On June 03, 2020, I taught, with my teaching partner, my first one-hour lesson with a group of six students enrolled in an Advanced Oral Communication class. The objective of this lesson was that students would feel comfortable and familiar with the student-teachers and the classroom. This was to be accomplished through students learning about the student-teachers through introductions and activities, students sharing about themselves, and students understanding the classroom expectations.

In the preparation, I found lesson planning challenging without having a frame of reference based on experience. In general, however, I think my biggest difficulty is overthinking and complicating. After leading the class, I am more confident that lesson plans can be less complicated while the engagement with each activity is where the value arises. Another area I hope to hone with experience is gauging the necessary time allocations for activities.

In delivering the lesson, my first and most significant reaction was a surprising level of comfort in taking the teacher role. I have reflected in starting this program that I was discovering my identity as an educator, and many of my doubts about the applicability of my previous experience have been allayed. I increasingly see my task now to build specific skills on a strong foundation. Another aspect that my previous experience helped with was being well-prepared and organized with the lesson starting on time, staying focused on the objectives, and progressing in an orderly manner. Two related areas for improvement were time management, as certain activities took longer than anticipated, and providing more space for student discussion following presentation of content, as this was somewhat rushed to compensate. I believe I also have a tendency to over-present with the risk of creating monologues. I need to maintain focus on the objective of having students speak to the greatest extent possible, and to limit my speaking to what is necessary to facilitate that. This also includes keeping prompting questions simple with the option for more challenging follow-ups where students demonstrate additional capacity.

Another area to be addressed is technical. The lesson presentation had some awkward moments in using the tools of the online platform. My microphone also had some issues with cutting out. It is important to understand these issues as part of the teaching function even if they are not related to curriculum or teaching method. More thorough testing of presentations can help (along with simple experience). I have also since purchased a new microphone headset, which should serve me well for the coming weeks!

Overall, I was very satisfied with the experience of my first lesson. I believe I established a good rapport with the students, and I was pleased to see their readiness and willingness to engage. I am looking forward to building on our introductions to get to know the students better. In the next lessons, I am also looking forward to opportunities to focus on particular topics of discussion and finding new ways to have students communicate in useful and engaging ways.