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)

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!!

NAAE Reflection

What a week of professional development it was! But don't worry, there was some fun things involved! The National Association of Agricultural Educators conference was in San Antonio, Texas. Such a change in weather and the environment in general! It was great!

Left: Random picture taken between a luncheon and a workshop.

Right: Jenna Bush-Hager speaking to us at the ACTE conference that was held at the same time as NAAE. She was really emotional and supportive towards teaching and all that we do!

Anyway, I made a ton of connections to ag teachers from across the nation and went to a bunch of great workshops. 

The workshops that stuck out to me were....

• empathy
• effective directions
• special education
• ethanol

All of those workshops were conducted by different people (one being Dr. Foster). They were all really informative.

These are the results of the activities we completed in the empathy workshop.

As I have been working on lesson plans and making directions, I have found myself thinking about what I learned in the effective directions workshop. I keep running through my head the outline of what directions should look like.

I also really enjoyed the teacher panels we had for discussions. Dr. Jessica Jones from Virginia was super impactful to the entire audience. She cares about her students a lot but still knows how to have fun while teaching her students.

Lots of Fun Times!!

Two of my favorite things to do was to hang out with Pennsylvania ag teachers for a boat ride and for dinner one night. It was great getting to know some teachers that I will hopefully be working with in the future (and ones that I look up to)!

Left: sights during the boat ride

Right: a light show on a cathedral (we went to this right after our PA teacher dinner)

Overall, I cannot wait until I get to go to NAAE as a non-student teacher! It was really exciting to experience a new culture and get to meet other professionals at the same time!

Life Knowledge Lesson Reflection

I completed my Life Knowledge lesson during my Thanksgiving break. My lesson was a combination of 2 FFA Life Knowledge communication lessons. I taught the Ag 2 class which is 2 periods during the day. I'm going to start with the negatives of my lesson then end on a happy note.

Things to change

• A common theme, my lack of confidence in front of real students was an issue again
• The first period that I taught, I didn't really give a "why they needed to learn communication skills."
• There were small classroom management issues in the first period. They were still doing what they needed to do so I let their misbehavior go when I should not have.
• I need to start recognizing things that need change and then change them on my own
• Have a clicker or something to carry around to change slides while I am walking around the room

Things to keep the same

• Generally, my pace was good and the students kept up with what I was saying.
• The students were highly involved in the lesson. They answered all of my questions when I asked them. I did this for every slide I made.
• I had good content that the students truly enjoyed talking about.
• I took a few negatives and changed them for the 2nd time I taught the lesson that day.

Overall, I enjoyed teaching this lesson. The students seemed really into it for the most part. I saw an improvement in the way some of them spoke (I had a small speaking activity at the end of the lesson).

Ag Mechanics Demonstration

My demo was on sweating a joint/sautering a copper pipe. This was only taught to our cohort. This time, I had a hard time finding good things about this lesson but here they are. I had a sheet clearly outlining all of the steps that were to be done. I had decent student interaction throughout my mini lesson. All of the materials I needed were right on hand during the demonstration except I had a student go and get a wet cloth for the end of the demo. 

I was not confident at all. If I were to do this again, I would definitely actually practice the steps. I practiced before I recorded my demo but I would practice multiple times before I actually taught this to students. Along with practicing, I would make sure the torch works and I know what "setting" to have it on to maximize the time being used.

Micro-Teaching Lab Reflection

A cohort member of mine, Kayla, and I went to Juniata High School with Mrs. Morgan. Our micro-teaching experience was supposed to be 3 days in a row with the same group of students. Everything was perfectly fine until about the week before we had to complete this experience. The weather was going to be cold and snowy. Well, what do you know? The snow not only cancelled Juniata's school days but cancelled PSU's school days as well! While my hometown only got 4 inches of snow, State College reportedly got 11.5 inches!!!!!

Kayla and I only got one day of teaching in. It was a relief to finally be in the classroom teaching students and not teaching our peers who were trying to portray high school students. My class was a plant/soil science class that is currently on plant science. I decided to switch gears and teach about soils. My three lessons were "What is soil," "Edible Soil Horizons," and "What is soil pH?"

Logically, I taught the "What is soil" lesson first to get the basics out of the way. Overall, it went really well. I walked around the room just enough and asked just enough questions. I really wanted to have the students interacting more during the lesson and I definitely did that with asking so many questions.

On the other hand, I was wavering in my speech. Mrs. Morgan and Kayla both said what I already knew; I need to be more confident. I know the material and what I want to do so I just need to be more confident when I am actually in front of the students.

When we were at the school, we talked about missing days due to snow. Well, what do you do in that case? There are many options. You can just forget that lesson (NOT a good idea), wait until the next day to complete that lesson (a better idea), or you can put the lesson online if possible (a really good option if you do it right). I couldn't say what I would do in those situations. I think it would depend on what class(es) I am teaching at that time. Hands-on classes would be very hard to conduct online so that is not really an option.

Virtual Mentor Exploration....part 3!!

Key Question: What are the best tips/resources you would provide to new teachers regarding special needs accommodations? 

As a follow-up to the last virtual mentor exploration, we were asked to do another (what I would consider) diversity blog post! For as many special needs accommodations that there are, there are a ton more ways to help these learners!

A big point that my mentors came up with was use your special education teachers. They may have worked with your particular students before which would help you to know what accommodations are needed. The special education teachers also know the school district. They can point you in the right direction towards other resources within or outside of your school district.

Even though this isn't from a virtual mentor of mine, I attended a workshop on special education at the National Association for Agricultural Educators conference last week in San Antonio. Ms. Becky Haddad was the workshop facilitator. Thank you!

*side note: the 80 degree weather was super awesome compared to the 11 degree windchill I heard there was at home!*

An accommodation is a change in how a student learns. Some very common accommodations are guided notes, provide formulas/steps, word banks, etc. As I think back to some of the lesson plans that I have already completed, I know I use vocabulary handouts and guided notes a lot. While that is good, I need to remember that that won't work for everybody and that I shouldn't do that all the time if I can help it.


As a teacher, a really cool resource to have was a sheet that keeps track of your students with needs and what accommodations they need. It keeps all of this information organized, especially if you have a class with a large number of students with special needs. Below is a picture of this pretty cool sheet!