Week 2: Teaching reflection

During this week's class I was given the opportunity to present a half hour presentation on the Professional Development. I found this topic very difficult to think of ideas that would engage the students interest. I did however come up with three activities. The first, was a class discussion based on ways to continue to develop. The second, activity was a personal assessment. Lastly, a group discussion about lectures and conferences.

The first, activity went well. However , some students did seem to dominate the discussion and it was difficult for me to engage all of the students in this classroom exercise. I did feel like I posed good questions to students reactions. My transitions as a whole were rather abrupt. I would like to work on this in the future.

The second activity was the individual assessment. I had every student rate 30 langauge characteristics on a scale of 1-10. Most of the responses were what i expected many of them recieving low grades due to lack of experience in the classroom. However this is important for students to see what is expected of them when they become a professional teacher.

In the last activity, the entire class was split into four groups, each group had a member that had experience at a langauge conference of lecture. The goal of this activity was for the members of the group to share experiences and ask questions. I thought this activity went very well. After the groups were done discussing we returned back to discuss and share with the entire class.

Overall, my nervousness of being infront of class, preparing an entire presentation by myself and thinking on my feet have vastly improved from my last "teaching experience". However i still need to work on my transitions from one activity to the next. Also, stating the objectives of the activity and time limits on each one to help keep the students on task.