Having given some thought to the way my first “dry run” went, I decided to make some adjustments. I also had a gratifying and validating discussion about these changes with one of our fearless Jedi leaders, Sara. I determined that I had allowed my natural, convivial manner to overrun the lesson plan I had chosen, and that I needed to concentrate on what was lacking (steering the direction of the exchange) my being more didactic in my approach and lend more of a lecture style to my instruction. While not abandoning my “authentic self” as I so lauded in my response to “The Courage to Teach” article to which we responded, I wanted to challenge myself to distance myself somewhat from the conversation in order to meet the goals of my lesson plan. Also taking a suggestion from our meeting that followed the initial session, I decided to make a rigorously organized lesson plan (even if it does only cover ten minutes). I had also determined that the practice of technique would require narrowing my focus as closely as possible, so I chose to focus on a lecture based format that would only cover a small facet of what we will actually be attempting to convey. I also resolved (this time) to go entirely low-tech. Using Scout and speaking at the same time was more of a challenge than I had previously anticipated. This is certainly a balance I want to address, but first I prefer to move out of my comfort zone on a more personal basis. I realize that I enjoy technology not only as a useful tool, but am also tempted to use it a buffer, and tend to get bogged down in technical rabbit holes. This is fine for exploratory sessions, but for the purposes of our experimentation, I think it is most important for me to get ahold of time management and sticking to the subject intended for the session.
As a side note I greatly enjoyed today’s observation of Karlie and Brett’s wonderful co-teaching session. They set the bar high.
Louise, you did a great job with both of your mini sessions, and you’re skills are developing nicely! I think it’s great that you focused on some fundamental objectives for your 10 minute session this past week. I can’t help but think of the story that Michael Phelps tells about winning the gold metal with defective goggles in ’08. He had focused on the fundamentals so much in practice that he knew exactly how many strokes, how many breaths, how many moments it would take him to get across the pool, and he focused on the routine movements that he’d practiced. He couldn’t see a thing. But he won. Sometimes we have to focus on the details in order to create the big picture! Good job! Can’t wait to see what you prepare for this week!