Lesson Reflection

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