Reflection of your lesson
How did you (and your partner) prepare?
My partners and I prepared for our lesson by discussing how we were going to coordinate our lesson and how we were going to keep the class focused on the lesson. We spent time thinking about how we were going to go about teaching the class and in the end we decided that the best way to teach the class was going to be by splitting the lesson into three parts. We spent a lot of time see how we were going to control the students and keeping them focused on the lesson.
Explain the objective and assessment measures of your lesson
The objectives of the class were to teach the students about World War I. Within the lesson we wanted the students to learn the reason why the United States entered the war, that is why we decided to present the Zimmerman Note because it was one of the main reasons why the United States entered the war this with the sinking of the White Star Line Lusitania drove the Unites States in to the war and had them siding with the Triple Entente. We also wanted the students to know about some of the most important battles of the war because some of them brought new technological advances in weapons and inventions. We also wanted the students to know about history of chemical warfare and the dangers of it.
Was your lesson plan executed exactly as it was written?
The lesson was pretty close to how the lesson plan was written. The behavior problems some of the students had did sidetrack us but that was very minimal. We were able to stick to the basic structure of the lesson while at the same time becoming a little flexible with it. The most important part of the lesson was that the majority of the students were engaged.
What was the most important thing I tried to teach your students?
The most important thing we tried to teach the students was the historical importance of World War I, and how the innovations that came out of that war changed the world from then on.
How do you think it went?
The lesson went very well. We did have issues with the behavioral cards because we didn’t put our behavioral plan into effect and decided not to use it to keep the class in control. The one thing that I really liked about our lesson was that the students were engaged in the lesson by asking questions even though some of those questions didn’t portray what was going on in the lesson. A good part of those questions did go off topic and did slow down our lesson, but the important thing is that they were at least trying to learn something.
What did you learn from your students?
What I learned from my students is that they can change your plans very easily. We had planned that the lesson was going to be taught by all three of us and we would equally teach the same amount of time, but since the students were distracted we tried to keep them focus on the lesson and that took away for our actual lesson. I also learned that the students do want to learn but that sometimes that want about something else other than what you are teaching and I can’t let that distract me because then we go completely off subject.
What would you have done differently?
What I would have done differently in the lesson was better prepare ourselves for the behavioral cards. We were prepared for them but not as much as we should have been. We should have put our behavioral plan into effect and we would have had more of a focused class. When it came to separating students that were sitting in the middle of the class I should have gotten on that immediately because that distracted a good part of the students and it didn’t allow for Matt to teach his part of the lesson as effectively as he would have wanted to. The group that was in the middle even didn’t allow me to teach my part as well as I would have wanted to. When I went to teach my part of the class which had to do with the most important battles of World War I, I didn’t even get a chance to teach it properly because the class wasn’t paying attention and instead of getting the class back in control I just kind of froze and waited for Matt and Andrew to bring order to the class, when I should have done that myself. Another thing that we should have done was give ourselves a allotted time for us to teach, so we could all have taught and not have to rush ourselves towards the end of class.
How could you have made the lesson even more effective?
The class could have been more effective if we had some kind of an activity to keep the class on track. Our lesson was all lecturing and that just bored the class. History is probably one of the most boring subjects in the curriculum, just lecturing for an hour or so just makes it worse, because students will get bored very quickly. An activity for the class to work on would have made the class far more effective.
What do you think you need to improve or do differently?
What I would need to do to improve myself as a teacher would be that I first have to learn how to deal with students that are not behaving so there can be some order in the class. I also have to learn that not all the students will listen to me and that you can’t hold the entire class back for one student because if you do then all the students fall behind and that just not far to them. Another thing is would improve would be in creating activities for the class because if you just lecture to the class most of them will not learn the material and it will just go in on ear and out the other.
Reflection of Podcast
How did you and your partner plan to use the podcast in your lesson?
My partners and I decided to use the podcast for the chemical warfare portion of the lesson, Andrew created a packet for the class in which the students could have followed along and then answered some questions in the packet.
Did you use it during the class lesson? Why or why not?
We were unable to use the podcast because of time constraints and we had to cut our lesson so that we could cover the majority of the lesson. The students were able to use the packet that Andrew created for them because they were able to read off the packet.
How did your students react to the podcast?
The students had a good reaction to the packet, but they were unable to listen to the podcast. I think if they would have listen to the podcast they would have really enjoyed it, because it is a very informative podcast.
How do you think it went?
The packet for the podcast went very well even though the actual podcast was not used. The class read along with Andrew as he covered what Mustard Gas was. The students also asked questions about the chemical agent.
What could you have done to infuse the podcast into the lesson more effectively?
We could have put the podcast at the beginning of the class so we could have at least had used in the class. The pod cast could have been a great introduction; the only thing is that we would have had to change a couple of things in the podcast so it could have fitted the beginning of the lesson.
Do you have any other ideas of how you would use podcasting in your lesson or future lessons?
There are many ways that I could use a podcast for future lessons the only problem would be is on how to incorporate them into the lesson. Podcast are a great way to have the students listen to the class. It is different from just lecturing to the class. I can student’s create a podcast to introduce the chapter we will be covering for the class so they all have some kind of involvement in the class.
Reflection of other classmates' lessons
- Please write a short 2-3 paragraph reflection of your classmates’ lessons.
- Include critiques or any methods you learned when participating in these lessons
The lessons that my classmates taught were all very impressive. I was always excited to sit and listen to the subject they would be teaching. Each of the team teachers had to deal with some very strange behavior but it is all in preparation for what is to come. The lesson plans also taught us how to work with other teachers and work together in a classroom.
The first team that went was Chris and Tariq had a very good lesson, the only thing that the behaviors caught them off guard so they felt like they lost control of the class but since they were the first to go they did a good job. The lesson Brandon and Anthony taught was good to they and a great lesson about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. They probably got the worse of the behavioral cards, especially when Tariq and I almost got into a fight because of racial tension, but they handled it very well by defused the situation very quickly and separating us to prevent the fight. In Marisa’s Sandra’s and Meredith’s lesson they are the ones that had the most control of the classroom. Their behavioral plan was excellent they had a box for cell phones which would reduce distractions in the classroom. If we had chosen to use our behavioral plan in the classroom we would have had a similar idea to theirs for the cell phones but we decided to not use it so we just took the cell phones from individuals during the class. They change the set up of the classroom so that the students could not all bunch up in one part of the classroom. Dean also did an excellent job. He taught his lesson all by himself; he was able to keep the class under control even without another partner to help him. He also kept the class focused on the material and kept the students engaged in the lesson. In all everyone did a great job for their team teaching, and I know everyone got something out of it too.
