Student Teaching Week 7: Maybe I Can Do This Whole Teaching Thing

http://www.aeseducation.com/blog/2012/10/self-directed-learning

As we approach the halfway point of the student teaching experience, I am finally starting to feel that I am catching my stride. Planning for class is becoming much easier, my rapport with my freshmen has drastically improved, and I am getting to see agricultural education beyond the school walls. Teaching is much more work than I had ever imagined, but it is so rewarding. (Especially Ag Ed) We get to see our students develop throughout their whole high school career. Other teachers do not get to see the great projects these students have outside school and therefore do not truly get to know them.

This past week, I not only got to teach livestock judging but I was able to help tag my students fair steers. Visiting my students, meeting their families, and seeing the passion for their projects is the coolest experience I have had yet. It is the best part of agricultural education in my opinion. I see SAE as being the cadillac of self driven learning. Students pursue projects that align with their interests and passions. As educators it is our job to steer them in the right direction and provide advice when necessary. Students seeing adults take interest in their projects is the ultimate motivator.

https://www.pinterest.com/motivationalv/motivation/

As I look into the upcoming week I need to find new ways to push my more advanced welders. I am toying around with the idea of a small project for students who complete all the welds earlier than expected. I have several ideas for small projects they could complete. Is it better to move onto a project or spend more time mastering the basics? I guess it depends on your definition of mastery. I believe incorporating a small project would help with student motivation and rapport. However, which better prepares them for a career in welding? I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but I have time. Teaching is not easy by any means but I am already seeing the rewards through my students.

Student Teaching Week 6: Putting Your Foot Down

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/18724297/Drill-Sergeant

Six weeks in already? This experience has been flying! This week I have been thinking about how lenient I should be as an educator. Where do we draw the line for our students? How do we pick our battles? Great teachers can see through all the bs that is thrown their way and divert students attention back to the day's objective. However this is easier said than done. We need to keep our students on task to help them reach their full potential, but we don't need to seem like a drill sergeant. We need to push students without pushing them over the edge, and every student has a different edge. Teachers gain respect from students only when the student feels respected. If respect is not mutual you will have problems.

I feel that I am very laid back as a teacher, as long as my students are being respectful. Students appreciate it when you work with them on due dates. This makes me think, are the due dates really that important? Students learn at different speeds so why shouldn't we be flexible. I understand that we must use due dates as checkpoints to keep our students on track, but isn't it more important that the students learn the first concept well before moving to the next? We need to be able to read our students, determine if they are truly struggling, and work with them individually.

http://www.researchhistory.org/2012/06/16/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/

We can be extremely obsessed with getting through all the material at times, thinking the students have to know it all. The top 2/3 (academically) of the class will be successful no matter what. It is the bottom 1/3 of the class that we need to worry about. Life skills are much more important than the actual content for these students. We need to be mindful that we are already doing more for these students than anyone else by developing these life skills. The content will come later, if we make learning neverending. Our students need to develop in character before we can expect them to reach the higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy.

Student Teaching Week 5: Finding Your Stride

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/glimpse-identity-disability

As week five comes to an end, I finally feel like I am starting to find myself as a teacher. When I began this experience I was not sure what my identity would be in the classroom. I have little experience actually teaching. The challenges and obstacles are continually shaping me. I have heard many teachers talk about how important flexibility is but never realized just how big it is. We need to be able to make the change to plan B, C, or D at any given moment, especially now with snow days. These changes happen within the class period as well. What if the internet does not work? What if the supplies for the next unit have not come in yet? What if half of the class does not show up?

It is important that we have that "side shooter" in our pocket and can teach the subject matter in several different ways. This all goes back to being prepared and forward thinking as an educator. For example, I have several different games planned to review cattle anatomy in my livestock judging unit.

Through this experience so far, I am finding that students will respect you if you respect them. Don't talk down to them. If they need an intervention, do it separately. Don't embarrass them in front of the class. Be supportive. When they need chewed out do it, but let them know you're doing it because you care. When they fix the problem give them a pat on the back.

http://www.lrqconsulting.com/2015/02/13/grow-with-flexibility/

As you know from reading previous blogs, I have had my fair share of struggles managing my freshman class. I feel that I have made huge gains so far by simply respecting my students, making learning fun, and showing that I care about their future. The way you react to the struggles shows just who you are as a teacher and an individual. Change is slow but it is so worth it!

Student Teaching Week 4: The "Speak Week" Experience

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/motivational-memes/

If you read my blog from last week, you would know that I have been challenged this semester with motivating my freshman class. Over the past two weeks, I have spent a lot of time trying to determine what I can do to create a productive environment. Last weekend, I designed and decided to implement what I call "Speak Week", not quite the same as "Greek Week." Students were split from their talkative buddies and placed into teams. These teams were given the chance to compete at the beginning of class each day for 10 minutes. Scores were tallied and the winning teams were allowed to have a pizza party in friday's study period.

