From Green Blazers To Blue Corduroys

Alpacas and Cattle on this Exciting SAE Visit Reflective Blog Post on the Implementation of SAE Visits Part Two Visit Two: Dairy Placement For this visit we got to visit one of my students at her family Dairy Farm.  This visit I got the chance to see a student hard at work on her families dairy. This student showed me every aspect of her family's dairy operation and explained to me how at each aspect she plays a role in that side of the operation. We went in the milking parlor, walked around the calf hutches, went to where they keep the heifers and young bulls, to where they keep the cows nice and happy.  I got to see how she operates all aspects of the farm. Probably the best part of this observation with this student was seeing how she is thinking about what can she do to improve her farm after she graduates high school.  When asked about different ways this SAE has helped her she told me it made her see value in gaining additional experience to improve the agricultur

Alpacas and Cattle on this Exciting SAE Visit Reflective Blog Post on the Implementation of SAE Visits Part One Visit One: Bent Pine Alpaca Farm For this SAE visit I got the chance to visit and work with two individuals at once. Two of the students at Cumberland Valley both work at the Bent Pine Alpaca Farm.  Here they both have "Exotic Animal" SAE Projects where they raise and maintain alpacas.  This SAE for both of them started off as 4-H animals but then progressed once they got to high school to be full fledge FFA SAE projects. Prior to the trip we coordinated with both students to make sure they were there and ready for our visit.  Prior to the trip I got the addresses of both visits and collected a notepad and pen so I could take notes while I was on the road as well. The primary goal of this trip was to record information for them to both work on possible proficiency applications.  What I enjoyed about the visit was getting to see the work ethic the students

Running my First FFA Trip: Mr. Dietrich is in Charge at SLLC During Week Twelve Student Teaching Day 60: Weekly Reflection Objectives of the blog: Reflect on this weeks experience This week was a little intense. Here was the run down: Sunday - Tuesday: SLLC Wednesday: Snow Day Thursday: 2hr delay (taught for a total of 3 hrs.) Friday: Student Teaching In-service So what was my big take away this week?  I would say it was SLLC.  Why? I was given control as to what we were doing while at SLLC.  Originally we had planned that I would be the primary chaperone on the CV Spring Break Trip.  That trip was unfortunately cancelled.  As a result it became my job of planning the minor details of the trip. So what did I do?  I learned the details behind getting things such as school vans, registering school trips, how to get permission forms out, the list is long but it can get done at reasonable times.  A great tip I learned is take a day in August and reserve vans fo

Working on improving teaching objectives and teaching goals in Week Eleven Student Teaching Day 55: Weekly Reflection Objectives of the blog: Reflect on this weeks experience With a completion of Week Eleven I am starting to gain confidence back into my lessons everyday. One of things I've been doing that a little different each week now than prior is I have been writing out the different strategies that I am going to use in a class as well. I am not longer just writing down my bell works, ticket outs, learning objectives, like I was weeks prior. I am not including things which make my plans for each week "mini-lesson plans" just without the whole summary of learning and all of the finer details.  The real problem: Learning how to eat multiple "frogs" at the same time I have found this to help me because I can look at my overall week and reflect on how each day has gone and from there come up with a game plan on what my next week will loo

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day 45 Mr. Dietrich vs Seniors and Their Senioritis Essential Question for this week: What is something you learned this week while student teaching? This week I have begun to detect the worse contagion in the senior students out there: I find it very intriguing how some of the students look at what they are learning like "Oh I am almost done and I should just not do anything." And then I have to think about ways I can get them motivated. This has also been a fun challenge for me as well. I often find myself trying new ways to keep the class engaging.  For example when introducing methods of creating GMOs with the seniors I found it to be easiest when they each looked up one type and then shared out-loud something that they learned. Of course now the comment made in the classes are: "Mr. Dietrich, when are we going to be back in the lab?" I also found ways to connect to students even more and make the things

The Journey of Student Teaching: Day 40 Weekly Reflection: How weeks are filled with ups and downs Essential Question for this week: What is something you learned about this week? Trying to get into the flow of teaching is like sailing on the sea. There will be ups and downs.  Some days are going to go really good, while other days are going to go poorly.  Being a student teacher is learning how to address those ups and downs as you go.  The hard part I have found about student teaching is how to remind myself that I am a good teacher and not let a single bad lesson chop up the seas for the rest of the day. Though I have been at this for a while now my biggest challenge is my students voicing that a lesson is bad. Instead of them saying anything I have found that more often than not my students prefer to simply tap out and quit learning.  I have found it tough then to get the students to voice their concerns with me or their confusion.  So naturally I don't f