Community Based Unit of Instruction

For my community based unit of instruction I choose to do a showmanship clinic.  The clinic was a huge success, we had over 65 participants.  The students learned about showing and raising livestock in class we spent 10 class sessions throughout my internship on this material specifically.



Additionally, I spent numerous hours making contacts within the industry.  The most time consuming portion of the clinic was getting 4H approval for the good production practices(GPP) portion of the instruction.  I finally contacted the regional education coordinator Patty Anderson.  She required that she meet all presenters and conduct a meeting and dry run of what material would be taught.  After meeting with presenters she finally gave her blessing and agreed to sign off on these students having received proper training.



The other set of contacts I had to make was to secure enough industry professionals to help the Mohawk students teach showmanship.  When everything was said and done I had 5 beef showmanship, 3 sheep and goat, and 3 swine presenters.  These people worked side by side with the Mohawk students to delivery an industry leading showmanship clinic.



The next phase of the clinic was to provide secure enough finds in order to provide a free lunch to all participants.  My students and I, contacted dozens of area business'.  We provided them with information about the clinic and donation forms.  When the final numbers were in we received finds funds from 12 businesses for a total of $725!



The clinic was amazing, I was incredibly happy with it.  The only thing I can say is that it was it was extremely exhausting.  In the future I will be sure to put more emphasis into having the students take ownership of the process.  There is no reason that they could not have made all the contacts and arrangements.  The process would have been more beneficial to my students if they had been responsible for  contacting the people and scheduling everything.

Mohawk Amazing!!!

 

My time at Mohawk has been truly a life changing experience!

On the first day I picked up my badge and that was when I realized this is really happening and these people are going to trust me with their kids!!

#1- The student teaching internship seems like a long time.  You think you have all kinds of time to get stuff done... WRONG!  The time flies by and before I knew it, it was over.

Mohawk has taught me so many things, most of all they have showed me the utmost respect and given me every opportunity that I can imagine.

I have always believed that the Ag Department was special.  When I was in high school Ag was the class kids took who did not fit in else where.  However, I have learned during student teaching the Ag is where EVERYONE belongs.  Through agriculture education we are able to provide students with real world experience and skills that will allow them to succeed in the workplace.  It is simple college is not every for everyone.  Agricultural education lets us equip students with skills that they can use to get a job.  Sometimes that job may become their career other times that first job is simply a gateway to bigger and better things.

The animal science curriculum allowed me to make cross curricular connects.  Agriculture lets us teach students in the classroom the theory then move outside and work with real animals.  I have worked with every level of students and I have realized that IEP students make me work harder.  I have found that I truly believe and encompass the motto: Every Student, Every Class, Every Day.  The high level students are easy to teach, however the lower level students become more challenging.  I do not feel like I have had a successful class period unless I had every students attention.

The Final Week...

Well here it is the last and final week...

This week the students in Animal Science Presented their final projects on Monday and Tuesday.  The students did an outstanding job and I was completely shocked when one of the best projects was on rats!

Having 3 days left in the week I really wanted to make a statement and go out with a bang!  I gave the students a range of options and they choose the topic of horse judging as the final lessons.  Horses are really my things I have a wealth of knowledge in livestock but I was basically born and raised on a horse.  Thus, this was the absolute easiest lesson I have prepared for.  The lesson was fantastic and the students were so interested.  I find myself working harder to make judging interesting more than any other topic.  I have found myself pondering why that is and I have come to the conclusion.  I always found judging intriguing and challenging however, I was bored out of my mind when I was taught it in high school.  Thus, that experience has pushed me to make students love judging.  Wednesday became an extremely special day for not only because of that lesson but because my former Ag teacher came to visit me.  He is the reason I decided to teach agriculture.  He made a difference in my life and motivated me to make a difference in another child's life.  Having him observe my teaching and tell me how proud he was of me made my entire day.  It was also great to get talk to him as teacher verse a student.  I learned a lot of things and little tricks throughout the day!  Thursday was my capstone,  I got up at 5 a.m. to load horses to bring the students.  I was so excited that even though it was early the chance to bring a lesson to life like that had me pumped!  The students were super excited and I was extremely happy because EVERY student correctly distinguished between the top and bottom pair in the class!  We even had several visitors come out to see our class and the horses.



The Building Construction class is making great progress on their drywall project.  Every group has the drywall cut and screwed up.  They have either one or two coats of spackle on the wall and now are on to the sanding and perfection part.



My advanced welding students have their test plates almost complete and with any luck they will finish them before I leave... Fingers Crossed!!



FRIDAY

Today I did a huge cook out for all the Ag classes.  They ate 15lbs of hamburger, 10lbs of Lamb, 5lbs of Sausage, 3 cakes, 48 cup cakes, 36 muffins, 8 bags of chips.  Yes, it takes a lot of food to feed ag kids!  It was an amazing day that I will never forget.  My students were amazing and I am really going to miss them!

Wow it's really almost over :(

Well here it is, my second to last week.  I have been putting off this blog since it is making it so real that I am going to have to leave these kids...  Student teaching has been amazing and this week was no exception!

Animal Science

This week has been slightly different from the rest.  The kids have been working throughout the course on a final project.  The final project is a farm business plan.  They are responsible for describing the health, nutrition, management, breeding and budgeting.   The students are doing great and are really going into great detail with the project.  However, their desire to go into detail is causing the project to require more time than previously anticipated.  Thus, the students had this entire week to complete the project.  They did a great job and on Thursday I gave them a preliminary grade using the rubric provided.  The preliminary grade was a great idea and really helped the students pin point what they needed to do.  The major theme I found was that the students were struggling with the budget.  Specially on the pin pointing projected profits.  In the future I will spend time teaching budgeting. 

