From Green Blazers To Blue Corduroys

What Makes Myself Unique Prompt: I n less than 2 minutes, what do you feel are the most important things we should know about you and your experiences.  In other words, what makes you stand out from the rest? Link: https://youtu.be/cyxlY76WcB8 To Be Continued . . .

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 ev...

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 int...

Weekly Recap: Being Decisive. Being Meaningful. This week I had my final formal observation.  One of the big points that Dr. Foster made is I need to be more decisive in my directions. thinking back I have found that often I struggle the most with being decisive and giving clearly expected directions.  I think part of my difficulty has just been getting use to being in the "teaching shoes."  For 5 years I have been the student and now this semester I am the teacher.  I need to adjust a bit more on giving clear instructions and expectations while I am teaching. It has been a difficult challenge for me trying to better predict where the challenges lie for students to understand a set of directions.  I also realize now that I often say the words would like you too when I really mean I want you too.  I need to not be afraid of being direct to my students in what is expected for all projects and directions.  I think as a student teacher this has be...

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....