In addition to a series of lectures that
span a variety of topics including teaching voice, teaching dossier
preparation, and equity issues, I have found that the two micro-teaching
sessions are the most helpful and useful ingredient of this course so far.
It helps me to improve my personal teaching
style and gain hands-on teaching experience. First, a few people would have
such an opportunity to teach a ten minute course in front of a class consisting
of an experienced teacher and peer reviewers and critics. The feedback from the
teacher and the peers provide invaluable comments for improving various aspects
involved in teaching. For example, the position, tone, volume, and body
languages, all have a crucial effect on students’ learning process. I have
learned from the comments where my weaknesses lie.
Second, I have to admit that it was really
a challenge to prepare a 10-minute lecture in a structural and unit way. Most
of time, I found that I had too much to say. The time limitation, however,
forced me to work hard to be selective. It reminds me that every lecture has to
be delivered within a certain amount of time. For example, in the
Third, the videotape recording my micro-teaching
performance is one of the most effective instruments that help me to improve. I
found that watching the tape was not a pleasant experience at the beginning. I
was shocked when I saw that how I appeared on the tape is totally different
from what I had projected myself in my mind. Despite that, I watched the tape
several times and have been trying to improve myself consciously.
Apparently, most of the students in the
course think that the micro-teaching sessions are useful. Some have even
suggested adding more micro-teaching sessions or increasing each time slot that
has been allocated to each student. I think it is not necessary to have more
micro-teaching sessions or more time for staying in front of peer critics. It
is not realistic for a teaching training course merely lasting one semester.
I suggest that in the future the course
administrator creates a website that allows each student upload his/her video
clip along with the feedback made by peers. All the students in the THE500
course can view the video clips plus the comments. By doing this, we not only
learn from our own performance but also learn from other’s strengths and
weaknesses.