Additionally, my CDE team did great at the regional judging contests we are hoping to have the results in this coming week.  Keeping our fingers crossed they really tried hard!

Buildings

This week the students started working in the wood shop.  They are laying out drywall inside a structure that was built over there.  Their task is to measure, cut, install and finished an inside and outside corner.  The students are doing good and they have the majority of the drywall cut the next step is to cut out the electrical boxes.  The project is going well, however there are two 7th grades classes over there during our period which makes it tricky.

Advanced

This class has truly turned into my favorite class.  I love working with these guys, they are dedicated and committed to a successful welding career.  The boys are almost done with the test plates and will have the plates finished this week.
 

Week 11.. I think winter has finally broke!

Monday

AnSc

Today's lesson was on the spread of disease and the PED pig virus.  This was an activity I found in a lab aid kit that Jessie shared.  The activity required special test solutions and test tubes however I was able to modify the activity to utilize the supplies available.  I used florescent power and splenda in the cups then I black light to test the cups.  The kids loved the activity and were really shocked about how easily one person could infect so many.  They also were very intrigued by the detective hunt to decide who the culprit was!

Buildings

Today the students finished cleaning up the room and installed the trim work.  The room came out great and the student are really proud of what they accomplished.

Welding

The students are continuing the make progress on their test plates and we are hoping that they will be complete by the end of next week.

Tuesday

*Today I had a job interview so the students were either working on their projects or helping get the shop ready for sausage production tomorrow

Wednesday

All classes were making sausage, the students were instructed on safety and procedures and then put to work.  We processed about 3,000 lbs and pork into sausage the net income from the fundraiser is around $7500.

Thursday

All classes worked to clean and reorganize the shop.

Friday

Animal Science

Worked on stuff for the showmanship clinic; they made posters, fliers, thank you's, schedules, sign-in sheets.  The group worked extremely well and the clinic was flat awesome on Saturday!!  We had 85 registered attendee's, there were ten presenters that worked with the Mohawk students to deliver a wonderful clinic.  I have heard nothing but good things from everyone that was there!

Buildings/Welding

Both classes worked to get the shop back in working order and to put the ham's into the curing solution so that they could be smoked on Monday.


*It was a completely crazy week!  What would I change?  Well for starters, if it had been my program I would have never scheduled both the sausage fundraiser and the clinic in the same week.  However, time is always at a premium and making things work/happen is part of the job!  The sausage fundraiser is vital to the program however, by the time it was done there was almost an entire week of instruction lost to it.  I felt like there had to be a better way to get things rapped up and the students back to work sooner.  

Week 10- The sadness of the end is really setting in...

Animal Science

Monday and Tuesday

I have been running behind since the beginning due to snow days.  Thus, I was given a copy of the American Meat video and after previewing it realized it was an opportunity to make up time.  I constructed a worksheet that went along with the video.  After the first section which lined up nicely with the length of the period, I allowed the students to vote on whether they wanted to see the 2nd half or not.  All three classes were very engaged and all voted to see the second half.  This a great way to make up time,  the video killed 4 of the lessons in the unit plan in 2 days.  However, what would I change?  I would leave this assignment and lesson for a substitute to teach.  I felt as though I could have been covering other material and the video would have been great when a non-agriculture teacher was there.

Wednesday   

This was my final observation and I was teaching pig ear notching.  I was really happy with the lesson and the students seemed to truly enjoy it.  However, the classes were out of order due to PSSA testing and my 3rd period class met during 1st period.  Apparently kids are like animals and changing their normal routine makes them wacky.

Thursday   

We worked on swine judging, we started by reviewing the information used to judge livestock.  I was impressed by thrilled that on the third round of judging the students finally knew the 5 characteristics.  It is my belief that when students when students follow a set of guidelines for judging the results are much more uniform.

Friday

Today was only a half day, but it was super awesome because I brought in real live pigs for the students to judge.  They were happy to once again have real animals to work with.  The pigs behaved like perfect angels and everything ran smoothly.  Unfortunately, I only had 2 pigs to bring since the third ended up in my freezer during SLLC.  Due to the PED virus I wasn't about to ask another producer to bring me pigs.  Although, my change to today lesson would be having four pigs for a complete class.

Building Constructions

This week the students finished spackling the wall in the high school PTO office.  Additionally, today they completed painting it.  We are looking forward to next week, we will be starting to work on drywall on a frame structure.  This will allow students to work at their own pace and they will be given more freedom to work independently with less direction. 

Advanced Mechanics

My kids are making great progress on their test plates, I am hoping that they will be done by the end of next week.

Additionally, it has been a busy week!  Tuesday I had a meeting with the GPP presenters for the showmanship clinic.  We met with the regional 4H coordinator to make sure everyone was on the same page.  Then on Thursday night I had a student stay after to work on his weld test plate.  Later that night I attended a special swine committee meeting at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds.  We were deciding on a recommendation to give the fair board regarding swine at the fair.  Finally to finish the week I met with the Livestock, Dairy and finally Horse Judging Teams to prepare them for contests.

Week 9- More great experiences

Monday

Animal Science

The students worked to complete the beef EPD project.  The groups all had there 10 females picked out and only needed to choose a sire.  I decided to incorporate the next level of our reproduction topic into the assignment.  Instead of simply choosing the best bull offered in the sale, I had the students pick a bull off the Genex website.  This game them more choices and the actually took the task quite serious comparing EPDs back and forth.

