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.