Short & Sweet: Week 6

It's hard to believe student teaching is already more than a third, almost halfway, over! (insert panicked face here...) This week has been a crazy short one and I think it's fair to say that amongst my cohort I think we are unofficially having a contest to see who can teach the least amount of regular-schedule school days, thanks to everyone's constant changing of schedules due to our winter weather.

This week has been short and sweet; with only two instructional days week 6 was still jam-packed, with one day spent observing another fellow student teacher at his placement center (check for a post about my experiences there), taking a group of students to the Schuylkill County Public Speaking Career Development Event, and another day of professional development with my cohort back in Happy Valley.

So while I only had two shortened days in the classroom this week (thanks record number of two-hour delays), a lot has gone on. First, the implementation of seating charts. As I am picking up the bulk of my classes part-way through their semester or year, and even with the two classes I picked up right from the beginning, at first I let the students continue to sit where they choose. For the most part this has worked fine as they haven't given me too many issues. However, some disruptions are starting to occur in my upperclassmen classes, and while the hectic schedule changes are not helping, it feels like it's the time to shake things up and change around the seating arrangement. Now since I didn't get to see all my students last week, not every class has received their new seating arrangements yet, but students talk and I can already hear grumblings about it through the hallways. But for now we're going to give it a try and see how it works out. Hopefully my students will figure out that I can always change it again and if they're good, they'll get the seats they want.

So that brings me to some of the main things I've learned in the classroom this week:
1) Students do not like change. While I have been here for awhile now, I'm still a change everyone is getting used to, and slowly but surely we'll all adjust to it.
2) Students like to push your buttons. My upperclassmen especially have been trying to find my buttons and figure out what they can do to get a reaction out of me. So far I think they've been unsuccessful but now with the new seating arrangements I think we can nip some of these issues in the bud soon.
3) Students want to see what they can get away with. Now I don't mean behavior, I mean work level and effort. Some of my students clearly work hard and put their effort into even the smallest of assignments while others need a little more pushing. Slowly they will hopefully start to realize this without having to rely on pushing from me, as grades are due soon.

So while those are three of the things I've learned in the classroom this week, I also got to spend some time with my students outside the classroom. First I got to take a group of four of my girls to compete at the Schuylkill County Public Speaking Career Development Event, hosted at the nearby Vo-Tech. Getting to spend this time with my students and other FFA Chapters was great, and definitely a much needed push to get through this section of student teaching. During the competition I served as the manuscript judge, reading the submitted speeches for all three chapters, while also serving as time-keeper, getting the chance to sit in while the students were presenting their speeches to the judges.

It was a great day of laughter, comaraderie, and great food thanks to the Vo-Tech, and a perfect way for me to witness some of my students' potential in a new light. All four of my girls did great, sweeping the Senior Prepared and Conservation Public Speaking CDE's, moving onto compete at the Area level competition in a few weeks. As I told my students after the placings were finished, getting to watch them speak and read their manuscripts was a huge plus for me, but maybe not for them because now that I know how well they write and present they can look forward to more of that in class.

Now after spending a weekend with another group of students at the ACES conference yesterday and today (see another post for reflection on that), while I am physically exhausted, I am looking forward to getting back in and hopefully having my first full week of regular classes since I came down to the Valley.

Looking forward to see what this week brings.

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.