No Question About It - I'm Teaching Ag: Week 5

So here it is, week 5 of 15, a third of the student teaching experience down, and let me tell you I haven't had a better week yet. As bad as last week might have felt, this week has been equally good, maybe even better, even though it's been another short week.

First, my 8th graders are completely out of their shells now. They all talk in class and are willing, sometimes even jumping to share with the class or answer my questions. One of my boys, who at first was pretty shy and soft-spoken was even super excited to show me pictures of his longhorn cattle he raises that he hopes to show at next year's Farm Show (they figured out I'm a sucker for animals). I even get frantic waves and shouts of "Ms. F!" from a few if they see me walking down the hall. They really are the bright spot of my morning and they know it. I'll be a little sad when their rotation switches but I hope my next batch of 8th graders is just as enthusiastic!

Next, after what felt like a long hiatus from all the snow delays and cancellations, I got to see my Vet Science class again. They're a little behind on their research projects but we are getting them done and will hopefully be presenting them in the next few classes. Since I only got to see them once this week we did a Disease Transmission activity, where each of my "animal" students would interact with one another (swapping water) until our mysterious disease had spread throughout our herd. We were able to determine who had caught our contagious disease by utilizing our chemical test solution to see if any of the "animals" were showing symptoms (the water of sick animals turned a hot pink). Now that we documented who are infected "animals" were, next class the students will try figuring out who was our "patient zero" who spread the disease in the beginning, utilizing some inquiry-based learning.

This week I also picked up my 4th period A-day class: Electricity. Now I will admit being one of the shop classes, this is one of the classes I feel most anxious about but luckily I've been keeping up so far (I think). After two days of class, I've been able to help several students, can answer most questions on my own (though I do still double-check with Mrs. D. sometimes), and am now ready to start grading my students' wiring abilities on their plugs and parallel circuits!



And finally, my 3rd and 5th period Ag Science II-IV classes where we are learning about poultry. I will admit that being a class I teach twice a day, this was one of my rougher classes last week but I think I'm getting a handle on what seems to work well and what doesn't. So far we've had some great discussion on properties of eggs and differences among egg types thanks to a "naked, rubber" egg I made (google it, all it takes is a raw egg, some vinegar, and time!). We've also had some great discussion and short debates on which type of housing is "better" for laying hens, wire-cages or cage-free. Several of my students have worked in poultry operations either in the past or currently doing various jobs so I've been having a great time pulling in their expertise in class and seeing what they have actually seen or worked with firsthand. Now I just have to be careful to keep my lessons moving without telling them too much of what they already know.

This week was full of a lot of great things outside of the classroom also, including my first high school wrestling match, my first Ag Ed Advisory Board meeting, and my second SAE visit (first one was in the summer). Look for more blogs on those experiences!