Week 4: The Key to Success is...Confidence

If you knew me at the beginning of journey at Penn State one trait I never had was confidence. This was something that was apparent through high school, middle school and elementary school. Over the years I have struggled a ton with this characteristic until this week of student teaching.

What did I teach this week?

Introduction to Agricultural Science: This week I experimented with station rotations. I did one on FFA history/opportunities in the FFA and one on Pennsylvania agriculture. Overall the activities went well and I learned how to manage group work better. I took what I learned from the FFA activity and applied it to the Pennsylvania agriculture activity and it worked nicely.

New Horse in the barn:Maggie

Middle School Agriculture: 7th and 8th grade both were working on their final projects. I came up with a system to see how the groups were doing. This allowed me to conference with each group twice per class period. 8th grade finished early and now we are re-potting our plants. 7th grade finished up on the last day and got to share their presentations.

FFA Involvement: This week was Berks County Creed Speaking. I really enjoyed becoming familiar with how the different levels work in PA for FFA LDEs/CDEs work. Back home we have district and state. In Pennsylvania we have Chapter, County, Area, Regional and States for students to compete on. I also got to see Oley Valley's program. Mr.Serfass made sure I got to see how their program is set up and the differences between CW and Oley.

What did I learn this week?

Confidence: This week I really have noticed how my lectures have gotten better, my direction sets and responses to students has improved and this was because of confidence. I worked hard the past 3 weeks to try and know my students, establish a routine and because of that I gained their respect. With the students respecting me so well I was able to become more confident and comfortable in my classroom.

Timing is everything: My lessons have been right on time this week. I have 80 minute periods which is a long time. I have been adjusting my lessons as they go to adapt to the student needs, such as shortening or lengthening rotation times, as well as for the time of the lesson. For example, I thought I can teach resume and cover letters in 80 minutes. Turns out I couldn't so, I adjusted the time for the next days lesson to do cover letters and it worked out fine!

Goals

Regaining attention:  I struggle when all my students are talking in groups to pull them back in. This week I want to work on using the bell I have in my class as a signal to come back together.

Grouping: I want to be more intentional about how I group students.I am currently using a random grouping app but, there are several ways to group students. I just need to do it.

Questions

What system do you have to make sure daily chores for animals are completed?

How do you set up your CDE meetings? Do you do some practical and some textbook knowledge? Do you flip flop each practice? How do you hold students accountable to practice?

Week 3: All Shook Up

This week I conducted a lab with the 7th graders dealing with soil texture. We put soil samples in the jar, filled the jar with water and shook it up! This week I felt like the soil in the jar being shaken up!

Between a new semester starting, teaching at the Middle School and High School and having a FFA Creed Speaking contest after school I was all over the place just like the soil particles in the jar.

What Did I Teach?

7th Grade Soils Lab

This week I picked up 9th grade Introduction to Agricultural Science, 7th grade Agricultural Science and 8th grade Agricultural Science.

9th grade was a brand new class of students and the first day of the semester. We are starting with a professional skills unit. This past week we set up class expectations and procedures as well as started diving into what is agriculture and how can this connect to my life after class.

7th grade is doing a soil science unit. I had conducted a lab with the students on soil texture. I learned a lot about managing a class of 22 students while doing a lab.

8th grade is doing an animal science unit. We started talking about how we use animals in our lives. We talked about meat and animal skins/furs and milk coming from animals to help us in our lives.

How Can I Improve?

Clarity: When we think of effective teaching the acronym BECOV comes to mind. I am lacking in the clarity at times of what I am asking students to do. This is different for each grade level. At the middle school at time I explain things really detailed but, I do not show them where on the worksheet to fill out the information. This should be brought up on the board for them to easily grasp what I am saying. At the high school this looks different. This means making sure what I am saying matches the assignment on Schoology or that the questions I am asking make sense.

9th Grader's response to "what is agriculture?"

Wait Time: I need to be mindful of taking pauses. Pauses to allow student to pull up the schoology assignment to read along with me. Pauses to allow students to think before I call on someone. Pauses to allow students to digest information before I move on to the next slide for notes. These pauses are critical to the students education and as a teacher I need to be more mindful of when I pause.

Questions?

What is your method of taking attendance? I was very slow at this and it gave students time to be off task at the start of the class.

What is your method for cleaning up a lab? What do they do if they are finish cleaning early?

Half and Half: Working at the Middle School and High School

Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility was the key to surviving this week. This week started with me splitting days at the high school and middle school. I observed at the high school and started working with students at the middle school. The week ended with 2 half days for final exams and a teacher inservice day.

Middle School Assignment

Middle School

• Clarity: Keeping middle schoolers on task and engage can be a challenge at times.I learned that what can take me 5 minutes to do takes them the whole block. I worked a lot this week on how to keep assignments clear and assessable. I am excited to do a soils lab with them next week and see how running this lab on my own goes. 
• Creativity: The classwork given to the students was mainly inquiry based and the student got really into it. The 7th graders worked on a resume and cover letter. They had a basic rubric just laying out the parts of each but, the job applying to was all on them and the detail were all on them. Students got really into it and were also then learning about said careers at the same time. I was really impressed with their work and creativity in this class. 

High School students finishing their fermentation labs

High School

• Exploring: How do we encourage students to break out of their comfort zone and try new things? We let them explore and want to try new things. In Into to Ag this week I got to see students pushing out of their comfort zone with public speaking. Each day they tried a new technique and speak more of the FFA Creed. This was done by encouragement from the teacher. He created a safe space for them to explore in because they couldn't fail in that space.

