Flying high, but not without grounds... - Week 3 - Student Teaching Internship

I started teaching my second class on Monday... electrical wiring. I must say it didn't go quite as smoothly as I wished, but it improved over the week... A few of the students have some knowledge and background of basic electrical wiring which definitely makes it more challenging to keep them engaged. They also tend to ask me a lot of questions that are beyond my knowledge, so I am trying to learn as much as I can, but I plan to tell them that "that is a great question... could you look that up, and share it with the class tomorrow?"

Tuesday, we were scheduled to have Mrs. Fay go over the AET via Adobe Connect, but because we had a 2hr. delay, it was rescheduled for this upcoming week. I learned to use the online grading system "Sapphire", and graded exams and entered grades for Mr. Hughes which seems relatively easy compared to teaching... :)

Wednesday was definitely a challenge for me - I taught 3 classes - all in a row, and found that it is nearly impossible to write learning objectives and bell work on the board in between classes... I'm still trying to decide what to do about that because there isn't enough board space for me to write them all up in the morning unless I took up the entire board, and I use the board a good bit since using technology has also proved to be a challenge... I tried a "Teach Like a Pirate" method for my class on electricity... I turned off the lights, projected a lightening storm (video) on the white board, made them create "rain" through various motions (snapping fingers, tapping their lap, and stomping their feet), and told the story of Benjamin Franklin's discovery with the kite, then I move on to the story of Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. At the end of the lesson I did a matching review game which they seemed to enjoy. My Intro. to Ag class is definitely going to prove to be a challenge as well due to the broad range of students.

Thursday proved to be interesting as well, but I felt slightly less stressed doing 3 lessons in a row; however, what is most frustrating is not being able to remember names with the addition of approx. 40 more students to teach... I have access to their school pictures through the grade management system, so I am planning to print out a sheet for each class to help me learn their names.

Friday I taught about conductors and insulators in my electricity class which seemed to go better than my other lessons for this class; however, I found out very quickly that I have a few students who are going to try to push me (more on that later). Third period I went to observe the Physics teacher (more on that later too)... and then I rushed back to teach my 3rd class on Animal Nutrition. I also taught my first lesson for my SGE class. I taught them the parts of a micrometer, how to read a micrometer and use feeler gauges, and then they had a few minutes to work on their engines and start collecting measurements. This class is certainly going to be a challenge, as several of them didn't want to put on their safety glasses, and made all kinds of excuses or pretended to not hear me... the ones that were wearing them for sunglasses I insisted that they wear them properly, and then I went to the safety glasses cabinet and personally hand-delivered a few pairs and told them to put them on... :)

Reflecting on the week, it went well over all; however, I have a few things that I will need to likely deal with on Monday... a few students were picking on another student, so they are going to be given a warning if they do it again, if it repeats they will lose points, and then they will get detention. I'm also considering that if I have to remind them more than once to put on safety glasses they will lose points, and if it continues their will be more severe consequences. Friday I took the time to enter all of my grades after school, and hopefully that will help as well with getting some cooperation when they realize that I was serious about doing their bell work and filling out their worksheets... zeros aren't a passing grade...

Overall, I feel that the week went well; however, it definitely was more stressful, and I encountered many new challenges, but I'm going to give it my best, and keep trying new things!

Student Teaching Internship - Week 2

It has been an exciting week (for the most part)! Monday the students had off of school; however, the teachers had an Act 81 day. We spent most of the day learning about the new changes to the mandatory child abuse reporting, suicide prevention, and drug awareness.

Tuesday was a very unique day filled with both good and bad. To make things interesting, we started off with a 2hr. delay; however, I didn't know anything about it until I got to school and observed that the parking lot was nearly empty of vehicles. After contemplating my next plan of action, I saw an employee pull in, and decided to give it a try... I asked them if they could let me in to the school... to which they replied, "Who are you?" After explaining that I was Mr. Hughes' student teacher she let me in the school building. I spent the "extra" time working on lesson plans, but the day was just beginning... shortly before Mr. Hughes arrived, one of his helpers went to check on things in the greenhouse, and brought back very bad news - the gas heaters in the greenhouse had quit working and nearly everything was frozen... :( Even though the best of plans are laid... "sometimes those things happen".

