Week 10

Monday

8th Grade - First period is always my rougher period. There is a lot more students, they are a lot more talkative and I never feel prepared. I really need to work on this. A lot, it is not fair to them that my first period kind of stinks, but my second period is good. That is what happened today, my second period was better. I tend to be a lot better second period because I know what worked and what didn't work with first period. I really need to work with getting my first period better. I am going to create a seating chart to try to break up my boys in the back and see if that will get them to listen a little bit better. I tend to teach to the front of the class because the students up there are engaged and want to learn, where as my outlying students are not as interested and engaged in the lesson.

Leadership- Today I had the students complete a little bit of little professor. I had each table working on a different topic, we had soil ph, nutrients, nutrient deficiencies, and how plants take up N, P and K. The groups worked together and created presentations to teach their class about their topic. I believe this worked okay, I am having some issues with groups working to the best of their abilities.

Ag Mechanics - Today we worked on getting our engines cleaned to be able to put them back together. I had talked to one of my students and Dr. Ewing about how to get this one stinking piece off of an engine. They both suggested that maybe there was a little piece of the back of it that could be loosened with an allen wrench. THERE WAS NO SUCH THING! And the grinder was not really working, so then they had to use to torch to get it off. The one student that I was talking to last week said he would be in my class today to work in his other class and help me if I needed it for that engine. I wanted to let the group work on their own engine, but they didn't know how to use the torch, and the student that promised me that he knew how to use the torch....did know how to use it, but he wasn't the best at it so I had the student that came to help them, work with the other students to get the piece off. It is amazing how much the other students respect this one student. I mean I know he is a senior, but he is really just a relaxed guy that everyone likes. I was happy to have a helper with that project. Mr. Stollar and I kept ourselves busy helping other groups and aiding them as they cleaned their engines.

Tuesday

Today I went on a field trip to Penn Tech. We toured the forestry, horticulture and diesel mechanics departments. These students are so impressive, they were not on their phones at all, listened to the presents, shushed other students if they started talking. They are a very mature group in that aspect and know then to act grown up. They did not ask a lot of questions, but I think that they were also just soaking it all in. A student in my ag mechanics class was especially interested in the diesel mechanics. The tour guide said that the major fills up really quickly and after he said that he came over and asked me very seriously and politely if I could help him apply so he could get on the list. I said that I would and I also told him to talk to the tour guide teacher, which he did, and got a business card. He asked him how much tuition was and his eyes kind of got big with the answer, but I know there will be a lot of scholarship opportunities for him. There was also a Penn Tech student that kept talking to me that I asked a couple questions about regarding scholarships and other campus life and I called the student over and he was very attentive to who I was talking to and I encouraged him to ask questions as well.  I am really happy for this student and hope that he will actually go to Penn Tech after he graduates. I think it will help him acquire a bright future.

On the bus ride home some of the students sat closer to me to talk. We exchanged fishing and hunting stories and they told me some nice areas to go hiking in the Dover area. I asked Mr. Stollar if I needed to schedule a oil change or if you are just supposed to show up at the shop, which then started a discussion with my students and they all want to change my oil, but I don't know if I trust them thatttt much. They were also yelling at me for not knowing how to do it myself and how dare I. They also asked me a lot of technical questions...that I did not have answers to. Probably should not have asked about engine related things in front of my engines class. Oops.

Wednesday

8^th grade – they are taking the PSSAs right now so I did not have to go over there and I got two full periods of prep. I was super excited for all that free time alone….little did I know I was so popular. A girl that has an independent study with Mr. Stollar came in to get a computer and her and I got started talking about horses and her future plans and being a college student and if she should create a horse judging team for states. She then decided she wanted to work in my room since everyone was being productive in the shop as well. Then another girl came in to talk to Mrs. B then stuck around, we talked about her SAE project and she helped me prep since she can sign onto a school laptop and print to the ag room. They are both great girls and I am glad that they can seek me out and talk to me. The one especially needs a good female role model.

