First Day of School Lab

I was a little shaky.  It might have been from the caffeine or from the nerves...or we can call it excitement!  This week I taught my First Day of School Lab.  Instead of teaching my cohort members, I actually taught in Dr. Rice's AEE 100 class.  I was absent from lab, so we used my 'First Day of School' Lab as Dr. Rice's interest approach to lesson plans and the elements that should be included.  This week I received some immediate feedback from the students!  What was unique about that was these students aren't my cohort members, so they do not see me teach weekly, so they had a different take.  My big take away: It felt good!  This is the first teaching lab that I walked out feeling more confident than I did frustrated.  I am hard on myself and tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist. The context I chose was my power technology class, and the fact that I enjoyed it and walked out feeling a little more confident was encouraging because teaching power technology scares me!

Gems: The things I and others felt I did well

Variability
I used an e-moment to effectively give students voice about the expectations I had for them which created interest and provided a different way of giving expectations.  In addition to the E-moment, I asked for students to work in groups, write on the board, and do a written bell work.  

Rapport & Relationships
During the lesson I continued to walk around and check in with students.  This allowed me the chance to see how groups were doing, adapt as I went and get to know students.  Because I had some challenges with grouping clearly, this allowed me time to clarify one by one, and check in with the speed students were going.  

Gems the students and my peers shared: 

• Walking around and talking to students
• They enjoyed that I wrapped engine parts (I tied this to what they expect to learn)
• I said I would take a picture of what they expected to learn, and bring it back near the end of the semester.  I came up with this right there and a student really appreciated it, which I think I will try to do in the classroom too! 

Opportunities: If you're not green, you're not growing. 

Clarity
 I tend to struggle with providing clear instructions.  This time it was with grouping.  Being explicit about who is in which group and how groups are expected to work together is essential for it to work well.  I ended up having to go around and change some groups during work time. 


Timing
I know I only have a certain amount of time to teach a slice of a lesson, but I struggle with that.  We cut parts of mine and moved objectives around so I could show giving objectives and the students in 100 could see the many of the lesson plan parts, but I think this made me rush a little.  Being aware of where students are at and providing more or less time will be essential in the future

Opportunities the Students and my peers shared:

• Groups were a little awkward
• Volume, I need to vary this, sometimes I am loud enough other times I am not
• Timing and rushing
• Brining in content too early with the engine parts (I personally like this because it tied to expectations of learning and behavior, but is something to think about)  

Overall this lesson went well, and because I didn't know the majority of the students, it was a great representation of how the first day might go...nerves and all!