Building Construction

Supplies came in Friday and the students were able to get started on the project.  This renovation and completion project entails a large amount of demonstrations.  The students are getting to perform the majority of the work.  However, Mr. Wallace and myself are spending most of the time demonstrating.

Advanced Single Cylinder/Welding

We are continuing to get mowers in that need serviced.  Thus, Mr. Schirmer and I are splitting the class so that we are able to keep all students actively engaged.  The students on the welding side are doing a great job their level of commitment and dedication to doing these test plates properly is incredible! 

Tuesday

Animal Science

I started the class by reviewing the information required for the nutrition and health portions of the final project.  I then showed the students my "final project" presentation, following it up with I would not ask you to do something that I have not.  The students seemed to connect better by being able to see a finished product.  The ideas, depth of information and interest in this final summative assessment is mind blowing.  When I developed this project I hoped I could hook my students into having half the level of interest in it that I did.  However, I think I ended up getting twice the level of excitement back that I gave they completely love working on this project.

Building Construction

The students spent the period first sanding the spackle they applied Monday and were able to put a second coat on.  There are still some holes and seems that are going to need one more day.  They didn't get a lot done the previous day after demonstrations.

Advanced Single Cylinder/Welding

The same structure was followed as the previous day.  My young men are doing great however, on their second pass down the bevel they are starting to have some issues.  The guys have a good attitude are learning that it is more about doing it right than speed that they do it.


























Wednesday---- Evaluation Day----

However, not the evaluation that probably jumps into your mind first.  I was fortunate enough to have Blackhawk HS observing me for the last two periods of the day.  It went great and they said that they will be touch for an interview!

Animal Science

The topic in my unit plan was the estrous cycle and the use of CIDRs.  To be completely honest I wasn't sure that I really wanted to teach that on this day.  However, since that was what was in the plan next I decided to go for it!  In reflection, I think it was a good idea because it truly pushed me to make it an awesome lesson!

This comic is the result of 3 hours spent on Bitstrips trying to make the Estrous cycle interesting and easy to understand.  I believe the results were well worth the work!  My students seemed to be able to relate to the comic.  By the way the comic idea was stole from Todd during our meeting Friday!

Additionally, I have to add when you put 2 high school principles, 1 district administrator and as many as 3 teachers into a room of 12 students everyone sits up straight and participates.  My principle sat down beside one the IEP students who has been causing a lot of problems and do you know what....  For the first time he sat up straight, took notes, answered questions and became a "model" student.  To be honest it truly confirmed me suspicions that his main problem is a lack of motivation.

Buildings

Class went well the students were sanding and spackling again, they are making good progress and I would expect the project to be complete by Monday.

Advanced

This class was also observed by the pack of administrators.  These kids work well everyday however, they certainly put their best foot forward for me.  We started class off by looking at x-ray films and the other types of weld tests that we have available.  Blackhawk found this class particularly interesting since it was something they weren't aware fell into the general Ag description. 

Thursday

Animal Science
 
After a pretty intense Wednesday I decided to relax things a bit with a jeopardy game.  This time the topic was pheno-typic beef cattle selection.  I divided the class into 4 groups and it went great.  The main things I learned is that games are fun but sometimes students can get a little too into the competition verse the content.

Buildings

6th period has their side of the wall just about complete however, period 5 has some work to do still.  Its interesting to see how differently the two groups work.

Advanced

The group working on mowers had completed everything that they had to do, so everyone was welding again.

Friday

Well today I took a "personal" day on the recommendations of Mr. Wallace and Mr. Schirmer.  I decided to apply to the C-L position.  Both felt it would be best for me to take the day off and visit the school.  I agreed so I made an appointment with the Principle.  This was a great day, I have to say it is really awesome when schools that are hiring are willing to take time to show the facilities and introduce to the people you would be working with.  I thought the closing date seemed quick on the position, however I was further surprised to find out that they are planning on interviewing in two weeks.

Western Region PAAE Meeting

The meeting on Tuesday night was a great experience, not to mention a great meal!  The meeting had several things of interest, the first being the PAAE summer conference which is being held in the western region.  During the meeting volunteers were selected to host and organize different parts of the conference.  Additionally, this gave me the opportunity to interact with other Ag teachers from the same area as me.  This group is definitely starting to feel like my family more and more each time we get together!

Probably the most interesting thing that came out of the meeting was the offer by PDE to put together a program approval workshop.  They said that they have extra money in the budget and want to spend it on Ag teachers.  They are willing to come to summer conference and sit down with any school that needs/wants help meeting the requirements.  I liked this idea since the programs I am looking at, are in need of help meeting the requirements.  As a first year teacher this could be an amazing opportunity for me!

It was a great experience and I have my fingers crossed that going into next school year I will be a permanent member of the western region family!

Week 8-- Wait, what week 8???

I can not believe we are already this far along, I can't speak for everyone but I can say that it has gone entirely too fast!!

Monday

After leaving Friday feeling like the students needed the weekend to relax and recenter themselves, Monday they were back to themselves.  Since we didn't finish the lab packets on Friday we reviewed and summarized Monday.  The emphasis was on why did we do this and how can/will it effect you in the future.  My students seemed to center themselves around the relation to themselves and how parasites affect their pets.

My students in my building construction class continued through the plumbing unit and we discussed steel piping and began teaching students to thread pipe.  The students were super engaged and found starting threads challenging.

For my advanced mechanics class I requested the students work to prepare their best "butt" weld in order to complete a lesson on weld testing.  We had issues with the plasma cutter and the entire class was not able to cut fresh pieces of steel in a timely fashion.  However, no worry the students continued working through the weld series and made productive use of the time.

