Effective Questioning: AEE 412 Weekly Writing #5

How many questions should I ask? How long should I wait for an answer? Are my questions too low-level for my students? Are they going over their head? Am I really asking them what I want to know about?

These are just some of the many questions I've heard my cohort and myself talk about these past few weeks as we get into the swing of lesson planning, unit planning and writing objectives. Our readings this week focused on effective questioning and individual coaching as teaching techniques, and has continued our previous classes on objectives and incorporating various cognitive levels into our teaching. It's hard to know how to answer those questions, though we are slowly getting better at it through writing objectives and teaching in our labs.

According to research, the average teacher asks between 300-400 questions a day. 300-400 A Day! Even with eight classes a day, I'm not sure how I could think of 300 questions a day, let alone ask them all. But I have learned that there are various ways to ask questions - some come in the form of objectives, some ask students to connect previous knowledge or experience to the classroom, others gauge how much students are understanding the material. No matter what the questions are, wording is very important as it affects the clarity of the question and whether it is a higher or lower level of cognition.

Questions can be at either level of cognition, as long as the questions are appropriate for the level of learning we want our students to achieve. Do we want our students to just name the four compartments of the ruminant stomach? Or do we want them to also be able to explain how the four compartments work together as part of the ruminant digestive system?

When asking questions in the classroom we have to also remember that it's important not only how we ask the question, but also how we react to students when they are answering them. We have to wait long enough after asking questions to allow students time to process what we are asking, but short enough so that we do not lose their focus. We also have to remember to genuinely reinforce and encourage students for answering questions and participating in class, while providing equal opportunities for all learners.

Learning how to properly write objectives and use questioning in the classroom will take time, but with practice we can all get better at it, and soon we'll be able to form questions at all levels of cognition. To help with this, I found a link with charts that provide examples of keywords, example objectives, activities, and assessments at each level of Bloom's Taxonomy (showing just how important Bloom is).
                                                                                                                                                                    With time, questioning will become a natural part of our teaching toolboxes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Interest Approaches: AEE 412 Lab #3

Enthusiasm. Engagement. Motivation. Interest.

These are all necessary ingredients in a successful classroom. There are other important ingredients - technical content, appropriate standards, organization and structure, practical assessments - there are many ingredients to a successful learning environment, but if there is a lack of enthusiasm and engagement no learning will occur.

This week our teaching labs focused on interest approaches and I don't think I've ever walked into an assignment feeling so prepared to then walk out/watch my video and feel so down. I felt really prepared before class - I was happy with my lesson plan for the start of my 8th grade introduction to agricultural careers class, it wasn't perfect but it was good for one of my first real lesson plans. Since I had written my unit plan for the class already I knew where I wanted the unit to go and how I wanted this lesson to start things off, I was going to utilize think-pair-share, having my students individually draw what they thought a person who has an agricultural career looks like, then pair up and discuss their drawings, creating a new combined drawing, which the students would then share out and we would have a class discussion on what is and is not an agricultural career. 

The right career can lead to being OUTRAGEOUSLY HAPPY!

In my head this all worked out great, the students had lots of ideas of careers, lots of questions, and were engaged in conversation, clearly interested in agricultural careers. Teaching about agricultural careers is important - we want students to pursue futures in agriculture, and for some students they may never really think about what they want to do "when they grow up" until they're getting ready to graduate high school, which for some can be too late. If we're lucky they have some idea, but it's never too early to start planting the seed in their minds of pursuing a career in agriculture. 

In reality things did not go as well. My written lesson plan was good, needed some improvements but I knew that. I did a better job of clearly providing my directions, both verbally and visually written on the board (which is surprising because I do not have good "whiteboard writing"). My timing felt good and I could see where my activity was going to lead into the rest of my lesson as I was leading it. And then it happened. I realized that when I split my students into groups I unintentionally created two very opposite groups, a group of the three "good" students and the group of three "problem" students (based on the roles we were each assigned to play). So my group of "good" students worked well together and came up with two different careers; my "problem" students completed the task but were slightly off track so they only came up with one real career. This led into our discussion but with fewer ideas to build from than planned and a student group lacking in energy, I could quickly feel myself becoming flustered - problem #1: lack of high energy activity =/= (doesn't equal) energized students.

And this leads us to problem #2: flustered teacher leads to nervousness which leads to decrease in already lacking enthusiasm. I am not a naturally enthusiastic person - I already know this. There are very few situations where I visibly show natural enthusiasm (and the percentage of those situations happening without an animal around is extremely low). However, this lack of natural enthusiasm does not work well in a classroom. Now don't mistake my lack of visible enthusiasm for lack of enjoyment - I really do love agricultural education and it's definitely a career for me and not a job (or really a lifestyle not a career). 

For a successful transfer of learning, students must be engaged in the learning process, they must be motivated to learn, they must be interested in what is occurring in the classroom - hence why we use interest approaches to engage students into what they are learning that day. However, a key part of an interest approach is the enthusiasm of the teacher, you cannot assume that students will be enthusiastic about something unless you (the teacher) are also genuinely enthusiastic about what you are teaching. You have to "hook" students into caring about what they are learning that day, they don't do it themselves.

