McKinley Teachers Stay After School To Practice Their Craft

Teachers practice micro-teaching after school to hone skills for classroom communications

By Lisa Reicosky

Even with 37 years of teaching under his belt, McKinley English teacher David Anderson is always looking for ways to improve student engagement and learning. This year he brought the idea of micro-teaching to his colleagues and for some, it has become a popular tool for improving their lessons. “Micro-teaching improves my craft. New ideas beget newer ideas and resurrect forgotten ideas,” said Anderson.

About eight teachers from various departments have joined in, along with education specialist Allan Brown and Secondary Literacy Specialist Dr. Lynn Rudd, who both said it’s been inspiring to see professionals use their personal time to collaborate and improve their craft with their students’ best interests in mind.

Anderson adds, “There has been a lot of cross-pollination at most sessions.”

With micro-teaching, teachers present a lesson, topic, or new technique to other teachers and instructional coaches as if they were the students. The other teachers participate in the planned curriculum and the lesson is videotaped. Following the lesson, the group watches the tape and offers insight into how instruction can be improved.

Anderson said he became aware of the method when taking a graduate course in 2012 and was assigned a book by John Hattie, author and re- searcher in education (and a former middle/high school teacher).

“Hattie lists micro-teaching among his top five interventions in improving student achievement, with an effect size of 0.88 (anything over 0.5 is considered high),” Anderson explained. He was pleased when he presented the idea to his colleagues and several took the opportunity to stay after school and improve their lessons on regular occasions.

Veteran teacher and current literacy coach Lori Sexton presented a vocabulary lesson she was developing and said it was an amazing opportunity to try out a lesson with her peers.

“I was glad that I was doing it with a mixture of newer and veteran teachers because I knew they would give me honest feedback on the lesson,” she said. “I learned that with a few adjustments, it would work in the classroom.”

Sexton said it was a great way for colleagues to collaborate and support one another and hopes to encourage the expansion of this type of professional development.

“The more comfortable we are with trying various teaching strategies and getting honest feedback, the better teachers we will all be and the happier we will be to work in a positive, forward-thinking, collaborative environment.”

English teacher Jessica Woodson-Moss used a micro-teaching session to build a lesson “from scratch” on the book, “Long Way Down.”

“I enjoy doing sessions centered around new ideas and methods that I am wanting to try out with my students. Given that most of these activities are methods I have never tried before, I am able to get fresh eyes on what could work and where I may have issues,” she explained.

“Since we teach a wide variety of learners, testing lessons on my colleagues who are also a diverse group of learners helps me better prepare for my students.” It was not easy though, at least not at first. In fact, Woodson-Moss said it was “super nerve-wracking.”

“However, the more we work together and collaborate, the more comfortable it all becomes,” she said. “We do not get the chance to have this sort of authentic learning experience very often, so being able to work with them, get to know them, and hear their perspectives makes the whole experience something I greatly look forward to. I can truly say these sessions have taught me more about teaching than I ever could have expected. It is a safe space to experiment and branch out with a