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.
Annette, my suggestion on the sheep and goat enterprise projects is have the students score themselves, or even better yet, maybe each other. Another suggestion would have the students rank the presentations, similar to what you did in AEE 350 with the wood tool boxes. See what the students' perceptions of their work and quality of presentation. I encourage you to also express your dissatisfaction and discuss with students the importance of detail and presentation. Teaching multiple classes at once is extremely difficult. I was under the impression after the speeches they were going to be split into two classes again? A suggestion would be for the leadership students to pair with the floral students and they have to prepare a presentation on a type of flower and an arrangement? I am sure there is a way to integrate both classes into one while teaching the separate material at the same time. Now is the time to try new and different things! Just start trying different approaches. Maybe even problem solving or inquiry would be a cool solution! Great job at reinforcing good behavior! Keep utilizing those techniques and strategies you learned about in Ed Psych and Ed Theory!
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