If only it was that easy....

So after rambling about all of this, watching my video and listening to some of my peer feedback I think there are three main things I really need to focus on improving: 

#1 - Have a plan B: if your activity is not going as planned have a way you can spin it back on track (planning for both our classroom experiences and lab experiences, they might be different)

#2 - Don't let the nervousness/fluster take over: not sure how to help this other than lots of practice because like I've said before, I'm naturally terrified of being in front of people (again I know, does not make sense for this career)

#3 - The really IMPORTANT one -> Be More ENTHUSIASTIC: again I don't know how to do that without coming across as not genuine so anyone with advice please throw some my way, but I know it is a necessarily improvement

So that's it. Another week down. Ten (approximately) more to go.

May the odds be ever in our favor #PSUAgEd15

The First Day of School: AEE 412 Lab #2

The First Day of School... never thought I could be more terrified to stand in front of my peers/students than during our second lab where we would be role-playing the first day of school. Not entirely sure why that lab felt so intimidating... I felt after reviewing last week's video recording that I was getting better at controlling my nerves while in front of the group and I felt fairly good about my lesson.

During this second lab we had to act out our "first day of school," covering our classroom expectations, procedures, and consequences along with presenting a welcome activity and our objectives for the day. This lab was also where we learned that for all of our labs starting that day on we would be playing specific student roles as our peers were teaching, to practice our classroom management skills. The roles included the over-sharing student, the teacher's pet, the chatty Cathy, the whiny/complaining student, the "techie," and the "know-it-all."

Unfortunately no matter how good I feel before I take over, as soon as I reach that "teacher" role the nerves come back, something I'm still struggling to overcome... The nerves, and what they cause are what I am dreading the most about beginning student teaching.

For my class, my scenario was that this was the first day of my upperclass Veterinary Science course, where I would be starting with my introduction to veterinary science sanitation and safety unit. I felt pretty good as I greeted my students at the door, cheerily welcoming all of them to class and directing them to the bell-work directions which were written on the board, directing the students to pick a numbered piece of paper from the front table, finding their partner with the same number and then sitting together. Once all my students were in the class I repeated the bell-work directions and transitioned into my welcome activity and interest approach for the day's lesson: the numbered pieces of paper the students had chosen were scenarios related to safety in veterinary-related situations. In their groups the students talked through their scenarios, discussing why and/or how safety was a concern in the scenarios and what could be done immediately to address the safety concerns. The students then presented their decisions to the class while also introducing themselves and why they were enrolled in the class (it's an elective).

I felt pretty good about the scenario activity, all the students understood that the common theme amongst the scenarios was safety, though with only two scenarios I don't think it was too hard to pick up so I know that I will have to be careful to ramp up the creativity when I have to write enough scenarios for a full class while also being careful to not create scenarios that are too obscure.

While I felt good about the activity while it was happening I realized a few things that needed to change: 1) I do not have neat board writing so I will have to either have my directions and objectives presented on a powerpoint or I will have to give myself extra time to write on the board, and 2) unfortunately, I could also start to feel my nerves bubble up again as I was teaching and when my nerves take over I tend to talk fast and my instructions lose their clarity.

Transitioning from the interest activity, I moved into my first objective of covering what the students needed to know to be safe in my classroom before we could learn about veterinary safety - my classroom expectations, procedures, and consequences. Going over these classroom protocols was pretty straightforward but after watching some of my peers teach I think I should have had my students engage more in this process by asking them to give their thoughts/examples for my expectations instead of just telling my students what they were and then asking if they had questions. Some of my peers also had the idea of passing out contracts with these protocols that the students and their parents would have to sign, and while I do like that idea I'm not sure that I would always want to use that but if I use it for one course/grade I need to use it for all of them.

Keep Calm & Pretend It's On The Lesson Plan

Finally, after reviewing my video recording and my peers' feedback the one constant critique I need to work on is my confidence in the classroom. Like I noticed earlier in the class my nerves can quickly get the best of me, and unfortunately the part of my lesson where my confidence visibly dipped the most was when I was reviewing my consequences with my students, which is when I should be the most in control of my classroom if I don't want my students to run right over me.

Overall, I think the lesson went well but can always be improved and I think my main take-away from these teaching labs is to use them as confidence builders so that when I am in my classroom I feel confident and can take charge of my classroom. Until then I run the risk of being the teacher who is "nice" but has no "oomph" or excitement to her, when I need to be the teacher who's classroom the students can't wait to arrive to and drag their way out.




Here's to the next lab and more confidence!

Good advice for anyone. Would like to hang in classroom

Who is Amanda Leigh Forstater? Brown Bag Edition

In class this past week we started a series of activities called Multicultural Moments, various activities to help us understand how and why all kinds of diversity are important in our classrooms (and our lives), and to begin we had to pick words and/or phrases which describe ourselves and then talk with one another to learn about each other.

