South Central Region PAAE meeting

April 17, 2014 was my regions PAAE meeting. This was a great experience. I never realized until this time that there were so many committees and teachers working behind the scenes to make things happen and improve the profession. For example the “sunshine” committee, I had no idea that there was a committee designed just to send greeting cards to anyone that may be having a rough time. It’s things like this committee that make me realize what a great network there is in the Ag Ed family. I thought that it’s great to have so many people willing and committed to helping others.  

ACES Conference

My trip to ACES as an advisor rather than a student was much different than anything I've ever done before. I've been away from home for so long that I forgot there was such a thing until I took 20 students to ACES, while I was at ACES my cooperating teacher shared with me that this trip is some students first time away from home and surprisingly some even get homesick! I thought that what she does to alleviate any stress of being away was very admirable. While the students were in sessions Mrs. Morgan and I went to target and bought little goodie baskets and put snacks and drinks in them. Her real motive was to make the kids feel more at home but when she gave the snacks to the students at lights out time she simple said "now you have drinks and food, there is no reason for you to leave your room! Lights out at 11:00." All of the students appreciated the gestures and we had no issues with students.

I also learned that it's not necessary to make the Sunday morning reflections mandatory! Just tell
the students that you will be there and you're not saving any seats, it's amazing how many students get out of bed for reflections with the threat of sitting at a table of complete strangers.

ACES was a good experience for realizing how many hats an advisor wears! In just one weekend I played so many roles each student needed a different person in their lives and I had to change to accomodate all of the people, some needed someone to say "don't dance with the boys like that" some needed to hear "just talk to someone, it's really not that scary" and some needed to hear that they need to either "pull their skirt down or go change!" I really enjoyed my weekend away to the ACES conference and looking back I realize that being the advisor is more rewarding than being the student.

CPPD Event

The Center for Professional Development program that I attended was the new teacher, young teacher, student teacher dinner. The one that I went to was at the Hoss’s in Lewistown featuring Dr. Ewing as the host.

It was a great opportunity. I got to share resources that worked well for me as well as talk about activities that work well for others. I meet up with other student teachers and we caught up on issues we may be having in the classroom what we can do to fix them and what is working really well. I also had a chance to bring quite a few resources home from Penn State CPPD.

The burning question that I had for all of the teachers was “What do you do when you see IEP accommodations hindering a student’s education rather than helping them?” The answer I got was “always follow their IEP regardless of whether you agree with it or not, just ask to be invited to their next meeting and express your issues then. 

This was a great opportunity to learn from other teachers, through this even I realize that one cannot succeed in this profession without others. I learned that in this profession we need others to learn from. 

Mid-Winter Convention

The Mid-Winter Convention was my first chance to see what I’m up against, It was my first interaction with a large group of Juniata Ag Students and I wasn't just observing; I was chaperoning.

The day went great! I had an opportunity to see my one of the students show her steer, first year jacket recipients, and senior members receive their keystone degree!

The rule was that all students had to stay with at least one other Juniata FFA member! There were two students that didn't like that, they wanted to travel alone and Mrs. Morgan wouldn't allow it. So I spent the day with these two students and it was a great opportunity. One student I was chaperoning has aspergers, we went to National Convention together and so I knew that he 1. didn't like when he had to stay with the advisor and 2. He had no problem talking to complete strangers and discussing his views on organic agriculture. While we were watching the beef show he decided he was ready to go get food, I escorted him to the food court and on our way there we got in a debate on organic vs. conventional agriculture. Me being navigational challenged took us to the complete other end of the farm show building. When I get there I said “oh, I don’t think this is where we should be.” He says “oh yeah, we should have taken that escalator back there” I said “you knew we went the wrong way and didn't say anything?” He said well you were talking I didn't want to interrupt you.

In the beginning I was leading him till it was all said and done he was leading me.

I had a great day with Juniata FFA and it was a great first chance to meet some kids and parents. 

