Week 2: Ms. F Teaches: “She can’t be from the city…”

So this week has been another crazy schedule. My students enjoyed a three-day weekend while I had my first in-service day of finalizing lesson plans, assignments and making copies of FFA trip forms, while the other teachers completed first aid and CPR training. After getting to know some of my coworkers better and an insightful fortune cookie (“The beginning is always the hardest…”), I was ready to start my first week of teaching when the quarter changed on Wednesday, or so I thought.

Meet Cocoa, one of my youngest furry friends

Tuesday was the last day of the previous quarter so the day was a flurry of finalizing grades, students scrambling to finish assignments and students checking their schedules to figure out their new classes. It was also the last day I’d have with some of the seniors I’d grown to like, as they would be leaving to attend the vo-tech school for the rest of the spring. Thankfully, I was able to get one more helpful task out of some of the boys as they helped clean out the rabbit cages. They weren’t too happy to spend their last day in ag. doing that dirty job, but the rabbits and I greatly appreciated it.

So finally Wednesday was here, and while I was nervous I was excited to start teaching my 4^th period Vet Science class, and then the announcement came 2^nd period… “we would be having an early dismissal due to the snow.” So my first day with my vet science students was pushed back until Friday. I had put my classroom management posters up in class that morning to prepare for class, so of course since there was something new in class some of our ag. boys decided to welcome me… by pranking me and flipping my posters upside down. We all had a good laugh and they proceeded to try and distract themselves from their work by continually asking “what’s a parking lot,” but they’d just have to wait and see until Ms. F was teaching their class.

Finally, Thursday, my first day of teaching even with our two hour delay. I was starting with my 1^st period 8^th Grade Ag. Rotation and we were starting off with agricultural careers. While I still need to work on my timing of activities, after teaching my class of 10 students two days in a row now I think they’re gonna be a great class to start each day off. Every Friday our classes are shorter since we switch to a 9 period club schedule, so between that and our snow days, I’m still getting used to Tri Valley’s schedule. Today (Friday) was finally my first day with my Vet Science class and while I think I have a rowdy bunch of boys I know that they’re all good kids and I have a good bunch of students who are really interested in veterinary medicine and “zoological animals” (one of my student’s phrases).

I’m really excited to start teaching more classes this week, and excited to get to know my students better and let them get to know me. So that brings me to the title of this week’s blog: Ms. F Teaches: “She can’t be from the city…” One of the first activities I did in both my 8^th Grade and Vet Science classes was have students fill out index cards with some information about themselves and then we played “2 Truths and a Lie” so I could learn names and get to know them and I made sure that I always went last. I would change up my statements but I always kept my two statements agricultural related and my last one was always “I grew up in a city.” This has been pretty fun the past two days because all of my students 8^th-12^th grade (except for my FFA members who I got to know in the summer/fall) all believed that my lie must be about the city because “there’s no way she grew up in the city.” I won’t be able to use this game much longer since many of my students overlap in classes, but I am looking forward to seeing how my urban background can play a part in reaching my rural students and I’m hoping it’s going to make for some exciting learning experiences for all of us throughout this spring.

I can’t wait to keep diving right in and hopefully not too much more snow (though we’re already getting more) will mess with my teaching schedule over these next 13 (already two weeks down?!) weeks.

Cool it Weather Oprah...

To hear about some more things I’ve learned this week, including my first Tri Valley FFA meeting, check out my next blog!