Now to take it one step further, our cohort is completing this Brown Bag scenario, where we can only choose three things to put into a (virtual) brown bag to give to someone else to explain who we are and so we are posting pictures of those things and an explanation of why we chose them and then writing about why it's important to do this activity to get to know our cohort. Hope you enjoy my answers, I'm enjoying reading my cohort's. Hopefully they post theirs on their blogs as well.

#MulticulturalMoment Brown Bag Edition:

Who is Amanda Leigh Forstater?

If I could only put three things into a bag to give to someone else to explain who I am this is what I would choose:

Showing my first market animal in my first FFA jacket

1. My FFA Jacket

My FFA Jacket is one of my most prized possessions and for me it symbolizes my roots in agriculture and where I come from. One of the traits that most people say I most have is loyalty and that jacket symbolizes where a lot of my loyalty lies - with the Philadelphia FFA Chapter and all the people who have influenced me and my family through that organization. For me that jacket symbolizes my connection to Saul, and my connection to agriculture, and knowing that I can help put similar jackets on future students keeps me motivated to keep on keepin' on.

Teddy, my old friend who took me to prom

2. A picture of my (sort of) horses

While my FFA jacket symbolizes my roots in agriculture, horses were my first passion and what really set me on my path into agriculture. I've loved horses for as long as I can remember and have the elementary school stories, poems, and drawings to prove it. While I have never actually owned my own horse (yet!), I have been fortunate enough in having access to several great ones, first through Saul's herd and then more personally with the lovely drafts giving tours in Historic Philadelphia. I've been lucky enough to be able to call over 30 different horses my dear friends over the past almost ten years and they've opened me up to a wonderful part of my city I had almost forgotten. I can't wait to one day own my own horses but these carriage horses will always hold a special place in my heart.









3. A picture of my family (extended version)

Just some of my extended family

I have a different definition of family than some people. Most people define family by blood or marriage but I define family as the people (and animals) who love and care about you and those who you also love and care about. I've been lucky to have a lot of people I consider part of my extended family, but it starts with my parents, my sisters, and my Mom-mom and Pop-pop. These are the people who have raised me (or been raised with me) and I know that while we fight we love each other. I also include my four-legged family members because I've been lucky to have many animals play a part in my life and especially the five wonderful dogs I was lucky enough to grow up with. And finally I have had lots of friends and mentors I've considered family members and the bulk of them have come from Saul and my fraternal family, Alpha Zeta.






So that is what I would put in a brown bag to describe myself, though I know that if I could choose more than three items there would be plenty more ways I could explain.

Why is it important to share these "Brown Bags" with each other?

Because we need to know each other. Some of us know each other better than others, some of us have known each since high school (or earlier), but no matter how well we already knew each other, we need to get to know all of us on a deeper level if we're going to get through this year (and beyond) together. A flock is not just a group of random geese flying all together at once - a flock is a group of tight-knit geese who are there for one another in times of need, and who keep in flight with one another and they can only do that because they all know how each other fly and how they fall, what will motivate each other, and what will take the wind right out of their feathers.

Yes, a flock works together towards a common goal just like our cohort is working towards surviving this next year. But a flock is also working together to keep the flight moving forward, both on this season's journey and next season's, and I think that's how a cohort works together - we work together to get through this year and to transition into the PA Ag Ed family and the National Ag Ed family, keeping each other flying forward towards our goals beyond May.

That's why I think it's important to really get to know each other, because our influence on each other will go beyond May, even if we join other flocks.

Cooperative Learning & Field Trips: AEE 412 Weekly Writing #4

So this past week has been crazy, we turned in our first lesson plan, our first unit plan, and our teaching lab was "our first day of school," and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thinking that there is going to need to be a steep learning curve between now and January. We're all fully experiencing the "Doing to Learn" aspect of agricultural education as we attempt to learn how to prepare lesson plans, unit plans, and objectives (oh my!) by writing our first drafts, a lot of us have agreed this fall is essentially trial by fire. I think one of the things that worries us the most is we know what we want our final products to look like - we know what the ideal classroom will look like and how it will run and we know that we want our students to always be learning and engaged; we want to use multiple modalities to reach the multiple intelligences of our students and challenge them to higher orders of thinking - but how do we do that all the time while increasing the variability in both our content and teaching methods?

Two of the ways we can do this, and two of the ways I'm now thinking are the hardest for teachers to implement is cooperative (group) learning and field trips. Based on our readings and past experiences in classes, I think we all know how field trips and group learning can go either really great or really bad - as a young student I loved trips to the Academy of Natural Sciences to learn more about biology and evolution (what kid doesn't love dinosaurs?) and I love working in groups where you can build off of each other's strengths. But I also know how annoying it can be as a student when everyone in the group does not pull their weight or when you go on a field trip and the guide's tour is putting you to sleep and you have no reason to stay engaged (no activity to complete, no quiz, etc.) What I am starting to learn is that the reason these strategies are used effectively in a classroom far and few between is because of the logistical nightmare these can become.

