Micro Teaching begins on 17th of October,2007 , 3:00 pm in B1-03.

The micro-teaching for pre, while and post activity had just started on Wednesday, 17th of October, 2007, right after the Hari Raya’s break. Many of my course mates still have not come back from their hometown yet and therefore, those who could not make it to the class on Wednesday to present their micro-teaching will not be given the chance to present on Friday according to my lecturer. I saw many frustrated faces in the class as this micro-teaching is a pair work. Some of them who turned up lost their chance to present as their partner did not turn up on that day. Fortunately, Dr Edwin did not penalize them and gave them zero for their presentation as Dr Edwin said that they will still be given their marks based on their first micro-teaching. Thank god!
So, the micro-teaching started by the lecturer calling out names of presenters who are going to present their micro-teaching on that day. Micro-teaching started with the first pair- Harveen and Amri. As usual, our micro-teachings are not the perfect ones as everyone is just in the learning stage, so their micro-teaching was corrected by Dr Edwin many times and they are accepting and learning from their mistakes. And so do I. I tried to jot down what we are supposed to do in the micro-teaching as what request by the lecturer. Everyone was paying full attention to our friends’ micro-teaching as to absorb the right way to teach so that we can do better in our micro-teaching on Friday.
Lecturer also told us and gave us the example how a good worksheet should looks like so that we can get a clear view on how we should design a standard worksheet to teach. There are about 15 pairs who presented on Wednesday and most of them did well, at least they were not bad. I can see that they had put in a lot of effort in preparing their worksheets and their presentation. Most of them were nervous when they were presenting but this is common as everyone is afraid when they are being observed.
All the presenters accepted the lecturer’s comments with an open heart. Out of all the 15 micro-teachings, only 1 group did the teaching on the play “Pygmalion” while the rest did on “Antigone” and “King Lear”. Out of these 15 pairs also, only one pair taught the element of theme while the rest taught characters and traits.
There are varieties of exercises given to us as different groups designed different worksheets. One that was considered good by the lecturer is the one done by Syamimi’s group. Although Mimi could not present their micro-teaching as her partner could not make it to the class but their worksheets were distributed as lecturer wants us to have a copy of good worksheets. Luckily, we were managed to get an example of good worksheets.
According to Dr Edwin, those who are going to present the teaching on the play “Pygmalion” will be facing the most difficulties as they will have problem in reading the extract that they have chosen in pre activity as it is hard to pronoun and sound the words that are in the play.
Alex’s group was good too but Dr Edwin emphasized that play was meant to be read by advanced students, therefore, the exercises should not be too easy to be attempted. Technically, Alex’s group produced a good worksheet but it is not suitable for the advanced students as the exercises are too easy and direct.
Mei Hui and Eleen did and prepared the most number of worksheet for this session of micro-teaching. Somehow, according to the lecturer they were repeating their questions. So, we just learned that we should not repeat our questions, should put it together in the same part.
As for Diana and Alicia, they did very well in their pre activity, lecturer hardly comments anything on their pre activity but their while activity gave them problem. It is not so appropriate as the while activity asked the students to summarize the traits of the characters they did as it is too easy as students just need to rewrite what they did in their previous exercise. But after all, they taught very well in the class especially the pre activity part. They were very sure and confident in their teaching.
One of the most important things that Dr Edwin put into emphasis is that no one uses the technology in their teaching as no one uses the Over Head Projecter, Computer or any teaching aids in their teaching. Some group even did not use the white board in their teaching. Only Mei Hui and Eleen used the transparency for the while activity. From what Dr Edwin have said, I am sure those who have not presented on Wednesday will prepare themselves to use the technology in their teaching.
To put it in a nutshell, everyone did their best in their session of micro-teaching but they still can be improved as what said by Dr Edwin. Hopefully those who had not presented will get the idea on the best way to carry out their micro-teaching. I just keep my fingers crossed as I am going to present my micro-teaching on Friday alongside with my partner, Soon Mun. Good luck to everyone!