Substitute Teacher: Global Ag Edition

For this week's AEE 412 Lab, we were tasked with creating a "substitute worthy" lesson plan for a standard we selected at random. When we were sitting in class on Monday, we did not know if we would be teaching our own lessons or not. I had an inkling that we would be switching plans with another friend, but we didn't know for sure.

As we entered the classroom on Wednesday morning, the surprise was unveiled- we were switching our lesson plan with another teacher and we would be teaching each other's! I have to admit, I was not the most comfortable in this setting. My lesson plans are always very detailed, but since I am the person writing them, I feel more comfortable switching words around or being flexible with what I expect from the students. When I was handed a new lesson plan, I was very impressed with the attention to detail from the author, Miss Liszka. She does such a great job at writing lesson plans in such an orderly fashion. When we were given just 10 minutes to look over our lesson plans, I thought I had an idea of what I was going to do.

Throughout my teaching of Kaitlin's lesson, I found myself reading off of the lesson plan way more than I normally do. I think I didn't feel as comfortable with the content as well, so it made it more difficult to ask the students specific questions. After the experience, I now know that I should read other's lesson plans and prepare for longer than 10 minutes prior.

When Kaitlin was presenting my lesson, I found quite a few techniques that she tried that I really liked! For example, I had a section in the lesson plan about washing hands. In my presentation, there was a video that showed the correct hand-washing procedure. When the technology failed, she asked for a volunteer to show the class the proper way to wash hands.

From this experience, I learned more about what it takes to leave adequate substitute plans, as well as being on the other side of the situation as well. I will work more on creating "sub-ready" lesson plans in the future. I really enjoyed this activity and found many techniques I can start to improve.