic, and
serves as a check to make sure the students are understanding the lesson
and paying attention. I did this first by checking the background knowledge
of the students, allowing them to tell me what they knew about avalanches.
Secondly I involved the students by asking them questions during my
presentation, such as why the warning signs of an avalanche are warning
signs. Third I involved the students by allowing them to look at the items in
my emergency kit. Finally when the students had filled out their question
sheet, we went through it as a class, allowing the students to share their
answers. This student involvement also helps the teacher, because often
times the students can answer each others questions, or self-teach
themselves, lessening the work load of a teacher.
The main area that I saw on the peer reflections for improvement was
my voice. Some of the peers believed I was too quiet at times, and
sometimes needed to add more enthusiasm or energy to the lesson. I think
that with some more practice and reminders in my lesson notes to increase
the energy, this would be an easy fix.
Personally my focus for improvement would have to be responding to
misbehaving students. During my practicum I have struggled to act quickly

Ben Taylor

Education 2500

March 29, 2016

during situations with students not acting how they should, but over the past
few weeks I think I have grown more confident to speak up and act as
necessary. However during the microteach I found it difficult to respond to
my peers goofing off and to treat them like elementary students. I felt when
they did I tried my best to respond how I would in my practicum, but I think
many of my responses came off as comical to my peers which is not how
they were intended to be.