Trip to Twin Valley: The Other "TV"

One of our assignments during student teaching is to visit another student teacher at their cooperating center. This visit gives us the chance to see another program different than the one we're student teaching in and provides us the chance to see each other in action and pick up tips from one another, and personally I think it adds some extra support as it gives you the chance to go be the cheerleader for another member in your cohort for a day - something I think every student teacher needs every now and then.

Never-ending Humor @ Twin Valley

For my visit I decided to take a trip down to visit Toby at Twin Valley, also known as "the other TV."

I chose to visit Toby for several reasons:

1. My home program, Saul, is a 12+ teacher program and Tri-Valley is a 1 teacher program, so at Twin Valley I would get the chance to see the dynamics of a 2 teacher program
2. Tri-Valley operates on an 8-period schedule while Twin Valley utilizes block scheduling
3. At Twin Valley they have the use of an attached greenhouse
4. At Twin Valley some of their classes utilize the CASE curriculum

So Monday morning I headed into school with Toby bright and early...well not so bright and early as we received more winter weather, but after a two-hour delay we made it. 

What kind of equipment is this?...

The day started out with Toby's Introduction to Ag class, consisting of mostly 9th graders. This class utilizes the CASE curriculum and that day the students were completing an inquiry-based lab learning how to identify various scientific lab equipment that they would need to know how to use to conduct future labs. The lab was set up as a scavenger hunt, with the equipment laid out at different stations around the shop and the students had to complete a worksheet matching the identifying the equipment by matching the descriptions of the equipment's function with the chosen equipment based on appearance and prior knowledge alone. While this was an individual assignment, Toby encouraged the students to talk to one another and ask questions to determine the correct answers. Due to the shortened class period the students would be reviewing the equipment lists the next day. Overall, I think it was a fun lesson for all involved, and it was evident that the students had to really think about what they were seeing and reading to identify the equipment.

Not many of our bears would survive...

Toby's second class of the day was his Natural Resources class, and even if you did not know of Toby's background in environmental education, his passion was clearly evident in his teaching. The topic of the day was habitat requirements and learning how this can affect how well an animal survives. First we took some brief notes on the topic with Toby using his background experience to add perspective, then we played an activity where we role-played as bears and had to obtain enough resources to support ourselves throughout the year. This was a great activity and taught the students about carrying capacity and resource management.

Last class of the day was Horticulture. In this class there were a lot of different things going on. There was a group of students working in the greenhouse with Mrs. Weaver, helping to prepare it for the plants that would be arriving within the next week. In the classroom, there were also several students working on floral arrangements and some students catching up on past work due to weather-related absences. Toby worked back and forth between the students in the classroom and checking on the progress in the classroom. This class showcased Toby's ability to be flexible!

Overall I had a great visit with Toby and Mrs. Weaver and it was very evident that the students were enjoying learning from them and that he had a great rapport with his students. Visiting was a great day and left me refreshed to go back into my own classroom. I can't wait to see all the great things Toby continues to do.

ACES 2015: An Ag Teacher's Week does not end on Friday

A normal teacher's week may start early Monday morning and end late Friday afternoon, but such is not the life of an Ag Teacher. Their week may very well include six, if not all seven days of the week, multiple times throughout the year. This was one of those times.

Every spring the PA FFA hosts the Agricultural Cooperation Establishes Success Conference, better known as ACES. This was a conference I always enjoyed as a student as it was a night away from home, but this was my first attending in my "Advisor" role. Spending that Saturday and Sunday with 8 of my students was an event I had been looking forward to for awhile.

Being located not too far away from Harrisburg has its perks as our drive didn't start too early that morning, though with 8 students, 2 advisors and all our bags, we did need to take two suburbans, which meant some of my students were lucky enough to have me as their driver (good thing they knew the way).

Once we got to Harrisburg it was time to check in, put the bags in the rooms, and of course pass out the always important conference t-shirt before opening ceremonies. After opening ceremonies, it was time for the advisors and students to split up for a few hours. While the students headed off to workshops to engage in leadership development and SAE exploration, the advisors headed off to our teachers' workshops. This year the workshops focused on inquiry-based learning lead by several teachers who had participated in the DuPont AgriScience Ambassador trainings. Our lab activity focused on "fishing" snack fish out of a pond following specific limitations. This was a great activity and I could see it being used to teach a number of concepts, including carrying capacity, sustainability, the tragedy of the commons, ethics and much more. Engaging in this activity supported the saying "teachers make the worst students," as throughout the activity some teachers didn't read and/or follow the directions, leading them to make up their own rules, but everyone was fully engaged and all of us picked up something different from the activity, which I think highlights the diversity within agricultural education.

After the workshops it was time to meet back up with my students and enjoy a great meal together. This of course meant lots of teasing about desserts, and never-ending comments about the mashed potatoes that my students say they wait all year for, but first an impromptu lesson in how to tie a tie. Just goes to show that you don't need to be a boy to know how to tie a tie (guess I should learn soon).

After dinner was some time to catch up with fellow teachers and student teachers, and several of my students from home and Governor's School. After some quick catching up, now was time for the true social portion of the conference - the annual dance. All of my students were required to be at the dance for at least the first portion to check in and be social, but then were allowed to go to their rooms if they wanted. All of my students chose to stay though only a few actually danced. So what did the rest of us do? The timeless classic - played cards.

I got to spend the rest of the night talking with my students while playing cards, catching up some more with fellow student teachers, checking in on my students on the dance floor every so often to make sure everything was PG, and otherwise enjoyed a relaxing evening. Once the dance ended my students headed back to their rooms for lights out, while Mrs. D and I joined several other teachers on the nightly "courtesy corps," making a couple rounds and making sure all the students on our designated floors were quietly going to bed and not disturbing the other hotel guests.

The next morning we enjoyed another great meal, enjoyed some thoughtful reflections from the State FFA Officers, and participated in a simple community service project - writing letters thanking our nation's veterans, wounded warriors, and currently deployed service men and women. Overall, we had a great conference - I was able to interact with my students outside their comfort zones, stretching themselves to learn new things and meet new people. Everyone went home that day with great memories and new friends and while I was extra tired knowing tomorrow was Monday, it was a good refresher and boost for going back.

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!