My final week of student teaching

As I look back and reflect I think about how my student teaching internship has been the largest part of my life for not only the past 15 weeks but the past four years! Everything I have done my freshman, sophmore, and junior year of college was leading up to this time, this day, this moment, in which I would say goodbye to 119 students. As I think about the last 15 weeks I begin to realize the ultimately I needed them more than they needed me!

Everyday I would wake up after hitting my snooze 6 times. Even though I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to get ready, I always wanted to see my students. The most rewarding part of my day was being greeted by a student. It was early, most of the students didn't want to be at school, but when they walked in they always told me good morning, and at that point it was no longer about me and my plans but about them and their plans. Not their plans for that day, but their plans for life! What I did in my classroom, everyday affected their future, and knowing that I had an impact on 119 futures is an incredible high.

Now that I am at the end of my student teaching intern, I realize that with my college education, with my degree, the opportunities are endless. There is so much that I could do with my life, but if at the end of the day I want to find true happiness, I'll teach Ag.

Over the past 15 weeks, if anything that I learned was valuable the most valuable is that nothing is more rewarding than being a teacher:

Nothing is more rewarding than building a relationship so strong that students beg you to stay.
Nothing is more rewarding than having a lesson that is so deep, so rich, that students want to stay in your class.
Nothing is more rewarding than being invited to a students house to see his/her SAE.
Nothing is more rewarding than when a student stays after class to to confide in you.
Nothing is more rewarding than when a student tells you that "you not only made my experience as an FFA member very enjoyable but you made my entire high school career worth it."

Student Teaching: Week 13!

Sadly, this is my last week teaching classes, next week I'll be doing observations. It's been a really fun and enjoyable week, with having only one class to teach I've been trying more fun and creative things. Wednesday was a guest speaker and Thursday they made ice cream in a bag!

I brought in a guest speaker when we were on the swine industry and now again for the beef industry. They were both great speakers. With the beef industry I asked him to talk not only about his slaughter plant but also about his own experience as an Ag student. It was great! It's right around the time for students to schedule and I had a very successful person come in and promote Ag ed. He discussed his SAE, the hardships he had with it, and how it lead him to where he is now.

Thursday we made ice cream and I never thought it would be such a mess! For three days I told the kids to remember to bring gloves in and they kept asking why I told them their hands would be cool. A group of boys decided they were to tough for gloves and they would be fine without. It was really funny when they kept putting their bags of ice cream down because their hands were cold. The students really enjoyed it and they learned about various dairy products with the movie they watched afterward. Of course nothing ever goes as planned, though the end product was the same (the students got ice cream) it was very unstructured. So I know for next time to do things differently!

Student Teaching: Week 12!

I'm continuing to drop classes, at this point I am down to only three classes. Now that I have only a few classes I've been trying to do new things that I have more time to plan and someday implement into my program. One thing I tried and learned was creating a lab which required students to bring in materials from home. I assured the students that they should spend absolutely NO money on this project! The items they bring in could be an empty milk carton, a plastic bottle, soda can, basically they were instructed to "dig through their clean trash" and bring in 5 items. They would be given 1 bonus point for each item brought in. With this material they were going to make a 3-D structure of a cow. After having the structure created they were going to label body parts. I thought this would be a great way to address multiple intelligence's and unleash creativity in the classroom...

The lab was a complete flop. After giving them three days to bring in materials I had two items in my hands! I couldn't believe it, I was giving them an opportunity to receive 5 bonus points for bringing in a milk jug! I had to change plans, scratch the lab and do a one day lesson on the body parts.

Through this experience I learned that I cannot rely on students to bring in materials to be used for class. If I had been teaching for 5+ years I could have accumulated various objects to be used in a lab like this but I have no such collection. I do want to try this lab again because I think it would be a good lab but next time I will give the students more of a notice and I will raise the stakes, so maybe 2 bonus points per item, and I will create my own collection prior to the lab.

