Micro Teaching

Before the first teaching placement, we were required to do a micro teaching on a topic from the first teachable subject for 15 minutes. My first teachable is Chemistry and I was very excited to prepare a lesson and present that in front of the class at Brock University for the first time. The Faculty Associate advised everyone exactly how to plan the lesson and do the micro teaching. 

I selected the concept Elements and Compounds from the grade 10 curriculum. I came up with different ideas to present the very basic but really important theory in chemistry so that the content would be interesting and easy to understand and remember. One important thing I leaned at Brock was the importance of the beginning of the lesson, which should motivate and engage the students to have their minds on in the lesson. It is the "hook". Therefore, rather than the traditional style of teaching the definitions of elements and compounds, which is teacher centred, I created my lesson to have students involved to construct knowledge and understanding, which is student centred learning. In order to differentiate between elements and compounds, I introduced the class with an Aluminum foil and a glass of water and asked if they could imagine breaking down Aluminum and water to find the smallest building blocks. I had atoms and molecules from my molecular model kit ready to show to the class. Everyone could visualize what exactly an element and a compound meant. I also used transparencies to present definitions and examples of elements and compounds. Once the definitions were clear, I gave the class an activity to make models of some common elements and compounds using the model kit. This made everyone very excited and they all seemed to understand the concept very clearly. 

The feedback from the faculty associate and others was very impressive and encouraging. 

I can't wait to go and teach in front of a real high school class in my first placement. Hope it will be a wonderful experience.