Egg-citing things are happening!

The weeks are zooming by...
Since we had off Monday and Tuesday, it was another rather short week...

Wednesday, Dr. Rice visited for my second evaluation, and egg-citing things were happening in my

Introduction to Agriculture course. We had started incubating eggs the previous week, so the students learned about the parts of the egg and also got to candle eggs. The students were very excited with my interest approach... first I broke a bantam egg into a dissecting tray, followed by a chicken egg, and then the climatic GOOSE EGG! The students were very awed and intrigued with the size of the goose egg. In reflecting on the class, I think the lesson would have been better if I would have had students work in groups of 2 for ID'ing the parts of an egg activity - that way more students would have been able to be more directly involved, and learning the parts of the eggs might have been easier if I would have allowed them to break their egg into the tray earlier in the lesson.

 This little piggy... was being a good sport... with just a little coaching... :) Students had the opportunity to practice their bandaging skills on the pig, goats, a pony, and heifers! If I had a favorite part of the FFA motto, it would definitely be "learning by doing"! All of my students got involved and seemed to really enjoy the learning opportunity... even the students who sometimes drag their feet...
I have noticed that some of my students in my animal/vet science labs are sometimes "afraid" of doing an activity with the animals (Ex. injections and hoof trimming)... Sometimes I get the question..."What if I mess up or hurt the animal?" to which I usually reply... It's okay... Go ahead and try... I'm right here watching you... I'll walk you through it the first time... If you have any questions you can always ask, etc.
Why do I think this time went better? The students are getting more confident and comfortable working with the animals, and I think that they all felt that it was a goal/challenge set within their reach, but without as much pressure of "messing up"... I think I'm getting closer to reaching my goal of teaching these students how to provide basic care for various animals, so that they have the knowledge to be educated and responsible animal owners if they choose that path! So exciting! I hope to continue with these labs so that my students feel confident, accomplished, and knowledgeable enough to know how to research or seek out help if needed.

Thought I'd share just one more photo... the students were busily working in the

greenhouse, and Mr. Hughes had to meet with the supervisor to finalize a grant, so I helped keep tabs on his class and keep them busy... I would not have volunteered to do this earlier in the year... they were my most challenging and stressful class...
Funny note though... they were "de-flowering" the geraniums this week and one of the boys collected all of the flowers, brought them to me, and asked for an "A" in the class... I told him that was bribery, and that he couldn't pick me a big enough bouquet... :) ... This student was also the the one that told the substitute teacher that he was taking me to the prom... you should have seen her face :D... the crazy things students say...