Lab B: Jump-Rope Lab

For Lab B I had to teach two skills these being the forward straddle, and the straddle cross. These two skills for jumping rope were new to me, so therefore I had to learn them before I taught my lesson.
Before I taught the lesson to my class I tried to memorize the words that I was going to say ahead of time so that I could explain my directions more clearly to the class without hesitation. This initial part of my lesson I thought went quite well. I tried to imitate my TA's (Gino) lesson from the previous week, because I thought that he ran the class quite well during his demonstration. I broke the lesson into two parts, the first half being for the first skill, and the second half for the last skill. The first skill was the forward straddle which was easier for me, because I knew how to do it. I planned that half of the lesson out completely. It did not really go the way I planned though. I originally thought with our low numbered class that I could teach everyone on one line, but two additionally participants and the TA's were part of the group. So I had the group work on two lines instead. This worked wonderfully because it allowed the participants to already be in group lines when the turned around to perform the task. This was an unexpected turn of events that ended up benefiting my lesson. In class for the past week everyone has been learning how to properly give feedback to participants, so as they group performed the skill I tried to incorporate what I learned in class. This was a great tool, and I felt as though it helped the participants feel better about their actions. While watching the film for my first half of the lesson their was a point when I was having the group perform the forward straddle without the use of the jump-rope. I instructed everyone to try and lean forward to help them stay on the balls of their feet, almost instantly I saw everyone lean forward as though they were one unit and follow my prompt. That for me was such an inspiring moment. It really made me feel like I was a real teacher, and I was helping them learn a new skill.
For the second half of my lesson I had not really fully planned. For this I followed some of the ideas that my TA Anthony had given me the week before, which helped me greatly in relating the skill to the participants. This skill for me was the most difficult to perform, but I just worked through it. I have found that when something does not go the right way as you had planned just to keep working through it. I worked through the difficulty of not knowing how to do the skill, and it worked out great. I do not believe anyone caught on to it during the lesson. This half of the lesson though my Professor had one of the students pretend like he did not want to do anything, and sit off to the side. I went through the whole second half of my lesson without even noticing this. It was quite embarrassing to hear at the end of my lesson I did not notice this. I felt as though I had let my TA and Professor down. Next time I will be sure to be more observant with my participants, for I do not want this kind of mistake to happen again.

This lesson has felt like my best lesson yet. This is true even though I made a few mistakes throughout it. Last lesson I had much more instruction and class management issues, with limited activity. My time managing for this lesson I felt was much better, but not perfect. The next lesson I teach I am going to really strive for putting everything I have learned together to make my lesson perfect.