I was able to visit/observe a fellow student teacher this week and check out their program! I was really impressed with the program. They actually had two classrooms! Most two teacher programs I have been in are two teachers but one classroom, one teaches in the shop full time, one in the classroom full time. The student teacher also did a great job with her Veterinary Science class! It was evident that her passion lies in Veterinary Science. I commend her for utilizing her resources and having a community member bring in a dog to use for demonstration purposes. She did an excellent job of continuing to refer to her objectives. I liked the way she would address one objective and then ask the students what they were doing next. To answer the question they had to look at the objectives posted! It was a great technique for ensuring that students are aware of the expectations. Some areas of improvement that I had for this student teacher was one: assign groups to projects. After students were allowed to pick their groups I feared that they weren't going to complete the assignment because they were with their friends; two: make the connections more obvious, she had a great interest approach where she left the lights off for the first 10 minutes of class while discussing the green industry. My suggestion was to address the lights being off in the beginning with a question and then after the beginning discussion ask that question again.

Next week I will have only one more class left. This is my freshman class that I began with. I had a really rough start with this class, I worked through my really bad teaching moments with this class and did some really great things with this class. I'm glad that I have this class the longest, I enjoy teaching this class the most. It'll be hard to give this class back.

Student Teaching: Week 11!

As I wind down my teaching load I have more of a chance to not only reflect upon what I have done but also to watch my cooperating teacher teach. Of course with all of the observations I've done and with my week prior to teaching I was able to observe; however, now that I have taught for several weeks observing others teach makes so many more connections. For example I often have a hard time making the felt need to know in three minutes and I see her take a whole period just to explain why what they are going to discuss over the next few weeks is important! I mentioned this to her and she had nothing really to say as to help me it "just comes natural." Now I'm sure that there is a way to go from where I am to where she is where everything "just comes natural" but my question is how do you get there! What's the path to getting there! The only answer I've been able to get is it just takes experience which comes with time...

I knew going into this that it would be difficult when I have students that I just can't get through to. When there are students that leave before I have a chance to make them really care! I've had that student. One of my freshman students is really a nice kid he just has a rough life, and this last fight he was in was apparently the final straw. As I walked to the office with my teacher on Friday he was there with a school withdrawal form for her to sign. I was surprised with how much it affected me! I thought that if I had just given him enough help in order to be successful in my class it would make him care enough to stick it out. Granted he is going to another school but does that mean he will be more successful there than at our school. Something makes me doubt that...

Student Teaching: Week 9!

This was a crazy week! I got my first touch of what it's like to be a real ag teacher! I was doing things after school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night including an officer meeting Wednesday morning! It was a great week to really test my desire to be an ag teacher and take on such a responsibility. Till it was all said and done it just pushed me farther into the career. Spending the day with 110 different kids is exciting and such a blessing but the real blessing is when you spend time outside of school with the kids. That's when the relationships really blossom! I enjoy so much having that opportunity to talk to them and get to know them with out 20 other kids around.

This week I stayed after school late to prepare students for the Public Speaking CDE. Really, I just observed my magnificent cooperating teacher work with the students! It's great opportunity being able to watch her coach the public speakers. The littlest things she does is probably second nature to her but to me sitting there my mind is blown! All I think is that's such a good idea or what made you start doing that or wow that really works!

Thursday night was the public speaking CDE. It was a very upsetting night for Juniata. There was definitely some injustice done to our speakers. And I don't say that because I'm biased, I say that because CDE rules were not followed properly in order to ensure a level playing field for all students involved. However, because of the high standards of Juniata, the kids handled it very humbly. I was very impressed and PROUD of my students as they walked away smiles on their faces. Of course they knew there was a problem but they handled it very well. The hardest part was that my students with Aspergers did an EXCELLENT job preparing for the competition and had an 8 minute and 33 second speech entirely memorized and had hand gestures, and was prepared for questions. He placed 4 out of 5. When I was in FFA and competed in CDEs I was upset when I didn't place well BUT, being an advisor and helping students prepare for events and they don't place where they want to its a much worse feeling, especially when they went above and beyond what was required of them.

But, Juniata will go on, in three different CDEs.

Student Teaching: Week 8!

It's crazy to think that I'm more than half way done with this experience already! As I sit and reflect upon what I've learned in the past 8 weeks my mind is spinning.

