When looking at the video of the lesson that was presented to my peers in class, right off the back there are weaknesses that show from just my body language. My body language is the same with every statement I make to the class. I rock back and forth while taking and using the word “umm” a lot while doing that. It just shows my uncomfortable in front of the class and how nervous I was to be teaching. I need to show confidence even if it isn’t there for the students to have faith in my ability to teach. I know it was the first day of teaching and Leah and myself were the first pair to go, but it is something I have always struggled with and something I need to work on and become better at. Some other weaknesses I saw were my vocabulary used during my part of the lesson. I was using vocabulary that was not appropriate for the grade level I was teaching. I was using words that were being taught to us at the college level for a 2nd grade lesson. Something to improve on is just the vocabulary that is used during the lesson. As I said earlier, I used the word “umm” a lot not only to gather my thoughts, but I use it as a transition during the lesson. Overall it is just a confidence issue that makes transitions and thought process less smooth than it should be.
On the other hand, there are also strengths that shine through the weaknesses in the lesson. It was clear that I knew what I was talking about and that I had practiced and had a lot of knowledge of the lesson. It was scratching the surface and just needed to be exposed above the lack of confidence. I also think a strength that is showed in the video is how well Leah and myself work together during the lesson. We made a good combination when planning and working together in the lesson. We both worked hard to prepare for what we were teaching in the lesson.
The overall effectiveness of the lesson was a success in my opinion. Even thought nerves were showing throughout the lesson, the concept was taught. But unfortunately, I know that if we were not teaching college students then we would have crashed and burned when it came to teaching the concept. We completely forgot about naming the concept of AB Form of the lesson. Forgetting to name the concept from the beginning and just introducing it at the end and hoping the students understand the concept is not the way to teach a lesson. If this lesson had been taught to 2nd graders then the effectiveness of the lesson would have not been a success.
Because both Leah and I know that this lesson would not have been effective if we were teaching 2nd graders, we know we have to make some serious changes to the lesson so that the 2nd graders will be able to learn the lesson. The first thing that we can change is introducing the concept from the very beginning and just mentioning and questioning it over and over to reinforce the concept of AB Form. Once we took our revised version into the field, it was like a night and day difference. The kids loved the lesson and were eager to learn the song and do the motions and play the song with us. I enjoyed teaching them very much. Seeing the fun they were having learning AB Form was something I could enjoy myself. They had fun and in turn both Leah and myself had fun teaching them. They are wild and crazy and we learned a lot about classroom management because of their behavior. We learned how to keep the lesson going even if the kids try to get out of control. I never thought I would want to teach elementary school aged children, but I really enjoyed working with this age group. There are so many possibilities for the students to grow through the work that you put into the classroom and to their future.
Some of the INTASC principles that were used while teaching this lesson was number 1. Both Leah and myself understood the concept that we were teaching to the students. We knew the concept inside and out to make sure that we were able to teach the concept effectively to the students. Another principle that was used in the lesson was number 3. The lesson was designed to focus on different learning styles of students by having both a hands on approach as well as a reading and listening part to the lesson. INTASC principle number 5 is about motivation and behavior in the classroom. Leah and I came up with the idea of using the game that goes a long with the song “Old Dan Tucker” to give the students motivation to get through the lesson as quickly and quietly as possible so that we had enough time to play the game at the end.