Beetlejuice...Beetlejuice...Beetleju....

Since my video is taking forever and seven days to upload onto my computer, I have the perfect opportunity to do some “pre-viewing” reflection.

To be honest, I’m not sure how my micro-teaching went… I feel like my lesson plan was ‘solid enough’ but something felt like it was missing yesterday?  Fun, maybe??  Maybe fun was missing.

I think I established a context for the reading activity.  I think the lead in of looking at the title page worked, and the students knew what they were ‘in for.’  Similarly, I felt as though the students were ready to read, and had enough ‘instruction’ to work with.  While I’m curious to see what my T-talk was like… I do feel as though I tried to make sure I set up the TD task, as well as the TDBU task.  So…possibly what I’m bothered about was a ‘lack of enthusiasm’ from the students?  Sorry guys – I’m not saying you weren’t awesome (‘cos you KNOW you were), but it just felt like the class was too boring – and maybe I got that because the responses seemed … lacklustre. 

I tried putting in some PW – which is something new for me.  I’m trying it in my classes at school, and I’m seeing results, however, I’m not sure whether I’m so comfortable with it yet.  It’s hard for me to “let go” of all the control, I guess (hangs head in shame…)  Now, I’m not sure about how the report-back section would have gone, but I sort of foresee some problems that may have occurred. 

I wanted to have students ask each other questions “X, ask a friend question A1” I think that may have become confusing – because what if the friend wasn’t an A?  That happened yesterday when I asked Kevan what he would do…So perhaps I should rethink that whole A1, B1 thing…

I guess I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to finish my lesson.  I feel like “the good stuff” may have come later (hopefully?)

WHY is this video taking so long to load????

Ok…here I go…

My “opportunity area” feedback from my first MT centred around:

T-talk and MIC.  I was curious to see what kind of questions I used… so those are the things I focused on during the watching.

T-Talk - Here are some ‘stats’ to look at:

No-one other than me spoke for the first minute of the lesson.

When I explained the first TDBU activity (the bold sentences) – it took 1min55secs – during which there was a period of complete silence (tumbleweeds rolling around – the works…)

There was S-talk – I can hear discussion in the PW – students asking each other the questions, some comments – a general ‘buzz’ (haha  - that was NOT an intentional pun…)  – BUT…it’s definitely not a 50% ratio…

Lordy – the “A – ask B1 their question” debacle was a nightmare to listen to…

*MIC Techniques*

Hmmm… well I definitely have some repetition, some rephrasing and some “checking in” on people (the bold – dark sentence went on a bit long??)  – but… I feel like the MICs took too long… So – did they help, or did they just increase T-talk???

Questions – not  a lot other than display questions…  Perhaps later on in the LP there would have been some…maybe not…

Can someone please tell me when I’m going to learn to shut up???  I watch the video and think to myself: “Just GIVE them the reading – don’t TELL them you’re going to give them the reading…”  That was one of the first things my tutor said to me in my CELTA course… “Don’t explain it – just do it!”  Clearly that’s STILL a problem … seven YEARS later!!!

I can’t lie – I’m disappointed – this is week 9…  I see the same mistakes.  I try to “plan” for them by writing scripts in my LP – but it doesn’t help.  I tried the MIC techniques – but I’m not sure they helped either…

All that prep…and I stand up and… it’s like an “Amy Show” (yes, Tom…I see what you mean now…)

I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one solution….  See you next week!