When I first learned that I had to teach a lesson to one of my classmates, I honestly started to get nervous about the whole idea of it all. I now realize that the reason why I was so nervous was because it was entirely a whole new experience for me, and I wasn’t exactly sure how it was going to play out. I was also nervous about “teaching” an adult, mostly because I had self-doubt and felt like I was going to be judged by my partner. However, once my partner and I logged into Zoom to talk through our lessons and to try out its various features, I instantly felt more at ease. My partner was so supportive throughout the whole process, and I am certainly thankful to him for that. This whole experience went much better than I thought it would, so much so that it has now become my favorite collaboration project I’ve completed throughout my whole Master’s Program.
Reflecting on how I conducted my lesson, I believe I did decent job in making it engaging and not so much like a lecture. I started out by asking a few questions to recall my student’s prior knowledge, played part of a video that demonstrated how to regroup in double-digit addition, and then worked through an example step-by-step with my student. I felt like I did a good job of having my student/partner participate by answering the questions I asked while working out the problem on the whiteboard.
The three things I will take from this experience and use in the future are:
- An alternative approach to meeting face to face in a synchronous meeting, whether it be to meet with a student, parent, or colleague.
- The importance of becoming familiar with the program used for the meeting, such as learning how to use the instructional tools within Zoom.
- Lastly, I take away the importance of including collaboration projects. This helps students build relationships and feel more comfortable with one another.
