Teaching a Class for the First Time

My group and I were the first to teach the fourth grade class at Bishop Dunn about plants. We had to teach the students about botany and plant organelles. I was anxious because I wasn't sure what I was walking into, being the first group to go. This was going to be the first time I taught to an entire class, and having my peers watch me was a little nerve racking as well. With all of that being said, I thought the lesson went well and I learned a lot from this experience. We started the lesson by introducing ourselves and going over the classroom rules and expectations with the students. We then showed the students a word wall and asked them if any of the words were familiar to them to access prior knowledge. Following that, we began to explain to the students what botany was and what organelles help make up a plant. I introduced three organelles to the students, endoplasmic reticulum, chloroplast, and nucleus. I had the students repeat the vocabulary words I introduced to them and checked on their understanding. After all of the new organelles were taught to the students, I had three volunteers come up to the board and show the class were the organelles were located. Looking back at it now, I would definitely want to ask the students if they agreed with the students placement of the organelles as they were up at the smart board. My group and I then showed a rap video reviewing all of the cell organelles they just learned. We let the video play through once without interruptions, then once again but paused the video and asked the students questions. Every time the rap video introduced a new cell organelle, we paused the video and asked the students what the function was. The students really enjoyed this video and I thought this was a great way to review in a way that was interesting for them. Unfortunately, the day my group presented the students had to pack up early because of an emergency dismissal drill. The slides had to be rushed through quite a bit, but this was a good learning experience. Schools often has drills or interruptions throughout the day and teachers must work around these issues and stay on track. Although everything did not go as planned, I thought my group and I did a good job. I learned new things through this experience and have learned what I need to work on as a future teacher. I am excited to learn more about teaching and observe others journey as well!