Final Thoughts on Lab

Lab this semester was not exactly as I expected. I knew from talking to previous cohorts and watching the videos during final presentations, how the basic format would be; but I didn't know how much lab could change the way I think about teaching. During our very first lab, we picked a random topic and had to teach it the following week to our peers. Looking back now, I would not teach that lesson the same way I did then, nor many of my lessons I taught throughout the semester. The changes I would make to many of my lessons are not because I didn't write them as best I could originally, but because now I know better techniques to use to teach them. Now I know more classroom management strategies, and I know what to do when I want my students to be more engaged, and less distracted.

Teaching my peers was both easy and difficult at the same time - on the one hand, they were your friends, you knew them and knew their personality, regardless of what character role-card they pulled you knew how to "manage" their behavior. It also took away some of the pressure, in labs you knew it was practice and that you weren't in charge of real students yet (at least not until our Micro-teaching and LifeKnowledge labs). However, while this did decrease some of the stress, it also made teaching a little harder, for most of our lessons our "students" needed prior knowledge or some parts of our lessons didn't make sense, this sometimes made it difficult to direct questions and explain materials.

Overall, while I learned a lot about classroom management and planning and implementing of lessons from lab, my biggest takeaway has been reflection. While I hated teaching on camera, having the ability to not only reflect on my experiences through writing our blogs, but also being able to watch and comment on not only my own teaching videos but also those of my peers, was extremely helpful. Though using the technology of ThereNow to watch, upload, and comment on videos was sometimes difficult, and keeping track of all the reflective requirements was frustrating, it was very useful and helped me pick up on things I may not have realized I was and wasn't doing while teaching, and letting me learning from what my peers were and weren't doing when they were teaching.

So while lab was sometimes frustrating, stressful, and not always the best thing to have at 8AM, I learned a lot and while being one of the first few to go through it every week sometimes felt like being a guinea pig, it was nice to go through it without the bias of hearing about anything from the cohort. I am glad that lab is over and I do feel more prepared for student teaching than I was at the beginning of the semester, though I know I still have more to learn. Here's to finishing one semester of learning and reflection and moving onto the next one.

Creativity Challenge!

During our final lab session together, we had an exercise in tapping into our creative side when developing lessons for our classroom. Each of us came prepared with a unit plan that we would be teaching in the spring and went on an adventure to the local dollar store where we were to find five items that we could use to help us deliver at least one of our lessons in our unit this spring. I chose my Intro to Ag Careers unit for my 8th graders, where I'll teach my students about some of many different careers available in the agriculture industry, so I chose five items that tie back to various careers. My plan is that during my first few lessons and throughout the unit, I would present my students with different items or pictures and my students would have to discern how they tie back to an agricultural career or sector of the industry; items including a bar of soap (dairy), dog treats (beef/veterinary), a feather boa (feathers/poultry), an artificial flower (horticulture), and a set of small plastic containers (research).

This was a fun lab that allowed us to think outside the box when planning lessons, which I know will be necessary for two main reasons. First, because utilizing creativity in our classrooms can only increase the engagement of our students, allowing us to bring more variability into our lessons. Second, because budgets will always be tight for schools and teachers, and knowing how to think outside the box to find materials for lessons and classes, can only help us stretch our budgets longer. Agriculture teachers are known to be masters of acquiring materials and equipment through donations, partnerships, and grants, but even being able to stretch it in simple ways, like knowing what materials can be found and/or made from the dollar store can help teachers, especially new teachers like myself.

Creativity, both from ourselves and allowing room for our students to be creative, can only make our classrooms, and our teaching, better. While I may not consider myself a naturally creative person, with use of social media sites such as Pinterest to help me find creative ideas, and the local discount stores to find materials, I think even I can some creativity into my classroom, and I look forward to seeing what I come up with.

"Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein 

Micro-Teaching @ Midd-West

As one of our last labs of the semester we got to embark on one of the scariest adventures - teaching actual students! We conducted three day micro-teaching units, where we had the same class of students for three consecutive days and had to develop a "mini-unit" of three lessons. For my micro-teaching, I was lucky enough to be paired up with Mr. David Bittner at Midd-West High School and I couldn't have gotten a better placement. Mr. Bittner matched me with his 1st period Veterinary Science Anatomy & Physiology class, where I taught a three day introduction to the muscular system transitioning from his wrap-up of the skeletal system.








Teaching this subject was a great match, as I will also be teaching a Veterinary Science course this spring during my student teaching, including a unit on anatomy and physiology. Over the course of the three days I covered voluntary versus involuntary muscles, the three muscle types (skeletal, cardiac, and smooth) and their functions, and the hardest part - the superficial muscle groups of the feline. Even with the use of videos, a "Go Get It" activity and the help of a special furry friend, figuring out how to teach this information at the right cognitive and enthusiasm level was hard and taught me quite a few things.

First, timing is everything. One of my biggest obstacles over the three days was giving enough time to all of the different parts of my lesson, while still having enough time to cover all the material and have a wrap-up at the end of each day's lesson. This was the hardest part as I always felt I was running out of time no matter how I adjusted my lessons; this taught me the second most important thing - as long as you have a plan it will all be fine. While I may have struggled with my timing, I always had my lesson fully planned out and so I always knew exactly where I was going with everything.









The third thing I learned was that enthusiasm is everything. Any struggles I felt when I was teaching the Midd-West students would have been a lot less if I had been more enthusiastic. Naturally, I am not a very enthusiastic person, and spending three days in front of real students, while on camera, in front of their teacher who I highly respect is a nerve wracking experience to say the least. While my nerves kept me from looking towards Mr. Bittner or my fellow cohort members for encouragement, I was lucky enough to previously know a couple of the students in class which made it a little easier when calling on students to answer questions or take part in an activity. I know that developing a good level of enthusiasm in the classroom is something I will continue to need to work on, but I think that as I develop a relationship with my students and become more comfortable in the classroom, this will become easier and help me move past some of the other obstacles including proper use of timing. And if nothing else I know that having a furry friend in the room can always make a classroom a little more enthusiastic.

LifeKnowledge Lesson @ Tri Valley

The last teaching lab we had was our second time teaching real students, only this time it was with our own students at our cooperating centers. Since we only taught for one lesson, during one class period it was a little less intimidating than micro-teaching, but it was with our own students, so hopefully we made a good impression before the spring. For my lab, I taught my Ag Science I students a LifeKnowledge lesson on Understanding Beliefs, Character, Integrity, and Values.

My Ag Science I class is primarily 9th graders, during the last period of the day and I taught my lesson on the Thursday before Thanksgiving break, so to say that my students were rowdy would be an understatement. Utilizing the LifeKnowledge lesson plan took some of the pre-teaching stress away, as the majority of the lesson plan was already created, but teaching my first lesson to my students in front of my cooperating teacher was still stressful. Though the students were a little antsy, and the class seemed to fly by without enough time to finish everything, the lesson went well. Handing my students that day was my first real time dealing with classroom management, and lucky for me I was able to learn the names of all 18 of my students' names within the first few minutes of class, and being able to call on my students made a clear impression on them and my cooperating teacher, nipping any possible discipline problems in the bud right away and helping to keep their focus

Having this first opportunity to get a taste of teaching some of my students at my cooperating center before the spring, was really helpful, and while I know I still have some things to learn and improve upon with planning, implementing, and timing of my lessons, I think that I have at least one technique to help with enthusiasm in the classroom - simply learning my students' names quickly. Being able to call on my students individually started to create some familiarity between my students and myself, and while I know that I won't remember all their names by spring, I know that it's a simple step I can take to make myself better in the classroom.