Finding My Way (LAB D)

The other day was my biggest lesson to teach this year so far. Not only was it bigger, but this lesson was completely all on me, there was no partner to fall back on. I took the route of orienteering because it is a non traditional sport that not a whole lot of people have even heard of. For the most part orienteering is little known here in the United States but when you get over the pond, in Europe, it is widely known. As far as my lesson, I spent a lot of time mapping out the 6 courses I designed in Park Center. That was the most difficult part the the lesson. The teaching was almost easy compared to how stressed out I was over making the courses. I felt like I had to much to say during my lesson and wanted to minimize what I wanted to say so the students could get maximum activity time it. I talked for the first few minutes explaining the basic cues for reading a compass and navigating the map. Then I let the students loose on the courses. Once they took off they seemed to enjoy trying to find the contact points on the map using the clues and compass. We ran into some difficulty because the Animal Scramble was not working as planned but the students, being as smart as they are, found a way around the problem and continued on the course. The only thing as of right now that I need to change about my teaching experience this time was that of giving feedback. I gave some feedback to the students but not enough. When I addressed a student I did not use their names. My feedback was also vague. I did not specifically give feedback about how they should be using the cues to work the compass and find the contact points. The one thing I was happy with was the Activity Time of the students. 62% of the time more than half the class was actively participating, which is great. I am feeling more confident every time I get in front of the students and I feel as though I am learning something new about myself each time. This is a great experience for me and I hope to get better.