04/18 Quick Write

Being and becoming a teacher.

Yesterday I taught my first lesson to high school students. The lesson was on the one-child policy in China. The cultural geography class I borrowed to deliver my lesson was at 730 in the morning and all of the students were seniors in high school, preparing to graduate in less than two months. I was nervous that they wouldn't care about my lesson and write it off. I was nervous, but I made sure to hide it because I know confidence goes a long way for teachers. My lesson consisted of a short lecture from PowerPoint and several different video clips. I then asked to students to get into groups of 3-4, which they did. One group was of 5, I did nothing to alter it. In their groups, they read several different articles, discussed the articles, and then we discussed them as a class. Pulling information from each group, we were able to compile a list of pros and cons of the one-child policy. Overall, I was happy with the way the lesson went. The students were engaged in the lecture and videos. They pulled pertinent information from the articles, and contributed to a master list. There were however some things I would have done differently. For instance, if I were to teach the lesson again, I would have chose the groups for the students to prevent peer chatter.