Micro Teaching Lesson Self Assessment Evert VandeStroet May 25, 2020

For the micro teaching lesson, I chose to teach about what goes into the process of milking

cows. The introduction to the lesson was posed as a question. I asked the audience whether they knew

where their milk came from. From there I developed the lesson by showing an overview of the entire

process. During this time, I introduced the herd that I work with and the equipment we use as well as

how often the cows get milked per day. From here I went into the individual phases of the milking which

were the pre-milking routine, the milking, and lastly the post-milking routine. In each step I used either

photos or videos that showed that part of the milking. The conclusion reiterated the main points and the

big themes I talked about.

I feel as though I met my intended learning outcomes because the idea was to give people who

had no idea where milk came from a better understanding of the milking process. This presentation was

really meant as a first exposure for people to the dairy industry besides buying dairy in the grocery store

and it did this effectively. It did not get too deep into the nitty gritty of the milking but also did not just

skim the surface but gave a bit of depth without overwhelming the audience with information overload.

The parts of the lesson that went really well was the demonstrations that showed what I was talking

about. The angles of the videos were good, as they showed what was going on nicely. This contributed

hugely to the success of the presentation because it gave the audience a visual idea of what was going

on instead of just the explanation. One other thing that went well was the content was short enough

that I did not need to rush to get through everything I wanted to talk about. I found the recording of the

presentation was one of the things that did not go as well as I had hoped. It was not as engaging for the

class as I had intended to make it. This was especially because initially I had planned to do the lesson as

an actual demonstration where I would milk, and somebody would video me doing the milking and

talking about what I was doing. As it turned out this was going to be too disruptive to the milking and for

the cows so instead, I took video and then talked about it with a little screen in the corner showing me
Micro Teaching Lesson Self Assessment Evert VandeStroet May 25, 2020

talking. I also found that my voice was too flat during the presentation. It should have been livelier to

make it more engaging and interesting as well.

The feedback given to me by the members of my team was definitely helpful. It gave me a good

idea of what parts of the presentation the audience really liked and the parts that were not good. The

feedback very much aligned with the kinds of things that I have already identified as good points and

points of improvement. There were however a few points that I had not thought of that I did appreciate.

One team member suggested I stand as I present instead of sitting while recording. I agree this would

have made the presentation more effective and probably would have made it easier to make the

presentation more engaging. It was also mentioned that they appreciated that I had picked a topic that

they knew nothing about. This makes it easier to keep the interest of the audience.

To improve the presentation in the future I would like to work on my presentation. It was as

mentioned earlier too flat and monotone. This was especially because I was recording a video. In person

I have a much easier time speaking in a more engaging manner. Recognizing however that I might be

doing a lot more teaching in online formats, it is important for me to get better at presenting in front of

a computer camera. Some of the ways that I could improve on this is to stand while I present. This

would make it feel more like an in-person presentation and would help me loosen up a bit more. It

would also help to have somebody to video me in the future so that it feels like I am actually talking to

somebody rather than just at a camera lens. As this becomes more natural, I could progress to self-

filming while maintaining a more lively and engaging tone.