EDU 355 Lab 15

Lab Fifteen: Improving Teaching Skills: Presenting an Introductory Activity

1. Reflect upon you lab teaching experiences. Describe your teaching strengths and weaknesses for teaching in this lab. When teaching only 8 minutes, it is hard for me to pretend the students are already into the body of the lesson. I think that I had a weak instant activity. I had the students play 'sticky popcorn' where they start jumping on their own and when I call out a number they must find partners to jump together with. Watching them perform this activity it made it seem kind of boring. The main activity was a strength for me. It really focused on fitness and getting the heart rate up. The students performed 'jumping jack count down' where they run a certain amount of laps and then perform that number of labs plus a 0 amount of jumping jacks (ex: 4 laps = 40 jumping jacks) I think I could have made the activity better by challenging the students to a certain time limit. Perhaps saying something like 'let's try to get these laps and jacks done in 1 minute'.

2. Identify one of your most effective teachers. What teaching behaviors did you admire most in the way he/she taught? When it comes to my education, I have been blessed with a handful of influencing teachers. One that comes to mind is during my senior year of high school my psychology teacher. He was also my history teacher in the 10th grade. What I admired most about the way he taught was the fact that he was very personal. He knew we were human beings, and looked at us almost as his own children. He cared about our success rate and would go to any limits to ensure we were successful. He cared about each one of us and took time to get to know us if we were interested. Because he was so personal, I had no problem asking for help when I did not understand something. It also made it very easy to enjoy the class and enjoy participating in his activities.

3. What goals will you set for yourself as you prepare to teach in the Education 300 Field Experience. Growing up I was never into a variety of sports. What I enjoy is the lifetime activities such as swimming, biking, roller-blading, lifting, hiking and a lot of others. Being active and healthy is what drives me in this career. I did beginer gymnastics as a child and then became a cheerleader for 12 years. I was wrapped into the one activity that I loved, I never tried other sports. One of my fears of going into this career is the lack of knowledge and skills in these sports. Some goals I have set for myself is to really get to know the basics of each sport I plan to incorporate into my curriculum. I want to be very well-rounded in my education.