What's really bothering me this week is student motivation! Specifically the labeling done by IEPs. I have students with an IEP and I don't understand why they have an IEP. I have students without IEPs and I wonder why they DON'T have an IEP! The educational system is failing students! My students do everything for completion it's never about what they learn only what they have to do and what they're grade is... It's very frustrating as a teacher! I have one student that does absolutely nothing. He sits beside the magazine rack and reads a magazine most periods. According to his IEP he must have teachers notes, so I give him the teacher's notes and he then he doesn't complete the guided notes. So I stopped giving him teacher's notes and he still doesn't do the guided notes. I ask him to do something and (very respectfully) he just says nahhh. According to his IEP he can turn work in anytime until the end of the marking period and can't receive late credit. For a student that lacks ambition that's not a very good way to make him successful! It's a battle that I guess I decided isn't worth fighting, as far as the magazines because he isn't distracting other students and he doesn't read anything he just looks at pictures so my head wants to believe that he's listening... He had an assessment this week and I don't understand is that he did ALL of the math to figure out the ear notching on the piglets, but left the next page blank because its short answer! And the answers to the test were throughout the test! He answered the questions correctly for multiple choice all he had to do was write the answer but he didn't. He's not even doing the bare minimum to get by! And for someone that hates school why not try at least hard enough to get out of it!!

I also have a very unmotivated officer team! My cooperating teacher and I since the beginning of my internship have been questioning the work ethic of our officer team. I from the beginning thought it was poor and now that my teacher isn't teaching she has time on her hands to realize what they are contributing to the chapter, and it's very minimal. When asked to do something they get upset. They want all of the credit for having a 2-star chapter but they don't want to put the effort into making that so for years to come. They don't communicate and they don't care. I just don't know what to do to help make them motivated and care about the success of their chapter!

Student Teaching: Week 7!

I finally feel like I'm getting a hang of this teaching thing. I'm finding new and exciting ways for students to show what they know. I'm finding ways address the multiple intelligence's and as I do this i'm realizing how that when learning is fun for the students it's much more fun for the teacher as well! I'm always excited about what i'm teaching (except wildlife and fishery science) but making the students feel my excitement isn't always easy.

Something I did this week that was really fun was my interest approach for Parliamentary Procedure!! I created a meeting agenda and since most of my officers were in the class we went through opening and closing ceremonies and the items of business to discuss were the information of the class. The students really enjoyed it because it was new fun and an exciting way to learn!

This week I also realized that it’s so much easier to be at school than to not be there! I had my first experience writing sub plans and preparing the students for my absence! According to school policy teachers are not allowed to leave their computers unlocked or give the substitute the access information. So any work given had to be in the form of worksheets or videos, etc. Granted, there’s nothing wrong with this, but this makes things difficult, for me anyway! So after writing sub plans and creating activities for students to do I realize that I have two more days of sub plans to write! It was much easier the second time for sure!

As I begin to make connections with students I begin to realize that there is can’t possibly be a job any more rewarding than teaching! 

However, sometimes those relationships are emotionally a struggle. There are some students that are just happy, all the time and they’re great and then there are students that seem sad all of the time. And sometimes I just have to wonder how much of a front are the students putting on? What are they struggling with at home? Where and who is home? When they strive for so much attention is it because that’s all of the attention they get in one day? Sometimes it’s really tough when I have a student that just talks and talks and talks when I’m trying to do something before or after school or during my plan period but I realize that whatever I’m doing it can wait right now what this student really needs is just someone to talk to even if you have no idea what their talking about.

I really do enjoy teaching and forming connections with the students and as I get deeper and deeper into my internship I am realizing how hard it’s going to be to leave Juniata!

Student Teaching: Week 6!

Throughout my experience I had known that assessments, formal and summative, we’re not going to be my strong suits. This week I found out why. With the 9 snow days we have had the units have been pushed back a week and a half and the unit I did finish was a project. So my first test was this week. I told the students two days prior to and we reviewed the day before.

I do understand that my expectations are very high.

However, I was do not believe that they are impossible to meet.

I am beginning to think that the educational system is doing a great disservice to the students! They believe that education is all about memorization and grades nothing to do with the journey but only the destination!

