Reflection 6

This week I had the opportunity to teach my STL, standard of technological literacy. I felt like it went ok. I had gone over the material and come up with different ways to teach the different categories, but I know that I struggled a bit and for some reason felt a little nervous! One thing I will say is that I am in a way glad that I went first. By going first, I taught without any impressions from anyone else. With this, I think overall I was better able to learn what are things that I do wrong and need to fix. By making mistakes, I was more able to understand what to do better as Geoff and the class was critiquing me. So here are some things I learned from my teaching experience:

• Change teaching techniques based how the students are doing (if your technique used is not helping them learn, then change it!)
• Have basic phrases that are easy to remember when tying into examples
• Don't apologize! (this is something I would do because I was nervous...)
• If you have lots of info to go over (which I did) then try a handout to help guide them along!
• Do not hide behind something (a desk, podium, etc.)
• At the beginning of a lesson, say the learning objective and outcome that will be achieved during lesson (students like to see where you are going with the lesson)
• Give the "Why" of the lesson! (ex: the STL is one of the commandments for being a tech teacher)
• When writing on the board, size and color of stuff matters. It helps things stick more if it is bigger
• Have students drive (this helps them learn it better and allows you to not waste time at the board or computer)
• When assessing the students and they are struggling, go back and review the material! Clearly they didn't get it completely the first round!

Overall, with teaching, you need to be aware of your students needs! You need to see how they are doing and if they get it, if not, you need to adapt your teaching styles. This is key. The teacher needs to see what the problems are in the classroom and then try out different solutions til the problem is resolved.