Leadership- Phew. Today, I actually yelled. Like really yelled. I kept kind of yelling when students were not listening to their peers when they were giving answers. I then really yelled when a student jumped across another one to grab cookies.  I guess the ag business students told Mrs. B that I did a good job and that it was about time I yelled at them. I then yelled later on when two students were messing with each other’s projects and started to shove each other across the classroom. They decided they were going to stop and that they did not want morning detention to learn how to sit correctly in a chair. But besides all that hog wash, I think I actually did a good job with reviewing today. I decided to cut an activity in half and finish it tomorrow because I didn't think there would be enough time to do it justice, so I had the student’s complete three questions for a ticket out then we reviewed the objectives and their ticket out as a class. I tried really hard to not get angry with the student but with the situation, I think they found that out, because I didn't get hostile to the rest of the class. But, of course they also had to be extra bad this week when I have already been battling a head cold. Some of the students told me my face got really red and I said well it is kind of hard to yell when you can’t breathe as it is.

AG Mechanics – Today we kept cleaning out engines as well as start to reassembly them. I helped a student look up what he needed to do in order to apply to Penn Tech, and I talked with each of the groups to see how they are doing. Tecumshe look really weird on the inside, like random parts and I’m like dude, I don’t know what that is. Yesterday the students saw me send a snapchat so now some of them call me mrs.snapchat and they keep trying to stalk me on social media outputs. However, they will never find me. Muahahaha. Mrs. B suggested having the student’s snapchat each other engine parts then they have to identify the part within the 10 seconds of seeing it. The ag mechanics class is really goofy. I really get along well with the students now, I just sometimes feel like I am not in control because I don’t know everything. But that is what this experience is for, to learn along with the students. And, I am at least impacting them with small social skills because I have had conversations with all of them and know about their lives and their stories.

Thursday

8th Grade - PSSA testing so I stayed at the high school and worked on assignments. Mrs. B stayed behind today as well rather than traveling.

Leadership- As part of the bellwork it was to ask them what they learned yesterday. A lot of my gentleman had smart answers such as to not jump across the room or shove each other. This made me laugh, and I told them I meant content wise. I got two really great answers. One from one of my interesting gentleman and one from a girl. They essentially said they realized how many people were dying from a lack of food and how they have never realized it before. That is the answer I was looking for. I want my students to think about more than just themselves and how to feel bad and have empathy for other people.

Ag Mechanics - I have finally reached the sweet spot with them! I brought the extra candy with me to their class. Today we went over why torque is important on engines. Our frequent visitor to class had the correct answer, so he got a snickers. Then everyone wanted to talk and we had a really good discussion. We went out into the shop and kept working on cleaning our engines. The students fixed the cleaning station in the back, so there was a bit of a line of students to start to clean their engines. Other students were ordering new parts for their engines. A group asked me to help them use the puller to get the crankcase off. I have never used one of these and for all the other groups either they already knew how to use it or Mr. Stollar worked with them. It was with a super friendly group so I was like ehhh we can learn by trial and error. We were working on it for a while, mostly laughing that we had no clue what was going on, then two other gentlemen were sent over and they were like we got this. Except when they said this, it wasn't mean, it wasn't with them rolling their eyes. They just got to work and demonstrated how to do it. It is amazing how much rapport works with students. Class is so much easier now that we all work well together. The students want to tell me about their lives. They also were trying to guess my age which was quite funny as well. I like this class a lot now.

One student in ag mechanics was walking back from lunch and I waved at him while I was waiting for my leadership class to come back and he ran up to me and gave me a goofy hug, and I gave him a one arm pat. I am glad that he was in a good mood since he was at his grandmothers funeral yesterday. He is a gooofy kid. I am so happy that my ag mechanics class is going so much better now.

Friday

8th grade- Stayed at the high school and did work. Students visited, maybe convinced them to bring me coffee Monday because they love me and miss me in horticulture class.

Leadership - Its Friday. It is always so weird how much students personalities change on Fridays. Some were doing a really good job at paying attention...that typically don't, while others that are usually really good, were off the wall hyper. Today I went over the rubric of what they will be graded on for the Developing 21st Century Ag Advocates unit. Aka my community based unit. Students will be posting on twitter and instagram about #dlead4hunger and will be sharing facts and what we are doing in our class to fight hunger. They will also be completing blog posts and working on a group project that includes either print or digital media to get students to bring canned food into our classroom. My interesting child is assigned to take the minutes for class every day. He does just a good job with derailing me when I am trying to teach. I really need to get meaner with him. His questions are not relevant and he is distracting.