Tuesday

For Animal Science we tried working on AET and record keeping however second try was a no go as well.  It turns out that our computer lab is in need of software updates that allow the website to operate.  So it was on to plan B, which was a Jeopardy game on beef cattle trivia.  Typically this game is used a review tool however, I decided to use it to present information.  I divided the class into two teams and had them get Agri-Science and Vet-Science books.  All the questions could be found in the book and the teams were very competitive about finding the information.  I made sure to connect the questions to the content of the following days lesson.

The buildings class completed working on the pipe threading and everyone tried it and were successful.  Additionally, introduced the next topic of drywall.

The advanced class worked on completing the butt weld and on the weld series.  Additionally, we are beginning our lawn mower maintenance fundraiser.  The students distributed information regarding the services offer and the first mower came in.  After discussion and with Mr. Schirmer we decided to split the class.  We are going to rotate students back and forth between the mowers and the welding area.  Mr. Schirmer is taking the group of students who are working on the mowers and I am continuing to work in the welding area.  The class was receptive to the idea and it will keep everyone actively engaged.

Wednesday

In Animal Science I introduced the concept of EPDs and then we worked through several scenarios regarding selecting the proper bull/cow based on its EPDs.

In the buildings class Mr. Wallace and I took the students on a quick "field trip" to the other side of the school where another class started a drywall project.  We have gotten permission to have our students complete the project.  We had the students take measurements and develop a shopping list for the materials they would need to complete the project.

The welding class continued to make progress on the weld series and all but the students working on engines completed their butt welds.

Thursday

Today I took a little different approach that I might add was out of my comfort zone.  Mr. Wallace laid a catalog on my desk for the West Virginia beef expo.  Mr. Wallace is a man a few words, he simply said I thought it would be "cool" to incorporate this in the animal science class.  I took it home and thought,  the catalog had EPDs listed for each animal.  Thus, I copied the catalog for the students and broke them up into pairs.  I have picked groups differently each and every time, this time I had everyone sit around one island.  I presented the lesson and gave them instructions, then I told them that the person sitting directly across from them was their partner.  Wow!  I had some seriously unhappy kids,  I'm not sure how but apparently you sit across from the person you like the least?  All three classes the students were not happy about their partners.  However, I stood my ground and made them get to work.  Then the magic happened the students that never do anything started getting pushed by their partner's to work and they did!

The buildings class was given the list of materials they made the day before and had to prepare a price list.

Finally, my advanced class worked to complete the welds and the 3 young men who are working on their x-ray weld test plates are making good progress.  They have even started coming down during study hall to work.

Reflection

Flexibility is the key to having happy and successful days.  It is imperative that you spend time planning but in the end remember its about the students.  There will be days when you have to completely change what your doing and that's OK!  The things I would change and work on are simple yet not so simple.  They are simply to continue to be a life long learner and to work to push myself and my students.

Week 7- Spring fever kicking in..

Monday and Tuesday I was in Harrisburg for SLLC and Mr. Schirmer did the Hoardsman Dairy contest with the students.

Wednesday

Animal Science

I had the students work on their final projects.  The general overview and plan for the business was due Friday.  The students worked well and made tremendous progress on the project.  There were only a couple people that needed to finish it at home.

Buildings

The students finished gluing their PVC project and hydro-tested the projects.  Everyone's project passed the hydro-test although some were a bit sloppy with the glue.

Welding

The students worked on their welds and several are making good progress on the sequence there are a few who are behind but they are catching up.

Thursday

Animal Science

This lesson was on parasites, it was a pretty cool day the students were grossed out by the pictures and videos.  However, being such a sweet teacher I passed out gummy worms during the lesson.  I now have students who swear they will never eat another gummy worm!  This seemed to be a successful lesson because the students now understand how parasites effect animals.

Welding

Everything went smooth and the students were productive.

Friday- Spring Fever I hope

Animal Science

Fridays we always do a lab or activity.  Today's lab was a fecal egg count.  I personally thought this was rocking cool!  I was completely geeking out before class even started.  I borrowed microscopes, slides, test tubes, and test tube racks Thursday.  The students thought this was disgusting and pure torture.  I seriously do not understand why they had gloves and only had to pick up an acorn size piece of manure and put it in a test tube.  No big deal, at least that's what I thought!  Needless to say the students spent more time arguing about who had to touch the poop than anything.  I was frustrated by the lack of maturity. 

Welding

When I took this class over I gave the students computer drawings of what they were required to do.  Everyday I have them take them out and go over one of the welds to describe its purpose.  Additionally, I have told them everyday that somebody has to have their plans or they are not welding.  Well, today was the day no one had their plan and I was pushed into a corner...  Do I let them get away with it or what?  Well, I picked up a welding book and started flipping through it (trying to think).  We discussed the workplace and the importance of plans and the effects of not having them.  I said to the students, "how do you propose we handle this problem?"  One of my best students spoke up and said "how about we work together and "re-create" our plans.  I thought a second and said "ok"  the group worked together until they had the complete list.  I was impressed, thus I let them go work on their welds. 

State Legislative Leadership Conference

3 awesome days with 4 awesome students!!

This was my favorite conference as a student and there is no doubt that it still is my favorite.  I truly believe that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of our students!


 














Listening to the students discuss the heavy debate that occurred during the sessions was super cool.  They were really getting into these bills and had strong opinions about them.

Following the sessions the students went out into the community and did community service.  Our group went to the central food bank.  We packaged 600 senior food boxes and sorted several crates.  The food bank was blown away by our students motivation and accomplishments.  They did not have enough tasks prepared for the students to do.

Great time and sure hope I get to take students next year!

