A Brand New Chapter...Student Teaching Week 3

Everything fell into place for me this week. I started teaching Ag 1 (mostly freshmen, some older students) on Tuesday and I started Ag 2 on Thursday. There are 3 periods of Ag 1 and 2 periods of Ag 2.

Ag 1

The worst period of Ag 1 is 8th period. At first, I had been bummed out that I would be ending every day on a bad note. Well, as my avid readers know, one of my problems has always been confidence and energy. Before I get into 8th period more, I have to say that I am thankful for my 7th period Ag 2 class. They are a great group that gets me energized enough to get through 8th period. Except I didn't start teaching Ag 2 until 2 days after I started teaching Ag 1.

Moral of the Story:

Don't fall into the trap of writing someone or something off when you hear bad things about them. I fell into that trap with 8th period. I was always thinking how am I ever going to teach these terrible kids?? Well, they weren't as bad as I had made them out to be in my head. Now, don't get me wrong, they still aren't a great class to deal with. I will manage; hey, I have so far right?

So back to Ag 1 in general. They are definitely a group that you need to follow BECOV (business like behavior, enthusiasm, clarity, opportunity to learn, variability) with. I specifically had to work on Clarity this week. Enthusiasm, of course, was also key but if my directions weren't clear, the students would mess up planting (expensive) seeds in the greenhouse. They also would never learn anything if they didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. I have to be very literal and specific. I hope to get way better at that in not only Ag 1 but in all of my other classes as well.

Ag 2

These students are the ones who "know what's up." They are pretty well behaved for the most part. Back in November, I taught my Communication (Life Knowledge) lesson to both Ag 2 periods. It was nice to have a chance to teach the lesson twice in the same day and to teach it to students that I would be having while I was student teaching. I already had started to get to know the students so it was an easier transition on Thursday. The one thing I will have to watch myself on is not getting too far side tracked with those classes, especially my high energy period 7.

Overall

The majority of the students respect Mr. Haussener and Mr. Grumbine so they don't have very many behavior problems. I just hope that I can earn their respect so I don't have to worry about enforcing my consequences.

This coming week:

I am continuing Plant Propagation in Ag 1 and Food Preservation in Ag 2. I am also starting to teach Animal Science Reproduction to one period of Ag 3. I hope to continue to get better in my confidence and enthusiasm as I get more comfortable with the groups of students that I have.

Watching and Waiting...Student Teaching Week 2

This week was different...in multiple ways. One was the fact that I really started to feel more like a teacher...and I didn't even teach at all this past week! The students and I had some good conversations and I helped them with their projects. On Friday, a teacher asked me if I was the new math teacher which made me feel that I looked older than a student teacher.

The other that this week was different was the way they conduct their midterms. Now, since Ag is an elective, we didn't have any formal midterms but students could still come down to the room if they needed to. It was basically an open campus; the students only needed to be there during the periods they had exams. The school only had a couple periods each day which made the school day over before noon for the students. Midterm days were Tuesday through Thursday. (The students had a normal school day Monday.)

Friday was an even more interesting day. We had a 2 hour delay for our Act 80 Day. All was good until I started to cross the parking lot at 9 AM. I thought I was stepping on some slush but it was all ice....BOOM! Down I went! Half my leg is bruised but I got right back up and went on with the day. We walked down to the middle school for a couple of things; Cedar Crest is implementing the SafeToSay initiative so we went through training for that. Our lunch was pulled pork (thanks Mr. Haussener and Mr. Grumbine) and desserts (Mini-Thon students). That was open to all high school teachers.

Overall this week, I had a lot of time to get little things finished and bigger things started. I bought a desk pad/calendar so I could see what I had to do everyday when I walk in in the morning.

In this next week, we have a 4 day week because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we have shortened periods on Thursday because of SafeToSay training for the students. I plan to start teaching Ag 1 on Tuesday and Ag 2 on Wednesday. Ag 1 will be the start of my Plant Propagation Unit and planting seeds in the greenhouse. Ag 2 will be the start of Food Preservation/Fermentation.

I have never been so excited and so nervous at the same time! I know there are plenty of people who have my back in this and won't let me fail. I really want to work on my confidence all semester but especially this week!

Do I Need an Easy Button?? Student Teaching Week 1

If you look on the very surface of this first week, I need an easy button. It was taking students to Farm Show for 2 days, observing classes the rest of the week, and getting my technology squared away. Easy...right?

If you think it was easy, you need to take a deeper look with me. (For the record, I never once thought it was or was going to be easy)

To save everyone's time, I'm only going to give you the big things that happened this week; the ones that really impacted my experience.

I was nervous and scared and had two breakdowns before I left home to go back to PSU last week. I didn't want to leave home...now don't get me wrong of course I still want(ed) to teach but I just didn't feel like I was ready and didn't want to leave my parents, friends, and animals yet. My 2 week long break wasn't long enough. But when I walked in and got my ID on Monday that changed. I felt like I was ready for whatever student teaching was going to bring to me!

Throughout the week, I have been trying to get a lot of things done before I begin teaching. Logical, right? Maybe but I can't help and think, what could I do to get things done and still talk to the students? How can I connect with them and get to know them before I actually start teaching and do all my first day activities?

Another big thing that I did this week was sit in on the actual Ag Program Re-Approval Meeting. Mr. Haussener let me go with him to experience what I will have to do at some point in my career. A guy from the state came in and went through our PDE (PA Dept. of Education) Program Approval binder and gave suggestions on how to improve. He also commended the program at Cedar Crest for several things. It was interesting to see that perspective of a program before I even start teaching!
To be honest, it scared me and motivated me at the same time. I realized that it was truly a lot of work in order to get re-approved. But it also made me want to do my best when I get my own program because I want it to succeed.

Please be looking for my administration interview blog and my science classroom visit blog which both describe other things I did in this first week!

The only thing I can do from here is to........

From 3 to 30....The 2019 PA Farm Show

The first day of student teaching was fun...to say the least! We got an easy start to the semester because we got to take students to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. It was under an hour drive so Cedar Crest got to go for 2 different days.

Day 1- The Mid-Winter FFA Convention (3 students)

3 years ago, I received my Keystone Degree on the same stage as many others did this week. But, that's not the only thing that motivates me anymore. The first year jacket scholarship program actually brought tears to my eyes. It's great to see the accomplishments at the end of someone's high school FFA career but to see it just beginning was a whole other story.

We had a student go to an Ag Ed workshop on Monday and then went to take care of her animals that were exhibited at Farm Show. Plus we had 2 First Year Jacket Recipients! Even though I haven't gotten to teach these students yet, I am so incredibly proud of them! To see the smiles on their faces after we walked out of that arena was pretty amazing! I am so excited to see where they go this semester and what they learn!

Day 2- The Take Everyone to Explore Day (30 students)

What do you do with 30 students in such a big place? How do you keep them out of trouble? Our solution to this was a mini scavenger hunt. It consisted of 8 easy questions that the students must go around the Farm Show Complex to find the answers to. Most of the students had them completed by 10:30 which was okay. It at least kept them out of trouble for a couple of hours! They are all pretty well behaved students but at least they had something to get them started at Farm Show if they have never been there before. As far as I know, the students learned some new things and had fun!

The FFA window displays were judged before we got there but look what we have here!! The 2nd place window exhibit designed by Cedar Crest FFA!! Great job! I was super excited to see this (it was the 1st one I looked at when I walked into that area). To be honest, I didn't even know they were going to have an exhibit but I think it is pretty amazing either way!

After attending Farm Show with the students I will be teaching this spring, I am getting really excited to see what we can learn together!!