Culturing...

Culturing new ideas... program visit to Big Spring HS
- I started my week visiting Katie Andrews on Monday... (more on that in a separate blog post).

Culturing relationships... w/ students
 - Throughout this entire semester, I have been culturing relationships with the students - not friend relationships, but student to teacher relationships... relationships of trust, expectations, and responsibility.
For example, several months ago I brought in our miniature horse, so that students could learn basic horse care as well as have the opportunity to practice general animal care techniques such as taking body temperature, listening to the heart and respiration rates with a stethoscope, hoof care, and bandaging. I knew several of my 9th grade students were very interested in horses.

All of the sudden I had requests to sign passes from study hall so that they could work with the horse... The first time they came down I went to the barn with them, got the horse out, worked with her a little, and then had them demonstrate what I did to make sure they understood how to handle the horse. Since that time several students come down nearly every afternoon to take her outside to enjoy the grass (if the weather is nice), brush her, pick her hooves, etc. To just trust that they knew everything about working with the horse in the beginning would have been foolish, but as the year has progressed we have cultured a relationship of trust and responsibility. I know that when these students go out to take care of the horse they will take care of the horse, and they know that I have put that responsibility and trust on them, and they have proven their commitment to her care. Thursday, while I was out at the barn with them, I asked them if they would like to take the pony and all of the goats outside to pasture... their response? Can we really?! They all jumped in and worked together as a group to take the animals outside and keep tabs on them. Part-way through the class period, I got called in to meet with the assistant principal who had a few suggestions for my resume and teaching application. The bell rang and the students came back into class. Once again they rose to the occasion and showed their responsibility by working together and putting all of the animals away without my instruction. (My biggest regret... I failed to get a picture... the baby goats were having such a blast exercising their springs, and the students were beaming with smiles!)

Culturing cheese... in Animal/Vet Science

- This week I started my dairy unit; however, since I was so far behind in where I had hoped to be, I decided to start in with learning about proper milking procedures. We had 5 steps we outlined in the milking process, we discussed the importance of each step, then the students practiced each of the steps and tried their hand at milking on our live and very obliging goat models! Wednesday we learned about milk processing techniques such as pasteurization and homogenization. Thursday we learned about coagulation as it relates to cheese making. We were making chevre, a soft goat cheese. Our first step was to heat the milk to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, then add the culture (buttermilk), and rennet. I heard many comments throughout the process... are we going to eat this?, Eww, it smells funny, etc. :) The cheese sat overnight and coagulated forming the curd and separating from the whey.

At the beginning of school on Friday, I had one of the students help me drain off the whey, then we hung it in cheesecloth to continue draining. By 4th period we were ready to finish the cheese, and students still were skeptical. After I had students mix in the salt, I instructed them that they were to each make a flavor... do we have to eat it??? No, but I don't know why you wouldn't want to eat it... :) I hurriedly mixed up some horseradish dill flavored cheese, tasted it, and offered them to try it... After that the spark ignited, and they got very involved in flavoring their cheese, creating their unique flavors, and of course eating the cheese. They devoured an entire box of crackers in the process! When I asked what they thought of the lab at the end of class their primary comment was that I should have brought 2 boxes of crackers! :)  The students really enjoyed the lab, and were very involved. I had one of the students remark to me after class that she though that they were more involved as a class in that lab then what they had been in any other lab! I'm not totally sure if that was true, but they were definitely very engaged! Oh... and by the way... they said that goat cheese was awesome! Woohoo! Another positive perception of the dairy goat industry had been left with my students! If that isn't exciting for a crazy goat lady, I don't know what else is!

Mike also visited on Friday, and got to join in on the cheese sampling as well as get a tour of the facilities, and observe several classes.

One crazy, busy week has ended, and one busy week of student teaching remains! Bittersweet thoughts...