6 weeks in and Loving It!

This week was awesome top to bottom!

Animal Science
Monday I introduced students to the final project and went through the rubric item by item.  Students were overwhelmed by the rubric but after we discussed it in detail they realized that they could accomplish it.  We also discussed the showmanship clinic that is attached to my community based unit of instruction.  The day was good however I had planned to show the class an example PowerPoint presentation of the project.  But, I had to change rooms with the wood shop teacher and did not have a projector.  I think the presentation would have helped the students bring the project to life.

Tuesday we started into genetics we covered DNA, chromosomes, and punnet squares.  It was a pretty good day the students were engaged in discussion however in retrospect I wish I had more activities to get them up and moving.

Wednesday we finished the beef genetics information.  I brought in bingo chips which we used to do Punnet squares.  The awesome thing about the genetic information we covered is that I had several students who are lower level and taking remediation courses for the Keystone exams.  Those students came to life during this material because they were learning the exact same things in their Biology remediation class.  It was so cool to be able to align with the science department and help students see how this stuff applies to the real world.

Thursday was my day of almost panic.  I was planning to move into the record keeping portion of my large ruminant unit.  I was planning to teach this by navigating the AET record book system.  I checked the website before class and was even logged in when class started.  However, when the students tried to log on, the site was down and nobody could get in.  Immediately my mind started racing and I wanted to panic however, I took a deep breath and simply told the students that since the AET website was down that we would just move onto the next topic and come back to AET when the site was fixed. The transition was smooth as glass and the students never saw me panic!  Personally I think this was a great lesson for me, it reminded me how important it is to have stuff planned in advance. Since I had plans I was able to move on and keep being productive.

Friday was a half day and it was super cool!  I only saw the students for 30 minutes but during that time we did a lab.  I had the students do DNA extraction on strawberries.  My main goal for this lesson was to prove to the students that cells contain DNA.  It was great the students loved it and they learned alot!

 

 Building Construction

I started out doing just a soldering mini unit with the building construction class however, it grew!  It has now developed into a plumbing unit.  The students finished up their soldering projects on Wednesday.  Mr Wallace and I discussed it and decided that while they were on the topic they should get some experience used pvc pipe as well.  The students were divided into groups and were given a wooden drawer on Thursday.  Their instructions were to bring the pipe in one place use two elbows and go out elsewhere.  The students were given the day to draw it out and provide exact measurements.  I emphasized that they must plan properly because once they glue it they can't change it.  Friday they were given a demonstration and they were given their requested materials.  They had to measure twice cut once, drill holes in the drawers and dry fit all materials.

Advanced Single Cylinder

I took this class over on Monday.  Despite this being an engines class the students are welding.  There are only 9 students and three of them have decided to go to welding school.  Thus the decision was made to put them back on the welders and put them through a refresher course.  They are working their way through a series of 16 welds with E6011 rod and then will repeat the same series with E6013 rod.  The majority of the class is doing really well however I have one young lady in the class and she is very intimidated by the equipment.  I worked with her one on one this week however, there was a deadline of Friday set for them to be to a certain point in the series.  Everyone but her was there, she however was 10 welds behind the deadline.  Each weld is worth ten points putting her 100 points in the hole.  I discussed this with Mr. Wallace and Mr. Schirmer and they left it up to me to decide how I wanted to handle it.  I decided to first call home (which went well) and second offer her the option of taking a book home and doing chapters to bring her grade up.  I discussed everything with her and let her know I had talked to her mom, she was good with everything and I think she will do the book assignments to bring the grade up.  The phone call was interesting, she is to say the least a problem students who is constantly finding herself in trouble.  Knowing this, I started the call out by discussing how well she is doing in my animal science class, I then discussed her performance in the mechanics class and finished the call by discussing the passion and dedication towards the topic she picked for her final project.  Her mother was concerned by how she was behaving in my class and I explained that she and I got along great and that I never had behavior issues.

My first full week

Well its been an interesting week, my hard drive crashed last week so I have been without a computer all week.  Thankfully I had my Power points on Google drive and could share them from my phone.  Thus Mr Schirmer was able to project them from his computer.

Monday I introduced the students to judging Sheep and goats.  They were less than excited whole to have to learn about judging again.  However we worked through a packet and learned the 5 characteristics used to judge.  Lesson went well however when the day ended the kids still weren't excited.  I really wish I could have found a way to get them more engaged and excited!

Tuesday I decided to try to change the excitement level and it worked.  I had practice classes on paper and some videos.  We worked through them as a group and picked the photos apart. At the end of the class I announced we would have a judging contest on Wednesday. The kids were excited as the left room.  On Tuesday I also started working with the buildings class again.  We reviewed the material we had covered previously and I was able to get the students working on learning to solder.  Overall decent day!

Wednesday was the judging contest thus early in the morning I got a trailer load of sheep and goats loaded up.  Everything went pretty smooth other than while unloading the animals we had a sheep get loose.  However with a little help and quick feet she was caught and all was good.  Both the Principal and Vice Principal came to visit us to see the contest in action. 

The students were excited and did a great job judging too!  When I scored the placing cards everyone scored above 70%, which was my objective of the day.  Both administrators thought the students were engaged and that the animals were adding to their education.  The buildings class continued to make progress on their projects!  Overall great day however future I will add gates to the sides of the trailer so that their are no escapees. 

