Microteaching Experience Reflection

This past week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, I was able to teach a three-day microunit at Buena high school in Buena, New Jersey.  The mini unit was on courtyard gardens, the science behind them, and how to design a courtyard garden.  The first day was centered around getting the know the students and introducing myself as well as introducing 5 key things to consider when planting and choosing plants for a courtyard garden.  These 5 key things were:

- Drainage

- Shade

- Heat

- Shallow Soil

- Space

The second day was focused on knowing the characteristics of plants that could survive and thrive in a courtyard garden and listing certain species of plants within 5 categories (small trees, shrubs, climbing vines, ground cover, and flowers) that would thrive in those conditions and also survive in Buena, NJ's hardiness zone.

The last day, the students used the knowledge they acquired from the first two days and were able to create a courtyard garden using an online design platform called Gardena Garden Planner.  (This would be a great resource for teachers to use in landscaping and plant science courses!)  They had to use certain plants in their design, list the plants, and explain why they used them and why they placed them where they did in the garden.

This teaching experience was very educational for me and, based on the feedback I got, for the students as well. I have been learning this semester that time management and lesson planning is vital to delivering good lessons and this was a very good learning experience to help me realize how important effective planning is for instruction and teaching.  

As a future teacher, I can take what I learned and the resources I found throughout this experience to teach in the future.  I can also take a lot of the teaching advice and methods I was able to get from my CT at Beuna, HS, Dr. Tiffany Morey, and put them into practice in the future.

Example of a design created with Gardena Garden Planner.