So I told the students to take time to look over their notes and study their fish “knowbook.” Students choose not to utilize the time for studying. So I asked if they were sure they wanted to begin and if they had any questions and they said nope we’re ready. I said okay then. I knew that there were questions that we went over quickly in class and I knew it wasn’t fair to ask them to identify 17 fish. So on the test I told them they had to identify only 6 fish! And I had all intentions of giving them 3 minutes at the end to utilize their “knowbook” and an article to check answers on their test. I didn’t give tell them at the beginning because I didn’t want them to just wait until this time was given to answer questions. To make a long story short, I had one very disgruntled student that acted very inappropriately. For the first time my patience was tested. I explained that if she had a problem she should approach me individually and not disrupt the other students! I do take partial blame to the assessment because I may not have been entirely prepared as far as giving the students enough time in advance to know and prepare for the test and being prepared with the test that period.

I also had students turn in a final manuscript for their speech. This was my leadership class and I was very upset and disappointed with the students. They had 30 instructional days to complete their speech prior to my arrival, and after receiving a grade for the first manuscript they had a week for making revisions. I graded the first speech very hard to light a fire under their behind! After receiving their speech grade and manuscript grade I had them write a reflection on what they thought of their speech and what they thought could be improved, students did so. After receiving all speeches, reflections and final manuscripts I graded them taking into consideration: the first manuscript, reflection, and final manuscript. Students still did not score high on their manuscripts, the grade they received on the final manuscripts ended up dropping some students grade very, very low. They were very upset with me but for the most part I thought that they deserved the grade they received for their effort. However, knowing that they thought I had failed them wasn’t something I could live with so I gave them the option to grade themselves and write a reflection telling me why they deserved that grade! I told them this was their chance to fight for their grade.

From these experiences with assessments I’ve realized it’s very important for me to clearly explain my expectations! It’s also very important to give students time to prepare for exams and give them something such as a vocab list, or questions, or anything really to be able to say if you know this and are comfortable with this information you’ll do fine on the assessment. I also realized that it’s good to ease their mind before the exam. Talk to them explain what’s on the test, explain that it’s not hard they’ll be fine; basically anything to ease their mind and relax them. 

Student Teaching: Week 5!

This week the unit assessment for my intro to Ag class was finally due, they we're creating a sheep and goat enterprise and presenting it to the class. I was very specific on the rubric, all they had to do was complete the information and present it. During the process of working on their enterprises they had a few snow days and there was an issue with using the computer lab so some finished their PowerPoint in the classroom and some finished theirs as Posters. Taking these hiccups into consideration I was not really impressed with their enterprise. Some students had all of the information but put very little emphasis on making it presentable. And I'm struggling on deciding how to grade it because value added wasn't a part of the project and if they did have all of the information but if they just did it to do it and didn't care how it turned out should I give them that grade?

My next struggle this week is probably my 3 period class. This class is plant science and leadership. The original plan was for me to teach one and Mrs. Morgan teach the other but because my first unit was Public Speaking we thought everyone can use that so I taught them together. The leadership students finished their speeches and now they are working to improve them for round two, so I decided to start plant science on floral design while they work on their speeches. So essentially I'm teaching both classes at the same time... What a struggle! It's so difficult because leadership should be working to improve their speeches right now and even though I specifically address the Plant science students the leadership students are answering my questions and adding comments. I don't feel comfortable telling the leadership students they cannot participate but I don't know how else to solve the problem.

Something great happened this week! Friday, first period I was teaching about the origin of the pork industry. I made a statement that Hernando De Soto was the father of the American pork industry. And being FFA week I thought of a trivia question who is the father of the FFA? I asked the class and they were saying names and I said the first one to tell me in 15 seconds gets a bonus point so they all started shouting names and I was at 13 seconds when one student got the answer right. So I wrote on the board his name and drew a big star around it. I could tell he really liked the praise. So as I continued with my lecture as students answered difficult questions I wrote their names on the board with big stars and the kids ate it up! If I forgot to write their names they would say "hey, where's my star?" It was a really great idea that boosted the energy level and praised the students for participation.