Thursday was a pretty awesome day in Animal Science!  The title of the lesson was "So you like winning?"  The interest approach was an interview with a 7 time lottery winner who claims he knows the secret to winning the lottery.  I had students who hardly ever speak a word engaging and excited.  Everybody wanted me to unveil the secret of winning.  After the video we had a lengthy discussion about lucky verse using methods and how we can relate that to the show ring and judging contests.  I had an eating contest activity to demonstrate the value of  "wet feeding"  the students were hooked!  The building class did a great job and a couple people completed their projects and tested them some passed most failed.  Those that failed started tearing them apart, cleaning and trying again!  I am also transitioning into taking over the advanced class.  They are working on welding and I have a group who are good and a group that need more time.  Still trying to decide how I want to deal with that.  However, it was a super awesome day!

Friday was the second day of showmanship training, which is my community based unit of instruction.  The students are excited about the clinic and Monday I am going to send a letter home to the parents with all the details.  Every student in all three classes handled the sheep and goat.  Some were more hesitant and resistant to it but in the end everyone tried and everyone succeeded.  I have many levels of knowledge within my classes and my biggest concern of the day was that because I had so many beginners that my students with knowledge wouldn't be learning anything.  However, after everyone finished with animals we sat down and discussed what we learned and I asked the advanced student what she learned and she had a list!   Thus, I felt it was a successful day and that I did teach to all levels!

Thoughts for the week I have been struggling with how to deal with students making up missed work.  Make-up work takes time out of class and learning.  When students are being pulled out of class to go retake and redo assignments they are missing what I am teaching.  Strategies how do you keep them from falling further behind?  It is a learning support student and they only seem concerned with what can he come up during class and redo to bring his grade up.  If he just came to class and participated and wasn't leaving class all the time he would be fine.

As of today I am still without a functioning computer.  I picked mine up Friday and paid dearly for my new hard drive... However, I now do not have Microsoft Office nor wireless networking!  I am no better off than I was without it.  Needless to say I have called and left several messages on the business' machine wish me luck and struggling without a computer!

Week 5- Mother Nature strikes Again

Thanks to in-service and a snow day I had a three day week.  Once again I found myself editing and shortening the materials I wanted to cover.  I have spent a ton of time sifting through my materials distinguishing between the nice to know and the need to know.

Wednesday & Thursday- I decided that reading bottle labels and determining dosage was need to know.  I put the students into groups and had them work as a team to read a label and answer several questions about the medication.  I had the students create a presentation of Google drive.  They shared their presentation with me,  they had 10 minutes to finish their presentations at the beginning of the day Thursday.  Once the groups had finished, I projected their presentation and had each group share their findings with the class.  I created this activity as an extended version of the "Little Professor E-Moment".  Overall I thought it went really well, however I wish I could have got the students more excited about the information and that they showed more enthusiasm.  However, with that said the students did an excellent job had several positive things to say about the experience.  Additionally, I was really excited to read their questions on the ticket out.  This type of assignment got them to think about things a differently and they had some really great questions.

Friday- I always like to do some kind of hands on activity on Fridays.  Thus, to complete our health and vaccine unit I did an injections lab.  I brought in chicken wings with the skin on.  I demonstrated safety and then did a demonstration on sub-q injections.  I had each student give the injections one at a time as I walked around the classroom.  Thus, the students received one on one instruction and safety was fully controlled.  The students loved this activity and they expressed how much they learned by actually doing it.  I showed a video at the beginning of the class but several students told me how the video really didn't ease their fear however my demonstration and individual step-by-step guidance made them feel confident.  The students expressed how at first they were scared and really didn't know if they wanted to try it, but since I had each student do it one at a time while I watched they felt safe and confident to attempt it.  After the class the students said that they felt that they could give a live animal a shot.  However, they also expressed that they would have been afraid give a live animal a shot before this lab.  Things I could potentially change is to bring in more help.  I could contact the school nurse and maybe a vet to come into class and help the students perform the activity.  I think I could also potentially find a way to keep the students more engaged while I am providing the one on one instruction.

The "twisty" road to Derry HS

After crossing every hill and mountain imaginable I made it to Derry HS just as Jessie was starting her first class.

Derry HS has absolutely amazing facilities!  I was in total envy of the shear amount of space they had let alone the amount of hands on lab areas!  Several things make this facility jump out,  first the fact that the Ag department has its own building and they pay 2 secretaries to assist Mr.Campbell.

I honestly do not know how I would manage that many facilities, teach and still find time for FFA and SAE visits.  I enjoyed getting to to see Jessie and to see where she is teaching.

I will say however, that despite the incredible opportunities that Derry has I know that I am much happier with my own placement.  I think its awesome how we can both be in western Pennsylvania and have completely different programs.

My major comment/ opinion Derry needs a second and probably a third teacher just to fully utilize their facilities!  The educational opportunities are incredible and the potential exponential! 

Week 4- "The Juggling Act"

Well this week was hectic to say the least!

My weekend was not a recuperation since we were at ACES, however it was fun.

On Monday my animal science II class was making feeds!  The students worked throughout last week developing rations and learning how the different feed-stuffs worked together.


This activity was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed it HOWEVER, it took a ton of time to plan and gather all the supplies.  Additionally, it wasn't cheap the up side to that is that I am going to be able to use the feeds and extra's at home.  I did learn that this is an activity that I would definitely do again, but I would put it into the budget!


Additionally from a teaching stand point, there were several things that the students took away from this activity that added to the learning.  My favorite part of this was however, that 100% of the students were actively participating and working independently!!

