From Green Blazers To Blue Corduroys

2nd Period Animal Science Defining the Why As I walked out the door on Friday I could help but remember that this is the end.  I successfully completed student teaching.  As I drove the hour and a half back to berks county I couldn't help but think to myself a couple of reflective questions. What was the point of student teaching? " The only source of knowledge is experience ." I think the student teaching experience taught me that the most.  The parts of a lesson I undervalued were things that in the beginning I struggled at.  Something that made an impact on me though, was being able to sit there and work on it. We go to college for all those years but we don't get a chance to demonstrate to ourselves teaching till you are teaching seven class periods in a day.  I think I gained experience and that was important.  In college we are told to be "Dewey Learners" but it isn't until student teaching does the concept of Learning by Doing really h

Mock Interview with Dr. Jones 12th Grade Principal With my final week of student teaching I was given a chance to have a mock interview with the 12th Grade Principal, Dr. Jones.  The Mock interview was a practice run through of what to expect as a person who would be interviewed in a job in a high school.  Here are the stuff I learned: Meet and Greet Today, more and more schools are starting the interview process with a meet and greet which is a lot like speed dating where based upon their first impressions they will decide to higher you or not. What They Will Already Have They will already have your resume, cover letters, and letters of reference.  What they won't have is evidence of your teaching, or a philosophy statement.  Brings those into a room to share. It is also a good idea to have a resume for you to look at. Q & A Time I am not going to lie, I was unprepared for every question he asked.  Dr. Jones recommended to me to write down every question he aske

Differences in Ag Ed Programs - #PSUAgEd18 Successes Going to visit Ms. Balmer, fellow member of #PSUAgEd18, I was nervous as to what to expect.  Ms. Balmer is student teaching in Tri-Valley High School home to the Tri-Valley FFA Chapter.  Here are my notes I learned while visiting. Ms Balmer Teaching in her classroom Gender Differences At Cumberland Valley School District I am teaching a a ratio of 4:1 Female:Male students.  At Tri-Valley that is the complete opposite.  As a result the classroom environment is very different.  Boys, especially high school boys, tend to forget to be professional which leads to them often saying or doing something inappropriate in class.  The big thing I saw was how Ms Balmer had complete control of that behavior.  The boys knew the rules and knew what needed to be done for class. I know that every program is different but one thing I learned is that sometimes you don't know what to expect till you come into the program.  Fleixibility i

Building Chicken Coops For my community based unit of instruction I had this great idea.  During #PSUAgEd2WI (Domestic Study Away to Wisconsin) I had the chance to learn about a philanthropic program called Pens for Hens.  Pens for Hens started out as a sustainable agriculture program that travelled to Haiti but then became a program which raises money to fund trips to Haiti to help towns in Haiti to build modernized chicken facilities.  These facilities would raise both meat birds for Haitians but also provide layer birds which would supply about an egg a bird a day to them as well. The purpose of a community based unit of instruction is to provide the community with the opportunity to work with the students.  Often when we think about community we think about the town we live in.  I wanted my students to think bigger. So here was the plan: 1) Students will build chicken coops. 2) Chicken coops would be marketed and sold to members in the community. 3) The profits wou

Being an Ag Teacher is just Ewe-tastic SAE Visits Filled with Sheep Finishing up my student teaching experience I got a chance to do a final SAE Visit. Two brothers that I had the privilege to teach this semester both raise sheep on the farm that I am staying at and so I had the chance to meet up with them and learn more about their operation. Both brother's share the responsibilities of raising the animals.  Often one of their parents will tag along but what I saw was more student working while the parent was supervising and making sure that the animals were being cared for.  This made me think that this experience was student driven which is a plus on an SAE visit.   Tried to take a picture of one of the lambs it decided that it wanted to try my phone as a mid day snack Both boys raise sheep (primarily cross-breeds they told me) with a collection of Ewes, Weathers  (or soon to be), Rams, and lambs.  When I asked one brother a question he would answer and the ot

Question: does the fire alarming going off during the South Central Regional PAAE meaning mean stuff was getting done or something else? The big lesson I learned from PAAE is how hard hosting can be for a regional meeting.  One thing I wouldn't have thought about: food. Like make sure you can feed a small army at a PAAE spring regional event because the State Officers will also be conducting a State Officer Orientation Meeting with FFA Members and talking about the process of becoming a state officer. Catering is the way to go.  Also charge a fee for students and advisors so you break even on the number that will attend. Another cool thing I learned is how to schedule rooms after hours.  This is important so that janitors know you are still in the building.  It will be especially useful when considering hosting events during the summer. The big thing I also learned having this experience is that as a young teacher this could be something that though is important t