National FFA Week 2019!! Student Teaching Week 7

Happy National FFA Week!!

Monday-"normal"
Tuesday-"normal"
Wednesday-snow/ice day
Thursday-2 hour delay
Friday- activity period schedule

Things I Learned:

• I need to breathe! Having activities for National FFA Week was kind of stressful and I found myself giving into the stress
• I need to focus on being strong for the students (County FFA Ice-skating was Friday night and Mr. Haussener broke his ankle)
• the students love to have fun! They love doing competitive activities
• pictured below is the "Pin The Glasses on Mr. Haussener" activity, there were several students who got it pretty close and one who got it exactly. You may have to look closely to see the pinned glasses that were right on the money!

BECOV Progress:

• variability was better this week! It was easier when I had FFA week activities at the end too
• clarity was one of my first things I worked on and now I need to revisit clarity. I can write good directions but it's all in how I deliver them

Advice Wanted:

• How do I deliver directions the way I want them to be? I have them written out but I don't want to read off of my lesson plan so I don't but then that gets me into "trouble"
• How do I get some teaching in during National FFA Week? I had a little bit of teaching time but the students weren't all "there" because they were focused on the days activity before we even got to it.

Getting Into A Routine...Student Teaching Week 6

Monday-full day
Tuesday-Snow Day, off!
Wednesday-2 hour delay
Thursday-full day
Friday-full day, activity period, I was at Penn State

I got into a routine of not having a routine. By that I mean not having a normal week/schedule. Not exactly a good thing but it will be fine. I have become used to not being in school for a full week...is that ever going to change? Are we going to have a full week next week (technically maybe we will even though it is National FFA Week)?

Friday, we had a morning of reflection on the past 6 weeks of student teaching and then we had an afternoon of mock interviews in preparation for jobs! In the interviews, I learned that I just needed to add more experiences into my answers and be more confident in what I'm answering.

Things I Learned

• just keep plugging away!
• we have always been told this but....the goal is to not make you a perfect teacher in these 15 weeks but to make you a better teacher than you were before
• a point of student teaching is to try new/different things

BECOV Progress

• clarity was kind of an issue again...I reverted back on that for a couple of times but I knew that it wasn't right so I fixed it (for the most part) and it was all better
• VARIABILITY is key again...I struggled with it again this week

Advice Wanted

• any resources with activities! Or any way to help me connect activities with content...part of my variability problem is trying to get content matched with an effective activity
• how to not be burned out just in these first weeks of student teaching (overly tired everyday too)

Love Is In The Air This Valentine's Day...For Chickens that is!

My February SAE visit was a slippery one! Valentine's Day (really the whole week) has been an icy one and today that's especially true. At least nobody actually fell. The ice/snow was super crunchy and we had to walk very carefully!

Student

• Megan, junior at Cedar Crest, current FFA treasurer, Ag 3 student

Location

• not too far away from the school at her family farm and a nearby farm (2 different locations)

What is her project?

• about 350 layer hens, different ages
• currently collects about 15 dozen every time
• cleans eggs and sells them! She does all of this by hand!! (does get help some days)
• over the summer, Megan gets over 20 dozen per collection!

Other Comments/Notes

• will soon be building new housing for the chickens as the floor in the barn is getting bad
• got started with chickens because her brother went away for the summer and came back and sold the chickens to her
• also have beef and dairy cattle, she shows the dairy cows!
• her brother also has greenhouses and grows many different things!

Thank you to Megan and her family for letting us see their farm and learn more about her laying hen operation!! It was pretty cool!

The Best Day...Student Teaching Week 5

This was a full week for the students. It was a 4 day week for me as I took a sick day on Tuesday. I was lucky enough to have Mr. Haussener be my substitute while I was out so he knew what was going on in the classes. (I still needed sub plans but I felt confident that the things that needed to be done would get done).

Things I Learned:

• I need to slow things down...in terms of the amount of information that we are going over during one class period. I think that I am teaching a good amount of information and that's the problem, I need to teach a less amount of information (which well also let me teach it well).
• On the flip side, I need to speed up the pace of the class. This is easier when you have engaging activities built into your lesson.

BECOV Progress: (Business Like Behavior, Enthusiasm, Clarity, Opportunity to Learn, Variability)

• varying instruction came a little easier to me this past week. I even got a "This has been your best day teaching so far." (Mr. Haussener). I still need to work on variability but it was definitely better on Friday. (It was also easier on classroom management because the students were always doing something).
• Overall it was a good week but I want to try and repeat the good day I had on Friday everyday.

Advice Wanted:

• How do I keep the pace up and not have so much down time after giving directions? 
• How do I not get frustrated and not want to plan? I'm struggling with staying calm because I am trying to change so much at once. How do I not freak out about all the change? How do I keep my sanity?

Normal? What's that? Student Teaching Week 4

Monday-full day but activity bell schedule for class meetings
Tuesday-early dismissal (after 4th period)
Wednesday-2 hour delay
Thursday-snow day!
Friday-full day normal bell schedule

To say it was a crazy week is an understatement. I don't really have any good stories from this week since it was such a short and weird week. Monday we made homemade root beer, Thursday was the day we had to put it in the fridge to stop the fermentation and Friday we drank the root beer (well tried it since it's so different from store bought) and ate chicken that the students raised at the school. About Thursday...we closed not only because it was cold but there was a water leak in one of the other Technology department classrooms so they shut off some of the water lines. Mr. Haussener went in to check the rabbits thankfully and so moved the root beer to the fridge. I was at Wal-Mart, halfway to the school so I almost went in but I came back "home" and got some other things done instead!

Things I Learned:

• flexibility-literally changing things the morning of because of the changes in schedules
• I need a lot of help if I want to live out BECOV, just not sure exactly what to ask

BECOV Progress:

I'm going to start this subheading to show my progress on truly living out BECOV. Obviously there are more weeks than there are parts of BECOV and just because I'm focusing on one doesn't mean I'm throwing everything else out the window.

• constantly working on Enthusiasm
• focused on working on Clarity last week (and will continue to)
• will focus on Variability this coming week

Advice Wanted:

• how to keep my energy up (yes I go to bed at reasonable times most nights)
• how to keep my mind focused when I am teaching 6 classes straight (it goes Ag 1, Ag 2, Ag 1, Ag 3, Ag 2, Ag 1). I teach 3 of the same thing with plants (Ag 1), 2 of the same thing on foods (Ag 2). I find that it is hard for me to remember what class I am on and what I need to do during that specific class.
• any resources on varying instruction!! and how to implement that when Power Point and notes is what you're used to but DEFINITELY NOT what your students are used to (also kind of scared that if I do anything else I will lose control)
• last one! how to pull the students in after they're talking during group work (they aren't disrespectful per say but it takes longer than it should to reel them back in)