Tuesday brought an end to the nutrition part of the small ruminants unit.  I started this day with Dr. Foster's good and bad cookies.  The students had questioned the need to have exact measurements and know the feed components.  The cookies really drove home the idea that both things are important, however I don't think my students trust me as much now!  This day is probably one of my most frustrating.  I developed a quiz that I believe was extremely simple.  The students were told for at least a week that they would be required to identify the various feed-stuffs on the quiz and they were given time to study them.  Before the quiz I did an around the world review, I posted the quiz questions on paper and had them answer the questions with markers.  We went over the answers and then they took the quiz.  I was upset that the average was a 75% when I literally gave them the answers minutes before they took it.  Well that is my major vent for the week!

Wednesday we discussed sheep and goat management and production.  I brought in a large tote bag filled with supplies for lambing, breeding and management.  We did a few slides with some basics about sheep and then I pulled out my bag of goodies.  The students gathered around me and were really excited to see what I was going to pull out next.  I never thought a simple "bag of goodies" could get their attention so well.  Mr. Wallace is on vacation and I asked him if I could start a unit on soldering with his building construction classes.  Walking into that class without him being there was interesting.  The students were not anticipating me teaching them but were very receptive to me (it was me or worksheets...).  

Finally came Thursday, I have been dying to get to bring in animals.  I brought in 2 ewes and their lambs.  Wednesdays lesson included the topics of tagging, docking, castration, and vaccinations.  Thus, instead of just showing a video I decided to do demonstrations using "real" sheep.  The students loved it, I found it very interesting that the students were focused on what I was doing and not distracted by the fact there were animals in the ag shop.  The students loved it and I really feel that they learned a lot from it too.  The major thing I learned was that I need to talk less, because between talking over the sheep and ventilation system I lost my voice in the middle of the day.  This led me to alter the order of my lesson plan for the buildings class.  I was planning to do a demonstration at the beginning of the class.  Due to my voice I had them cut all their pipe first and then I did the demo.  This worked really well, what I learned was that I need to talk less and make students talk or work instead.

CPPD- Professional Development

Professional Development while at ACES!!

AET- Online Record Books



I really enjoyed the presentation on using AET, however thanks to AEE 311 I understand them pretty good.  I know that I understand them better now because during the presentation I was able to show Mr. Wallace the things he was talking about.  Mr. Wallace was at Penn State for the record book contest and is really excited about using the AET system and the possibilities it holds.

I was definitely resistant to learning how to use the new AET system since I feel comfortable with the Pa record books.  However, the AET system is much more user friendly and has so many advantages to the students.

ACES- Agricultural Communications Establishes Success

 


 Now, don't they look sharp!!

We started out our venture to ACES bright and early Saturday morning (6 am departure) on a school bus shared with Laural FFA.  It was a great trip and these kids are a great group. 

 

What did I learn....

* Students will be more awake than you early in the morning!

* Have some emergency funds of your own for trips!  We didn't have any issues but this came from conversation with Mr. Harold from Laurel.  They got stuck at Farm Show due to cold temperatures and since the school was closed he had to pay for the extra night and wait to be reimbursed.


* Know your kids, if you take students that you can trust everything runs smoothly.





* Always look at everything as a chance to teach.. The students were mesmerized by the vibrating water.
We discussed how this can be linked to science; what a cool interest approach!!
      


*It was a great trip, we ran into bad weather coming home but we made it everyone made it home safely.

Week 3

Well it was a finally ALMOST a full week.  Wednesday was a snow day.

So how did it go?  Monday went as planned, for once.  I had students complete their final lab and then work as a group to complete the lab packet..  This went pretty well, as was pleasantly surprised by how well they worked together on the packet and that by choosing partners outside their lab group they were not just copying.  I really liked the idea of having them work in one group to collect the do the experiments and collect their data.  Then switch to different partners from other groups to work through the calculations.  This way the students were forced to actually do the calculations.  Once the students were finished with the packets I collected them and proceeded to do a review.  I formatted the review around the questions the students asked on their ticket in/out.  I made sure to tell them this and I was really happy to see how surprised they were that I was answering their questions.

Tuesday we were back into the computer and I started working them through formulating rations.  This is definitely where I realized that things were not going to go as planned.  The students were very slow to pick up on the things I was showing them.  Thus, I realized I was going to have to stretch the lesson out to another day.  Well, then came Wednesdays snow day...  When school resumed on Thursday the students did not retain Tuesdays class.  Thus, it was back to the drawing board and we slowly worked our way back into the material and got over some new material.  The class was still not complete with the assignment they were given thus another extension into today was required.

However, on Thursday I had 3 students ask to come down to receive additional help on the material.  They were interested and wanted to get a better understanding.  I was happy to help them and they really seemed to enjoy it.  Although, the real reward didn't come until today.  Once I had class underway and assigned the students to complete the assignment I asked the girls to help their classmates since they finished.  They were happy to help and the other students really liked it too.

What went well?  The students were engaged and interested in the material.  Additionally I am building respect and relationships with my students.  I am starting to remember names.

What would I change?  I really need to have a better idea of where students are at prior to starting a lesson.  The students are not meeting my expectations and I am worried that I am not bringing it down to their level.  I do not want to talk over or under students rather challenge them, but make it achievable.  Finally, I need to find a way to get students to think harder and work independently.  I am finding that students hate having to think and that they just want spoon fed.

Another week in the books!

