Teaching Experience #1 November 20, 2017 1315-1415
Teaching an Undergraduate-level Relational Nursing Practice course
A few weeks prior to my teaching experience, my mentor and I discussed her course and what aspects of my professional practice I could use to teach her students about relational practice in the workplace. One of my past nursing positions was working as a telenurse engaging with clients across British Columbia through technology. We decided this would we a great opportunity to engage the students in learning about an emerging and exciting practice in nursing and that my experience and knowledge of the work could supplement student learning through a real life example.
As I began to plan my lesson plan I spent some time familiarizing myself with the course syllabus and really focussing on the course objectives that I could base my teaching on. I choose three course objectives that could base on lesson around and sent my mentor a brief outline of my plan. I also utilized this opportunity to request some general suggestions about planning my lesson and to determine if she had any particular aspects from the overall course she wanted me to incorporate to ensure cohesion with the rest of the course.
Prior to my teaching session and before planning my lesson I attended one class to familiarize myself with the students and get a sense of the room. My mentor had mentioned the room was an odd one to teach in and and recommended I attend a class to see how she worked the room. The class was held in a large, auditorium sized theater room and the dimensions of the room limited free movement of the students and sometimes requires the use of a microphone to ensure vice projection. Visiting the class gave me an opportunity to see the maturity of the students, level of engagement in the course and pinpoint some of the technique Mrs. X used to ensure a positive and engaging classroom.
As I began to develop the lesson and construct my powerpoint slides, I found myself referring back to the learning objectives of the course and the goals for the session to ensure alignment. I chose to use a case study and small group and large group discussions as the learning activities. Once I completed my powerpoint and my lesson plan, my mentor and I had a meeting to finalize the lesson plan and make any necessary changes. This final session was extremely useful in ensuring that we were both on the same page and that Mrs. X was satisfied with the lesson plan.
I day of my teaching session I was a bit nervous and there were a few hiccups at the start of the class that had us off to a slow start. The classroom was being utilized for a fitness group which ended late and then there were some technical equipment issues that we had to tackle before I could get started. As I started my session I was still nervous and I could find myself speaking a bit faster than usual and there were a couple of requests by Mrs. X to speak louder to ensure my voice reached the back of the room. I ended up standing closer to the students which meant away and with my back to the powerpoint which I would have liked to use as a prompt as I spoke. I fortunately had a print out of my notes but having to look down to read them unfortunately was something I had hoped to avoid.
As I completed the background of the topic and gave an overview of what telenursing practice is and how relational practice is utilized to support practice I decided to get the students involved more in the discussion. Instead reading from my notes I framed a question to gain their preliminary insights based on the first block of the lesson. I used their input to build on and to like back to what I had mentioned in my slides and made suggestions to broaden their thinking. I found as I stepped back and got the students to contribute more to the discussion my nerves calmed down and I was able to enjoy the process more. Linking back to my observations of Mrs. X in the classroom I made sure to leave pauses for thought and provided prompts when students seemed to contribute less, for example reframing the question through an example.
As we reached the prepared case study, I had the students form small groups where they sat and provided 10-minutes to discuss the questions and then we would re-group to discuss as a class. This pause allowed me a breather and also provided a moment to touch-base with Mrs. X on how the class was going and suggestions to improve the session as we completed the session.
I completed the teaching session with a class discussion of the case study questions. I was able to elicit responses from students to the case study questions and as I had learned in my observation of Mrs. X’s teaching style, similarly add to student responses by linking back to the lecture.
Overall, I believe my first teaching session went well. Immediate feedback from the students and Mrs. X were positive and supportive. The students seemed engaged throughout the session and this was evidenced by the quality of their responses during the lesson and case study. I look forward to receiving some written feedback from Mrs. X to support my further growth as an instructor.