Teaching a Poem/Chant: Student Self-Critique of Teaching Experience

Name: Sydney Zumbahlen_________

1) Describe how you felt prior to teaching your poem to the group
 Were you nervous? Did you feel you had planned well and were prepared? Did
you have your poem memorized and know it well enough to teach? Was it your
first time teaching something?)

 I get nervous when I have to speak in front of people by nature. I was very well-
prepared though so that helped me be a bit calmer. I was shaky at first and I could
feel my mouth and hands twitching even though I didn’t feel like I should be
nervous. It’s a problem I’m trying to work on. As I moved along, it got easier and
smoother. I knew my poem well enough, but since I was nervous, I looked at my
paper for no real reason a few times. It was an easy poem. I did not need to read it
to say it out loud. This was not my first time teaching, so I did feel more
comfortable than I would have if it was my first time.

2) Describe how you felt your teaching experience went?

 How was your pacing? Did you stick easily to the 5-7 minutes allowed? Was your
teaching smooth? Did you feel you followed your written lesson plan? Did you
feel you wrote enough in your lesson plan to know you felt what you were doing
to teach? Were you engaging and animated?)

 I feel like my pacing was pretty good. I tend to talk fast and rush things in
general, but I think I did better with pacing in this lesson than I have in past
lessons. My lesson ended up being 4:06. I was about a minute short of the 5-7-
minute time. I think this was due to me speaking quickly and skipping a few of
my steps to make sure I didn’t go over the time limit. I guess I had been worried
about that for nothing. I feel I followed my lesson plan; I just didn’t repeat some
of the steps I had planned on repeating since the students got the concepts pretty
quickly. It would probably be different with actual children though so I’m not
worried about the time. I wrote plenty in my lesson plan to feel prepared. I feel
like I was pretty engaging. I made an effort to make sure my tone was not
monotonous.

3) Now that you have taught your poem, what do you think you did especially well?
  I think I did a good job at reinforcing the words enough to the point that the
students could say it back without my help. Granted, it was not a difficult poem
and these were college students I was teaching, but I feel like my steps were
thorough enough to be clear for any age level.

4) Now that you taught your poem, in retrospect, what do you think you would have changed
about either how you taught or how you wrote your lesson plan, so it would be better if you
taught again?

 I would add in more specific feedback so instead of just saying “good,” I’d let the
students know what was good. I would also try to speak slower with more
confidence. I would try to meet the time limit but not be too repetitive. I feel like
the content and the flow of the lesson is more important than making a specific
time limit.