Week 5/6: Micro Teach and Peer Observation

Micro Teach and Peer Observation 22/10/2013 - 05/11/13

This weeks session was all about our prepared Mini Teach Sessions. A 15 minute teaching session to our peer group. This really was useful and interesting. Time was not sufficient for all the students to take turn this week, meaning some will be done in 2 weeks (after half term)  05/11/2013. Speaking on reflection of the other peers in my group that did their teach this week, I have to say I was really impressed. Yes, we all made our mistakes but this was expected. The whole class was involved with completing the Peer Observation Feedback form. I have been able to review mine...interesting and illuminating!

With our complete peer group split in to two classes, I thought I would post here my lesson, as some may have a link to my blog and be interested. Plus, it's here for the record too:

The Water Cycle:

My Lesson Plan

My Lesson

Overall I was fairly happy with the way my teach went and the peer comments were quite positive too. I know I have some mannerism issues to work on, though only one person mentioned this, it is a concern to me. My feeling is that nerves get the better of me. Regretfully, when asking 'Nominated' questions, I failed to pick up on that one student really didn't know the answer. It was commented on later in the review of my teach. Mentioning no names, please accept my apologies! 

Peer Subjects:

Thought it worth recording a brief of my peers topics:

• Sushi: We were introduced to Sushi. What/where to buy and how to prepare. Great hands on activity used. Easy to follow and understand.
• Hair Removal: Although all of us know at least a little something on this subject, it was surprisingly more involved than one might expect. Very professional.
• Learning: This was all about 'Cognitive' 'Associative' 'Autonomous' learning. Involved a practical activity related to outdoor activities and first aid. Superb.
• Rhythm: This had to be the scariest of the lessons to be involved in. Mostly because all of us were like fish out of water! Our teacher actually made a great job of teaching something to people who had zero knowledge of the subject. 
• World Skills: An interesting subject area, since on the surface it might appear something of a Lame Duck. Our tutor made an excellent job of impressing upon us the importance of this initiative.
• Dry Stone Walling: Not easy to teach such a practical hands on subject on a white board. This was a thoroughly interesting and informative lesson.
• Waxing: Complete with an actual demo on a students leg! Very professionally done. Totally made what I had considered difficult, to be really quite simple and yes, even relatively painless. 
• Intro to BSL: Learning another language is huge. This lesson made it seem so simple and enjoyable. Perfectly executed lesson with good interaction and participation.
• PPE in Adventure Activities: A great lesson filled with hands on practical learning experience. It's obvious when someone is teaching something they actually love doing.
• Cloud Storage Tips for the iPad: Very well planned and clearly founded on first class knowledge of the subject. Perfectly executed.

Improvement through Feedback:

The whole process of planning and delivery is complimented by the peer feedback and the reflective process. Earlier in this blog I posted my Lesson Plan. Here I include it with the post delivery comments and reflective process: Lesson Plan Post Teach Eval

We already established that the extensive feedback we gained in the micro teach is not something that would usually be available in a normal teaching setting. The best we could hope for might be a single observer feedback of a colleague teacher, after this is mostly down to the reflective process. A big part of the reflective process is down to our Scheme of Work, Lesson Plan and Outcomes. Then it needs some honest self evaluation with a view to improvement. Much of which we covered Here 

Much of our reflection/self evaluation will be recorded in the 'Personal and Professional Practice File' or 3PF. The standard for which can be seen here: 3PF My 3PF blog root dir is Here