From Green Blazers To Blue Corduroys

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day Twelve Special Class Reflection: A Different Look at Teaching Shop Safety Essential Questions for Today:  Look back and Reflect upon your experiences of Week One. During my experiences at the National FFA Convention during the Pre-Student Teaching Inquiry Based Instruction Workshop I attended one of the last questions we were asked was: "How were we taught shop safety" Though I didn't have an Ag Shop Safety I can say that I was taught shop safety through my experiences in Project Lead the Way.  When I try to remember how I learned shop safety I think it went something like this: Teacher Lectured I was bored Teacher gave us a test I was bored One of the questions we were asked then as future teachers is: "If this is how we were taught how can we use Inquiry Based Instruction  to make a lesson on safety more important for the students?" Look at IBI I can see that the old way of teaching shop safety wa...

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day 15 Third Week Reflections: Teaching the Why of an Activity Essential Questions for this Week: What did you learn this week while student teaching? In my third week at Cumberland Valley I can now say I am teaching for most of the week. I am getting to work with the Intro to Ag Students as they begin the Plant Sciences Lesson in the CASE AFNR lesson.  Though there are two classes I am learning that each moves at their own pace especially when it comes to the expectations of completing an assignment.  Today was the final day of completing the build a complete flower model. In the one class I have about 16 of the 20 flowers completed, with labels, and with their names on and students expecting to get them back with a grade. The other section only 10 of 18 got done.  I will need to work on not just keeping students on track but also working on improving the understanding of a lesson as well.  [Update: On Monday they all wer...

 The Journey of Student Teaching: Day Ten Second Week Reflections: When Weather Changes Your Plans Essential Questions for this Week: What did you learn this week while student teaching? This week of student teaching was certainly interesting. Originally I was suppose to begin teaching Tuesday. Like a good student teacher I tried to get prepared for a weeks worth of lessons by having everything ready and all I would have to do is print out some papers, get all of the materials gathered up, and teach my first lesson. Then the principal gets on the speakers and announces an early dismissal with both of my classes not happening today. So my first class got bumped back one day. Then Wednesday Morning the school announced a district wide snow day. So again my lessons got pushed back to Thursday. So Thursday I was teaching no ifs, ands, or buts. Teaching on Thursday and Friday here are the notes I took: I need to practice pacing, and recognizing how long it will take...

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day Five First Week Reflection: Total Three Circle Immersion at Cumberland Valley Essential Questions for Today:  Look back and Reflect upon your experiences of Week One. Looking back to week one I can't help but begin to understand the importance of the three circle model and getting students to follow it.  In college we are told "Use the Three Circle Model" but we never truly see the 3 Circle model used.  What I found value in this week was I got to interact with both Agriscience Teachers and see how their system implements the 3 Circle Model.  Intro to Agriculture Class Talking About Hereditary Traits in Humans Classroom Instruction / Laboratory Implementation - Something I learned here is students will make connections that you don't realize are connections.  One of the students said in the Animal Science Dissection Activity that the spleen looks a lot like the sponge used to water hermit crabs....

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day Three  Science Classroom Visit: Exploring Science Education at Cumberland Valley High School Essential Questions for Today: What are the teaching techniques used in a traditional science classroom? What can I use in my classroom that will make my own classes more science-based? When I think about my own ideal Agricultural Classroom I can't help but think about STEM in the Ag Classroom.  Which means that I want to see how the science standards are taught in a science classroom.  So this is why I was excited to visit an actual science classroom this week.  I visited with Mrs Anderson's Physics class.  Mrs. Anderson was teaching a lesson on 7 different situations of momentum and using an experiment to let the students determine the answers themselves.   Major instructions that were on the board for students to follow. What I saw Mrs. Anderson use would be what I'd consider Inquiry Based Instr...

Personal Teaching Philosophy To me when asked what is my personal teaching philosophy I find it tough to fully explain. Must of where I have come from influence my teaching philosophy but I am also excited to see where my teaching will take me. To me being an agriscience teacher is a lot but to me there are some things I know I believe in:                 I believe in Agricultural Education and its future in educating all individuals in society .   Today’s agricultural classroom has students with diverse backgrounds and unique reasons for choosing an agricultural classroom. As an agriscience educator it is my job to welcome and teach all that wish to learn. I believe as an educator it is my duty to provide to my students an experience which not only drives them to be better agriculturalists but also develops in them a respect for the agricultural industry. This respect will make my students agricul...

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day One Field Trip: The 102nd Pennsylvania Farm Show and the 89th PA FFA Mid-Winter Convention Essential Questions for Today: #PSUAgEd18 Student Teachers Feelings How do you best handle an early dismissal while on a field trip with students? What does Mid-Winter Convention mean to the students? I am super excited to announce the first official blog post of the new year.   This also means that I am officially beginning my student teaching experience. When I try to imagine what I expected for my first day I kind of anticipated something that was more like an orientation to the program. Then I realized that with everything in the Agricultural Education community that was last week.  Now its time to be dived right into the deep end of sorts. Waiting to get onto the buses Task Item One: Chaperoning an Field Trip That was the fun part. Chaperoning can sound scary at first when you look at it but it really is just the basics ...