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.