Paving the Way - #ACES2K14

     This past weekend I attended my first conference with students as an advisor! This was just weird at first. I had attended ACES several times before at least two as a student and last year to facilitate a workshop. This time was different though. West Perry took about 30 students and I went as one of the advisors.

West Perry FFA Chapter 

     I attended teacher workshops, helped my older students set up a workshop, ate dinner with my students, and chaperoned at the dance. ( I did get out there on the dance floor and show some moves….just a few)

West Perry Student participating
in a workshop 

     Going into this weekend I wasn't aware of how it would affect me personally. I have been around these students for a few weeks now and like I said I had been to ACES several times before. Something was different this time. I enjoyed hearing the freshman being excited over the workshops and the new friends I saw our students hanging out with. We all sat together at dinner and I laughed with the students as they told funny stories from workshops and recent events. From this experience I was really touched by the first year members we had in attendance. Seeing them having fun at the dance, talking to new people, and wearing that blue jacket makes me excited to try to get them involved in other things!

      I was also part of curtesy crew. I'm now in on the "secrets" of curfew and room checks from the teacher perspective! lol The advisors got skill and aren't messing around!

    As we head into National FFA Week I feel energized and motivated about our FFA chapter again! We have such a great group students and I look forward to paving the way and helping them succeed.

Reflections

     I've talked about this before but one of the most important things a teacher can do is reflect upon their lessons. Being new to the teacher world I have been doing my fair share of reflections….actually I'm a little obsessed with it. I'm constantly giving the students "ticket out" questions that I can use to gauge if I felt they got the most from my lesson. After each lesson I find myself talking to both my cooperating teachers looking for suggestions and solutions.

     This week again with the snow days and delays, I think I did more reflecting upon my teaching then actual time in the classroom teaching! We still did some cool projects even with the giant snow storm! Overall it was a good week and I survived my first observation by my PSU supervisor. 

Students welding ice cubes together!

      One thing I have been struggling with is my freshman introductory class and motivation. The students are soooooo unmotivated and I mean like they don't want to do anything! After getting through safety of the machines last week I was ready to start welding! In an attempt to suck them in and get them excited for welding I had them weld together ice cubes using birthday candles. This was fun and the students were surprised when they learned they could actually do it and that it is possible to weld together more then just medal. While I was super excited about this and so happy to watch them succeed they didn't seem as excited about it as I was. I think deep down they really enjoyed it they just don't know it yet! Anyway I got some really good ideas for improving motivation in this class from utilizing my resources! 

1.    I'm going to do some action research! I'm excited to use different tactics to see if I can                                                                        improve class participation and learner engagement. Not sure how yet any    suggestions are welcome!
2.    It is a larger class and I have a hard time keeping track of who participates so I wrote everyones name on a popsicle stick and if I need a question answered I just pull a name! So far this is working really well and it seems to make more students pay attention during lecture. 
3. This weekend I got a deck of cards and taped one to the back of each students bell work book. I'm going to use this when breaking the students into partners and groups! Especially with this class I like to switch up the lesson a lot and try to get everyone motivated so I need quick ways to do so. With everyone having a card I can split my students up quickly. 

Using playing cards to break
students into groups!

      Wednesday Mr. Seaman my supervisor came to visit. This actually went a lot better then I expected and I got a lot of great ideas! Being observed wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and now I know how to be more prepared for next time. I got some more good ideas for my community based project and I look forward to planning that in more detail this upcoming week! He also was really helpful about my action research and motivation plans as stated above. 

      I had a busy week as I gave Mr. Hines and Mrs. Miller substitute plans on Friday and headed to Penn State. We had a seminar day full of resume building and job search tips! It was lovely to see my other cohort members and PSU ag ed team. No time to hang around for the weekend though and catch up with friends I headed to ACES Saturday! (see next blog post for a full report) 

     Finally getting comfortable with my classes and students this week I found myself thinking a lot about the classes more in detail. I made a lot of progress with names this past week and I found myself wondering if I was reaching all my students and different ways I could spark the interest in different students. More reflections…. 

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." 
             - Charles Darwin 

Meagan Moment- It would be nice if I had one full week of a normal school schedule so I could try to get used to the times my classes ended. One day I confused a two hour delay time with a normal schedule time….Sounds like something easy to distinguish between but it isn't when your trying to remember 20 things at the same time! In a small class I was talking when a few of my students just get up and put their computers away. I ask why they did this thinking I had 20 more minutes. To my surprise we had 2 minutes. That was a fast wrap up to say the least! #oops

Supervised Agriculture Experience

SAE is part of a complete and
successful program

      I had the experience recently to attend another SAE (supervised agriculture experience) visit with my cooperating teacher! For my followers that don't know agricultural education is so much more then just FFA and what happens in the classroom its also about applying what is learned during class time outside of class in the form of some type of project. Check out this cool three circle model we  in the Ag Ed world use to define our complete program! Students are in charge of these projects that can be anything from raising or breeding animals, working or shadowing a local agricultural business, to growing crops….and even more.
      This past week I had the opportunity to check up on an SAE visit with Mr. Hines. One of the students is raising a market steer to take to the local fair. They will show the steer and then sell the animal for consumption to a local buyer. Now the student is responsible for proper care of the animal and training it for show. This is a huge job!…especially with a steer.
      After catching his ear tag on something in the pen, the steer had damaged his ear to the point the ear tag came out. This is a rare occasion but does happen. Mr. Hines had the student call the extension office to explain the situation and get a new ear tag. The extension office then talked to Mr. Hines to verify the situation. This can be a highly controversial topic especially with steers. A lot of money and time goes into these projects and sometimes cheating can be questioned.
      Upon arrival to the students barn Mr. Hines and myself could clearly tell from looking at the steer and the pen that this was the same steer and cheating was not a question. We put the ear tag in the other ear and the steer was good to go!
       Another exciting day in the life of my ag teachers! After teaching all day we helped out with the SAE project and then went to the hardware store to buy supplies for the greenhouse.