Ag Mechanics - Well while Mr. Stollar is out at the Bahamas....my students were checking out the substitute. I am glad she kind of hung out in the office rather than in the shop. That would have been too many distracted boys. But we did our regular intro, groups worked on their projects. I told them today would be the last day for cleaning and everyone must be ready to reassemble on Monday. I gave individual demonstrations on how to measure the piston ring gap and talked about why it is important. Mrs. B and I came up with a way to review before the students leave for the day. I decided it was not worth herding the students back into the classroom and trying to get them to shut up in order to review....so instead, I have flash cards of parts and tools that I quiz the students on. Today was the first day trying that and  lot of them got really into it, which was exciting.

5th Period - A girl from horticulture class came to meet with me to discuss her creating an SAE project. She currently comes on weekends and stays after school sometimes to take care of the plants in the greenhouse. This girl does a lot of cool things and I think she would be a great asset to FFA which she is not currently apart of. I think I have her pretty hooked, but I really hope she sticks with it. 

Week 9

Monday 

8th Grade - I observed them again today. They are a different breed, I swear. It will really be interesting. It is cool that I get so many different experiences to really be able to compare middle school vs high school. I will start teaching tomorrow as we review for the animal terminology quiz.

Leadership - Today we started my community based unit, Developing 21st Century Ag Advocates. Today we learned about local and global hunger. For my interest approach I split the class into highly developed countries, developed countries and developing countries. We had our own version of a hunger dinner, expect it was with peanuts and m&ms. A student in the ag business class gave my starving countries cup cakes which I had to confiscate! They are supposed to be starving and sharing three peanuts among them...not eating cupcakes! We then read 5 different stories of situations across the world about starving families. I had the students read the stories and another students capture their responses on the board. We then looked up hunger statistics. I ran out of time for my lesson because we had a two hour delay today. :(

Ag Mechanics - I talked a lot with my aunt, who is a teacher, this weekend, and we think the best way to approach the class is to have it really student centered and have a lot of it be inquiry based. Now, I have changed my bellwork to an essential question or two of what they need to be able to answer by the end of class while they take apart their engines. Today they were supposed to be able to tell me why their flywheel was important. I told them to look it up in their manuals and figure it out. I then went around to the different groups and quizzed them on it and explained why it is important and how it works. There are so many different engines in that class...they really need individualized instruction. They also pay attention better since they are learning more in a one on one environment and they have the engine right in front of them to be able to reference and be like ohhh so that is what she is talking about.

Tuesday 

8th Grade - So today I taught 8th grade for the first time. We reviewed the terminology for the animal science quiz they have tomorrow. I also got to be a real teacher all by myself. Mrs. B had to give a presentation for the high school students to help them pick classes for next semester. She got someone cover her 8th grade class while I taught. However, I think that the person that was supposed to cover forgot, because they came for the last ten minutes of their second period. The classes went great though. I had them review their notes then we did a group activity where they had to fill out the chart without their notes and without talking. Every thirty seconds they switched the paper and either filled in the charts or changed their classmates answers depending if they were correct or not. After that we started reading the second part of their notes to learn more about the uses of animals. I had the students read then we talked about the products that come from the large animal industry.

By the end of class I was really happy with how everything went. I also got super hyper and happy with how the day went and Mr. Stollar and the one girl that has an independent study during our prep period laughed at me and said they wanted some of my happiness.

Leadership - I am not happy with how this class is going. I feel like I am not as good as a teacher as what I was when I first started with them. I think I need to be more confident. It is not that I am feeling unconfined, but sometimes Mr. Stollar tells me that I am too relaxed and too chill. I need to be more assertive like how my horticulture students told me for my teacher surveys. Mrs. B wrote down that one of my star children gets me derailed. Which he can be quite distracting. I think I need to be more organized about....I don't even know. I feel that it is hard to get class started since I wait for them to finish their bellwork then I have to regain their attention and ag business is talking, but I need them to focus on me rather than what the other class is doing. I just need to be better with this class. I think it will go better the next two days because we are doing similar things as to what I did in horticulture class, so I will have already taught it once.

Ag Mechanics - This class went really well today. My one student that is typically so loud and just so full of energy was actually quiet today. It kind of freaked me out. But later on in the class he called me over.... and his repair manual was open without me asking! He was having troubles getting his cam gear out of his engine. I helped him look up the directions in the repair manual and together we looked at how to do it and I told him to try it and I would come back later. He got it out by following the directions. I was so proud of him for going to his repair manual first rather than asking me. Another group with a techumseh engine had a part on it, I have no clue what it is, we couldn't find it in the repair manual, we worked on it for a long time, none of us could figure it out, but one of the senior boys that has work release was in the shop working on homework for another class was in there and I called him over since he liked to tinker with things. He solved our problem in two seconds. The students I was working with and myself all did a face palm at the same time. How on earth had we missed that simple step??

