Teaching Reflection

Jill and I taught a less on on problem solving. One thing that we did was try to involve the whole class and give them hands on experience in problem solving and in specifically different methods of problem solving that we were teaching. This is from the principal that an engaged class will learn more during a lesson. We also used class discussion as a way of trying to assess the learning do but also help each person to make things stick better and learn from each other. This is from the principle that information applied is more memorable. When a person makes something they learn their own, they are able to discuss, and in this class with Daren on the sidelines, debate what has been learned. It made the lesson a bit more difficult but more interesting and memorable. It would have been even more memorable if we could have been better prepared for the questions that he brought up. Also, people learn better when the learning comes from multiple source. We can only learn so much by ourselves, we are able to learn more by discussing our findings with our peers and then we are able to learn more still by learning from an expert or a teacher and then the cycle starts again.

I think that our lesson would have been stronger if we would have had a better understanding of the material we were teaching. I know that I personally was still a bit iffy on some of the definitions but I figured that no one was going to ask any questions like the ones that Daren asked so I didn't worry about having it solid. I will never make that assumption again. I think that we also could have practiced our lesson some more before presenting it because it was a bit bumpy. That was definitely a weakness that could have been a strength if we had practiced more. That is something that I would change. Something that I liked was the ideas behind the activities but I think that the instructions given to at least one of the groups were a bit confusing. I would probably give better instructions the next time. We could have explained that each group was to read their instructions before beginning. That was something that I assumed they would do but they did not. So, for next time I will want to plan for all possibilities and not assume that a class knows what I am thinking because that just made things difficult for them.