Microteaching Reflection

Hello everyone!

Throughout the past two weeks, I have been completing a Microteaching experience at Bellefonte Area High School. This assignment allows each of the members of our student teaching cohort to teach a short (3-day) unit of instruction at a high school close to Penn State University. This has been a meaningful opportunity that has allowed me to gain some quality experience before student teaching (which will be here in just a few short weeks!). My sincere thanks to Ms. Myken Poorman for letting me and my peers conduct this experience in your classroom over the past few weeks!

I taught a general Agriculture course with fifteen students spanning all grade levels for this assignment. Our brief unit focused on global agriculture, which allowed me to build upon the curriculum I had taught in Minnesota this past spring during my GOALS experience. Students each received a "Global Learning Passport" to capture their thoughts and responses to activities throughout the unit. Below is a brief outline of the focus of each day:

Day 1: What are the different kinds of farming systems around the world?

We explored where different ag products we enjoy originated, discussed the differences between inputs/processes/outputs, and identified the four pillars of food security (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability).

Day 2: What challenges might a smallholder farmer face?

The students participated in the Global Farmer Experience designed by Growing Hope Globally, which requires them to make decisions using information by putting themselves in the shoes of a smallholder farmer. The goal is to build up a year-long supply of food, and students either gain or lose months of food based on their decisions.

Day 3: What are the components of the global agriculture value chain?

We began by reviewing the components of the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) Value Chain created by National FFA. Using videos created by NPR/Plant Money, students then followed the value chain process for a cotton t-shirt to explore the global and human impacts of its production.

Below is a brief video introduction reflecting on my Microteaching experience.

Each of the lesson days were recorded and can be used to gain feedback from my peers and instructors. I also gave out a learner satisfaction survey on the final day to gain feedback from the students as to what they like or did not like during the three days of teaching. Overall, the feedback was positive and also gave me good suggestions for improvement moving forward. On a scale of 1-5 (1 being low and 5 being high), student responses averaged at 4 for how much they learned and a 3.6 for how much they enjoyed the lesson. When asked about their favorite and least favorite activity, most all of the activities showed up in both places! While at first I felt slightly confused about this, I view this as a positive thing on the whole. I believe this indicates that the activities were varied and that different approaches to learning appealed to different students. Different members of the class enjoyed different items, which is encouraging and something I will continue to strive for as I work to try and meet the needs of all my learners.

Moving forward, I am excited to apply what I've learned in the Microteaching experience to student teaching. Teaching (and especially doing it well) is far from easy, but I feel encouraged and more ready because of this authentic experience. Thanks to each of you for reading, and I will look forward to sharing more thoughts and reflections as we conclude the semester here within the next few weeks.