Week 2

 

This week brought with it a crazy wintery mix, I lost the first two days to cancellations.  We finally had school on Wednesday even though we had a delay.  Thanks to the delay, I only had thirty minute periods.  My plan for the day was therefore changed to accommodate it.  I ended up doing a super cool activity that the students really enjoyed.  It was called getting to know your teacher.  This is an activity that I would definitely do again.  Additionally it is an activity that I would be inclined to do with all of my first year classes.  I typed up 19 facts about "me", and made a PowerPoint presentation of pictures to go along with it.  The student took turns coming up and picking out one of the facts and then drawing it on a sheet of butcher paper.  During the activity I told the students that they may want to take notes because they will want to know these things... Needless to say no one choose to take notes and while being engaged they were not committing these things to knowledge.  The second half of this activity was a "pop" quiz the next day.  The students weren't super happy to find this out when they came into class on Thursday.  However, I told them that they could use their notes and the posters they created the day before.  I had several purposes to this activity and I really think it payed off!  After the students finished the quiz, I told them that the quiz would count and they sighed.  I then proceeded to tell them that 10 points would count and then other 10 were bonus points, they smiled.  I proceeded to then explain to them that everything counts and that if we are doing an activity that they need to be engaged like my expectations show.  I also told them that when I say they should "take notes" or that they "will want to know this" I do mean it and that taking notes may have advantages.  To finally get to my point the reason that I was the most pleased with this activity was its result.  After our "talk" I passed out a notes outlines for the lecture on ruminant digestion.  Every student took notes and was engaged in the lecture!

Friday however was the best!  It was lab time,  the students picked up packets as they entered the room.  They immediately engaged in the bell work, when the bell rang I started the video interest approach.  This worked really well, there was some chatter however when the video started it ended.  The answer to the bell work was in the video and at the conclusion we discussed it.  The cool thing was that I had several youtube videos that I wanted to show pieces and thanks to AEE413 I knew how to create one video!!  It worked great definitely a technique I plan to use in the future!  Following the video I had a series of questions that connected topics in the video to things from Thursdays class and to today's lab.  I then separated them into 3 groups and gave them instructions for completing the lab.  I designed the lab packets to reflect the problem solving approach, my focus was on critical thinking.  I noticed that the students were looking for easy answers and not digging into the material.  But that was not the case today!  My plan came together wonderfully, however if I get to teach it again I am going to set it up that I do an introductory lesson and give them all of the instructions and let them do one of the three stations on one day and then do the other two stations the next day.  This was something that I got a chance to discuss with my supervisor after the first two sections so when I taught the third section I only had the students work through two stations.  This gave me about 4-5 minutes at the end of class to bring them back to their seats and pull it all together before they left.  The three stations were determining energy content, determining dry matter and finally particle size.  This also happened to be my first observation visit and I could not have been happier with the results for it being my 4th day teaching!!

I am looking forward to next week and trying more new and interesting activities!

Week 1

This was a rather dry week overall, I observed for the first 4 days.  We had 2 delays due to weather,  one of them happened to be today..  Today was my first day to take on teaching and it was the first day of the semester.  The observations went well since it was the end of the semester students were simply finishing projects.  The classes were kind of all over the place on where they were at.  The main things I noticed is that neither Mr. Wallace or Mr. Schirmer utilize bellwork or post their objectives.  Mr. Wallace and I discussed this and he told me that due to switching and sharing rooms they tend to run out of time.  He also told me since I would be taking my classes from the beginning of the semester that I could start the students out the way I wanted. 

I did have the opportunity to work with one student independently with the AET record book system.  The student was having problems entering journal entries and Mr. Wallace said he really didn't know much about the system.  I volunteered to try to help since I received some training in AEE 311.  I was really happy to be able to help the student work through the problem.  He was happy and realized it was easier than he thought.  I also got to help some other students who were working on FFA stuff.  I really enjoyed getting to work with students individually.

Finally today was a 2 hour delay which shortened the periods to 28 minutes each.  This definitely throw a monkey wrench into my plans.  Mr. Schirmer started each of my 3 animal science classes off with paperwork, I had the last 15 minutes to introduce myself and go over my expectations, procedures and consequences.  I found myself in an interesting situation, I had planned to start into content however with the time constraints I couldn't.  Overall I was happy with the day and I am super excited to get into content on Monday!

2014 Pa State Farm Show

The State Farm Show is a family tradition that is still going strong after 98 years!  My trip to the farm show began early Monday morning when Mohawk and Wilmington loaded the coach bus amidst a wintery mess.  School was cancelled however, the FFA pushed forward for Harrisburg.  There were around 25 students from each school and like national FFA convention it was a blast! 

The kids were good,  the main thing I learned from this experience is to keep them busy!  Upon arrival we took the students to the hotel to change and then took them to the Mid-Winter Convention.  Mohawk did not have any degree or jacket recipients but Wilmington did.  Wilmington had degrees, awards, star candidates and jacket recipients.  Our first night there the kids had the square dance competition.  We had 2 teams one winning blue and the other red!  The kids did a great job and had put a lot of effort into preparing!



However, upon returning to the hotel after the competition the kids were still full of energy!  It was too late to take them anywhere else and we had to take them back to change.  The lesson here is to have busy days!  I believe that the best idea is to have them involved in as many activities as possible.  The students need to have a direction and purpose to each trip.  I think every student should be involved and have a worthy purpose for attending.

We did not have a demonstration team however Wilmington did and we watched that.  They did great and I had a chance to stay to watch Blackhawks demo team too.  I was very impressed with how well the students did with their demo's. 

Following the demo's we took the kids to Outback Toys and then to Shady Maple Smorgasbord and ended the night at Bass Pro Shop.  On Wednesday we took the students to Gettysburg,  it was an extremely interesting and educational visit.  The students seemed to both engage and enjoy the experience!

 

It was great to not only interact with the students but also with the parents who traveled to watch their kids compete.  The parent communication was extremely beneficial!  I was really happy to get to talk to the mother of one of my challenging boys.  She tagged along just to keep an eye on him and I am happy that I was able to open up that communication on a positive tone!!