Bet Your Summer Wasn't As Exciting As Mine!

Well I have neglected my blog for far too long! As I embark on another school year I find myself in a different role then I have been the past 17 + daycare years of my life. For those long youthful years I have been the student. An overly active student, always involved in activities, striving for good grades, and ya know completing majority of my homework. My blog started as a way to share with my family and friends my journey through college as an Agricultural Education student, president of a club and advocate for others to join us as an Avenger. My blog then became about my journey student teaching at West Perry High School. This was nothing like the stigma Perry County gets for being "hick, boring place" as I can assure you student teaching was one of the best and toughest experiences. I had the very best of mentors!! With dedication and hard work I saw my some of my biggest goals achieved when I graduated from Penn State and became the new Ag teacher at Penn Manor High School in the same weekend!


Here's a snapshot of my crazy summer!

 With week one in the books I am even more excited for this school year! The potential I already see in my students is thrilling. While I still learn something new everyday my role has OFFICIALLY changed from student to teacher!

Learning From the Wise Owls

As advisors teachers are stationed by the owl! The owl is a symbol of knowledge and wisdom. When there are questions to be answered about agricultural education programs I head right to the source…..the ag teachers themselves!


Heading out into the field soon I wanted to know about some of my past colleges and how their teaching experience was going. Lets start with the bad, the struggles some of these new teachers are facing. Student motivation came up in the conversation a lot. Between students in class, getting students to participate in FFA, and motivating the officers to take on those leadership roles; motivation is hard to instill within some students. Just coming from student teaching I can agree with this. I had some students in class I really, really wanted to participate in a contest because I knew they would have been really good but for whatever reason they didn't want to put on that blue and gold jacket.

 On to the good some of the teachers I talked to are currently in a one teacher department. I was told that at first one teacher was very apprehensive about taking the job, not sure he wanted to be the only ag teacher but is since very happy in the position and sees the advantages it brings. In a one teacher department he has more freedom when it comes to spending money and making big decisions. However tasks like planning the banquet are a little more stressful.

Speaking of the FFA budget……
I had a long conversation with my agriculture teacher the other day to find out more about how budgets work for a program. It's a little nerve-racking to know that you will be in charge of making sure the department gets what it needs! She assured me though that it's not as tough as I make it sound and at that school anyway it's a pretty simple process. She has a number amount that she is allowed to spend, creates a list of what she needs, and turns it in for approval!

Some FFA chapters also have an articulation agreement with a local college so that students are actually able to receive college credit for some of the classes they take! The school I graduated from has an articulation agreement with Delaware Valley College for an animal science course as well as a horticulture course. This wasn't a possibility when I was in high school so I'm really happy to be part of the growing program and help when needed as part of the advisory council. The high school I student taught at had an articulation agreement with another local community college which allowed students to receive credit for an agriculture business class. I think it's wonderful that the students are able to get the ball rolling early and head to college with a class under their belt or at least be able to add to their resume that they received college credit for an ag class.

Well as always I had a great time chatting with some ag teachers in PA and look forward to learning new things in the future!

Following Directions Action Research

My action research was designed around a problem I believe most teachers have and I feel unfortunately is a growing problem within todays society….following directions. Something we should have been taught as children. The problem started while reflecting upon my classroom skills with a introduction level ag class (majority 9th graders). No matter what I did that class had a horrible time working in groups. Thinking about it a little more I decided that group work was not the root of my problem but it was more following directions. The light build clicked immediately! Why not test all my classes and compare how students follow directions!

Procedure:
The basis of the research was two quizzes. The first being a simple following directions quiz. A series of questions that had the students drawing boxes, poking holes in the paper, and writing funny things if they didn't read the entire test to realize all they needed was their name. This very quiz was given to all of my students. The results can be found below on the graph. We then had a discussion about the quiz and talked about how the students felt about reading directions and if they thought they might read them in the future. That fell on a Friday so on Monday I gave another quiz. This time though I told the students it was a pop quiz. I had designed one for each class very similar to the first but on the relevant matter we were talking about in class. The results for this are also found on the graph below. The quizzes were graded on a pass or fail basis determined by if they answered the correct questions.

To fully evaluate the students on this subject I also had them complete a survey after both quizzes to determine their thoughts about the importance of following directions those results are shown below! 

Results

To conclude my action research results show that 70% of my students now feel that directions are important after the second quiz and will probably read directions. From the first graph above you can see that most students failed the first quiz but then passed the second with the exception of class period 4. 

Stream Study!

The weather was a bit nicer this week and that meant making new plans to be outside as much as possible. I was venturing into a whole new world of classroom management….in a stream! It was the perfect time for stream study! We spent a few days testing water quality and then a few studying macroinvertabrates. Overall the students had a great time being out of the classroom and getting their feet wet….literally. I had been looking forward to this all semester. It was successful, we concluded that the stream was clean due to the organisms we found and the water quality test results! For the most part the students were really excited about getting in the cold water. Here's some pictures from an awesome week with my wildlife class.

Class Picture!