How do you decide which students to pair together? Do you assign roles or have the students choose? How big of a group is too big? (Readings suggest 2 or 4 students, allows for pairs) How do you keep students engaged during field trips? Do you have well planned activities/assignments pre-trip, during trip, and post-trip? Have you figured out all the logistics for planning a field trip? (Administration approval?)

These are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to what a teacher has to worry about when utilizing either of these two teaching techniques, but when used effectively they create great learning opportunities that fit well into the full three-circle model of agricultural education. For example, you are teaching a small gas engines course. In groups of four, you have students work through the processes of identifying the parts on a engine, disassembling and then reassembling the engine, and finally trouble-shooting the engine as a final assessment. Not only have your students worked well together because they were fully engaged in the project, you taught your students how to work together, how to solve a problem using critical thinking, and provide them with real world applications because if they were working in a mechanics shop they would probably not be working solo on a project (you may have also set yourself up with a great Small Engines CDE team for that extra outside the classroom enhancement).

Just make sure your classroom doesn't end up like this

That is just one great example of how cooperative learning can be used in an agriculture classroom and when used effectively it enhances your curriculum, not only teaching your content but enhancing the real world applications of your content and providing your students with opportunities to gain the interpersonal skills they need in their future careers.


Next example, you are teaching an environmental science course and are teaching about forestry and wildlife. You can only teach your students about the different kinds of plants or wildlife for so long through powerpoint lectures. A great field trip would be taking your students to the local environmental/nature center, town park, or even a well-kept section of woods (this may even be on school property). This could be a great field trip but if it just becomes a hike in the woods it will only be great for some students and may not result in the learning opportunities you want. But if you present students with the identification and basic information before the trip, provide them with detailed pictures of the location (maybe a virtual tour if possible), engage with a local wildlife agent/expert who can lead a tour of the area and present the desired engaging content, and then culminate the experience with a project the students present upon returning, engaging in reflection on the trip and presenting knowledge gained, you can create an amazing field trip experience.

Too often I think that teachers (all teachers, not necessary ag. teachers) forget that a field trip does not have to be a huge trip that requires buses to a big museum, it can be a hike to the pond behind the school or to the veterinary clinic in town, as long as the students are engaged and that there is connections between content and the experience before, during, and after the trip.

Field trips and cooperative learning can be great education additions to the classroom and I can't wait to experience my first trip with my Tri Valley students next month to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, and hopefully to some different ones this upcoming spring. My upperclassmen will be going on a few short field trips to the forest land on the school property to learn about proper forest stewardship, incorporating service learning and some wildlife habitat construction and I can't wait to see how that turns out (successful hopefully).

To get the ball rolling on some ideas for field trips in your classroom, or if you're location bound and need to bring a field trip to you, I found a great link with resources for various virtual field trips for teachers: http://www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html

Get your kids in groups and start planning some happy, engaging field trips!

Reflective Teaching Lesson: AEE 412 Lab #1

For our first teaching lab this semester we had to conduct a Reflective Teaching Lesson, or RTL, with our students (our peers) on a random topics. These topics ranged from being skill specific to being abstract concepts, and my lesson topic was the Bowline Knot. I had to teach my students (my peers) how to tie the Bowline knot and their end of class assessment was to tie the knot and I would inspect their knot to see if they had done it correctly. I had never used this knot before preparing for this class so I had to learn how to tie it before I could teach them, and also find an interesting way to teach them since it is a fairly straightforward task to complete.

I started my lesson off by using Lassie as an interest approach, telling my students that when they entered the classroom they had fallen into a well and had called Lassie to bring help. I was their help and had brought rope to pull them out, but that they needed to tie the Bowline knot into their rope  in order to make it safe to pull them out. I showed the students a picture of the knot and its steps on a powerpoint at the front of the class and tied the know with them at the front of the class. I followed up by showing a video of tieing the knots, which I narrated because we did not have audio in our classroom, and then taught my students a story about a rabbit which described how to tie the knot step-by-step. After working with the students to tie the knot several times I told them to tie it one more time without my help, and once they felt ready I would assess their knots and determine if I could pull them out of the well; and everyone passed the test.

Overall, I think the lesson went well even though I had just learned the knot and was nervous, but I don't believe I appeared nervous according to the video recording (which makes me more relaxed for the future, especially since I am teaching several courses that I have very little background and/or experience in). Even though the lesson did go well I can always improve any lesson so below are the many positives and negatives I have about my Reflective Teaching Lesson:

Positives:

• Used the story about Lassie and the well for my interest approach
• Students seemed to enjoy it and find it realistic
• Students felt it was very clear that the goal was to tie a knot
• Students liked that multiple teaching techniques were utilized
• Picture diagrams, video tutorial, hands-on demonstration, and a story 
• Students appreciated the patience and individual attention
• Students appreciated the enthusiasm and positivity
• Students appreciated the hands-on topic and approach

Negatives:

