My micro teaching lesson was on how to fold a paper shuriken (throwing star). Overall, I thought it went well. There were a couple main things noted by everyone about the lesson.
The first (which I was very aware of) was that we ended up being a little short on time. Although I had judged throwing stars as being quick to complete, I didn't account enough time for re-explaining if someone missed part of the explanation, nor did I account (enough) for the fact that the students were origami beginners. When I made one to practice, it only took me a few minutes so I figured that about double that would suffice for everyone else, especially since we had just done some other origami in class. I'm honestly not sure if I could've picked anything easier for origami that would have been satisfying, but I will try to keep in mind for the future that my guesstimated timings still need work and so I should plan for situations where I run short on it.
The other main comment that I got was that the explanations were clear. I particularly appreciated the note about giving warnings for tricky parts. I hadn't specifically planned on doing that as anything more than a thought in my own head that those parts would take longer, but I think that it also helped everyone feel more calm about trying out the new fold because it had been acknowledged to be difficult. I think it also can help in general to warn students to pay close attention to those particular instructions and I'll try to keep incorporating that into my lessons.
Although we ended up cutting it very close, everyone got their throwing star done at the end and one person even mentioned that it was the first time they had really accomplished folding a piece which made me happy to hear.
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