Ms.

Mikaela Michailides Demo Lesson Video Paper Background focusing on what you have viewed

The shortened version of my filmed lesson is a demonstration of myself, teaching my classmates how to make chocolate-chip ice cream sandwiches. I must admit that having my adult classmates as mock students in my classroom makes my job of teaching difficult. What I mean by this is that my classmates are so competent, quite and obedient in the classroom, it makes me feel as if I am not even needed. I am so used to being the individual in the room that holds all of the answers, solves my students problems, and entertains them with my teaching skill. This is not to say that I feel undermined by my adult classmates, it just feels like everything runs so easy, and it is not exciting for me as a teacher when things go exactly as planned, and I do not have the ability to be creative in solving my students problems during class, because no difficulties arise. I think the only thing that happened to go wrong in my lab lesson, was a certain group had dry batter, and I just added a tablespoon more of butter to their batch. Despite how I find it more difficult to teach adults, I like how my lesson went, but found that I could have asked my mock students more questions throughout the lesson, and pried a bit deeper, for reflections on how the group members were finding the recipe, what they didnt like, what they did like and what they were happy with. Again, with adults I find that when I ask a question, rarely anyone wants to answer, I have to have a long wait time, and then out of pity one of my students answers to me. On the other hand, I find that students are always keen to answer questions, and ask the teacher more, therefore stretching out lesson time, creating more inquiry and curiosity within the class, and growing the lesson into something more than originally organized on the lesson plan. I can say that more often than not adults feel obligated to participate while I generally find students content to learn. Analysis of specific teaching/learning strategy integration The specific learning strategies which I noticed myself use during the demo lesson range from subtle to very obvious. Some of them I use subconsciously and some of them are written down in my lesson plan. Here are the order they appear in; The first strategy was stating the objectives of the lesson. I had written the objectives on the board, which were different cookie methods, specifically the drop cookie method. I wrote the objectives how they appear in the curriculum module, however I should have put them in my own words, as it gives them a bit more life and relate ability. I should have asked the class what type of cookies they made before, and what type of cookie did they think chocolate chip cookies fell into. The next strategy I noticed what background knowledge. I gave my students background knowledge on presentation and appearance of bakes products, and I used visual aids to support my ideas on what good presentation looks like. Another strategy I gave my students was a trouble shooting sheet, that showed how a cookie would look if too much of one ingredient was added or not enough of an ingredient

Ms. Mikaela Michailides

was used. This would act as a guide if something went wrong in their baking they would know what to do next time around. A strategy which I use without thinking, is humour. I use my students positive energy to make a friendly atmosphere. It is hard to explain, but I will have certain points in my lesson where I hear a student make a remark, for example, on how much chocolate they wanted to use (the whole bag!) and make light fun over it, so that it creates an easy going and open atmosphere. I will also laugh at my self and not take the task too serious, as that sometime creates tension between teacher and students. This is not to say I do not take my job and my lesson serious, I just want to be able to have fun in my classroom while teaching a great lesson at the same time. Another strategy I found my self using was wait time. I used it after asking a question using inquiry and at one point I felt it was taking a long time for my students to answer, so I offered an answer they could branch off of. It worked and Carly answered me, with a follow up immediately after. The last strategy which I noticed I used was sharing unanticipated learnings. to me, unanticipated learnings are mistakes made by a teacher, and depending on how the teacher chooses to acknowledge them, they can become learnings or stay as mistakes. An example of this was when my cookie fell off of the melted ice cream and slipped on the plate. I treated this as a learning experience, and said to my class, this is what happens when you dont let your cookies cool completely before putting the ice cream on top of them! I saved the cookie and everything went well, but it is important to always be honest with your students when mistakes are made, as they can see right through any type of lie and if they catch you lying , saying things like, I meant for this to happen or see you become flustered and frustrated, they tend to take you less seriously, and this can be very dangerous. Analysis of lesson plan structure and flow I felt that my lesson plan went as planned, almost exactly, except for the preassessment portion and the closure. During the pre-assessment I failed to use inquiry to see who has made this baked product before. I didnt take them time to further question my students and ask them about their experiences with cookies, and this dessert in particular. Although I didnt have this in my lesson plan, I felt as though I had too much wait time from the time the students cookies went into the oven to the time where they were making their sandwiches. I should have filled it with other activities related to the lesson and to contemporary baking, or told narratives, or asked guiding questions to the group. I did not anticipate the wait time to be that long, so next time I will be over prepared, just in case. For closure, I found that my lesson dipped far into 60 minutes and our class had a class presentation next, I closed off the lesson by giving my students the ExitSlip but did not finish by asking their learnings, their difficulties, or their inquiries. That was a big mistake. I dont want to end a lesson without structure, so no matter what, even if I run out of time I want to be able to take at least one minute, if only a minute, and have a discussion about how the lesson unfolded.

Ms. Mikaela Michailides

Teaching and presentation skills Through out the last year of my practicum classes (IPT/APT semester) I have felt my teaching and presenting skills develop immensely. I feel more confident, my words flow, and my classmates/students are engaged. I have learned to follow my lesson without looking at it all the time, and have learned to improvise and come up with new ideas as my lesson is going on. However, what I still struggle with is wait time, and sometimes my nervousness will slightly come out, and I will repeat my self, or say a statement that doesnt make sense. Some of the comments I received from my classmates on the quality of my lesson were; - speak louder - fill the wait time with an activity - loved the visual references - assign cleaning jobs ahead of time - could have done more of a wrap up at the end - loved the full demo - loved the idea of the product - was a fun class - assign a lab report to fill extra time these comments are very constructive and specific, and it made me feel good to hear the complements as well as the criticisms. Analysis of student engagement and learning Throughout my demo lesson I found my class engaged and obedient as stated above. However, sometimes I found them chatty and had to speak louder and in a more serious tone, to get everyones attention. This worked the first time so I didnt have a problem with engagement while I was teaching. again working with adults, the learning curve is quite narrow, as most of my classmates are foodies, and some even trained chefs, so they have made cookies before. With a class that has not made cookies or ice cream sandwiches before the learning curve would be much greater. As well as the age of my students would affect how they were engaged in my lesson. Professional growth plan Throughout this paper I have specified certain aspects of my professional growth plan, I have stated my flaws and mistakes, as well as what I need to improve on. My biggest challenge is one that I will only overcome with time and experience. I

Ms. Mikaela Michailides

want to become completely comfortable teaching, I want everyone of my lessons to flow and have meaning. Most of all I want each of my students to take home something important and specific that they learn in each of my lessons. This means life lessons, cooking, how to work well with others and well being. I want to create a positive environment and a lasting impression on each of my students in the future.