A Week of Microteaching!

 I got the awesome opportunity to teach at State College High School for 3 days in the Plant Science Block. The Unit that we taught was on Hydroponics. I am so grateful for this opportunity to gain real life classroom experience, even though it was only for 3 days. We have a very interesting situation as State College uses a Block Schedule. So, I taught the first 44 minutes of the block and then my teaching partner taught the last 44 minutes of the block, which allowed for a 2 minute switch time!

Now for the Lessons!

The first lesson that I Prepared for the Unit was about the History of Hydroponics, Comparison to Aquaponics, and Pros and Cons of using Hydroponics over Conventional Farming. I followed the Teachers format for Bell work, which is a word of the Day and they google the definition and find a picture of it. I then used a Wordle to get us started, but realized my word being soil, was too easy and they guessed it on the first try. Guess you live and learn that some students can get onto your tricks pretty easy!

The first part of my lesson included an article about the History of Hydroponics, I gave students 3 minutes to review the article individually and Highlight 3 things that they found interesting. Then I allowed 3 minutes for them to discuss at their tables about the things that they found. I allowed some time as a class to discuss their findings. After learning about the History, we moved into a Venn Diagram comparing Hydroponics vs. Aquaponics. I allowed them roughly 5 minutes to use their computers to find 5 differences and 3 similarities. Then, we discussed as a class and wrote a list on the board. Then, I led them into a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using Hydroponics compared to Conventional Farming. I allowed this to be more of an open discussion, as I was assuming they should have heard or could guess some of these. I had them typed out on the Power point slides, so we were pretty easily able to go through them. 

I did not get to my conclusion activity today, but was glad to get through all of my main content that I had scheduled for the day. I think overall students did well, I think it was very awkward cause I wasn't the students normal teacher and they were adjusting to my teaching style. Students engaged with most of what I wanted them to engage in. 

The Second Lesson that I prepared was about the 6 most commonly used growing mediums. I decided that for this lesson, I was going to use a Station Rotation System. For the 6 stations, I included a picture of a medium, as well as a brief definition of the medium. I gave students a worksheet that allowed them to copy that information, as well as use their computers to Google the price of this product, as well as some advantages and disadvantages. I gave them 5 minutes at each station, but I realized by the end, some of the students were finishing in 2 minutes. I adjusted this and allowed them to rotate stations, once I saw that everyone was finished. 

Overall, I think that the lesson went well, and the students did learn something. The one thing that I realized this day, was that for some students this was completely a review. They were not be challenged as they should be. This is something I think was an overall challenge, as we did not know what the students knew and how much we had to start at the basics. But, this is just the setting of being put into a classroom for 3 days.

The third Lesson that I prepared was about the 3 Environmental Control factors and 8 plants that we could grow in our hydroponics system. I started the day with a quick 6 minutes video about the basics of hydroponics. This was mainly a review of the topics that we had been learning about in the previous 5 lessons. I then moved into a discussion about the 3 environmental factors. I had made PowerPoint slides, and just discussed them with the class. Then I had slide and discussed the 8 common crops to be grown in a hydroponics system. After having this discussion, I had set up a Ka hoot game for them to play, with 10 questions to review the material. I discussed each answer with the class as a way to review with them. The results were not as great as I would have hoped, as a lot of the questions I got 2-4 students with the correct answer out of 7. 

I then gave the students a Satisfaction Survey, to get an idea of how they felt throughout the lesson. The results came back Very Satisfied and Satisfied. One thing that I felt really good about that came from the feedback, was that I had an engaging voice and asked questions to ensure that everyone in the class was engaged.

Overall, I feel like this was a good experience and in the 3 short days I was there, I was able to give some meaningful lessons. 

Until Next time!

~Paige