Micro-teaching Reflection

This past week I had the opportunity to go and complete my micro-teaching (3 day unit) at Juniata High School. I chose to teach Ms. Morgan's Agricultural Mechanics class. This class consisted of 13 students at three different levels including eight students in Agricultural Mechanics I, two students in Agricultural Mechanics II, and three students in Agricultural Mechanics III.

Approaching this class I was a little hesitant because I was unsure of how I would be able to include all students, at all levels in my lessons. With the help of Mrs. Morgan and Dr. Ewing I was able to create a short three day unit on careers in Agricultural Mechanics. I broke down my unit into  three days of lesson.

Day One- On the first day of micro-teaching the students got a brief introduction to agricultural mechanic careers. After the introduction of careers I broke the class into four groups and had them look up a career that they might be interested in. The groups had to find the career description, average salary and a short 2-5 minute YouTube video on the career.

Day Two- On the second day of micro-teaching the students finished up the career assignments. Next, I introduced them to the final project where the students got to apply skills they have learned in their agricultural mechanics class, and what the skills the students would see in agricultural mechanics career. The project is pictured above. The students were to design and build a barn roof to hold the most amount of weight. 45 minutes is not enough time to build a barn roof so the students were given more time to finish up the next day.

Day Three- On the last day of micro-teaching the Juniata High School had a shortened day making the period only 30 minutes long instead of the normal 45 minutes. This made it a little difficult to have the students finish up their projects and see how much weight each one could hold. Mrs. Morgan kindly decided to continue the project after I left so the students could have more time.

Reflecting on the past three days there are a few things I would change about my short unit. The biggest thing I would change is TIME! Each day time seemed to be a struggle. I always estimated the amount of time for an assignment and a project to take less time than it actually did. I learned that you can't rush assignments or projects because the students will not gain the content that you want them to. Other than timing I though my lesson did a great job engage students with technology and hands on activities.

Big thanks to Mrs. Morgan and her students for making micro-teaching a success!