First week of class...what a surprise

I started this year coming back with some teaching experience from The Republic of Korea (check out our blog) so I felt pretty confident that I could at least get in front of a classroom and not make a fool of myself. Well I was wrong, now I didn't fall flat on my face but I diffidently stumbled presenting my RTL or reflective teaching lesson. 

First let me give you some context, right before we left our 8am Monday class we selected a topic that we were gonna present to our small lab groups...on Wednesday. Yep, that's right we had two days to prepare a lesson. Now this wasn't a 50 minute lesson but having very little professional training on presenting a lesson plan we were all a little shocked. Plus it was the first week of school! I know I was still on summer time.

I was lucky to select the topic of Tiki Gods, I was not so lucky that I had the 8am lab. I prepared a small lesson and my objectives were for my "students" aka classmates to identify three Tiki Gods based on their eye structure. I think we accomplished this objective however I'm pretty sure my students didn't because I forgot to state the objectives...mistake one. I realized this mid lesson and sorta slipped that important detail in. 

One thing I think I did accomplish was my students were able to identify the different eye shapes of three Tiki Gods. So I kinda sorta did a good job right? Well, maybe thankfully this lesson was just to show not only our instructors where we stand but also give ourselves something to look back on at the end of the semester to see how far we have come.

I know I have already made a lot of improvement. I now know even if something seems short and easy I need to dedicate more time to make it AWESOME! I read Teach Like a Pirate this summer and the main theme from the book was that you need to "hook" you students. That is something I need to work on because my RTL lesson started off so boring. Sure we got to color but I should have created a better hook for my students so I could ensure they had as much fun as I did.

I can take away so much from just those 6 minutes, like I don't move around enough, I don't make enough eye contact and I fidget big time. But that's all okay because that was week one and by the end of week 15 I am gonna be 100% better thanks to all the resources, time, and hard work that I not only put into myself but others around me in my co-hort, professors, and my supporters are investing in me as well.

I honestly can not wait to get back in front of my peers to show them how much I have grown and I can not wait to see how creative we can all become together.





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Blaze! He just loves his home outside now