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Blog Post 2 – Micro Teaching
The thought of presenting a 20-minute micro-teaching session to my peers was a bit daunting when it was first proposed to me, this was my first experience of micro-teaching, and the term was a bit unfamiliar to me. Once I got a better understanding of it, and I thought of it more as a “mini-session” I was a bit less anxious. Our task was to prepare and deliver a 20-minute learning activity for fellow PGCert-ers, based around an object.
On the day of the presentation, our group turned out to be quite intimate and only 4 of us presented, below is a screenshot of our group.
I approached the activity planning to teach my peers a little about bag making (a crash course in a basic construction method). The object I chose to present was a T-base tote bag.
Firstly, I showed the participants the object and asked them to use their observational skills to describe it. Their response was varied and interesting, some described the aesthetic whereas others commented on the construction or even how they would use the bag. Following this I explained a bit about the bag, how to cut the pattern, how to recognise this construction, why it’s such a popular choice, and then a bit of its history too. Reflecting and listening to the feedback from the group, I included too much information here; my micro-teaching could be interpreted more as a lecture than an activity (please see example below).
The reason for me doing this was I was anxious my teaching session would be too short, and I was trying to present something educational, but looking back, I should have focused more on the activity. For the activity at the end of the session, I asked the participants to create their own T-Base tote bags using a Padlet page and A.I. technology. I hoped the activity at the beginning describing the bag would help the participants with this activity. The participants were asked to use their identity/brand and combine these elements with a written description of the bag, then the A.I. technology would generate designs of bags based on what each designer inputted. The A.I technology for me was a great option as I was teaching online, the participants might have limited drawing facilities to hand. It turned out to be a great hit – My peers enjoyed how immediate it was, and even wanted to know more as they could use this technology in their teaching. It was easy for all participants to “draw”/create and communicate their design visions without difficulty using the technology. Please see the images of the tote bags created during the session.
If I had more time, I would have asked the participants to evaluate and explain their designs to help get to know them (their identity) better as an ice-breaking session too.
I was the last to present, James started the morning sessions, and we all agreed his was a great ice-breaking storytelling session to start, It also eased us all into the right mood. We got to know each other better by creating mini-stories based on an object found around our home. James’s session was professionally presented, and he was very enthusiastic and confident in his delivery. He explained all the steps we were required to follow carefully, and I liked how he clearly set out the learning objective at the beginning and then closed by bringing us back to what we had learnt over the session. It was interesting to see everyone’s different approach to the storytelling.
Emma was the second to present, she had created a “Playful soft system workshop”- When I first saw the title of the presentation I was intrigued as to where the session would take us, but when she presented an example of her work – a touch to a sound instrument (please see image below – Installation Project) it all made sense. Learning more about her work and what she does at the university was great. I felt I learnt much from the presentation. I enjoyed the activity and getting to make up an instrument of our own, using the concept of input and output (examples of inputs and outputs below)
I agreed with Georgina, it would be a great workshop to do in person in pairs, (or even breakout rooms if you had more time online). Emma also presented very confidently, and I felt at ease during the session, it was great to see her passion towards the work.
Georgina was the third to present, her presentation felt more personal due to the more relaxed approach to presenting (No formal PowerPoint). I felt I learnt more about Georgina as a tutor and personally during the session. This would usually be a session Georgina would present early in the academic year with her MA students to break the ice; this is a perfect way for both students and tutors to get to know each other, break down boundaries and learn new methods of appreciating an object. Georgina focused on one object a shell she’d collected at her home, she had captured the object in beautiful images clearly showing all the details, so the viewer could understand and come to their observational conclusions. As I mentioned on the day, I found it tricky to find the right words to describe the object, so being able to create movement or drawings would have helped me a lot. I can see how this session would lend itself to a workshop-based session. Overall, I think it was a very successful morning despite the initial nerves, each presentation was unique, and I learnt much from all the presenters.
Please find below my Presentation for the Micro Teaching exercise.
Blog Post 1
The week following Workshop 2
I can’t actually believe I’m writing yet another blog post already, this week was over so quickly, we had our second PGCert workshop, It’s been a very busy week course leading, and I’ve truly enjoyed trying to balance all the tasks and workload- It’s been a bit of a juggling act, but now it’s Saturday I don’t feel so overwhelmed at the amount of tasks left to do.
The material selected for reading this week was much more enjoyable and manageable than the previous week, I chose the reading below – My notes from reading for Workshop 2
Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, Karen Harris
Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom – 2022
In the rapid move to online education in 2020, the initial goal was to mimic in-person teaching. However, it’s now evident that the virtual classroom isn’t just a replica; it’s challenging established notions of participation and engagement. This shift presents opportunities for a transformative and more relaxed teaching approach, particularly recognizing the historically overlooked needs of introverted learners.
• Example Karen Harris- Back in 1991, in my first term at university, our tutor set a strict ground rule for seminar discussions. “You don’t leave this room,” she told us, “until you’ve said something”.
