Booppps Lesson Plan - My Reflections

The micro teaching assignment has come to a close and now I must reflect on what I learned. I will begin by giving my impressions on the lesson immediately after presenting.

What I thought went well:

The props were well prepared and I clearly stated the objectives. I discovered that most everyone had had some experience with baseball but none had pitched before. I had everyone participate by giving each person a baseball to hold. As I showed the different grips, I had them follow along, making sure each person had the correct grip before continuing. For each grip, I tried to give a really brief explanation on how they worked, however I did not linger very long on each since I had a lot of grips to get through.

The first grip I showed them was the 4-seam fastball. After showing a total of 3 grips I tested their knowledge by asking them each to again show me the 4-seam fastball. I explained that if you are going to remember anything from today, remember this grip because whenever you throw a ball of around the same size, this is the proper grip to use. One of my students then said "really? That doesn't seem natural to me. When I throw a ball, the natural way I grip it is like this." This actually led into the next grip I was going to show because the grip he displayed was a palm ball, a variation of the change up. I thought it was cool how one students comment/question allowed the flow of the lesson to run more smoothly.

How would I improve the lesson?:

I needed more time. To solve this problem, the best method would be to cut down the number of grips being shown. If I were to do this lesson again, I would not show the 2-seam fastball and the splitter, giving more time to show the curve ball. I felt a bit rushed and with more time (or less grips) this problem would be solved. I would also be able to add a post test at the end of the presentation and have a more flushed out summary.

Reflections based on my peers' feedback:

My peers feedback pretty much coincides with my own evaluation. Time management. They would have liked to have seen more time spent on the curve ball. I agree with them. Now that I think about it, the curve ball is one of the most interesting pitches in baseball. The way I set up my lesson was showing the different grips in the order that I learned them when I was young (except the splitter). My peers would have liked to have seen more closure to the topic and to include a post-test at the end.

One of my favorite comments I received was to provide more info on why each grip/throw is important and how they are used in baseball strategy. I liked that one, explaining a little bit about the strategy of baseball would have been a good edition to the lesson.