My Summer After Student Teaching

For anyone who has followed my blog, deciding on a title for this blog was most challenging. You see, I haven't written a blog post since the end of my student teaching - If I would have they might have been titled, "Recovering from the Past", "Still Dealing with the Scars", or "Dealing with Blog and Technology Phobia". You may ask, why? The most simple and most basic way I can put it is that I was burnt on school and the overload of expectations - mentally and physically I was exhausted. It was literally so bad that I could hardly stand to look at a computer - let alone type something or check my email. Anything related to my student teaching for several months made me feel instantly stressed and under pressure even though it was over.

Over the summer of 2016, God brought a very special young man back into my life. We went to high school together, but didn't keep in contact too much after I went to college. He was just what I needed. Someone to listen to me as I unburdened the load of mental anguish, stress, and school-related fears that I carried that last year of college and during my student teaching. Life was like a tunnel with seemingly no end as I had to repeatedly stand for my beliefs,  work multiple jobs to try to make ends meet while carrying 25 credits, and then I would go home - only to find that things on our small farm were trying to fall apart, and my dreams seemed to be crashing around me.

If it wouldn't have been for the Lord's help, I would have never made it. God was there with me throughout it all! I know my parents and grandparents were praying too. Many times my mom would tell me, "Just hang on, and keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel", or "Remember the 3 Hebrew children? - Don't Bend, Bow, or Burn" or "God has a plan. Just keep trusting Him." I'm so thankful for the God's guiding hand, the wisdom of my mother, and a true friend when everything else looked dismal and nearly hopeless! 

I'm thankful to report that I did recover. Yes, there are still some unpleasant memories, but I can now focus on the positive things, the unique opportunities, and the knowledge and wisdom I gained from the experience. Now in my second year of teaching I can honestly say that I love teaching. (Most days 😜)

Final thoughts on my teaching internship...

I learned a lot...
Student teaching certainly stretched me (some days more than others). I encountered new behaviors (ones I had never seen before), worked on trying to differentiate instruction to multiple levels of students within one class, and helped juggle the many "extra" responsibilities that come with teaching Agriculture.

Definitely a growing experience...
Most of my students were clearly not raised the way I was raised. Unfortunately, many of my students came from broken homes lacking in both love and discipline. Swearing is everyday language, and being rude, ignorant, disrespectful, or dishonest is the "norm".  Dealing with these many situations, was definitely challenging. With some students I was able to make decent progress on their behavior and earned their respect. As a result, these students gave me much fewer problems in class. Others were not "conquered" and were a constant challenge.

Students...
Students come in all sizes, shapes, ages, and from vary varied backgrounds. What's new, right? Well for me it took time to learn their names. Once I knew their names, classroom management became easier, and I became more personable to them. They knew that I was taking the time to learn their names, and that showed that I was interested in them.

Classroom Management...
Although this is not one of my strongest areas, I definitely feel that I have made progress in this area, and learned some different tactics for dealing with various situations. My biggest struggle remains with high school senior boys; however, even toward the end of my teaching internship, they eventually came around for the most part. The other challenge for me is the variety of "new" things/challenges/situations I encounter regularly... hopefully time and experience will eventually pay off in this area.

Hands-on instruction...
I love hands-on instruction!!! I am a very strong kinesthetic learner myself. Tell me and I will forget unless I write down every word, but show me and then let me practice, and I probably won't ever forget! I love to incorporate as many hands-on experiences as possible for my students; however, unfortunately there are limits depending on available resources, the budget, and the number of students in the class. Thankfully, I was able to bring in our pony and a pregnant goat to the school which gave me many hands-on/lab opportunities for my animal/vet science class. I was also able to work with the local florist to purchase floriculture supplies at a very reasonable price which allowed me to incorporate some unique kinesthetic opportunities for my Plant and Soil Science students.

Agriculture...
I love agriculture, and my passion is agriculture. If I were to breakdown my passions within Agriculture I would have to create a list... Dairy Goats, Large Animal Vet Medicine, Animal Nutrition, Horse Training and Handling, Equine Science, Dairy Science, Food Science, Floriculture, Plant Propagation, etc. I really enjoy helping others with their agriculture projects... I am particularly interested in helping people improve herd health and profitability which is why I enjoy teaching Animal/Vet science because I have the opportunity to give my students the knowledge as well as some hands-on skill training to be successful, or to improve their farm and/or animal projects. My favorite lessons were when we problem solved real-life situations in my animal/vet science class.

Non-paid internships...
Reality is... tuition isn't free or cheap, and then there is rent, food, fuel, etc. We go to our cooperating centers, without a job, and somewhere we are supposed to find a money tree, or save money while we are in college just for this semester, or get our parents to pay our expenses, or ??? I find it frustrating that there are no funds available to even pay us a small stipend when we are paying full tuition and not even on campus utilizing resources. To top that off, our cooperating centers are burdened with additional expenses to meet the "Penn State Requirements" for experiences, and the $500 they do get doesn't even pay our National FFA Convention expenses!... Changes are needed...