Questions from the reading…
1. Might the pressure to actively participate actually be counter-productive?
2. Do we need to recalibrate the notion of “active participation”? When it comes to learning, is “active/passive” a false dichotomy? (should we re-look at how we teach online?)
3. What advantages might the online classroom offer for nurturing a pro-found, transformative silence?
This statement asks about the potential benefits of online classrooms in fos-tering a deep and transformative sense of silence. It implies that the online learning environment could provide unique advantages for creating a mean-ingful and reflective calmness, which may lead to profound learning experi-ences or personal transformations. The focus is on exploring the positive as-pects of silence in the context of online education.
The reading gave me food for thought and over the week I kept referring back to it to re-read and ponder over a few sentences. Although I don’t teach online very often these days (Students prefer in-person teaching following their time in the pandemic according to our feedback) It did make me think about the silence space that’s possible in an online teaching environment. It made me realise why we always have the silence time during our PGCert sessions. As a tutor I always ask if students have questions, but have never thought of giving them more time to digest the material and come to their own conclusions in a quiet zone.
The second reading material “The charismatic lecturer” was more to do with management and how to tackle feedback to a fellow colleague, I learnt a lot from fellow group PGCerters in this section of the workshop. As a relatively new manager I think my inexperience would have been highlighted here, although I would have tried to approach the discussion as diplomatically as possible, James had some really great suggestions, see our feedback below. (I felt I learnt from how he suggested he would tackle the situation.)
1. What format might an alternative feedback exchange between Stephanie and Max take? – Ask Max how he thought it went? What went well, and what he thinks he could improve. Differentiate between content and delivery. Formal vs informal approaches.
2. Can you generate some ideas for how the conversation might proceed in a positive, colle-giate way? – Could he introduce his own view as well as others and use that to for students to debate. Give Praise for his delivery and student engagement. Actively listen. Describe.
Next week we have a lecture, and I’m excited to see how this will be structured, I also need to start planning out my first case study based on “Knowing and responding to student’s diverse needs”. I started mind mapping ideas for this study, but I’m a bit confused about where to start, I’ll read the examples case study to hopefully help with this.
Thoughts following Workshop 1
This morning I decided to treat myself to some me time, so I took an early Pilates class and treated myself to a pastry and nice warm coffee and a walk through the vintage market on the high road, now I’m back at my desk ready to catch-up with my homework for the PGCert class.
I’ve been feeling rather overwhelmed over this first week of term, being back at the university. A colleague and I have recently taken on the role of Course Leader on the Accessories course and there have been many ongoing issues to deal with. We had hoped this term would be plain sailing, but we’ve had to find last-minute cover for an absent member of staff, not only for teaching but marking too. It’s fair to say it’s been a rather turbulent start to the term. But hopefully, because we had time over the Winter break to sort many of the issues out, I hope things will settle down.
I enjoy having the additional responsibilities, and ensuring things are done thoroughly to deadlines, and I’m finding working with my colleague very rewarding as we work well as a duo. She has more experience than me teaching and has had to step into the course Leader position previously, so having her guidance is fantastic.
The additional concern for me at the moment is the fact that I’m pregnant, I’m currently 22 weeks with my first child, and I’m finding the whole experience rather distracting; It’s confusing, exciting and terrifying all at the same time! (It’s difficult to explain!)
During Workshop 1, Overall, I found it fun and informative, I must admit I was very nervous about joining, I somehow, I managed to join 30 minutes early (I got confused and thought the class started earlier!) but being early is not a bad thing, I guess. The structure of the lesson was manageable, and I found the different activities went very quickly. It was great to meet other people in the same position as me in the breakout rooms.
My task in advance of the lesson was to read No.1 “The Design Critique and the Moral Goods of Studio Pedagogy”. As a dyslexic, this immediately made me feel uncomfortable and slightly nervous, English is my second language, and reading very academic literature can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, because of the text font, the read-back function on my computer didn’t work, so I used Chat GPT to help me break down the text. This I found very useful and helped me digest the contents of the reading, I’m sure I will be using ChatGPT again in the future.
My thoughts on the reading – An insight into how practitioners in a university in the USA critique Students within their teaching environments. I found it interesting to be able to relate to other teachers teaching a creative course similar to what I do. To hear their thoughts and feedback from their experiences and to understand better how other tutors try to create a safe and inclusive learning environment to encourage students to feel confident to voice their opinions and confidently present work within a group setting. The tutors interviewed in the reading were mostly male practitioners (there was one female) and I did find myself relating to her experiences more often, this made me wonder if your gender has any relation to how you treat and respond to students. As the paper was created pre-pandemic, my second thought was it would be interesting to hear more about how the pandemic has affected confidence within the workshops as I feel students are more hesitant and private since their time in lockdown studying solely on computers at home. I find Critiques with my students very challenging post-pandemic as the students appear more private and less willing to share and present their work within a group setting.