Reflection: Micro-Teaching Presentation 14/10/09

For our presentation, we chose the topic of logarithms. We then had 15 min. to present the subject in an engaging fashion with our students. Given these conditions, it proved rather difficult to approach, as logarithms are such a large topic and we had to pick and choose what to present.

Our presentation started with a brief history of the inventor of logarithms and his motivation for creating them. I felt this was a very valuable aspects of teaching the subject, but in retrospect, it used up some precious time for teaching. Given a week to present logarithms to a class, I would devote a reasonable time to the history and more abstract qualities. But in 15 min. we really ought to have stuck to the basics. And so in our rush to fit in the rest of the material we had planned, we received some negative feedback regarding the organization, flow and fun of the presentation.

Next we reviewed many of the laws of logarithms with the students and derived the Multiplication and Division Laws. In retrospect, since we had agreed that the students would already know the basics of logarithms, we shouldn't have spent so much time reiterating them.

Lastly, we wanted to go through a typical logarithm problem and by having the students reply with the answers, slowly graph it. This would have worked well, because we were going to split a large logarithm problem into some shorter steps and have the class solve each one. Then we would simultaneously be plotting these answers to show the general trend. That way the students would understand the relationship between the mathematical and visual interpretations of the logarithm. Again, we received negative feedback because we ran out of time.

In future, we will work to be more careful with what amount of information can be transferred from teacher to student in the given time and prioritize accordingly.