What's an Ag Teacher?

This week’s blog comes to you after experiencing the typical week of an ag teacher. When I say typical I mean nothing like that of any other teacher in a high school setting. I spent my Friday last week preparing sub plans for I would spend Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at the State Legislative Conference in Harrisburg with seven of my students and cooperating teacher Mrs. Miller.  I then taught Wednesday and Thursday but then took 6 of my students Friday to take the Safe Applicators Pesticide exam at the local extension office.  After this week here are my reflections

Ag teachers are hard workers! Teachers don’t get free time at conferences like you would think. Ag teachers grade proficiencies, attend professional development workshops, and engage with the students.  While students are attending conferences the teachers are also working together to ensure that Ag programs in PA are the best they can be! Returning to classes after missing days is like never skipping a beat. Expecting the most from their students while they were away we dive right back into the current topic.

Ag teachers get little sleep! We stay up late at conferences to chaperone students, wake up early to save breakfast tables, Go to school early for parliamentary procedure practice, and stay after school for workshops. Then after all this we still have to prepare lesson plans, grade papers, read speeches, and look over proficiencies. Sometimes falling asleep happens in odd places….maybe even at the conference dance. 

Ag teachers are caring! I would bet that Ag teachers know their students better then any other teacher in the high school. Why…because we spend so much time with our students. We take them to conferences, see them at FFA meetings, visit their house to check up on SAE's, and help prepare for contests outside of class. Spending so much time outside of school with students you get to know them. Ag teachers know their students interests, career paths, and problems. They know their students better then some of their students parents. 

Ag teachers are all of these things and so much more. This past week I did more then teach. I was an FFA advisor, role model, problem solver, and educator. I'm so happy to be part of great organization. 

I think what I'm trying to saying is ag teachers are pretty freaking awesome! 

Here's to some AWESOME Ag teachers…and all those I don't have pictures of your awesome too!!

My Cooperating Teachers!
Mr. Hines & Mrs. Miller

Dr. Ewing- PSU

Dr. Foster- PSU 

My Ag Teacher!
Mrs. Hoover

State Legislative Leadership Conference

This past week I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with some cool kids at the State Legislative Leadership Conference in Harrisburg. I spent my time chaperoning, grading proficiencies, attending professional development workshops, and helping with community service. Here are some pictures from my experience!

Pennsylvania FFA members at the Capitol building! 

Perry County FFA members with
Mr. George Greig Secretary of Agriculture 

FFA students at Project Share for a day of
Community Service. 

Girls rocking out the community
service cleaning trucks! 

Playing with the PETS…These
will be sent to third world countries
for transportation

West Perry FFA at the Capitol for a tour! 

Seeing Results

Another eventful busy week in the books! With six classes I never have a free moment during the school day. Having all of my classes for the past few weeks this week I really felt like I started seeing student achievement in the shop. This was AWESOME!

As a teacher there are different ways we can assess student learning. In the classroom we can use projects, exams, quizzes, questioning, and group work. In the shop though everything changes. Sure we still use project rubrics and ways to grade our students. Something else is different though…most of the time we see a positive change in attitude and work ethic. 

Thus far I have four classes in the shop working on various projects. Studying different topics from small gas engines, welding, and electrical wiring all these classes are now completing some type of project on their own or with a group during class time. I realized some changes within my students. Here are a few short stories from this week in the shop….

Small Gas Engine Teardown

Students in the classroom who like to talk, answer questions, and contribute in any way possible are pretty hard workers! I noticed this within my small gas engine class and others. In my small gas engine class I have one student in particular who loved to help in any way possible during class time. I enjoyed his enthusiasm but found keeping him quite sometimes to be a challenge. Once we started engine teardown though he couldn't be stopped! He has a extraordinary work ethic and enjoys working on the engines. I believe that students like this one enjoy the hands on learning that this and every ag class offers and benefits from completing projects and seeing things first hand. 

Practice before the
real deal!

On the other end of the spectrum I also have students who have a hard time focusing in the classroom for several different reasons from behavior problems to IEP's. I was moved this past week with their work in the shop! Two classes in particular are working on a shop feed scoop project while practicing arc welding at the same time. During instruction time I am focused on helping those weld. I saw a complete turn around in attitude and overall happiness in those particular students as soon as we entered the shop. While I always try to make classroom instruction engaging there is just something about them succeeding on their own that helps to change their attitude. I had a blast working with them! Seeing some of their faces light up when I encouraged them was cool and I got to know them a little better through one on one instruction. 

Surprises are fun! This week I was shocked by the talent I have in my classes. Students who I never guessed would have exceeded at welding or were terrified ran great beads (shout out to the ladies who killed it). I also have some really talented electricians who are quickly picking up wiring switches. 