Student Teaching: Week 4!

Once again, another short week! I had three instructional days this week with Monday being a two-hour delay!

I picked up a new class this week, Wildlife and Fishery Science... Not my area of interest...

This week I'm dealing with teaching a class that's not interesting to me. Wildlife and fishery science. The other classes and subjects I'm currently teaching are interesting and exciting to me and knowing content off hand has helped me to fill in those extra minutes or help expand the lesson with tid bits of knowledge. With this class I don't have that ability. I have two of these classes and I actually enjoy teaching one of the classes but the other I could probably do without, and I know that's a bad teacher attitude, so I don't let the kids on to my lack of enthusiasm...

There also seems to be a student in my second wildlife class that sets the tone for all of the students and it's not a good tone. I do try to be fun and excited with the kids but they really aren't interested in what we're doing. For example, we started with a "know book" on the fish of PA, I made a example page and showed the students what we were going to do, I drew an example on the board, and I explained it when they were doing it and yet students we're confused. It was very frustrating to me! I though I was being clear and when I went through it with the first class they were fine and had less directions. I was also using this lesson to fulfill a moodle assignment (incorporating music and art into a lesson). It was a complete flop for the students, the music was distracting and they didn't like the know book. But because they only got through three fish, now we'll be doing this for more than one day...

I also had my first student issue. My student has ADD as well as anger issues, and to make a long story short I was trying to keep him focused and on task all period and he was getting annoyed from the other kids in class and kept tell me he was getting upset and he making comments under his breath. So I finally told him to take 10 seconds outside to cool down. He thought that was a good idea so he walked out to the shop, and as soon as the door shut I thought "I hope he comes back!" And he did come back! This was the last day this week, so we'll start with a clean slate Monday. My only concern is that he will take advantage of this option that I gave him and think he get's 10 seconds every class! But innocent until proven guilty, he'll only do this when needed.

Student Teaching: Week 3!

This week I discovered by biggest pet peeve!

SNOW DAYS!

I was off school Monday and Wednesday for snow cancellations, Tuesday and Thursday were both two hour delays and finally Friday I was able to teach for a full period!

I did a Problem Based activity with my students on Friday. The activity is called “Slurb.” It’s used to demonstrate the spread of disease. I filled plastic cups with flour and in 5 of the 24 cups I placed about 2 tablespoons of baking soda. I explained that this is a “slurb” they are highly social animals and interact by mixing their contents. The students we’re then instructed to mix their contents with 2 other students. As the students did this the baking soda spread throughout the class.

Then I told them that there has been an outbreak of “slurbitis” and all animals must be tested! I squirted vinegar in the cups and the cups that foamed were infected. After determining who was infected the students had to solve figure out who was originally infected, I only told them that 5 started with the infection.

This activity was very student centered. At one point I even told them that I would not answer questions for two minutes! I had students off their seats and excited about figuring out what happened.

My major mistake as a teacher, that I continue to make, is not bringing the learning full circle, I fail to create the need to know and then wrap up with a great conclusion! With this activity I could have had a great conclusion but I missed it.

Later that day for Mrs. Morgan’s large animal science class she said we could do this activity again. This class Mrs. Morgan is still teaching, we started co teaching this activity and in trying to work the kinks out of the activity we ended up making it more teacher centered and structured and there was a great difference between participation in the first class as opposed to the last class! The students were engaged but not excited, they wanted to know but they just wanted us to tell them. They lacked the ambition to get out of their seats and solve the problem.

It was great to see the same activity on different spectrum of the scale as far as student centered and then teacher centered. What I learned most was that controlled chaos is a great thing!

Student Teaching: Week 2!

Monday:

I picked up my second course on Monday, Leadership, this is the unit I have been looking forward to most! I planned one week for a public speaking “boot camp!” This class is a actually both plant and soil science and leadership. The original plan was to keep them separate I would first teach leadership and then plant and soil but Mrs. Morgan and I decided that everyone needs public speaking so for the “boot camp” I would have both classes. The lesson for Leadership went really well! Mrs. Morgan said I knocked her socks off and I kind of surprised myself!