• I did not account for technology difficulties
• No audio (though I was able to narrate video)
• What if the video/internet had not worked?
• I need to be clearer with direction, talk louder and clearer
• When watching the video playback I felt that I needed to talk clearer, have all my words/sentences thought out before I spoke (nerves get to me quickly)
• To avoid this, maybe script out the lesson to counteract nerves?
• Have extra string in case of knots
• Had some extra string but if every student had needed more I would not have had enough
• Have plan for if students get the concept faster 
• Need a challenge step so the lesson doesn't go stale
• But requires me to learn more challenging knots (material)
• Account for student placement in class and ability to see teacher
• Hard for Deanna to follow along at times since she was in back of room
• Try using a larger rope that is easier for students to see
• Maybe demonstrate in a better location in classroom, maybe to side of students

Student Engagement: 412 Weekly Writing #3

Professor: "What do we (agricultural educators) teach?" 
Pre-service Ag. Teachers: "Animal science, mechanics, plant science, food science, environmental science, leadership skills, communication skills, agribusiness, marketing, record-keeping, natural resources, agriscience, applied STEM, technical knowledge and skills...."
Professor: "Yes..but no that's wrong."
Pre-service Ag. Teachers: "......huh?......."
Professor: "All of the above is our content. But we teach Students..."

The above conversation is a paraphrase of how my cohort started one of our pre-service teaching classes this past week. The question was set-up to be a trick, and once we were told the correct answer we all realized where the focus of classes this week was moving towards. We all know that our main purpose is to educate students and make an impact on them, but sometimes now when we're bustling about trying to make sure we are ready for this next year, we run the risk of getting bogged down worrying about the content that we are teaching instead of who we are teaching.

Student engagement and motivation are key topics in the classroom. We could walk into our classrooms this spring with the best written lesson plans around, but if we don't engage our students, and we can hear crickets chirping in the background, we are going to have a problem (unless of course you have reptiles in your classroom who you are feeding crickets to, in which case in might be normal to hear crickets chirping). But the point is - if your students are not motivated to be in your classroom, and don't feel engaged, then they are not going to be engaged in your agricultural program, and there is no program without students. We (teachers) cannot make an impact on the future if our present students don't want to engage with us.


There are many ways to keep your students engaged and motivated in your classroom. Rewards systems, music, games, physical movement - these are all good ways that we can keep our students engaged and motivated, but a great quote I found explains it perfectly - "not every student learns the same way, the same day" (thanks Google!), and this is true! There are so many different types of learners and so many different types of learning - but no matter what way you learn, in order to reach all your learners you have to mix it up and add a little Variability every lesson to effectively teach. Worksheets and powerpoint lectures may be a great way to deliver content, but they are never the only way and they should always be used with another more engaging activity to complement it.

Interest approaches are the main way we gain and measure student engagement. These are activities, at the beginning of a class/lesson, which tie in a student's interest with the topic/content to be learned that day. For example, when teaching an environmental science class you may take your students on a short nature walk, in a food science class you may bring in a food for the students to eat. For me, horse references always pique my interest. In order to best find an interest approach that will engage your students you have to know two things: 1) what kind of learners are they, and 2) what are they interested in. The second point is probably the easiest one to find out - you have to care about your students and get to know them as people. It doesn't have to involve checking out their after school activities or attending their sports events (though it can, and a lot of ag. teachers are very involved in their students' lives), it can be as simple as listening to student conversations during breaks, or better yet, assign an open-ended assignment where students can write an essay or complete a project on a topic of their choosing and see what they interested in.

Students are always trying to tell their story, you just have to know when and how to listen...

My Multiple Intelligences Results

The first part is a little harder, learning what kind of learners your students are. With three modalities of learning (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic), three domains of learning (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective), and multiple intelligences, it's hard to figure out especially since some learners may not even know how they learn best. To help figure this out there are many different online tests you and/or your students can take to determine your individual learning styles. A test my cohort and I took this past week determined our Multiples Intelligences, using the following link: www.bgfl.org/

Once you know what your students are interested in, and how they best learn, then you can plan the appropriate interest approaches and other activities to ensure that your classroom is filled with engaged and motivated students. There are many ways to do this and some ways include utilizing movement, summarizing strategies, cooperative learning techniques, and more. This link, and the picture to the right, show seven ways that have been found to increase student engagement in classrooms: www.readinghorizons.com/blog/seven-ways-to-increase-student-engagement-in-the-classroom


At the end of the day you have to remember that not only do your students have to be engaged and motivated in your classroom in order to learn, but you have to also remain and engaged and motivated to show up and give your best everyday, because you never know when might be the day that your students are going to get it. So always remember that no one is ever motivated to go into a classroom where they are bored, or where their teacher is bored, but if you stay engaged in your students' learning and in them, then they will stay engaged in your teaching and you.

Curriculum Planning & Design: AEE 412 Weekly Writing #2

This week starts the stressful topic of the semester....curriculum planning and design. All of us have a variety of teaching experiences - workshops, camps, programs, presentations, we all have some experience getting in front of people and delivering content. But probably the topic we've had the least experience with is actually creating and designing our own curriculum, whether it's lesson plans, unit plans or full courses of study. For me, the biggest stresser is how do I create unit and lesson plans that not only provide clear instruction and coverage of material, but that are also easily taught from and that have clear objectives without becoming just a list of activities.

