Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Reflective Teaching Lessons

Today I participated in a Reflective Teaching Lesson (RTL) in which I taught my peers about something that I knew very little about...the TIKI!!!


The objective was for the students to correctly interpret the meanings of the eyes of several different tikis. For example, if a tiki's eyes are squinted it is symbolic of love, if the eyes are oval it represents good fortune, and if the eyes are rounded on the bottom and straight on top it indicates safety or protection.

It was a fairly straight forward lesson and a great opportunity to practice teaching in a safe environment.

The Lesson

I provided some brief background information about Polynesia and Polynesian culture and then transitioned into the origins and importance of the tiki. Using a PowerPoint, I showed some examples of different tiki designs and specifically the differences in the eyes. Then, I showed them pictures of different tiki and asked them as a class to describe the eyes and determine their significance. Upon completion they took a quiz individually each student got the correct answer for each of the questions.

Feedback

I prepared a brief learner satisfaction survey to receive feedback. Here are some of the things that they liked:

  • "I liked that we were able to learn it, "quiz" ourselves with the class, then individually. It helped solidify the information" 
  • "Good visual aids"
And here are some areas that I can improve:
  • "More action!" 
  • "Maybe some voice inflection"

Reflection

As I reflect on the lesson, I realize that I need to improve on being more engaging and perhaps display more energy in my teaching style. That is something that I will have to practice and I will need to overcome some of my reservedness.

1 comment:

  1. Mike,

    Great format to this post. Don't forget that you can also include observations of your peers in your reflection of things you want to be sure to change or include in future teaching episodes.

    Maybe consider identify an "ACTION ITEM" for each post that pushes you along your teacher development continuum? a focus item? Just an idea.

    DF

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