Running head: MICRO TEACHING REFLECTION EXTERNAL LESSON

Micro Teaching Reflection External Lesson

May Smith
Fontbonne University

MICRO TEACHING REFLECTION EXTERNAL LESSON

Micro Teaching Reflection External Lesson

Comfort with Teaching
Unlike the in-class microteaching lessons, I found myself with a lot more anxiety facing
an actual learning audience than a group of my peers. The thought of teaching three different
classes full of high school seniors seemed like an endeavor whose positive outcome rested
mostly on the good will and participation of students who are stereotypically portrayed as
apathetic and resistant to learning. I spent a lot of time trying to make a lesson plan that would
appeal to even the most withdrawn student, hoping that by engaging them with movement,
games, and balloons, they would respond better to an outside speaker. I had talked to Jaime
while creating the lesson and knew that I couldnt use my original idea of having the students
rearrange the classroom or sit on the floor. In order to adjust to the environment, I had to rewrite
the Balloon Game as an activity that could get them up from their seats, but only brieflylong
enough for them to grab a balloon for each adjective they suggested. During the lesson I saw
this worked fairly well, but also found some students didnt want to move. In order to keep them
engaged, I suggested another student who was willing to walk around toss a balloon at the seated
students. I think this enhanced the games appeal since most people enjoy playing ball with
balloons. In the first two classes, the game was met with participation and I think the students
had fun overall. The last class seemed to have an air of apathy about them. There was a general
resistance to any participation. This could have just been the social structure of the class, since
teens generally arent well known for trying things if their peers seem to think its silly. It also
could have been due to being the last period of the day. I know that sitting all day is draining
and even if they felt up to playing, sometimes its hard to break out of the funk caused from
being still all day. It did help me for comfort that the first two classes were so receptive. Im

MICRO TEACHING REFLECTION EXTERNAL LESSON

glad that Jaime suggested I teach all three. If I had just taught this last class, I know I would have
walked away with a sense of failure. Instead, I see how the group dynamics for this age group
have a huge impact on their wiliness to learn and participate in something new. I think the
chance to see such a difference between the groups will help me tremendously in the future when
things dont go as smoothly as they could. There always needs to be a reflection on not just
Was my lesson well made or Did I present it well enough to keep their attention? You also
need to reflect on the audience and ask Did they want to learn? If the answer is no, then there
isnt much you can do to get them engaged.
Knowledge of Subject Matter
When creating my lesson plans, I actually changed my external lesson plan from an
overview of all six dimensions of wellness to a lesson focused on emotional and spiritual
wellness. I was creating the lesson plan for in-class microteaching #3 and realized that this topic
is much more relevant for senior high school teens than a brief overview. I wanted the class to
walk away with something useful. I asked Jaime if I could switch topics since we had already
had our lesson meeting and with her go-ahead, focused a lesson on all the changes the teens may
be experiencing. I didnt go in depth as I wanted because I was a stranger to the students and
standing in front on them saying something pandering like I know what youre going through
was only likely to turn their ears off. Instead I tried to make most of the lesson driven by them in
the balloon game, allowing them to define for themselves what emotional and spiritual wellness
entailed. By allowing them to define it for themselves, they didnt have a stranger preaching
about emotions to them, always an uncomfortable topic. Instead they owned the emotions we
talked about and got to experience in a light hearted game how it felt to exchange those emotions
with other students. Teaching emotional and spiritual wellness is one of those topics that has to

MICRO TEACHING REFLECTION EXTERNAL LESSON

be audience driven. How I experience sadness or happiness wont ever be the same as another
person. There are coping mechanisms for promoting positive emotions or handling more
negative ones and most of the students seemed very receptive in making suggestions of their own
for how they handle their emotions or how they find spiritual fulfillment in life. It was
interesting to hear from students that wanted to be artist, teachers, and I dont know, but it will
be awesome. My goals for the students were focused on interpersonal communication and I
think they all did very well by being able to express their suggestions in front of a crowd of their
peers. There was also a decent amount of participation in the exchange portion of the balloon
game, including a discussion afterwards on what they felt exchanging emotions meant to them.
I did end up changing my Venn Diagram of Emotions to just a listing of positive, negative, or
neutral emotions. I realized last minute that having to write all the suggestions on the board
could get confusing, both for the students and for the writer, if we ran out of room in a particular
section.

After this lesson, I can see its a topic that some teens really want a chance to talk

about, but others dont want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Im going to admit I dont know
how to make the emotion lesson easier to present other than to be a teacher they are familiar with
and trust. I dont know if its allowed, but I would also suggest that students who want to know
more about the subject can either talk to the teacher after the class or when they are comfortable
or even the school counselor. However, seeking help has a certain amount of stigma in high
school, so Im not sure how many would use that suggestion. For the spiritual wellness, finding
their purpose in life, I think this lesson would be well paired with a career fair in school, maybe
even assigning a reflection for the students after the career fair about what portions of spiritual
wellness they may find in their future careers.

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Whats Next
My next step after this lesson is to take a little bit of feedback from all my lessons and
try to incorporate them into my last in-class teaching. Ive gotten some fantastic suggestions
back, from less wordy PowerPoints, to having a class activity that doesnt call people out, to
speaking louder. I know that I need to improve on my presenting skills when it comes to an
external audience. There is a marked difference between presenting to a group of peers and
presenting to an unknown audience. I know that having a barrier does decrease the audiences
perception of you, so in the first external classroom experience I did make sure I was front and
center without anything in front of me. However, I found myself relieved in the next two classes
that I could hide behind the tables in the classroom since moving around would get in the way
of the game and standing in front would have blocked the slide projector. I think my greatest
improvement that I need to make is my own sense of comfort while presenting. I need to take
time to speak my lesson out loud so that Im not stumbling over words or phrases. I could
present to a test audience first to get their feedback. I could even present the lesson to myself
on a recording and listen to it to see where I feel or sound weak. Even if Im very familiar with
the material Im presenting, I need to remind myself that being unfamiliar with the presentation
itself can make me seem incompetent or weak in the subject matter. As a professional, I wont be
able to afford seeming unknowledgeable if Im presenting to peers or clients. On a personal
level, I know that I would take a poor receiving of a lesson as a failure, something damaging to
my own emotional wellness. My best tool against this is both preparation to meet all anticipated
bumps in the road.and also letting go of what I cant anticipate or change. At the end of the
day, if Ive tried my hardest and a lesson still kinda flopped, I just need to walk away knowing I
did my best and Ill work on making it better the next time.