The really good thing about ag mechanics I think is that the students are realizing that I don't know everything... but that it is okay, because I will work with them and help them look up things in the repair manuals and we will find the answers together. They sometimes tease me like "you don't know what this is??" and I'm like dude, I have never worked with a techumseh or a honda engine before. And they let me go and we figure it out.

The one problem today in class was that one group was not doing their work. And these students are the ones that are really "interested" in small gas engines. They had worked on a truck for the first part of class, but didn't ask me about if they could or not and when I asked them about it they said that they asked Mr. Stollar because he is the real teacher. I said no, I am the teacher until I leave in April, you have to direct those questions towards me. I don't know what to do about those two. I am going to make them work closer to the other groups tomorrow.

Wednesday

8th Grade - So I couldn't really speak today. I kept saying words wrong and kind of slurring them together. Don't worry, it was just a Jeanne moment, not anything else. A student said goggles as something that people typically wear for food safety and I started writing google and we had a laugh about not writing google. They had a good time taking their quizes and a lot of them finished quickly and correctly. The girls are really funny, they hush the boys in the class. One of the boys asked me if he was my favorite but I told him I am not allowed to have favorites. I was honestly nervous about teaching 8th graders but it is going really well so far. Although, I guess it is the honey moon period for them. Hope it stays positive.


Leadership - Class went well today. It was a CDE day so we were learning about agronomy. I four stations set up around the room. One where they had to look up their homes on the soil maps, another where they had to prep for a lab tomorrow, another where they practiced using the soil triangle, and lastly one where they completed a soil ribbon test. The students were mostly on task. Well, they all were expect for one individual who typically is not on task. However, I had a participation grade today and whenever I caught him off task he lost a point. By the end of class he was actually being focused. Another student that I use to have problems with, I sat her with a group of just girls and I am getting a lot more out of her. She is doing well. I think the students liked being able to do different hands on activities and I hope that this class can really start improving.

Ag Mechanics - Today we started to learn about carburetion. I had two of the students attempt to demonstrate a venturi, but they did not have a good enough lung capacity. After we went over the basics of carburetion, we went out to the shop. Three groups are done and they started to help the other groups as well. The students that I had issues with yesterday, apologized to me today, which is very mature of them. They said that they didn't mean it the way it sounded. They asked me for help with getting the cam shaft out of the engine today and I told them to look it up in the repair manual. They then at least got a repair manual out, and said that even another student got it out yesterday and was using it without me having to prompt them. They asked that student to help and I don't think they looked it up correctly, but group collaboration is good as well.

Thursday 

8th Grade- Class went well today. We went over how to ear notch pigs and how to correctly read them. I don't know how to relate to 8th graders, they are a different breed. They have a lot of energy....and it isn't negative energy...they are excited to learn this information. I need to join them in their excitement and need to be a little more chipper in the morning.

Leadership - We worked through our lab work with the different soil textures and layers. I am starting to really come down on a student that is always messing around on my class. I am trying not to give him an inch and trying to get him to work harder in class and try to make him not mess around so much. After that we went through a powerpoint and related it to our lab. There was also a sexual joke in class without the student meaning to, and the whole class started laughing. I forget what exactly I said, but Mrs. B left a note on my desk saying that I handled it well.

Ag Mechanics - I had emailed a Penn Tech Professor to ask him how a student should prepare to go to college and today I finally got an email back. I gave it to the student interested in diesel mechanics and told him to read it. I didn't really talk to him that much about it, but I wanted him to process it and think about it, then if he wanted to, we could talk about it. I helped other students take apart their engines. Today was kind of a relaxed day, some rest and relaxation. We then went to an assembly with the whole school. There was a teacher band which was really cool!


Friday

 If I was at school I would have been planning and working on grades from the previous marking period. Instead, I was in State College for the second student teaching workshop. It is kind of insane that we only have five weeks left in our cooperating centers. I know that it is going to just fly by. I really hope I am affecting my students in a positive way. I am going to throw myself into these next few weeks. The student teacher conference was really helpful and beneficial as we helped each other with lesson plans and learned about and practiced some of the many hats that teachers wear.

