For my micro teaching I based my 20min session on three shoes as the objects. I’ve been a sports footwear designer for over 20yrs.

The three shoes I brought in were as follows

• Professional ballet shoe
• Sports fashion shoe: Puma MY-6, Black Patent Leather, Designed by me for the Japanese market in 2002
• Adidas Stan Smith, A tennis shoe designed in the early 70s for the professional tennis player Stan Smith.

The activity for the group was to write on ‘Post Its’ one word about three different elements of the shoes. These elements were ‘materiality’ ‘function’ ‘character’ for example;

• Materiality = Smooth
• Function = Flexibility
• Character = Ostentatious

The objectives of the particular microteaching session are to get the group considering the following:

• Observational skills
• Visual literacy
• Design awareness and knowledge
• Critical analytical skills
• Communication
• Understanding of key concepts (e.g. branding, style, ethics)

I broke the 20min microteach delivery into four sections.

• Introduction – 5 minutes
• Task Breakdown – 5 minutes
• Activity (Task) – 5/8 minutes
• Q&A – 3/5 minutes

Group Feedback

• Once I’d done the introduction and task breakdown, I revealed each shoe individually asking the group to write their descriptive words on the particular shoe before revealing the next.

• This extended the task and it would’ve been more efficient to place the three shoes on the table straight away in order for the group to start visually observing them at the very start of the session.

• The group appreciated the storytelling element to my shoe selection. I gave verbal facts and personal connections to each shoe style when introducing it, which was said made the session more memorable and evokes thoughts.
• Our tutor Linda pointed out that although ‘storytelling’ can make for a memorable session it also poses risks in terms of time management. There needs to be a structure, so you keep control of timings.
• Structure was needed towards the end of the session for clarity. This could’ve been in the form of a ‘soft structured’ verbal summary of the session.

Moving Forward

• I will introduce ‘hard structure’ in the form of a worksheet or task ‘activity instructions hand-outs with guidance for timings, for examples 3 minutes to pass the shoes around.
• Could provide examples of comments and questions they may want to ask.
• I will introduce time allocation for ‘soft structured’ conversation.

Other Micro-Teach session general notes & comments on the day.

Steve, Graphics Tutor, Drawing with Adobe/Creative Suite.

• Steve shared at the start that he was feeling nervous. It’s good to share emotions it takes away the hierarchy and creates an inclusive atmosphere.
• Instructions were given and we were asked to use various tools to draw but lots of conversation were taking place during the activity. Because of my neurodiversity this makes me anxious about not fully understanding what was being asked of me, especially with a tight time restriction.

Mahalia, Tutor, Creative Computing Course

Mahalia gave us a ball of clay, we were asked to mould the clay and make a response to the following text;

‘Network of challenges and discoveries, where structures invite interaction movement and spontaneity is the heart of this place’.

Possibility Space. The text was a description of a playground.

• Well planned and structured presentation and activity
• The activity encouraged conversation and interaction
• Good use of the space, room and environment we were in.
• Good use of hard and soft structures.

Justina, Creative Pattern Cutter

Justina brought a mini mannequin and gave a live demonstration of cutting a pattern for clothing.

• Very engaging interactive presentation and activity
• Zero waste was encouraged through responsible use of waste materials

Game Design Tutor, programming workshop.

Algorithm = A sequence of actions. Origami was used to explain algorithm principles.

• Simplified instructions
• Democratic use of industry terminology using industry terminology in ‘every day’ conversation.
• Suggestion of using online information to give basic instruction.
• A conversation about the ‘Chatgpt’ platform benefits.
• Suggestion of giving a link to an animation or film in advance.