Category: Teaching Reflections

This lesson was quite fun to teach, as it was about something that I am interested in: technology. We started the lesson with a warm-up that required the students to use the interactive whiteboard to write down words related to technology that start with each letter of the alphabet. For this, I wish I had explained how to use the whiteboard better, as some students did not understand how to change their colour from red to blue. After that we introduced them to the main topic of the lesson, Singapore and the technology in the city. The students seemed to enjoy the facts and the video we showed them and were engaged throughout the discussion in their breakout rooms.

Our second activity was one where students fill in the blanks in a comic strip. This activity was less successful, and students didn’t seem too interested in coming up with creative ideas. For this I think we could have given them more direction and examples, or even given them a more dynamic comic strip to work with.

We ran out of time for our last activity so had to go right to the exit ticket afterwards. This was another feedback exit ticket which helped us with planning our future lessons.

For this class, Saradia and I were tasked with recording our lesson and watching it afterwards to reflect on our teaching. Watching myself teach was a bit uncomfortable, as I’m sure it would be for most people. While I was watching, there were a few things that I noticed. One is that Saradia is a lot more clear than me when explaining things. I seem to stumble a bit sometimes when I speak and then get flustered by that, but she is able to speak without a problem. I really appreciate that she was there to be my backup in case I totally froze, which I’m sure wouldn’t happen but it’s good to have that extra person who is able to explain something if you can’t.

The other part of the lesson I noticed was when the students were not responding. When we asked them questions but got no response, I didn’t really try to encourage them to speak but just sat there waiting. I think that I need to be able to get students to speak by calling out specific names or giving questions to specific students beforehand. Again, I was glad Saradia was there to do the encouraging, and she had the quick thinking to call on specific students.

This lesson was good, however, I see many ways in which I can improve my own teaching abilities, and it was helpful to see where I could strengthen both my speaking and communication skills.

This was our last class to teach for our practicum. Because of this, we wanted to make it about a fun topic, while still trying to focus on the reading aspect of the course. We connected it to the lesson previous by asking what the students had tried, however, none responded. I think if we were to do it differently I would have made the questions we asked into more of an activity rather than just questions on a slide. Our warm-up activity was also a bit slow, and the students didn’t seem very engaged when asked to come up with activities at the “round table”. I think they may have needed a little more direction on what to do, and we could have made it into more of a competition.

For our next activity, first we got students to watch a video about Kamloops summer activities then had a quick discussion as a class. The students were more engaged for this part and were quick to chat and answer our questions. After, we got them to read an article about summer sun safety and discuss questions in their breakout rooms. The breakout room that I was in had a great discussion and were able to answer most of the questions with their mics on. After we rejoined the full class, other students felt confident enough to turn on their mics and talk, which was encouraging to see.

For the exit ticket we asked for feedback and were able to get lots of it, which really helped. It showed that the students were enjoying our class and had helpful comments for us to improve in future lessons.

For this class, Saradia and I kind of stuck to the same formula we’ve been using for lessons in the past weeks. The subject of the lesson was senses such as hearing, taste, smell, sight and touch. The reading was focused on touch, so we did a warm-up activity that was about idioms that use the word touch like out of touch or magic touch. After, we went through some pronunciation practice, then read the passage to the class, asking comprehension questions along the way. Our last activity was back to the idioms, asking students to create sentences using the idioms we had covered earlier in the class to create sentences. Finally, our exit ticket asked students what sense was the most important to them in their daily life or as a student and why. Looking back on this lesson, I feel like we could have made it more interesting and engaging, as a large amount of time during the class was spent with the teachers reading the passage. In future lessons, I believe we should try and do less teacher reading and try and incorporate the students into that part of the process somehow.

Today’s lesson was very successful! After receiving feedback from our practicum advisor the week before, Saradia and I worked on a lesson that was a bit different from our previous ones. We started out by changing our welcome activity to a word search, and I found that while some students did take the time to look for words, most didn’t participate. Maybe we could try a song or a funny comic for next week? Our warm-up involved the students listening to a song and filling in the blanks on a slide. When we asked the students to fill in the blanks afterwards, it started off a bit slow but gained momentum after the second word or so. After that, we broke students up into four groups to discuss how COVID-19 has affected them and their families. The discussions that were had in each of the groups were really amazing, and it was interesting to hear each student speak about their experiences and difficulties. We then did a quick recap of the reading, then started a Kahoot. One problem with Kahoot is that not everyone could join, due to it not being available in their countries. This is unfortunate, as we want everyone to be able to join in and participate in class, so we will have to look into another program that can be used by all of the students. We ended the lesson with an exit ticket asking what students are most looking forward to when things are back to normal, and it was a nice end to the lesson to have students looking forward and excited for the future.

