Micro-teach No.1

On Thursday I delivered my first 30 minute micro-teach session. I chose to look at some of the varying types/genres of tourism within the industry and gave an in-depth look into which types were emerging strongly and gaining in popularity at the moment. The session went relatively well although I did encounter some technical issues along the way. The first problem I came across was when I asked the class to write on the Smart board. The pen was taken from the holder but when writing on the board nothing at all happened. It wasn't until I tried that I was notified it wasn't working. This was slightly frustrating, however it was my fault as I hadn't checked this before I started and probably should have known better. I got around this by using the paper flip board that was located in the corner of the room and I can't say that it was any great hindrance to the exercise. Another issue that occurred was that there was no audio when playing the video that had I incorporated into my presentation. Again this is something I should have checked prior to starting. From now on I will never assume that a computer + speakers = sound, even if they had been working the day previously because you never know when another member of staff is going to come to the classroom and remove an audio cable. To get over this hurdle I simply narrated over the video myself, giving the class all of the main points. The main issue that I was concerned about before delivering to the class was that I wasn't sure if the session would last the full 30 minutes. However, it ended up working out perfectly as some of the discussions that the class became engaged in did carry on for longer than I anticipated. I received some mixed but very constructive feedback and I was overall pleased with how it went. Every time I speak in front of the class I feel slightly more comfortable so hopefully I will be able to go from strength to strength with every micro-teach I deliver.

10 minute talk

On Monday we each had to stand in front of the rest of the class and give a ten minute talk. We were able to choose any topic we liked as the purpose of the exercise was to help us build confidence and feel a little more comfortable for our micro-teach lessons that were taking place the following Thursday. Even with the free pass to talk about whatever we liked I still chose to keep the theme tourism related, however it was relatively informal as I mostly talked about holidays and trips. I used one visual aid which was an online picture of a map (shown above) and this helped me to point out to the class exactly where in the world I was talking about. I felt that the talk went fairly well even though I had to compensate for my planned content only taking up about half of the allotted ten minute slot. The feedback I received was mostly positive and I definitely think that the exercise on the whole helped to build my confidence further.