Students looking at a crayfish 

Checking out freshwater clams

Cruise Control

I've set my car to cruise control as I head into the final few weeks of my time at West Perry. I cut back a few classes but picked up another so I'm still a busy bee. It's kinda my nature to be busy. The weather appeared to get nice for a few days which lead to a few fun activities and a rowdy bunch of high school students anxious for summer vacation.

We also had our banquet last week which was such a great experience! My students surprised with an honorary chapter degree. I was so touched and surprised I was in tears as I walked up to get my award. The next I spent teaching all of my classes some floral design skills! I was able to use the flowers from the banquet to make corsages, boutonnieres, and round arrangements. The students really enjoyed this and I really enjoyed taking the time to have a fun day of flower arranging with them!

I have been spending all of my free time applying for jobs and preparing for interviews! Not much reflection from this week but enjoy some pictures from class!

Honorary Chapter Degree! 

Flower Dissection 

Using the Banquet flowers
 for plant dissection 

Banquet Prep! 

The whole gang! 

Freshman eating their green hand degree
serving ice-cream at the banquet 

Day after the banquet flower arranging 

Final Reflection

So this was it. The final week. I had been dreading the final day for a while now... like since day 2. I'm not one for change, I despise it actually. I've always been like that though. I wasn't a fan of graduating high school, going to college, moving for student teaching. There's just something about big changes that leave me feeling anxious and uneasy. I still had all of those emotions on the last day of student teaching but I also had many more.

My last day was full of presents, in class parties, a surprise home cooked lunch, hugs from students, and a few tears. I truly have the most wonderful students and I realized today that they cared for me just as much as I cared for them. We have had some great times together but it's the ones you don't expect will miss you that surprise you the most. Sometimes in class as a teacher your just not sure your students are listening; sometimes they are blank starring into space, obviously distracted, or just plain sleeping. Some had me fooled. I mean who gives the gift of an engine! Well of course my small gas engine class. This isn't just any engine it's one that is specifically designed to show the piston during four strokes of the engine. My biggest reflection upon today is that I love teaching and everything about it. I mean I was one of the few crazy ones that didn't give up classes when I should have because I just didn't want to stop. All I can say is I miss them and teaching already and it's been about three hours.

As far as reflecting upon my teaching skills I'm not very good at that. If someone was to ask me I would say I have a lot of improving left to do! I'd rather let the students tell you how I did so here is some feedback from their course evaluations…..


"Just keep doing what your doing and you will make an awesome teacher." 

"thanks for teaching us this year. you did really good and i hope you learning to teach and manage classes helps you because you would be a really good ag teacher and i enjoyed having you in 2 of my 3 ag classes"

"The fact we had two good teachers and that it taught us all a little more then we knew"

"i hope that you had a good year here at west perry because having you as a teacher was good and you taught me alot of stuff not only in this class but other to. so thanks again and for everything you did!(:"

Setting Goals and Reaching New Ones

I could feel the wind stinging my face turning my cheeks a bright pink, my shoes were covered in mud and soaking wet leaving my feet feeling frozen, my nose started running, but I continued to push and run faster. The voices in my head saying, "keep going, don't stop now!" It was a miserable Saturday run as it had rained the past two days and was still cloudy and cold. The path was muddy and slippery. The wind picked up and the water on the lake rippled and looked like the ocean with every large gust. The fishermen sat bundled on the shore. At this moment I wanted to give up but wanted so badly to achieve my goal and run that half mile that I had left of the trail. I had set a goal, I was going to reach it, and I did just that!

After running I started to reflect upon my week as a teacher. This was my last week with a full course load. I was reluctant to give up that first class even though I have had a full course load for longer then Penn State requires. I can't help but think that I'm not done yet! They haven't learned and mastered everything yet. I wasn't satisfied with myself or the work I had done as a teacher with the class. Then I thought about it some more. As I grow and learn to be a teacher this might just be the toughest part for me. It's just my personality to set high expectations and ever higher goals for myself. Reconsidering I realized that the students did achieve several goals from when I first started with the class over two months ago! The grades increased and with every project I saw all my students skills increase each individually in different ways. Not everyday was great or perfect thats for sure but they were sad when I told them it was my last day and so I must have made some impression.

My personality has never been to quit or give up. I never leave projects unfinished and stick with something until I get it right! Of course I want just that for my students also. My time with that class was defiantly a learning experience. Behavior problems, bullying, and just having a shop class full of high school boys last period of the day makes for an interesting situation. I'm not leaving the class with every student being as sufficient at electrical wiring as I would have hoped but I'm leaving them knowing that they the have the basic skills and the ability to continue their education in wiring if they so choose.

As the teacher I realized that I also accomplished my goals. I managed a tough class in the shop, learned a whole lot about electrical wiring, and brought the students closer as friends. We talked about passing classes, motivation and work ethic, how to treat others, and life after graduation. It wasn't perfect but sitting and thinking about my weeks spend in that class as the teacher I feel a sense of accomplishment! I actually achieved more goals then I had originally set for myself. The students were sad to see me leave their class and I was actually sad also.