Online Microteaching

What did you like and dislike about online teaching?

I enjoyed the aspect of teaching online and being able to make resources online, it was efficient and I could be creative in my slides and the way I conducted the lesson. This was a new experience but I found it good to get outside of my comfort zone and apply my knowledge in teaching to an online platform. The part of microteaching that I didn’t enjoy was the fact that I could interact like you do when in the classroom, the teacher can’t walk around and check on learners and give them individual attention. This was an adjustment especially when doing a writing lesson. I had to also conduct the lesson in a way that each learner got a chance to be active on the live tools, only one learner could use the text tool at a time and they could not collaborate in pairs and have a discussion like you can in the classroom.

What new skills did you learn through this experience?

I learnt from doing microteaching a lot about online tools that are freely accessible that can be used in both online and face-to-face teaching. Using the text and drawing tool on Blackboard collaborate, understanding how to make interactive slideshows and posting them onto an online platform and a lot of interactive games that are available for teachers to make their lessons a lot more exciting and innovative. I also learnt a lot from my peers, seeing the different tools they used and the different things they thought about doing that were new to me. I liked a few of the strategies they used, including emojis, different games, online classroom management skills etc. I think this experience taught me the skills of online tools, online management, innovative strategies and how we can use online skills inside and outside the classroom.

What would you do differently?

I would have probably taught a different phase of my lesson for my microteaching, I would have taught my introductory phase of the lesson. I think doing the teaching and learning phase showed a good example of using the online tools in the writing example but some of my peers did not understand the core aspect of my lesson because I did not teach my introductory phase of the lesson. With regards to the online microteaching lesson plan I would have introduced a better order / sequence where the learners contribution to the lesson was more controlled and orderly to lessen the interruptions.

Did you choose appropriate tools to teach your online lesson, explain why?

Yes, I used three online teaching tools throughout the course of my microteaching. I feel that these helped my me conduct my lesson in a way that the learners understood the content, could engage in the examples and use their concrete knowledge of the content and apply that into an interactive game. I used the following online tools in my microteaching lesson:

PowerPoint: I created interactive slides that explained and structured my lesson objectives, content and showed the learners visually multiple examples of the curriculum content and real life examples. The slides were designed in a way to flow with the lesson, each slide having a purpose and allowing time for the learners to interact with the teacher and the content effectively.

Online text tool: this tool was used in the teaching and learning phase of the lesson online, in place of paper and pen or a whiteboard and marker in a face-to-face lesson. The learners could type their sentences using the text tool while the other learners could see what they were typing on the screen, this allowed for conversations, open discussions, the learners input on the sentence structure etc. All learners had the freedom to contribute from their devices and speak openly about the examples and collaborate with peers to the examples.

Kahoot!: this is an online game that was set by me with structured examples guided by the objectives of the lesson. The learners have to think quickly when answering the questions and use their device to choose what they think the answer is and what sounds grammatically correct. This can be done as a class, individually or in pairs, guided by the teacher and all interaction comes from the learners.

How has this experience developed you for teaching in a school?

Teaching online is completely different than teaching in a classroom however I do feel that integrating technology in the classroom can positively influence your learners when learning new concepts. If there is a balance of teaching and using technology I feel that teaching can be more innovative, exciting, explain concepts in a different way, allow controlled exposure to technology for the learners and use technology as an advantage when teaching and learning. There are so many possibilities that await when integrating technology in the classroom, learners don’t only have to learn through a pencil and paper. This could also help learners that are visual or auditory learners understand better, allow for new strategies and classroom management etc. Through a balance of technology in schools, I feel that we can give our learners a better opportunity to be successful in academics.