I split them into four groups and gave each group a brown paper bag with only a few things: colored paper, scissors, paper clips, and with either a plastic cup, foam cow key chain, braided key chain, or plastic sunglasses. Not all bags had the same things for example only two groups had scissors and the other two groups had tape. I told them they had 15 minutes to create something with their group and during this time I could not answer any questions! My plan was for them to use things from around the room to create something and not allow themselves to be limited to what was in their bag. The students were even more creative than I could imagine! I was blown away with what they created. The point was to make the connection that public speaking is much like this: not everyone has the same talents and some of us have to work harder at it than others, we can’t rely on only ourselves to create a speech and public speaking is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone.

My first period freshman class was not so hot. I feel like I got off on the wrong foot with this class from the beginning, I blew through the introduction about myself and my expectations and have been really relaxed with their lack of engagement. There are about 4-5 students that have been really engaged others are not so much. This is my largest class and their just little attitude boxes and I let them intimidate me. I knew I had to change something but I wasn’t sure how.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was a two-hour delay! As a student I loved two-hour delay, as a teacher—not so much. I started a lecture in my first period and with the leadership class I screwed up! I was so disappointed because I did such a great job on Monday I didn’t want the student’s to get the wrong impression.

Tuesday evening as I was reflecting upon my performance I was so frustrated! I decided that it was time to have a discussion with my first period class. And then I was up all night thinking about how I would go about doing it, I even woke up thinking about the same thing…

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I went to school with discussion points that I would have with the first period class about behaviors I am seeing and how they feel about my teaching so far and I was all ready to defend myself to the students. I was hopeful that I would get good feedback but also afraid that I would be eaten alive! After reading the announcements I told them before we begin we need to have a “meeting of the minds” (My dad always said this when I was about to get in trouble or he was going to say something I wasn’t going to like). They all looked at me and each other slightly confused. I explained that 55% of our communication is non-verbal, and that the body language in the classroom (crossed arms, rolling eyes, etc.) was shouting at me so I thought we needed to reflect on the previous week. I gave them all a piece of paper, told them this would be anonymous and asked them to tell me

 1. What I did that helped them learn, and

 2. What I could change about my teaching

I also told them to feel free to share aloud and we would discuss it as a whole. I walked around the room and collected the papers face down and mixing them so they knew it was anonymous. Some of the comments I received were: more slowly on the notes, better job at breaking things down, and clarity. So I read these three comments aloud and I explained that these were things that Mrs. Morgan and I talked about as far as my improvements as well, so I did know that I needed to work on these things. I also explained that I was not a seasoned teacher like Mrs. Morgan I am a student teacher and so just like they’re here to learn I am here to learn as well. As we had this discussion I could practically see the walls come down, the students became more open with me about what they would like to learn and different ways that they learn best. I came in with my defenses up and it turns out that I didn’t need them. I didn’t need to tell them about poor or inappropriate behavior that they may have been exhibiting. All of the cell phones went away they sat up and actually leaned forward and engaged in the class! I was very excited and felt proud as a new teacher.

After the students left I read more of the comments they had written down. Of all the comments my favorite is:

            “If you could, please explain yourself a little more for projects and paper. But, everything else is great! You are a good student teacher and I think you’ll make a great teacher.

The comment that I thought was most interesting was:

            “Good: You explain things”   

“Bad: You talk to much”

After having this discussion with the freshman I am really beginning to enjoy the kids, they know that if necessary they can slow me down and tell me to explain myself more.

Thursday:

For Today I prepared to teach about common diseases of sheep and goats. I created a PowerPoint with pictures of the animals with the various diseases, I gave them a chart and I told them information about the disease and they completed the chart. I have four students first period that according to their IEP need the teacher’s notes. So from my lesson plan I copied and pasted the information about the 5 diseases and they put them in a document for these students. I was under the impression that the students would do the same as everyone else but if they needed to they could refer to these notes. That’s not what happened…

I had one student that doesn’t let himself be defined by his IEP he does his work like all the others.

I had one student that listened intently but did not take notes.

And I had two students that did nothing.

