Micro Teach Reflection

Ed 2500
March 30th, 2016
Carson Van Iderstine
I presented a micro-teach on the Syrian refugee crisis, and specifically, why there
are migrants and refugees coming into Canada - and much of the rest of the world. I
believe that there are many things that went well, as well as some that did not meet
my expectations. Fortunately, I taught this same material to my 5 th grade class in
my practicum, and was able to mend the mistakes that I made during my Ed 2500
presentation. I believe that my presentation had three main flaws: the timing of the
presentation, the amount of time spent/amount of work to do, and relating the
presentation to Lethbridge.
Timing the presentation: this was a simple mistake that I should not have made, and
partially attribute it to my potential concussion however, it is my responsibility to
ensure that the presentation is timed correctly. During my presentation to my 5 th
grade students I had no actual time limit; however I still timed the presentation to
practice the proper method of presenting.
Time spent/amount of work to do: I had originally planned to use a worksheet +
information that my TA taught in a lecture. It was all prepared, and ready to be
taught. However, to do this, I felt I would not gain the same knowledge and
feedback that I would if I created my own presentation, and researched the
knowledge myself. By creating my own presentation, I was able to teach a subject
that I believe to be extremely important and relevant, which I would not have been
able to do had I followed the pre-made math worksheet like I had originally intended
to do. I essentially used the original pre-made worksheet as framework, and made
my own questions in the same manner as on the worksheet. I made the questions in
the same way because I had observed the original worksheet being taught, and the
amount of time the students spent working on it amounted to about 10 minutes
the perfect amount of time for my presentation! The problem with doing this for my
micro teach, was that inevitably, my students were much faster at completing
the tasks than my actual 5th grade students. I had prepared a secondary assignment
(much like my TA has done for different presentations) for the students who finished
early coloring in pictures of refugees: I chose this, as it has no set time limit, and is
a good way to spend time doing an arts related activity that remains on the same
subject as the presentation. When I presented to my 5 th graders, I couldnt give out
the worksheets as the students were eating lunch while I presented, so instead I
asked many questions to ensure that the information I presented was absorbed.
Relating presentation to Lethbridge: While presenting to the students, I feel that I
could have related the information more to Lethbridge showing that this was a
current issue, and one that Lethbridge, as well as Canada is partaking in. In the
presentation to my 5th grade students, I did my best to consistently compare the

Micro Teach Reflection

Ed 2500
March 30th, 2016
Carson Van Iderstine
images and videos that I was showing to Lethbridge and Calgary. I would ask
question such as Would you want to live in a city in that condition? Imagine if your
house looked like that? and then I would compare it to Canadas refugee policy by
making statements such as If you had to live there, wouldnt you hope that the rest
of the world would take you in and keep you safe? This is what Canada is doing
when they take in refugees.
I believe that my presentation also had many strengths, such as a good tone and
speech pacing - as well as three things I consider to be crucial: strong imagery,
verbal feedback and exchange, and a disclaimer at the start of the presentation. I
believe that the stunning imagery I showed effectively represented the situation in
Syria the images make a difficult and complex topic more accessible to the
children as it clearly represents a topic which often only related to the students
through speech. The verbal feedback and exchange was crucial to filling in the
details of a tremendously complex situation, aided by the imagery of the video
without the verbal exchange, it would be difficult to determine the amount of
information that the children are understanding, as well as providing further
clarification regarding their questions. I believe that the disclaimer at the start of
the presentation is of paramount importance. In a generation where children can kill
thousands of soldiers online while playing video games, it can be difficult for them
to fully grasp the scope and scale of real-world events. By both addressing the
maturity required, and that I will not know all of the answers to students questions,
I believe relayed the importance and realism of this tragic occurrence.
I believe that the micro-teach was an effective tool that made creating a lesson plan
and teaching it seem like less of a distant future, while simultaneously
demonstrating the requirements that teachers face on a day to day basis.