SLLC

This was my first time every attending SLLC. I never went as a student, and now I got to experience it as an agricultural educator. It was a really cool experience, really tiring! I thought I was going to have downtime to work on lesson plans and the grading I brought with me....nope, it was basically go go go!

I really enjoyed talking with the other teachers, which can be found in my other blog about the professional activities that I attended.

The community service was an interesting experience. My bus had a lot of musical talent, courtesy of Mike's cooperating school, Cowanesque Valley. A lot of the boys had been in a musical together so they kept breaking out into songs from that as well as a variety of country songs. One of the boys, is actually the younger brother of a friend of mine from college. I asked him if she was his sister and he gave me the weirdest look, it was quite comical. He then introduced himself. I said my name was Ms. Case, then I said, Jeanne, then I was not really sure as to what I should call myself. I never know if I should call myself Ms. Case or Jeanne when introducing myself to students that aren't mine. Mike and I also got the job of washing the stairways.

I was thoroughly impressed with the speed of service at Hoss's. We were lucky to have been the first bus that got there and we got out of there in record time as well. On the bus, I tried to get one of my girls to sing along with the boys, but she was not into that. The dance was fun. I enjoy having my own little dance party in the back of the room with the other student teachers. SLLC was really different from ACES in this regard because all of my PSO friends were not there to dance with and the students that I brought are not the ones that enjoy when I make a fool out of myself and dance with them. So instead Cassidy and I line danced by ourselves in the back of the room.

After the dance and reflections, I helped out with courtesy corps again. It was a good experience, working with seasoned ag teachers and hearing stories of different teaching experiences. It is also good to hear how to correctly tell students to be quiet.

Tuesday morning was fun as well. I got to see some of my Farm Bureau Friends again, and it was great to watch the students interact with the legislators. The room was packed with blue jackets. It was wonderful. I actually sat with Abby's group of students since mine was full and I got to talk to them about the FACE conference and ag ed since one of the girls will be going to Del Val for it.

The truly great thing, was talking with the girls about what they got out of the experience and what they learned. They really got a lot out of it and can see how what they learned related to them. The one girl wants to get so involved now. She wants to run for the state officer nominating committee this year, state officer later. She wants the Dover chapter to start doing more community service. It was great! She got good things from the conferences and this is what the conferences are all about, what they are for.

Week 8 - Phew I'm tired.

Monday and Tuesday at SLLC

Wednesday - I'm tired. I'm mentally tired. My brain hurts.

Horticulture - So, I actually stayed in this class today. The first half we went over the jeopardy game. I wanted the students to know what will be on their exam. After our game was done we went out to the greenhouse and started working on more plug trays that the students had picked up and we were planting. I love being out in the greenhouse because all of the students work the whole time. They even get started on their different jobs without me having to nag them about it.

Leadership - I can't decide if I liked how class went today. I went over the creed speaking scores, did my interest approach, and had them work on their project researching the different commodities across the country. The students on task. I called students up one at a time and we went over their grades, how students thought the class was doing, if they had any questions about the class. I also encouraged some students to compete in the CDE for the creed. They told me they would think about it. So many students in this class actually work hard and try to do a good job, however, some of the students really just feed off of each other and enjoy the attention they get from each other. I am going to change seats again Monday to get other groups to work together. My goal this week is to really make my class relevant for one of the students, that isn't a bad kid, but doesn't understand the that these soft skills will actually be helpful to them.

Ag Mechanics - Well, turns out some of the videos that I left them didn't work. And only three of them completed the worksheet. So, we finished the worksheet then did a demonstration on how to test our spark plug. After we went over the steps to follow as we take apart the engines we went out to the shop. I think class went okay today. It is just so hard to get some students to work sometimes. Students that completed the worksheet I had go around and teach their peers. And they legit did teach, they wouldn't just give them the answers. I went around as well and helped the students figure out the formulas. I really need to study up on engines.