I looked at the students quite a few times and knew they we’re not taking notes but assumed they we’re following along. However, after class Mrs. Morgan told me that one student was actually sleeping. I felt pretty dumb that I missed that one…Mrs. Morgan and I talked and she said next time to wait until after class to give the notes and see how it makes a difference. Looking back something that I could have done is have fill in the blanks on their notes this would at least give them something to do and it would have been less work than the chart.

Friday

Today was a pretty good day for me. I had my first period students do a disease poster and then present. Last week I had them do a poster on sheep and goat breeds and present. From the past week to this week they were much more comfortable presenting in front of the class. They are also beginning to ask me more questions rather than running to Mrs. Morgan right away. Between the two of us we’re just letting the student’s transition slowly rather than a blunt transition I think it’s easier for the students.

My leadership class didn’t got like I thought it would but when I asked a student if she got a lot out of that period she said she did.

Today was the turning point for my Ag Mech class. We’re doing small gas engines, this class was very intimidating to me in the beginning not only because of the material but also the students. I have eight students, three boys that have quite a bit of experience with SGE, one girl that I have no idea where she stands because she keeps cracking jokes about diesel fuel and a so called “folsum shaker shaft” (the reoccurring joke of Juniata), I have one girl that’s clueless, and three IEP students with developmental issues—two of which blew up their engine last year. To make a long story short, the students don’t want to be in the classroom any more than I want to be teaching SGE. Yesterday I had them create a SGE Small Gas Engine safety management poster. The idea was that I am the boss and I want to promote them to a manager but in order for me to promote them I need to be sure that they can implement safety habits with their employees. Today they presented this to me. I twisted the project to be how I plan to implement safety with them. For example they said employees should wear the appropriate PPE if they are not then they will first receive a warning and second offence they would be fired. So I said okay first time you’re not wearing safety glasses I will give you a warning second time your kicked out of the shop. They didn’t like this, I stuck to my guns though with this attitude as we went through the presentation. In the end I explained that I am not a “loose cannon” as one boy called me I was just cautious of their safety and the importance of them maintaining and learning good safety practices. We then played a game to learn the tools where I showed them the tool and they told me what it did. I had two teams and competition became an issue with profanity that I nipped right away. This was so far more beneficial to not only them but myself. I was able to see where they were as far as skill level and they not only learned the tools but learned that I did know a thing or two about SGE.

As I get deeper into my internship I am realizing that I have a great passion for education! I really look forward to engaging with my students every day. The best part about it is that there is never a boring day! The students are always keeping me entertained and as I try different teaching methods I have become more reflective and creative about how I could or should do something and open to asking students opinions on what they want to learn and how they learn best!

Student Teaching: Week 1

Monday: School closed Martin Luther King Day
Tuesday: School closed (snow day)
Wednesday: 2 hour Delay!

My first week was hardly a week! I picked up my first class and completed only 2 lessons. But as I sit back and reflect I'm glad. It worked well for me, I had about 20 minutes day one to introduce myself, get to know the students and introduce them to the unit. Day 1 went well but of course I really rushed through everything my nerves we're crazy!

My second day was a complete flop. I gave them the assessment for the unit which is to create a sheep or goat enterprise and I thought I explained it well, I told them we would be discussing a few sections of that in the lecture and I went through the lecture some took notes some didn't. What I thought would take the class period took me about 20 minutes leaving 15 minutes. Not because I didn't have enough prepared but because I went way to fast! And as I began to realize I was going to have 15 minutes left I started panicking and moving even faster. So with the remaining time I told them to work with a partner to start outlining their enterprise. By the end of the period I was exhausted answering questions that I should have been more clear about from the beginning and trying to explain  that it wasn't as difficult as they we're making it.

Friday went well I gave them a project to do in the computer lab, as my nerves began to settle I was able to slow down and be more clear with my instruction, the students still asked questions but deeper questions about the assignment not questions for clarity.

My overall reflection for the week is that I need to remember that there is a great difference between the college setting and high school setting especially for 9th grade students and I cannot teach my students like I've been taught for the last 4 years.