Student Wiring Project

As I reflected on this week I found myself feeling like a proud parent. I know some of those parents I met in parent teacher conferences would have been proud to see their sun or daughter working this week! Though I see success in the classroom this week I was really feeling the rewards of being a teacher. It was more then just student success through testing…it was overall student success through content understanding and pure enjoyment. That's the main goal right! 

First Full Week

It's crazy to think that I started this journey four weeks ago and this week was my first full week of classes. Finally no holidays, snow days, or two hour delays to mess up the schedule. Of course this was also the busiest week yet as I had something going on after school almost every night. Even though by the end of this busy week I was completely exhausted I have some really cool things to share!

Soil Texture Test

My wildlife class has been working hard on their mammal and game bird identification so I decided to switch it up this week and take a break from identification. We studied habitat and diversity, and carrying capacity. The class conducted an experiment on carrying capacity using balloons! This was awesome we simulated the habitat for yeast by the size the balloon blew up. On Tuesday night after school a few of my students from class met at the extension office for Envirothon training. The lesson this training session was on Pennsylvania fish, reptiles, and soil. I also got a lot of good resources that I could use in my classroom when preparing students for the Envirothon. The next day in class we had an Evirothon training recap. I had the students that were able to come to the training run a few stations on the different topics and teach the rest of the class what they learned. This worked awesome! The students teaching did a good job sharing the materials and running the stations. I also think this helped spark more of interest in the Envirothon trainings and I'm hoping to increase our numbers for next week!

Carrying Capacity Experiment!
or are we blowing up balloons for the banquet
months in advance? 

On another note man are demonstrations in front of students nerve wrecking! I had to complete two demonstrations this week and I don't think the students noticed but I think they went pretty rough. Being sick didn't help the coughing, man voice and blowing my nose every fifteen minutes was just annoying and uncomfortable. So add that to twenty students either staring at you and thats a difficult situation. The first was my agriscience and technology class. Finally they are getting to the shop! This class is ready…hopefully we will see a huge motivation increase with this hands on project. Now I would just like to state that I have made two feed scoops on my own to practice and they turned out beautifully! With twenty students breathing down my throat watching my every move I can say it went ok! After the demonstrations they where ready to start the project and I began teaching arc welding. I was also nervous about this but only because I know this is a first time thing for most of my students and they were nervous. My first three did awesome and I can't wait to get more in the booth tomorrow!

Feed Scoop Demonstrations! 

Trying on Welding
Equipment!

Student help with the Demo

Wiring Demonstrations!

My second demonstration this past week was in my mechanics class. Electric wiring……dun dun dun….My worst subject at the moment. This has been a tough one. The students are challenging with their questions and I have a tough time answering them. You know they are so descriptive "I have this one switch in my house and it turns this one light on and my microwave, what kind is it?"….lets just say by the end of the question my mind is twisted. Well they are finally getting to the shop! I had to demonstrate the single poled switch…cake mode….so I thought! I was prepared but everything that could go wrong went wrong! It started off on a bad foot when Mr. Hines had to take another student into the other room to "talk" about behavior. A few other things went wrong that took more time then expected but in the end we got the demonstration completed and they are ready to begin their projects!

While this was a busy week in the classroom I was extremely happy most of my classes are starting to get into the shop! It's fun to see their expressions when they complete part of projects or are really into what they are doing and enjoying it.

This week was also extremely busy after school. I went to Envirothon training Tuesday night and got to meet everyone at the local extension office. Wednesday night we stayed late to help manage the chapter public speaking contest. My creed speakers I had been training did an awesome job! Thursday was parent teacher conferences and I had my opportunity to meet some of my students parents and learn a little more about my students.


This week was the first full week and defiantly the most rewarding!



Meagan Moment- I thought I could escape school Tuesday without the students knowing it was my birthday! They found out and Wednesday brought a cake to early morning parli pro practice! How thoughtful!!

Connecting to Classes

After coming back from ACES and then having a day off this week flew by!

I spent the week getting to know my students more! With picking up almost all of my classes I teach almost every class period of the day. However only one of those classes have I been their only teacher. Some classes rotate on a quarterly basis but most run for a year. I started fresh with the small gas engines class but all the others have previously had Mr. Hines or Mrs. Miller.

This week I realized a major difference in those classes. I noticed that the students in my small gas engines class relied more on me as their teacher and connected with me easier. They seemed to be enjoying the class more. Not that my other classes are not enjoying class but they seem hesitant to trust me sometimes.

I expected this as student teaching is hard for the students also! To them I'm just some random person who they will only have to see for a given amount of time and then I will move on to another class or leave the school completely before their school is out for summer.

With this comes hesitation and behavior issues but also new friends! The negatives of this make me work harder! I use my ticket out questions to get to know my students more and connect with them. I also try talking to them in the hallway and other times in between class. I encourage everyone to get involved with FFA and ask about other things they are involved in.

It's been a slow process but then again so has school days! It seems that once I connect with a few students in a given class period the rest just sorta follow.

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