On the brighter side of things, we spent the remainder of the day working with students on the AET to make sure that they had their profile complete, career paths selected, and an SAE project started or at least put some effort into brainstorming possible projects. I am really excited that I was able to help so many students get started with the AET, and to get them thinking about what they can do for an SAE project, or how they can potentially use something they are already doing to count for their SAE project.

Wednesday I started teaching my Animal/Vet science class which is also my smallest class. We started by doing an overview of the U.S. dairy industry, and focused on the general trends of the industry, as well as the top U.S. dairy states. In the afternoon I attended the monthly Jr. FFA meeting, and helped to guide and instruct them in making posters for FFA Week.

Thursday I focused on the dairy industry in PA, emphasizing that we are 5th in top dairy states in both production and number of cows; however, we are second in the total number of dairy operations. I had the students take turns reading various paragraphs of important information about the dairy industry in PA. As a review for the top U.S. dairy states at the end of the class, I had drawn a map of the US on the dry erase boards and had the students color in the top dairy states. I wasn't sure what they would think of it, but they really seemed to enjoy it, and more importantly they remembered them the next day (Friday) when I reviewed with them. (My biggest regret is that I forgot to take a picture)

Friday found me teaching about the 6 primary dairy cattle breeds... it still is a challenge to gauge how long various components of the lesson will take to teach; however, I think the more I get to know my students, the better I will be able to guesstimate how much they can handle, or how long it takes them to do an activity. My biggest accomplishment for the week is that I was able to learn the names of all of my students in my "first" class.

I am looking forward to this next week as I start teaching 2 more classes - Power Technology (electrical wiring), and Intro. to Agriculture (Horticulture). I plan to continue to work on learning "my" student's names, and learn about their interests. Mrs. Fay is also scheduled for Tuesday to go over the AET. I am excited to see what she has planned, and hopeful that she may be able to spark some ideas for those students who are still struggling to come up with a project since I am sure she has "seen it all" when it comes to SAE's!

Student Teaching Internship - Week 1

The beginning of this week found me at the 100th Annual Farm Show. Most of my first day was spent going back and forth between the pig holding pens and the small arena to watch "my" students show their pigs - many of them were showing pigs for the first time. While none of them placed high enough to be in the sale, the students had a lot of fun and more importantly got great experience.

Wednesday proved to be an interesting day as well. We left school around 6AM with 30 6th-12th grade students - a first time to take 6th and 7th grade students. Once arriving at the Farm Show complex, the students were instructed to stay in groups of 3 or more and meet back at the entrance at 3:45pm and younger students were to stay with upper class-men or an adult. I got 3 6th grade girls to my charge, and then the excitement began... so much drama! I quickly found out they were not at all interested in looking at the animals, plants, or really anything agriculture-related - they had been given too much (in my opinion) spending money, and it was burning a hole in their pocket; therefore nearly every vendor needed to be visited and money spent wherever possible... After some time, I decided that we were going to change things up and go look at Ag-related things anyway - after all that was the point of the trip! I'm not sure how much they took in or learned, but I tried... If I didn't keep them moving (literally), then they started begging to go look at more vendors or vamped-up the drama, and one girl kept trying to sneak off because she didn't want to go look at displays, animals and other Ag-related attractions... she did succeed once for a few min., but we found her and then I watched her like a hawk! It was a physically exhausting day, but when I reflected on my experiences, it made me really appreciate the way my parents raised me...

The remainder of the week was spent observing Mr. Hughes teach. This gave me the opportunity to closely observe how the students interacted throughout the class, what types of things he called them out for, which students continually act up, which students are really interested in the material and are trying to learn, as well as his teaching style. I had observed before, but never noticed some of those details... now having my eyes opened to some of those things, and knowing that it is going to be "my turn" to start teaching lessons next week, I found those details very important.
Accomplishments... I learned a few more student's names, and got to engage and help students in the Ag Mechanics classes...
Additionally, I got to wear the "teacher shoes" and get a little bit of experience being "in charge" when I saw a bunch of girls using grinders with their hair loose... I got a typical response... some students put their hair back immediately, others pretended to not hear and had to be personally "reminded"... Anybody know of any good safety videos on this???

As I plan for next week, Monday is an Act 80 day, Tuesday is reserved for working on the AET, and Wednesday I start teaching my first class - Animal/Vet Science (Overview of the Dairy Industry). I will continue to observe and help out with the other classes for the remainder of the week.

Final Presentation

... Will embed my video once I get a chance to edit it...