Goals for next week

• Teaching: I pick up a 7th grade class, an 8th grade class and Into to Agriculture (9th grade) class. I want to focus on making sure I have organization of how I am handing out materials and collecting work- mainly becoming familiar with schoology. I also want to come up with basic class procedures and implement them. My into class is a brand new class coming in so establishing routines will be critical.
• Lab: I will be teaching a lab this week. I want to work on instructions while doing this lab and demonstration of steps for my students.I also want to learn more about equipment in the labs on site.

Questions

• How do you help new students coming into a program set up their SAE? Do you spend a class period on it using AET? This part will be graded so, how can I create the "felt need" besides the grade?
• Middle School Lab: How can I efficiently set up the lab to make it run "smoothly." Do you give them the whole procedure and let them work or a few steps at a time? What advice do you have for a first time teacher doing a lab in class?
   

Flashback to Middle School: Observing a Middle School Science Class

My favorite part of my middle school experience was my science class. Mr.Grant always made this fun by engaging us in content that was interesting to me. Out of all the content I remember from middle school or projects I did in middle school I mainly remember the ones from his class.

Today I had the opportunity to see a little inside Mr.Grant's life as a science teacher when I observed a science teacher at Conrad Weiser Area Middle School. Mr. Moraski teaches middle school science at the middle school and today I got an inside look at what his students are doing.

Students working in independent

The rotation system in his class:

• Direct: This station is when students sit with Mr. Moraski and get instruction on the material. Today he was reading about Mendel with his students. During this he projected his copy of the book on the board and had them read the text in their books. I really liked being able to see his notes and highlights in his book to see what was important. He also used this time to make sure each student knew the material and the delivery of instruction worked for that group (6-8 students).
• Independent: This was students independently watching videos that backed up the reading from direct. This allowed students time to think on their own and explore the material.
• Collaborative:This rotation was students working on an assignment related to the content being taught as a group. This allowed students to expand their thoughts around the topics.

Connection to the middle school agriculture department

Mr. Moraski Working with student in Direct

•  Content Connection: Currently in the middle school we are looking at careers in agriculture and many students picked plant science careers. Next week I am starting a soils unit with them. In their current science class they are learning about genetics and parts of the plant. They also have planted plants in their agriculture class and now understand some science behind the plants before they talk about the plants genetics in class.
• Teacher Network: Mr. Moraski is always over in the high school. He works with the agriculture department for research projects with his students. He has helped with the Science Research Institute as well which is paired with the agriculture department

Questions:

1.  How do you establish routines in your class? What are some tips for establishing a routine such as stations that might change/not be done daily?
2. When students are designing rotation group tasks, how do you reach every student in their zone of proximal development when they may not have reached the station to obtain the chunk of the information? Ex/ He some students to not reach direct until last but, they have 2 rotations before that where they are doing assignments.

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Week 1: Setting The Stage

Week 1 at Conrad Weiser has already come to an end. This week I was setting the stage for what the rest of my student teaching internship looked like. 

What did I learn this week? 

• Motivation: Students were working on public speaking in into to agriculture. Mr.Serfass kept telling them that he did not care how much they had memorized of the FFA creed or if it was perfect word for word. He only expected them to try their best and to practice public speaking skills such as their stance and voice.Keeping the expectations known on this assignment allowed more students to want to try it and each time they tried we saw them get better.
• Let students take the reins: I am working on planning FFA week with the officer team.To do this I had to let them decide what they wanted to do. I gave them some ideas of what I have seen done and a website to look at ideas but, it is their decision and their planning. This is important to realize early because FFA is student run. SAE is student decided.Allowing them to make decisions on their organization and education is critical for my program but, hard to do.



8th graders at the Butter Sculpture at Farm Show

• I love middle school:  I started half days at the middle school with 7th and 8th grade.Coming in randomly to their class versus the high school I noticed it was easier to connect with them and they were more willing to talk to me about their projects than the high schoolers. I liked the atmosphere of the middle school classes as well.This week I solidified that I want to teach middle school.

Questions:

• How do you make annual field trips different for those who go multiple years or to change it up for you?
• I am starting to plan FFA week. What are some annual activities your chapter does for FFA week? 
• How do you pick chaperons for a field trip?

  

  8th graders at the Farm Show

On My International Harvester: Mid-Winter FFA Convention

As a FFA member whenever the song "International Harvester" by Craig Morgan came on I would love screaming the line "I'm a lifetime member of the FFA" and remember the joy I had in those moments at different events on the local,state and national level.On Monday I started that tractor on a new journey to get me to where I want to be: an agriculture teacher.

Overview of Mid-Winter Convention

To start my student teaching experience off I got to attend the Pennsylvania Farm Show and attend

their state FFA Mid-winter convention. This experience was my transition completely from FFA member to FFA adviser. Conrad Weiser brought 30 students and they were able to walk around and see several exhibits before Mid-winter started. At Mid-winter I got to see 3 of my students zip up their FFA jackets for the first time and watch 3 get their Keystone Degrees.

Starting It Off

This experience at Mid-Winter was a perfect way to start my week as a student teacher. I got to connect with several students as we tour the complex. I got to know their passions and what they want to do and was able to find connections between my internship and their goals. A highlight part of one of the conversations was discussing CDEs. Talking to students about what CDEs they want to do and seeing how I can play an impact in that was a huge excitement on the students end and my end.

Taking students on these trips helps impact them. It shows them ideas they did not know before such as tractor restoration for my students. Watching them get excited over new ideas makes me as an educator want to help bring that idea back to my program.

Questions

 1. How do you change a consent field trip such as a fair each year to engage students coming a second time or for you who has gone several times?