Week 13: The Main Entree

Cooking is not one of my strong suites. I have been known to successfully burn a grilled cheese every time I cook them but, since the quarantine I have been cooking my family dinner every night.

My sister Christina and I

My sister is definitely more "kitchen oriented" than me. She thinks of everything from each ingredient measured perfectly, what ingredients we need from the store and more importantly the meal itself. Over the past 3 weeks she has taught me a ton about preparing the main meal plus the sides. 

 My sister focuses on the the main course with appetizers (usually a cheese platter), the sides and dessert. I mainly focus on that main meal. I want the chicken parmesan to be perfect and everything else will fall into place. 

Now how does cooking connect to lessons is a valid question you may be asking at this point. When I had 80 minutes with my students everyday I was focused on different activities that all added up to make the students have several take aways from the lesson. Now I am focused on the main parts of the content.

What did I teach?

This week I continued entomology with the Introduction to Agriculture classes by having them watch an insect pinning demonstration by Mr.Serfass, having them investigate insect body parts and common pests.

What did I learn?

With everything being taught online I need to make sure more than ever that my students are getting the big picture. If they are not getting the big picture then I cannot expect them to learn or retain other parts of the content.

What do I mean by this? I cannot expect them to memorize methods of pest control and have them care about pest management if we do not look at the impact it has to an industry that they care about.

This is something that I never thought of till now or at least consciously thought of. Since switching to online I have had to pull the main ideas out of the units and teach that instead of everything I had wanted to do in a unit. I had to be flexible with what was being handed in and as long as the big picture of an assignment was taken away by the student that was a win.

Goals for next week?

Next week we have 2 days of teaching and then spring break. I want to take the days I have for spring break and obtain a Penn State Extension Certification in an area of agriculture that I am not as familiar with to help me grow as a professional.