Whew, it's practically November! Many weeks have passed and I am in deep with school - it's been pretty fantastic... but lots of work, so no time to post! This is a quick post to give my classmates a spot to respond to a mini lesson, or microteaching, I did a couple weeks ago in my 'Instructional Methods, Design, and Technology' class.
The topic of my microteaching was food webs and I did the "Web of Life" game with my "class" (adopted from lessons like this). In this lesson students sit in a circle representing an ecosystem - each student represents an organism in the ecosystem and they pass yarn between them, representing the connections between the organisms. It's a lesson I'm familiar with from my experience working at an environmenatal education summer camp for many years. Actually, it's one I did as a camper at that same camp and I remember it making an impression on me as a young learner. It's pretty simple, but an effective way for students to visualize the concept of a food web, I think. I also think it works for a range of levels, from grade school to middle school and I'm curious to hear what my fellow RIC students have to say about it!
I feel pretty good about how the lesson went - no major issues I think (I hope)! I just handed in a take-home quiz assignment for which I had to watch a recording of the lesson and analyze my use of questions in the lesson - I asked 57 questions in 23 minutes! It wasn't as horrifying watching a recording of myself as I thought it would be, but I definately noticed some things that I need to work on - I talk too fast and don't give enough wait time - I have a habit of starting a sentence and then changing gears in the middle of it - or asking a question and immediately rephrasing it - I also seem to favor the left side of the room. But hopefully this all didn't get in the way too much and my "students" were able to learn something and have a good time doing it - what do you think, classmates?
