Surprised Substitute

This weeks lab was different from our previous labs. Not only did we have to prepare a lesson meeting an AFNR Standards randomly selected, but we also had to switch lessons plans with someone else. At first, I was pretty nervous! I was totally prepared to teach my own lesson not someone else's! Luckily we were given ten minutes to ask questions to prepare ourselves for teaching. I ended up taking Rachel's lesson on photosynthesis. Her lesson was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. I have taken a couple of biology classes, so I was familiar with the content. I think I was more so nervous following her lesson exactly and not on the material. During the lesson, I chose not to follow the lesson plan exactly, and that worked out a lot better for me. It was easier for me to make it my own instead of the following word by word on what she had written. The fifteen minutes allotted had gone by wicked fast!

Some gems for this lab was staying on task and making sure that students were too. Also, making the lesson plan my own and making sure students were getting the content. Some opportunity for improvement I noticed was in my own lesson plan. I wrote the lesson plan for me to understand and could have had a lot more details so that anyone could pick it up. I had the "substitute" cover new information with the students. I learned that this was a mistake and that substitute lesson plans should be a review on previous knowledge. Sometimes subs aren't familiar with the content, and this will help avoid any confusions that may occur. Overall I really enjoyed this weeks lab and learned a lot!