Happy Steer! 

Getting Ready! 

Mr. Hines replacing the
ear tag.
Please note: The steer was not hurt in the replacing of the ear tag and was fine after loosing the first one! 

SNOW DAY ...or WEEK?

         I remember as a high school student I used to love snow days! I would stay up late to watch the news to see if our school reported a snow day or 2hr delay. If they canceled school I would call my neighbors and we would plan out our day of sled riding or capture the flag. We were so hard core about our time off from school we would wake up early on two hour delay days just to go sled riding which ended up with us being rushed to school, usually late and our faces still red from the cold weather. My neighbors also had six kids so us being late to school was normal.

          So how's my third week of student teaching going? IDK did we even get anything accomplished this week. I end this week confused and frustrated with a mess for next week! This time however it's not about the students or even myself...it's about the freaking weather! Here was my week

Monday- School's canceled

Tuesday-2hr delay

Wednesday- Canceled

Thursday- 2hr delay

Friday- Yayy a normal day

         As a teacher my opinion on snow days is the complete opposite! Well I was thankful for Monday but only because I had a cold. As ag teachers our schedules get messed up enough we don't need to add snow days into the mix also! By Thursday I was feeling the student's struggle to make it through the week and I was right there with them.

          I shouldn't say this week was a wash completely. I did the best I could with the time I was given. During two hour delay days majority of my class periods are a little less then a half hour. I changed some of my plans and had classes take safety tests, complete projects, or do review activities we could do within that time period. We finished up shop projects, reviewed the tools for working with small gas engines, and made wildlife game bird notecards.

It's safe to say time was not on my side this week....better luck next week.

Week Two…It's Sinking In

I headed into week two full steam ahead! I spent majority of my weekend planning. I wanted to be prepared for Monday…and there isn't much else to do in Perry County. I did take some time to myself and went for a little walk in Little Buffalo State Park. It's becoming one of my favorite thinking places! Anyway….This would be a real week of experience as I picked up two more classes meaning I was teaching four classes a day. If trying to be more prepared meant scattered wildlife pictures and articles around my apartment, purchasing crickets (yes live insects), and making small gas engines tool id notecards then I was prepared! I would say my homework is always quit interesting because I am teaching such a wide variety of topics.


I started this week off strong!

Wildlife mammal identification
resources 

Students identifying
PA mammals

The wildlife class has been working on mammal identification. I was disappointed I got stood up by the Game Commission and wasn't allowed to barrow a fur kit but the students enjoyed looking at the pictures and skimming the articles to find information about the habitats. As they finished up on Thursday we had a wildlife mammal social! Who doesn't love a party!? The students each had to grab two pictures and social with others in the class to make sure they had all the information written down in their packets. This was a great way to make sure they didn't miss an animal and if they did it gave the other student the opportunity to tell what they know about that specific animal. Friday was a speed dating review activity.

Next up Plant and Soil Science. This week we started talking about pesticide management. I am so excited because I have already scheduled to take my students to the safe pesticide applicators exam in March. Better yet I have scheduled the day before to be a review session after school put on by the Pest Education Department at Penn State. Yes I'm bringing in the experts! This is a class I have been struggling with. I have four very quite students who don't really talk to each other even when you allow them to. To start off the unit we talked about the parts and life cycle of insects by looking at real crickets! Fun! We then journeyed through the history of Pest Management by creating a timeline. I was really surprised the students had never even heard of the Green Revolution. I was finally able to feel like I had a successful lesson on Friday as we started through the 5 steps of an integrated pest management plan. The students were really engaged in the lesson for the first time and Mr. Hines was pleased in the end. I think it really just takes time to get to know your students and what methods of teaching work best for them…better luck this week!

The Plant & Soil science class created a timeline of the
history through integrated pest management. 

This week I also picked up my Agriscience and Technology course as well as Small Gas Engines. I'm actually really excited about both of these classes. While they will probably come as the most challenging for me I'm going to give it my best. Things like shop management, larger class sizes, students who need individual attention, and content matter I'm not really confident are all becoming new challenges. I have also become determined to stay with making every student use a bell work book. I think these are really important as I have been getting to know the students and their reading and writing abilities.

As week two comes to a close I have realized that the most important thing I can do right now as a teacher is reflect upon each lesson. I'm actually kinda obsessed with it right now. After each class I ask my supervisor as well as myself "did they really get it"…."did they enjoy the lesson". I think it's really important that all teachers do this and I hope to continue to have good reflections that will lead me to becoming a better teacher.

Friday evening sunset over the chicken barns where I'm living.

This weeks Meagan Moment comes to you from an after school record book/proficiency work session. For those of you who don't know the record book system has completely changed since I turned them in and is now completely online. The students love it however I'm completely lost and can't find anything with the online system. I was helping a student with her proficiency and I said "oh we can find that information on page 22!" (proud of myself that I knew the answer). She just blank starred at me for a minute and Mr. Hines who had overheard started laughing and said "yes she could if this was the old system…I'm surprised you knew the exact page number." So plus for me for knowing the right page number and minus for talking about the old system! It was a good laugh though. #facepalm