The readings this week covered curriculum planning and design, from planning lesson and unit plans all the way up to planning an entire course of study for an agricultural education program. A technique discussed in the readings is "Backwards Design," something I have heard discussed in many of my education courses. Backwards Design focuses on starting with the end in mind - what do you want your students to gain from your courses, units, lessons, etc. and designing lessons and activities that progress students towards your learning objectives with clear assessments along the way. This seems pretty clear, I wouldn't just start telling a student how to do something without knowing what it is I want them to gain out of it at the end.

This is a concept that I think applies in any learning experience, not just in the formal classroom. As an example, when I'm working at my stable and teaching a new employee how to groom and harness a horse, I don't just start doing it and have them copy me. I explain to them at the beginning why each part is important - it's proper grooming and harnessing for the horse's health and safety, but also to improve business as a "spiffy" looking horse with shiny, clean harness will garner more business than a dirty horse. If I were to just tell the employee to groom and harness the horse without showing them how and without explaining the why, it's more likely that the job will not get done satisfactorily.

Backwards Design, I think is a fairly self-explanatory technique, but within all of our readings, sometimes it can get jumbled into the jargon of the various educational theories. One way I have found to better understand it is through charts and other graphical representations. In this document published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, they work through several templates for a specific social studies unit plan, showing how a unit plan would be developed with and without backwards design. Check out the document here: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/books/mctighe2004_intro.pdf

In this age of continuing technology use in the classroom, I also looked up various curriculum design templates online. One website I found with several potentially useful apps is http://www.chalk.com/suite. This website has apps for lesson planning, attendance, and assessments. I also found this scholastic link http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/8-apps-lesson-planning-and-classroom-management which has a list of several apps useful for teachers. Maybe we'll find at least one useful app out of these links.

Happy curriculum designing!

Supervised Agricultural Experiences: Schuykill County Fair

Thursday, July 31st, 2014: The day started out a little stressful - after sending the Gov. School scholars off to their class I headed to get my first car rental and start my solo road-trip down to the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds. After a relaxing (eventually) three hour car ride, I arrived at one of my first Pennsylvania county fairs. The familiar smell of fair food and livestock automatically confirmed that this was going to be a great day.

Display for the Tri Valley FFA Chapter in the family tent

I found Mrs. D (Mrs. Dingman but all her students affectionately call her Mrs. D) in the livestock barns right where I knew she'd be. Today was my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) visit and it was also the Fair's sale day, so it was a big day for many of the FFA members busily milling about the barn. Mrs. D explained to me that a majority of her students have SAE projects, most of which are livestock which the students then show and sell at the fair. The first hour or so I was there, Mrs. D had logistics she had to handle as she is on the County Fair board, so she introduced me to several of her students and left me with them to show me around.

The livestock barns were filled with families - almost every student I talked to had several relatives also showing against them, either through the FFA or the local 4H club, which also meant I am going to have several sets of siblings and cousins in my classrooms. The students were represented in every species at the fair - rabbits, goats, sheep, beef and dairy-beef cattle, and hogs. After talking to the students for awhile I started talking to several of the parents and other family members that were in the barn, letting the students get back to preparing for the sale that evening. All the parents welcomed me into their school, and raved about Mrs. D's dedication to the FFA and her involvement in the students' lives. Many of the parents had grown up in the area and had gone through the agricultural education program (before Mrs. D arrived) and you could see the pride they had in watching and supporting their children in participating in the various FFA events, including showing livestock.

Mrs. D soon arrived back and we went over logistics of the fair and she explained her SAE policy. Students in her agriculture classes are encouraged but not required to have SAE projects, but her FFA members are, and most already come to the program with potential projects started because of livestock projects. To handle SAE visits, she has a form the students complete before the end of the school year, which has a list of dates the students can choose from where she will visit with them and check up on their projects. Most of her visits were earlier in the summer as the students were preparing for fair, and operated very similar to my experience with the parents in the barn - Mrs. D checks out the student's project(s) and then catches up with the student and their family, learning about how their summer is going and any life updates. SAE visits for her are very informal and she uses them mostly to stay updated and involved in her students' lives and keep in contact with the families. 

Working with other volunteers to register buyers for the sale

I had previously told Mrs. D that I wanted to be right by her side and experience everything she does as the agriculture teacher, so after going over her SAE process and grabbing some of the great fair food, Mrs. D told me that since she was on the fair board I would be helping her get the arena set up for the sale and then helping her, the 4H leader and several other volunteers keep records during the sale. I'd been to several sales before, mostly at the PA Farm Show, so I thought this county fair sale would be an easy night for me - boy was I wrong. After helping the FFA and 4H members set up the sale ring I began helping to register buyers, keeping track of all the paperwork and buyer numbers. I never expected so many buyers, over 200, for a fair of this size but I was happily mistaken. Community members from all over the county were there to help support the youth involved in agriculture, through their kind words and buying of animals.

