Cottie Catcher Reflection

Reflecting on experience is a critical way in how we learn to better ourselves as future practitioners. Reflection in-action in particular involves the internal process of reflecting on something while you are doing it. In my mini lesson, I had the opportunity to teach my group how to create and use a Cottie Catcher, something I learned when I was younger but had lost familiarity with. Since teaching is not my career aspiration I definitely experienced a lot of in-action-reflection as I was teaching my lesson, this having a lot to do with a lack of experience with teaching. Specifically through reflection the physical space, material, and personal factors contributed to different feelings I experienced while I was teaching and became an obstacle
Overall, in regards to the previously mentioned circumstances I believe my lesson went well, although there were definitely aspects of it that could be altered to allow for a greater level of success in the future. One thing that worked out well was the set up of the lesson. I had everyone sit in a circle so I was able to easily walk around and see everyone’s facial expressions in regards to any uncertainty and/or confusion. I made sure that I first demonstrated how to make the Cottie Catcher with everyone watching and after this I gave everyone their materials and we made it as a group. This worked well because people were able to cognitively and visually pay attention to the creation of the Cottie Catcher, and with this knowledge they were then able to make it with guidance of myself making it with them and answering to any questions and concerns. I also brought examples of the Cottie Catchers I already made with different questions on the inside to act as a visual aid for the participants. Judging by my groups engagement and facial expressions they seemed to enjoy the task and there was not much disengagement that may have been caused by an excessive amount of down time or having the task being too complex, although asking them specific questions after how they felt during the lesson could have helped me learn from my experience more. Things that didn’t go as well, firstly was my original fast and impatient pace. I first started demonstrating the task fairly quickly; unintentionally acting like the participants already knew what to do when this was not the case. Based on my impatient and fast paced personality this in general is something I need to continue to reflect on in many aspects of my life. After reflection on-action, having more materials would have been very helpful, as I only had a