Microteaching reflection

 First and foremost, I was super impressed with everyone in our little group. They all had something very interesting to teach, were super engaging, and they all taught the subject matter so effortlessly. Personally, I was worried that my topic was A) going to be such well-trod territory that everyone already knew everything I wanted to say, and B) that I was going to struggle to fill the time and speak off the cuff. Both of these concerns were somewhat unwarranted, as my group was really receptive and a decent amount of what I had to teach was novel to them. Also, once I started talking, I found it difficult to stop. I wanted to keep explaining and adding on, and I think it turned out to be a bit of an issue in the end. Not only did I over plan, trying to fit too much content in the short amount of time, but I also struggled to find natural stopping points to shift from one part of the lesson to the next. As a result, I think the lesson as a whole suffered from rushed teaching and never reaching the conclusion or having made time for more class participation and inquiry. In retrospect, I wish I had maybe done the micro teaching lesson to myself in the mirror or something, to get a better sense of the timing and adjust my lesson plan accordingly. At the rushed pace I was teaching, I think it was more realistically 20 minutes worth of content, and if I had instead been teaching in a more calm and natural manner, it could have easily been extended to a 30 minute lesson. I’m sure eventually I won’t need to run through lessons “in the mirror” to know how much time they'll take, but while I’m still getting the hang of this whole teaching thing, that might not be a bad idea. Shoutout to Brandon, Taha, and Leon for the excellent microteachings, being a fantastic audience, and making that class a lot of fun.