This competition drastically helped classroom management because teams would loose points for misbehavior. I feel that this has helped a lot with the class rapport. The students really enjoyed the competition and activities in general. But were do I go from here? I know for a fact that I need to keep providing activities that allows students to get up and moving. I also need to wean them off of the pizza prize. They will finish presenting their prepared speeches this week and begin a livestock judging unit.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/365495325982765197/

Looking into this next week, I need to keep it fun and engaging while being stern with those students who haven't put the work in on their speech. I have kids with tons of potential that put forth little effort and kids with less potential that work their hearts out. As an educator, I want all my students to reach their full potential. I have to continue learning through experimentation on how to motivate my students best.

Professional Development: Exploring AET!

Last Saturday, I made the trip to Bald Eagle High School to participate in the AET (agricultural experience tracker) workshop. We had explored this tool in AEE 311 at Penn State, but not in the depth of Saturday's experience. There are many different avenues and features that I hadn't discovered yet. We learned some of the tricks to teach students and common mistakes that are made. It was very beneficial because we went through the entire process from beginning the project to applying for a state degree.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/record-keeping-zmaz83jfzraw

After attending this workshop, I feel much more confident in teaching students how to use AET. If we as teachers don't know how to use the tool, how do we expect our students to pick up the concept? The program itself can be pretty confusing if you get off course. This is due to the extreme detail that projects can be recorded. I see this as a great tool! But how do we teach this to 14 year olds? After talking with peers, we determined that grouping students by SAE type may be the clearest way. If all students are recording the same types of projects they will have small differences in entries. I am currently trying to incorporate this tool in one of my farm management projects. I believe that it will work well and give my students more experience with this program. I now feel competent using this tool and hope to help students right away.

The Science Classroom Visit: Biology

https://www.amensupport.org/wp/2015/01/18/making-connections-at-aaes/

Last week, I was given the opportunity to sit in on a 10th grade biology class. This was a great fit for me because I lack confidence in biology and the teacher was a master. The day's lesson was on how plants obtain energy and the role of ATP in cellular activities. I was surprised to find myself familiar with the topic being discussed. The instructor seemed to have great rapport with his students, as well as all of the other teachers I have met. During the lesson, I could not stop thinking about how many of these biology concepts are also taught in the agriculture classroom. Agriculture is the ultimate course. It involves biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, reading, writing, economics, and really any other subject you can think of. This got me thinking about different projects that could involve the agriculture classroom with other classrooms. What if the calculus students teamed up with the senior ag class to determine the needed flow rate of water for a new chicken barn? Or, what if the economics class teamed up with the farm management class to found a farmers market? Breaking barriers between classrooms can work to kill stigmas of what's cool and what's not.

The biology class also reviewed the scientific method during this class period, which made me smile. I had just gone over the scientific method with my electrical wiring students the friday before, in my lemon battery lab. It is important that students make these connections between different content areas and see the value in the higher level thinking that this often presents.

SAE Visit #1: Tagging Dairy Steers

On Wednesday of last week, I had the privilege of traveling to one of my seniors farms and tagging his dairy steer. This reminded me of my days of raising show stock and all the hard work that went into it. It frightens me that this seems to be a dying passion, especially in my home county. I would argue that the lessons that I learned from raising hogs and steers taught me more than any single high school course. The purpose of SAE is for students to conduct their own learning based off of their interests and passions. Present day academia has taken some of these passions out of our students and turned them into test stressed spoon feedees.

Mifflinburg FFA

So how does this SAE project help Jacob's future career plans?
He plans to become a vet. To become a large animal vet you need experience with these animals. Jacob has raised literally every animal from chickens to hogs to steers. He sees SAE as a true opportunity to better prepare himself for a career in veterinary medicine.

How has he improved his project over the years?
Jacob has experimented with different feeding programs over the years. He also has greatly improved his judging/selection skills.

What's the next step?

Jacobs next step is preparing for college. It's looking like he will become a fellow Penn Stater pursing his passion in vet science.

I also got the chance to talk with his parents and sister during the visit. It was really cool to meet jacob's support system.

I want to bring that passion back. It all comes down to creating an environment where all students are educated on the importance of agriculture and individuality. We need to get rid of this spoon feeding mentality. SAE is where we can accomplish this. Pushing our students in SAE opportunities can help to align them into a more self directed learning. When students learn about different aspects of their interest areas and see them as being valuable, they will continue to research and want to learn. We need to get students out in their perspective field so they can see why it is important to become educated. (at least in a certain field) I believe SAE, when used right, can be the ultimate vehicle for self driven learning. I look forward to my next SAE visit!