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!