Classroom Simulation Reflections

Write three reflections on your 10-minute lessons.

EDUC_0020
Student Teacher Interaction in the Classroom

Simela Petridis | 1666 864

Due Date: 22nd March 2017

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Reflection 1: Personification

Admittedly I was extremely nervous to teach my first 10-minute lesson,

especially to pre-service teachers with the same major and minors of History

and English as me. I brainstormed English exercises two weeks prior to my

first lesson and came to the conclusion that the basics will be my best friend

until I gain a wind of confidence to do something a little more complex. To

justify my gain a wind of confidence comment is not to belittle my ability but I

know my strengths and I was determined to do a good job despite the task

being simple. I chose to teach an English lesson on personification catered for

years 8-9. I wanted to ease myself into the teaching field with a literary

technique that is easy to understand and that can be paired with a creative

task. Firstly I directed the lesson through the use of the white board, writing

What is personification? bold in the middle with the definition directly

underneath. Every time I would ask the students a question I would stand to

either side of the white board ensuring all students can be seen, the

whiteboard can be seen and the students can see me. I did this deliberately to

maintain attention the entire time, enforcing my position as the authority in a

non-aggressive manner. As I asked the students the above question I would

wait until they responded, repeat their response and write it on the white

board to reinforce their response once again followed by individual praise.

Once we had brainstormed personification and what it means to personify

something, I filled a hat with twelve labels of random objects, which the

students would personify, objects such as lamp, banana, chair etc. Students

were instructed to pick three labels at random and complete the task sheet

accordingly. I wanted the students to be creative with their personifications,

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encouraging them to stray from what was obvious. Alex posed as the

misunderstanding student and questioned how personification was different to

a simile as he kept using anatomy to personify his objects. Internally I

panicked however maintained my composure by praising him on drawing a

similar literary comparison. Second I addressed the difference to the entire

class and gave advice on how to avoid the confusion by instead of using

human anatomy to personify try using human characteristics/emotion instead.

After they had completed the task sheet I allowed time for them to share what

they personified to the entire class. The feedback I received was extremely

positive and encouraging. My group said that my use of the white board was

excellent and clear, my task was engaging and I had an aesthetically pleasing

task sheet. Alex praised me on my efforts when dealing with his question and

reassured me that I did not look panicked and handled it professionally. My

group also acknowledged how I used their names to direct learning, saying it

was encouraging, personal and made the lesson interactive. Personally, for a

first attempt, I conducted a sufficient lesson but I would like to improve on my

composure, being more assertive and maintaining a clear lesson objective.

Reflection 2: Persuasive Writing

Already my confidence had improved, particularly in planning the lesson. I

knew how I wanted to structure the lesson and planned it only a week before.

Keeping within my boundaries I chose to conduct another English lesson

catering for years 8-9. The theme of the lesson was to teach the literary

technique of persuasion, which they would use in their upcoming

advertising/media assignment to create an advertisement and persuade the

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audience to purchase it, go see it etc. Before the class had begun I wrote four

key techniques of persuasion on the board with their definitions underneath,

which the students would use as a tool to complete the task sheet. I had the

white board set with a clear heading of Can you convince me? with the

techniques in four separate columns. I made use of using a color schemed

white board, the terms were in blue and the definition was in red, enforcing

repetition and encouraging memory retention. At the beginning of the lesson I

immediately separated the students into pairs and gave each pair a different

object, which together they would write a short advertisement making use of

the defined techniques on the white board. Both pairs were given

stereotypical objects (an egg slicer and a hose) but my activity encouraged

pairs to be creative and stray from the already made purpose of the objects

(eg. The egg slicer can also peel the shell). The pairs completed the task and

shared their adds to each other. The group thoroughly enjoyed the activity

again making notice of the aesthetically pleasing task sheet. The group was

hesitant at first about the amount of writing on the white board, saying it is

intimidating to the learner however when they found out its purpose was to be

used as a guide they praised the idea and elaborated on it saying that

students could write the definitions instead of the teacher, or there could be

no definitions and students would have to try and remember them etc. The

group said this task was a great introductory lesson for future lessons and the

assignment task and mentioned that working in pairs was a great way to

encourage interaction and a flow of ideas. Nathan also said I maintained a

stern, direct voice that implied I do not tolerate trouble but also like to have fun

particularly when I referee to them as guys or cool with that? etc. I have

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made a significant improvement from my first lesson however must improve

on again my lesson objective and keeping it coherent as well as being

cautious of my choice of language (I use the word wicked when nervous as

an expression of praise).

Reflection 3: Hitler Invasion on Poland

This was by far the hardest lesson to plan. Although it took me only two hours

to create the concept I was apprehensive about teaching history to another

four, highly intelligent history majors. I was also terrified knowing that there

would be assigned behavioral roles. Nonetheless I chose to teach a history

lesson catered to year 10s on Hitlers invasion on Poland. This lesson was

following on from a previous lesson on Hitlers rise to power. As the topic is

extremely heavy I was mindful to keep the activity and the content light. I did

this by initiating the lesson with a brainstorming activity. I wrote the date

September 1st 1939 and Why did Hitler invade Poland? in the middle of the

white board. Quickly spotting the kinesthetic learner I called her name and

gave her the white board marker to initiate the brainstorming activity. One by

one the students wrote a reason each on the white board. I then distributed

the task sheets, which had a location pin at the top of the page. The location

pin determined if the student was to imagine they were from Poland or

Germany during this time. The task was to use 21st century tools to execute

how they felt, students would tweet it, snap it, instagram it and text it using

hashtags and tagging friends, similar to how they use it in their everyday lives.

I made sure students knew to be respectful and sensible with their responses

prior to completing the worksheet. The attention seeker was quick to question

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the instruction and I simply directed him back to what he was meant to be

doing. I also questioned what he was going to do for the instagram it portion

and he explained it to me, which allowed him to process his own thinking.

Once the students had completed two portions of the task sheet, I went

through and asked each student to read out what they had done. The activity

was successful and the groups feedback said involving social media was

clever as it has consumed a huge portion of the average teenagers life. They

also said the task sheet was well thought out and the colors and logos to

differentiate the social media platforms were useful and engaging. However

this activity may need refining as some students may not be allowed to use

social media platforms, which could deter the purpose of this task. If I were to

complete this task again I would ensure the entire class has a grasp on the

following social media platforms and conclude the task by showing real tweets

from the recent problems in Ukraine as an example of using 21st century tools

to execute how you feel. In terms of behavioral management I was quick to

determine their individual needs in the initial stages of the lesson and had

mentally created a strategy to ensure they were going to stay engaged

(brainstorming activity). Although the behavioral roles in this lesson were most

likely tamed in comparison to my future students, I found it extremely helpful

and extremely rewarding when I could maintain the different behaviors whilst

keeping the entire class engaged. I am grateful that I had an encouraging,

intelligent and influential group of pre-service teachers and cannot wait to put

my newly discovered teaching skills to practice.

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