Online Microteaching

Online microteaching as an experience was strange, interesting and different. This is when a group of learners come together to teach a slice of their lesson for their peers to review. The lessons were grade 7 focused and allowed the learners to engage with one another by giving and receiving meaningful feedback as a form of support to develop students in both teaching and learning.

Likes and Dislikes about online teaching:

Online teaching as a whole is a completely different experience to teaching learners face-to-face. I prefer to teach learners face-to-face in a live classroom setting but I do also teach English online to learners in various countries because I recently completed a TEFL course. I do not mind doing online teaching. I am two-minded about it. On the one-hand, it is easy to access, the preparation is quick, and this can be done from the comfort of one's home. On the other hand, the learners are not as interactive, and you cannot see if learners are participating, listening or completing the necessary tasks given to them.

What new skills did you learn?

I learnt how to navigate blackboard collaborate, padlet, and I learnt how to incorporate technology effectively into my lessons. I also enjoyed learning how to create supportive materials for my lessons (creating Canva slides and learning how to create quizzes, slides and crosswords from my peers).

What would you do differently?

I would have spoken a bit slower and take note of the fact that the lesson was quite content-heavy for the learners so it should have been broken down a little bit more. I tend to speak fast or stutter a little because I get nervous when addressing adults. I would also manage my time better. I realised that I did not include an interactive tool in my lesson which was a disadvantage because the lesson looked and felt incomplete without this. Next time, I will organise my lessons carefully, make it more interactive instead of just using a direct approach and include a concluding activity to see if the learners are paying attention to the lesson and what they have gained from it by observing their answers.

Did you choose appropriate tools?

I do think that I used appropriate tools for my lesson. I made sure to integrate supportive measures to help my learners further understand the lesson. I used YouTube as a supportive tool for learners to understand more about diseases to gain knowledge on the sensitive topic that we were going to tackle. I also created slides to aid the learners in the lesson. These slides also contained additional information outside of the textbook that gave learners more insight into the topic explored together as a class. Unfortunately, I did not use an interactive activity or tool for the learners to participate in, but this will definitely be kept in mind for future lessons.

How has this developed you for teaching in a school?

This experience has definitely taught me a lot. This made me realise the importance of using teaching aids, visuals and audios to support learners in the classroom. I learnt a lot from engaging on an online platform. This experience also allowed me to understand that teaching needs to be diverse in terms of using various techniques and strategies to involve the learners more in their learning. I will ensure that I am creating a teaching and learning environment where everyone works together to make the most out of the lesson!