Mr. Kerstetter the Substitute

"Ba-la-ke, De-nice, A-a-ron." We have all had our fair share of substitute teachers throughout our high school years. It was a great experience to be on the flip side of the equation. I had the opportunity to be a substitute teacher in our teaching lab this week. At first I was a nervous, but as I started teaching it went so much better than I thought it would.

We had ten minutes to look over our sub plans for the our teaching episode so we could orient ourselves with the material being taught. I had received Britton's lesson on photosynthesis which was a little nerve racking in the beginning. Once I read over it, I felt like I had an understanding of what she wanted the class to be like. I had started teaching and it just flowed so well. I improvised at certain points of the lesson to accommodate for technical issues as well as to add clarity in the lesson. Throughout the lesson I was able to engage students in the material by asking a bunch of questions and even having them demonstrate photosynthesis. 

Through this experience I had learned that writing a substitute worthy lesson plan takes more time than a normal lesson plan. The sub worthy plan needs to have more context and detail for the teacher so he/she can teach a lesson that he/she may not be familiar with. Adding in insightful questions for the teacher to ask is also helpful to keep them engaging the learners.

As an agriscience teacher I will need to write substitute worthy lesson plans since I will be out quite a bit for FFA events. Being able to perform as a substitute has helped me understand what I need to do for my future substitutes.