The fast-talking auctioneer I had to keep up with

After registering all of the buyers came the hardest part - keeping track of sale prices and buyers of the livestock. Elbow to elbow with Mrs. D, the 4H leader, and several other volunteers, all our focus was on the auctioneer just a few feet away to make sure we kept accurate records. The next few hours flew by and after over eight hours at the fair, I finally had to start my journey home. It was a great day of being thrown right back into the livestock world, getting to meet future students and their families, and meeting key community members, like the 4H leader, that I know will be really helpful when I begin my semester there.

The view of the crowd from behind the sale arena

One of my students & one of his Grand Champion rabbits

I can't wait to work with those students more, especially during my animal science courses and getting to know them more through future SAE visits. My day ended with the sale continuing in my rear view mirror, my car filled with the smell of livestock and hay, and my radio blasting the local country station, and I could not have had a better way to end July.

Loved this FFA member's confidence as she walked into the sale arena!

Welcome to Tri Valley!

I have the pleasure of student teaching at Tri Valley High School this spring with Mrs. Gretchen Dingman. I will be using this page, Tri Valley Times, to document my journey and experiences at Tri Valley. To start off, here is a video describing my cooperating center:

(*Disclaimer: new to video creating, editing, etc...)

What's in a name?

Coming up with a creative but sensible name for my professional and personal blog was one of the hardest decisions I made this summer. I know, that might sound a little funny but I will admit this is one area of creativity I have always lacked. For instance, growing up I was that kid in elementary school who loved writing stories; I'd be lying if I didn't admit that publishing a story has always been on my bucket list. Writing assignments in school have always been my favorite, but there is always two parts that I struggle with the most - what do I call it and how do I start it? Again, I know this sounds silly but I've never been good at coming up with creative titles or good beginnings, I'd always start from the second paragraph/chapter, and then have to go back, racking my brain for creativity.

So you can imagine how hard it was to develop this blog because you can't move forward until you create your name and url link. This was especially hard because while I've known that I would need to develop a professional blog for my teaching courses here at Penn State, I had also made the decision that I wanted this to also be a personal blog. I wanted this to be a good representation of me - who I am and what my passions are. This made it especially important to be creative; I wanted this to be an extension of my personality and my passions.

As you can tell by now, the name of my blog is "Enjoying the Interval: Cultivating a CityAggie" and to explain the name, there are essentially two parts: "Enjoying the Interval" and "Cultivating a CityAggie." Assuming you have already read my first post about my life, Who am I?, you already know where the term "CityAggie" comes from - I am born and raised in Philadelphia, PA but have found my passion in the agricultural industry, more specifically in agricultural education. "Cultivate" means "to foster the growth of," and I use this phrase because it is generally associated with agriculture and farming (i.e.: cultivating the land), and I plan to use this blog to show how my personal and professional experiences have and will foster the growth of my involvement in and love of the agricultural industry (also I really love plays on words, just ask my high school English teacher Ms. Steiner).

So the second half of the name is pretty simple, but the first part may not make much sense initially. The phrase "Enjoying the Interval" is in reference to my all-time favorite quote: “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval” by George Santayana. The first time I read this quote was in The Quotable Equine, a book of quotes with equine photograph backgrounds I received as a gift (I love quotes and horses so it's really no surprise that I would have this book). Since I've first read this quote it's stuck with me, and I interpret the phrase "enjoying the interval" as meaning enjoy life because you never know when it may end. We don't always have a choice in when we leave this life, there is no "cure" for death, but we do have a choice in how we spend our lives. Will we spend them worrying about the end, will we spend them miserable and/or making it miserable for those around us? Or will we live life to the fullest, enjoying life and making the most of it because it's the only one we ever get?

I am going to enjoy each second of my interval, making connections and cultivating myself into a positive agent of change through agricultural education. What will you do with your interval?

“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval” - George Santayana

Carpe Diem

Who am I?

Who am I?

That's a question (and its many variations) I feel like we get asked a lot in our daily lives nowadays.

Who are you? Where do you come from? What's your major? What are your goals? Why do you do the things you do? What makes you - you?

One of the first things we have to do in some of our Agricultural Education courses here at Penn State is to complete a "Student Experience Inventory" and conduct a mini interview with one of our professors. So since I don't necessarily know everyone who could eventually read this blog of mine, nor can I conduct mini interviews with all of them, I will try and use this "My Life" section to answer some of the above questions and anymore that come to mind, and keep you updated on different events that happen in my life that I think help explain who I am.

So.... I am Amanda Leigh Forstater, but many different people know me by many different names and nicknames. I am originally from the City of Brotherly Love, Rocky and cheesesteaks - Philadelphia, PA. A proud alumnus of one of the best agricultural education programs (in my humble opinion) around - Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, I am a proud former officer of the Philadelphia FFA Chapter. I am no one's idea of the typical "aggie" - I am what I like to refer to as a "City Aggie," hence my creative (at least I think so) twitter handle (@CityAggie) and where part of the inspiration for the name of this blog comes from.

