Improvising!

Hello. We practice at college what is called 'Microteaching'. This is a comment I wrote about the last microteaching I had...

Content Based Teaching

Class Adaptation – Nature and Me

I was not difficult for me to pick a subject. I love science and biology and I knew I wanted to do this class from the very first minute. I wanted to take my students to a field trip and teach them about the ecosystem. I took the plans from the Ministry of Education and planned my class according to that. Of course I did not forget about Mr. Bloom and the nine events. I took into consideration the previous knowledge the students need to have and the fact that I would need a helper or assistant teacher on the field. It was fun planning this. Something I would never have thought. Planning was fun.

Now, the actual performance of the activities was something else. I knew I had to do something different from what I had planned. So I adapted my class to a class that could be done in the classroom. Students were supposed to acknowledge elements in their surroundings as living and non living elements and the functions they have in relation with others. Now this I had planned in room F3. That did not work out the way I expected. I had even prepared a PowerPoint presentation and handouts to make them work in groups. So, then I realized; 'Whoops! We have classes at C2!' So I thought, 'Nevermind, I still have a PowerPoint presentation and handouts. But I had left them home!

So when it was my turn I really wanted to make my class. I improvised, since I knew the better way to make them understand about ecosystem was to make them look and their own campus. So I started with a warm-up activity, which seemed too improvised to my taste and then took them to the door to look at the campus in the same way we look at a fish tank. Then the group work was not as interesting as it would have been originally. But it worked. So improvising turned out fine, I guess because I knew what I wanted, I had planned it and it was all in my mind.

Thanks for visiting!