Today was my first peer leading class as a peer leader. I was excited and nervous when I thought about being in the classroom. I was relieved a little when I found out that I was familiar with the topic.
Professor uses a blackboard collaborate ultra for his class. During his lesson, before we started the peer leading session, he used the poll function. I thought it was the right moment to do so even though not many students answer. He gave me and my partner a group of 16 students and a different problem to work with students. I tried to explain the steps that the professor used so that students don’t get confused with different methods. We were given two quadratic equations. I asked how to approach this problem, what your strategy is. I waited for about 7 seconds for students to answer. However, nobody suggested it. So I dived into explaining the problem. I asked several questions in the process to get the answers. Some students answered and I feel that I communicated with students. I was somewhat struggling with using a blackboard whiteboard since I couldn’t use the sharing app screen. Accidently, I erased the whole screen once. I had to write all over again. That was inconvenient. Also, timing is important. For the first problem solving, we couldn’t get to the answer because of the time. But for the second problem solving, we got to the answer.
I should be more mindful of students. I need to find a way to engage with students more so that they can actually learn something from me.
