Micro Teaching Experience

     As part of my student teaching experience I have to teach in a high school for three days before I start my student teaching at West Perry High School next semester. I decided to challenge myself and choose a welding class because I have never taught a shop class before. A challenge I received as I taught twenty seven ninth and tenth grade boys. I was a little nervous the first day but the nerves quickly disappeared as the students were very well behaved and enjoyed the lesson. I took the students back in time for three days as we discussed the history of metal working and blacksmithing.

Day 1
     I was a little nervous the fist day as I was afraid the students wouldn't be interested in the lesson. To really catch their attention I showed a youtube video from a popular video game that is about to hit stores. I wanted to show the students that this wasn't just a thing of the past, we just have different improved equipment to get the job done. If anyone is teaching about metal working or even cutting with a torch this is a cool video to get your students excited:

     The first day went great! I did a little bit of lecture to give some background information. The students did a few short activities and I was surprised at the ease I had managing so many students. 

Day 2 

     On the second day the boys practically ran into the classroom dying to sit in the front row...I must be a good teacher! There is something to say for the difficulties of being a women and trying to teach shop. Oh well the class must continue. After the first day and talking with my cooperating teacher, we decided it would be best if I demonstrated the activity the students would be completing. We didn't get as far as expected on day one and I felt I needed to cover safety a little more on day two. 

    Before entering the shop the students had to have written in their lab notebook the three stations and the procedures for the hook project. This was to ensure that the chaiso of the shop would be somewhat organized. As a facilitator I realized this many students would be difficult to manage so I designed three stations the students would rotate through. Each station would have about eight students. The first station allowed the students to measure and cut their piece of stock for the hook project. The second station, with the torches gave students a chance to heat and create the hook using a oxy-acetlyene torch.  The students had partners so they never had to turn off the torch. The third station had students working as a group to complete a timeline from a few articles that took them through the history of metal working. 

     Demonstrating all the stations went really well! I explained the directions and then had students repeat them back to me before I did the actual demonstration. By the end I could tell they seemed a little annoyed by the amount of questions I was asking and making them repeat them back to me but in the end that will help keep things running smoothly in the shop. 

Day 3 

     Work Day! Today the students came into the shop, were given a rubric for the project and went to work! It was actually a great day and the students really enjoyed the projects! I had to push a little for the students to work on the timeline but then knew they had to have so many events to move on to another station. The students did great with the torches and cutting their piece of stock for the hook. 

     Overall, I was really pleased with how my microteaching experience went. The students were really well behaved and excited to be in the shop. They surprisingly told me this was their first experience so i'm glad I was able to start them off with a small project.