Growing up in Philly, agriculture is not exactly an industry or even a word we learn about or hear growing up. If you've even heard the word before, more than likely it just brings to mind the image of farming, an image that I have learned to be both wonderful but narrowing at the same time. Knowing this you might wonder "ok so how did a city girl get involved in agriculture?" and I'll be honest, it was mostly an accident but a wonderful that has changed my life for the better in so many ways.

Like most girls growing up, I loved horses - I still do. But growing up in Philly the closest I could ever get to having my own horse was having large Shepherd dogs and enjoying pony rides at zoos and fairs. But that all changed around the 3rd or 4th grade - my Pop-pop (my maternal grandfather) told me about this high school he used to drive by in the city that had horses, but he couldn't remember the name. I was hooked immediately and couldn't believe that a school like this was real, but not long after one of my parents' friends attended the School District's High School Fair with their child and brought back information on Saul High School for me. I couldn't believe it - I didn't necessarily know what agricultural sciences really meant but I didn't care, there were animal science classes and more importantly horses and there was no changing my mind - I was going to Saul.

I remember having many discussions (alright some of them were arguments) about why I was going to Saul. It was never a matter of "if" or that "I want to," deciding I was going was probably one of the first decisions I really made about where my life was going, though I didn't realize it at the time. My parents were concerned about how far away it was - it was in a different part of the city and I would have to take SEPTA (Philly's public transportation system) for about 1-2 hours each way, something I had never really done before since I lived so close to my elementary (K-8) school.

One of the many discussions I had about my decision resulted in one of the most memorable things a teacher has ever told me and while I know she had my best interest in mind when she said this, the reason this stands out to me is because it's something I hope to never say/imply/convey to my future students. I was against attending one of the high schools with a more academically-challenging reputation, purely based on my desire to pursue my animal science interests, not because of the other schools' reputations. However, I remember one of my elementary teachers who I most looked up to, advised me that if I wouldn't attend those schools than I should attend my default neighborhood high school and not Saul, because I would stand out so much more academically at a school with a lesser reputation than I would at Saul and so I would have a better shot at getting into colleges and receiving scholarships.

Now almost 10 years after the fact, I am so thankful that that time I decided to not follow a teacher's advice - because attending Saul High School opened me up to this wonderful, diverse, and unfortunately sometimes misunderstood industry we call agriculture - and that decision has changed my life and I think the lives of the people around me for the better in more ways than I probably realize right now.

If I had not attended Saul High School, I'm not sure I would have ever enjoyed school (yes I've always enjoyed learning but it wasn't until Saul that I enjoyed the social aspect of school, and really understood what being comfortable in a learning environment meant, but that's a story for another time). If I had not attended Saul, I would not have realized what "family" meant to me, or have the extended network of family and friends I do now. I would have never moved past my childish love of horses and realized how much I love animal sciences, and working with all kinds of animals - dogs, cats, cows, pigs, exotics and of course still horses (that was never going to stop, just change).

I would have never joined the best youth organization in the world, and realized the strength of influence of the blue and gold - the FFA. I would have never attended an Ivy League University (GO BIG RED!). I would have never joined Greek life (Alpha Zeta, the most impactful organization I've joined since the FFA). I don't know if I would have ever attended graduate school, or when I would have realized that veterinary medicine was not the path for me.

Most importantly, I would have never realized how much I love teaching others, and watching them light up when they find something that they are passionate about, the way I feel about agricultural education and the impact it can have on a student, no matter whether home is in the country or city.

Becoming involved in the agricultural industry has changed my life in so many ways and I can't wait to help do the same for my future students.

So... who am I? I'm a person who has grown to love and appreciate the industry that is the backbone of our society, while not forgetting that not everyone at home has had the same insight into agriculture that I have. I am a member of the Saul family, a proud Cornellian who loves that she was welcomed whole-heartedly into the PSU Teach Ag! family, who bleeds national blue and corn gold, and will always be a sister of the mode and sky blue.

I'm someone who is lucky enough to call three of the greatest places my homes - 8 "Gorges" New York square miles surrounded by reality, the Happiest Valley in Penn's Woods, and of course the birthplace of our great nation, the cheesesteak and Rocky (have you ever ran up those steps?).

I call myself a "City Aggie" and I hope this post has shed some initial light into who I am and what makes me "tick." I'll explain why I chose to name my blog "Enjoying the Interval: Cultivating a CityAggie" in another post and share some more insight into me later, but I think this post has been long enough for an intro. So to whoever my readers are, I hope you have enjoyed my rambling and I hope you enjoy my blog and all my posts, and that you too are an advocate for the agricultural industry and (to borrow the words of Dr. Daniel Foster) an "agent of change" through, and/or supporter of,  agricultural education. But if you're not THAT'S OK - because it's never to late to become one.

Who am I? Amanda Leigh.

Who are you? How do you define yourself?

Just some pictures to capture various parts of my life that make me - me