Although nothing in life ever goes directly as planned, I am
generally pleased with how my lesson turned out. I prepared for the day by
reviewing my lesson plan and PowerPoint so I would be comfortable with the
order of the lesson as well as what I would be talking about. I didn’t exactly
have a behavior plan but the class ended up being pretty well behaved. One
student had his phone out and I just kindly asked him to put it away and there
was no problem. Another student insisted on standing during the lesson. At first
I just let her do her thing since she was in the back of the class and wasn’t
distracting anyone. When this student got up and stood on her chair it became a
safety issue and once again I kindly asked her to sit down and she listened. I
believe respect and kindness go a long way in a classroom and If I wish to be
respected, I must first respect my students. Yelling and getting frustrated when
kids act out will only cause them to act out more because they know it bothers
you.
The main objectives of my lesson were to explain the
macronutrients and develop a healthy meal plan for one day. As an informal assessment, the students had
an opportunity to develop a meal plan at the end of class. A future exam would
assess their knowledge on the macronutrients. Overall, my lesson plan was
executed as written with the exception of some minor details. I wrote that I
wanted one responsible student to click the Smart Board during the game, but
instead I had the teams choose who they wanted to come up at each question.
This was fine and didn’t negatively affect my lesson in any way.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing I tried to teach my student is that
eating healthy (balanced meals, low saturated fat and sugar intake) can prevent
age-related diseases (type II diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis etc.)
therefore adding years to your life. I feel I got my point across the best I
could. Even after the lesson everyone said they learned something new –
definitely rewarding to hear that!
One of my students told me I packed too much information
into the lesson… I was afraid I would do that. I just have so much I want to
share with people about health and nutrition and I forget that it’s a lot to
take in a once. Next time I may simplify the lesson even more, maybe save
disease prevention for a whole new day. Another thing I know I need to work on
are my “um’s” “like’s” and “you guys.” I tend to throw these casual words and
phrases around a lot when I speak, and it just doesn’t sound professional when
teaching. Definitely something to work on!
After hearing such positive feedback from the students and
reading their reviews I feel confident in my decision to become a teacher. J