The lesson we taught was quite similar to the previous lesson before the reading break. We first had the students choose a famous celebrity that they would like to invite to a party they are throwing and why. If I were to change the warm-up, I think I would make it more related to the lesson, and maybe more interactive than just asking them a question. After that, we did a quick readthrough of the passage again and practised pronunciation. We had three more activities planned, however, we were only able to get through the next two before heading on to our exit ticket. The first was a discussion question activity where students were put into breakout rooms and asked to discuss questions on a slide. Next, we put them into new breakout rooms to answer some true or false questions relating to the passage. I feel like the true or false activity was not very engaging, as the group that I was facilitating did not seem very enthusiastic. I think that in order for it to be more engaging, I would have made the questions into a Kahoot or Quizlet to give the students more incentive to participate and answer.

This was the second time that I have taught a speaking-focused class. It was fun to be creative with planning the lesson, and I thought that Saradia and I were able to come up with some fun activities. Since the group we were teaching was smaller, it was almost easier to plan what we were going to do, as we didn’t have to figure out how we were going to break them up or ensure that everyone was participating, since it is easier to remember who has spoken and who hasn’t in a smaller class. Our first activity went well, with students coming up with an adjective that starts with the first letter of their name. After we moved on to creating a story with sentences from the students. I think we may not have explained the activity well enough, as some students were a bit confused when we began. We should have given them a better example of how the activity was going to work. Once the group figured out what they were supposed to do, however, the activity went well. The students made some interesting stories that made everyone laugh. Once we finished that activity, we broke them into two breakout rooms to discuss some philosophical questions that we had for them. While the students were supposed to be creative with their answers, some of them took them more seriously and answered them realistically. This is not a bad thing, and when we came back to the main room everyone shared their answers and seemed like they had fun. In the end, I had fun with this lesson and I hope the students did as well.

This class was the first one where we were actually going over some course content with the students. Before the class, we had a very planned out lesson with many activities, however, when we actually started to teach, the activities wound up being much longer than we planned and we were only able to get through the warm-up activity and the reading. Thankfully, the students were very engaged and went along with everything we wanted them to do, which was very encouraging. We even had a couple of students say that they really enjoy our class and were looking forward to it, which made me really happy, as I was a little worried that the students would be bored or unenthusiastic during class times. One thing that I felt a bit awkward doing during class was our pronunciation activity. We would say a word, then we would ask the students to turn on their mic and repeat after us. It felt weird pointing to the camera to indicate it was their turn, but I’m hoping I will get used to doing these types of things. The online learning environment is quite challenging to work with sometimes, but I’m glad that we have a good class that participates and enjoys our lessons.

Today’s class was the first class I felt prepared for. Saradia and I were able to plan out exactly what we were doing with the help of Wendy, and I was excited to go through it with an actual class. Although I had some pre-class jitters, they quickly went away as we interacted with the students and got to know them a little better. We went through our introductions and afterwards, I was surprised how many questions about us there were from the students, but happy to see that they were engaged and listening. As the lesson went on I got more comfortable with speaking and was able to interact with the students easily. When we got to the breakout room portion of the lesson, I again tried to get students to put their cameras and mics on, but only a few did. I will try harder next time to get them to do this, as it is important to me that everyone knows each other and that there is more of a sense of community in the classroom. When we got back together as a class, everyone was having a good time, and students had learned about each other, which was the goal of our lesson. I hope that we are able to keep their engagement up throughout the semester and that students keep enjoying our classes.

After teaching my first ever lesson, I felt proud of myself. I was quite nervous beforehand but found it to be easier than I thought it would be, and I feel like I was able to overcome my anxiety and teach a good lesson. Even though Jennelle and I had a limited amount of time to plan, I feel as though we were able to come up with good ideas and activities for the class. When we were actually teaching, we were able to stick to what we planned, while also being prepared for the unexpected. The class was very interactive, which was great, as with online teaching it can be difficult to engage students and keep their attention on you. The pace of the lesson was manageable, and it seemed to fly by. One difficulty we had was not having students want to come on the mic or on camera, which I know is a common problem for online learning. In the future, I will try to encourage students to put on their mic and camera more, as it is nice to put names to faces and see that people are actually listening. All in all, the lesson went well, and I am happy that it did and excited to teach again.