Mock Interview

I interviewed our principal assistant for my mock interview.  The interview process lasted approximately 15 minutes.

During the interview I was asked the following questions:

      1.) Tell me about yourself…

      2.) Tell me what you know about IEP's

      3.) Describe to me your computer literacy

      4.) Describe what a complete education program would look like

 

After the interview was over, she spent another approximately 15-20 min. talking about my strengths and weaknesses as well as some tips and suggestions for strengthening my resume and teaching application.

Her comments to me were that I interviewed really well, have a lot of experience, and am passionate about agriculture and students. My biggest fault was that I gave her too much information too quickly… she couldn’t keep up with taking notes and missed a good portion of what I told her. She also suggested that I brush up on my IEP knowledge. One of my strongest answers was of what a complete Ag Ed program should entail… I talked about the 3-circle aspect… apparently I’ve heard the jargon enough times and picked up enough through student teaching to understand and regurgitate it in a sensible fashion even though I wasn’t in FFA myself…

Below is the list of the questions I asked my interviewer:

1.) Where are graduates of the Ag Program working within industry?

      2.) Where do you see the Ag Program 10 years from now?

3.) From your perspective, what is/are the biggest benefit(s) of the Ag program to the high school?

I was most impressed with the feedback I got after the interview, as well as the smoothness of the overall interview process – no unimpressive feedback to give! My only drawback was trying to find a time for the interview that would fit in the assistant principal’s busy schedule. It was a great experience that allowed me to gain some insight on administrations’ view of the Ag program, and gave me the opportunity to get to know the assistant principal on a more personal level – rather than the quick “hi” in the hallway!

Community Based Unit of Instruction

While I had originally planned on utilizing just my students in my electrical wiring class, I also decided to
include students in my Animal/Vet science class as well. Students in my electrical wiring class focused on electrical safety primarily, while students in my animal/vet class focused on the animal care aspect and eliminating hazards in a barn. Students from both of these classes helped clean and tidy the barn area in readiness for the event.

The flyer (right) was used for advertising the event, and was posted around the school and in the local grocery store. Three local volunteer fire companies were invited to participate and be a part of this event and were contacted via phone calls and emails.

Post card sized handouts were provided to all participants as a visual reminder for themselves, or to share with someone in their community.

Several volunteer fire company members from the community gave a short presentation on some of the most common situations they encounter with barn fires and working with animals, and shared some tips for prevention. I then had the opportunity to provide a demonstration dealing with a spooked horse at the event, and discussed different methods for getting spooked animals under control and calmed down. After my demonstrations with the horse, several brought up how they could also apply the same strategies when dealing with Amish horses involved in accidents. This led to them asking more questions, and I had the opportunity to go a little more in depth on animal behavior and some possible responses to various situations.

Participants seemed to really enjoy the event, and remarked how beneficial the animal handling techniques and hands-on experience was to them... and of course everybody enjoyed working with the baby goats!

No funding was needed for this event. The fire company members volunteered their time, and also offered their Jr. members credit hours to attend the event, so it was beneficial to all involved.

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...

Ag Program visit - Big Spring

First impressions... I love all of the cabinets and book shelves... and the individual student desks!

On Monday, April 11th I had the opportunity to visit Katie Andrews at Big Spring High School. While there I had the opportunity to observe students in an Animal/Vet class utilizing the 1 to 1 technology they have in their school. I also observed a plant and soil science class transplanting various flower types. During their Leadership class they were busy making banquet preparations, so I jumped into the assembly line and folded their invitations. At the end of the day I observed Katie teach her equine science class, and had fun joining in on the classroom discussion and helping answer questions.

Overall it was a great experience, and allowed me the opportunity to observe block schedule classes, as well as the 2 classroom/ 2 teacher dynamics. Being used to teaching 42min. classes, the block scheduling would certainly have some advantages - especially when doing labs; however, I'm sure there would be drawbacks as well.

Professional Development through the CPPD

My cooperating teacher, myself, and other Ag teachers and student teachers in the western PA region were able to attend a professional development meeting held at Hoss's restaurant in Indiana, PA. In exchange for the price of our meal, each one was responsible for bringing a project, lesson plan, etc. to share with the entire group. I chose to share a lab worksheet on fecal analysis that I developed for an Animal/Vet Science course. My cooperating teacher shared a design for a horseshoe cactus welding project that can be used to hold hanging flower baskets. Throughout the evening we shared stories, and experienced teachers offered their words of wisdom from classroom management to working with school administration. Student teachers were also given the opportunity to ask any questions we might have concerning teaching or finding a job. Toward the end of our meal, Mr. Frederick handed out free posters, flyers, bulletins, etc. for us to use for teaching. Overall it was a very enjoyable meeting (excluding the fact that it went so late), and I was able to garnish many useful resources.