#AEE412 Lab Reflection: Surprise Lab

This week's lab was a little different from our previous labs. One of the goals of this lab was to push us outside our comfort zones and help us practice quickly creating a lesson (perhaps if a teachable moment occurs, etc.) to teach the next day. So, on Monday we were given an AFNR standard and told to create our lesson based around that standard. The lesson was due by 5pm on Tuesday. While I was a little stressed out at first, once I started writing my lesson plan I realized how much I have improved because it came much easier than previous lessons. The lesson I developed was on food safety and the three types of contaminants. Everyone had really creative lessons this week and I think everyone has improved so much from the beginning of the semester. With that being said, here are some gems and opportunities for improvement from my lab this week:

Gems

1. I believe I kept the students engaged throughout the lesson. (ex. asking students to help me capture their thoughts and write on the board)
2. I used Questioning to help a student answer her own question and had her share what she learned with the class when it was time to share out.
3. I used a variety of learning activities.

Opportunities to Improve

1. I did not bring in real cider for one of my activities. I had real cider in my lesson but did not bring it to lab. I need to make sure I'm getting as close to the "real thing" as possible (can someone say contextual learning?!). Plus it would have made it more fun!
2. Although I was better this week, I still need to work on timing. Particularly, I need to push students a bit and give them a time frame to complete a task right from the start and not wait until I see everyone is done.

I'm looking forward to learning about Inquiry Based Learning in the weeks to come. But first...

IT'S NATIONAL CONVENTION TIME!