Thursday - 

Horticulture - this class is seriously my favorite. And..... I'm pretty sure today was my last day with them... forever... So sad. But, I told them they could come visit me in Mrs. B's room and I will be conducting an SAE visit at the one girls farm this Sunday, and another girl confirmed that Monday is the FFA meeting. I gave them their test for the hydroponics unit and a rubric for them to grade themselves. I also gave them a couple open ended questions for them to answer about how they liked the different activities/ what they think could be improved. I am really interested in reading them, but I am going to wait until I have all their grades submitted like I promised. After everyone was done with their test and their papers were handed in, we went out to the greenhouse. Everyone works together so well. These students may never work together again in another class or even during the classroom portion, but out in the greenhouse, everyone is working and they are working together. I love it. I am going to be sad switching to 8th grade, but I will be able to keep track of the progress in the greenhouse when I visit after my other class periods or during 5th period. I really want to start one of the girls that comes in on the weekend to water with a practicum skills SAE book. Time are good in horticulture class. :)

Leadership - my brain is not working as fast. I know in my other blog that I said I had developed teacher eyes, but they are gone. I have not been picking up on things as fast and the students are starting to get rowdy. I need to start being more assertive and firm. There needs to not be as much side chatter. We made an awesome map of the agronomy crops across the country to get an idea of how diverse the subject is. Tomorrow we will work on committees, I will have more time to work on classroom management during this time.

Ag Mechanics - well, it went well. Didn't go as planned, but it went well. I had the students do their bellwork and we were working on filling out one of the worksheets that had all of the specs on it...I walked out of the classroom to help a student find their make and model engine on their number then all of the students trickled out and started working on their engines. When I was in the classroom, I noticed that a lot of them were done already anyways so they were going to be allowed to go out soon regardless. Mr. Stollar and I just ended up walking around and helping students with their engines. I am still having problems getting two individual students to complete their work. I emailed a professor at Penn Tech that teaches in the area that one of the students is interested in majoring in. I think if I get proof that it is important to do your work that I will get a better response rather than just telling that individual that they need to do it. I also don't know if I should even fight the battle in the classroom of making them listen. They work much better in the shop when Mr. Stollar and I work with them. They ask questions, they listen, the converse about the subject. In the classroom I get hostility. It is interesting.

Friday - 

Exploratory Ag (8th Grade) - Today I just observed the 8th grade students finish a test and start working on their animal science terms. I will start to teach next Tuesday. This will definitely be an interesting experience because I get to teach the same thing back to back! I am looking forward to the new opportunity.

Leadership - today things went a lot better. I explained that some of them need to redo their manuscripts for the speeches because they did not include resources or a cover page or other aspects that were easy points on the rubric that they had for a long time. I also reviewed the class expectations with the students to make sure they are refreshed on what I want from them. We then had a committee meeting and the students got to practice PARLI PRO!! This took a while, but it was one of the first times, and it will get faster with time.

Ag Mechanics - I told the students if they actually listened the first part and did their bellwork that we would be able to go out to the shop sooner. This actually worked. They stopped talking and listened while I reviewed what we were going to do for the day. I think this will start to be my approach. EVERY ENGINE IN OUR SHOP IS DIFFERENT! Like, really different. Like different types of engines, different models, different everything. One engine is so old that the armature was inside of the flywheel. This will be a very educational experience for me, but it will also be really hard. I also prefer working with the students in smaller groups rather than in front of the whole class.

5th period - (FFA) - I allowed two students who did poorly on the creed redo it so they could be passing. I then went to the end of the officer meeting since we will be having an FFA meeting Monday. I wish I could have been at the whole meeting but duty calls.

Professional Events - ACES and SLLC - It's not just for the kids!

As I traveled with my chapter to Harrisburg for the conferences, ACES and SLLC, I got to see the "teacher" side of things. Instead of attending workshops and meeting people in blue jackets, I sat in a conference room, meeting other teachers and learning about various things that could help me out in my teaching career.

At ACES conference we learned more about AET, a new record keeping process, that will not go away and will start to faze out the Pennsylvania Record book. This was very beneficial since I am teaching my leadership class how to use it as we start to plan our SAEs. I also plan to use it eventually when I have my own chapter and will have all of my students on it rather than using two different record books. Mike Woods also gave a presentation on  National Chapter awards and how to be successful with them. This helps to advertise your program and get recognition for all the AWESOME THINGS YOUR CHAPTER DOES! It was also just a great professional experience to talk to the different teachers from across the state and figure out what they do with their chapters and AET. There is always something to learn from someone.

At SLLC I helped with grading the proficiency awards. I helped Mrs. B and one of our students fill out his in specialty crop production, but it was really beneficial to see other applications. In Pennsylvania there are a lot of opportunities that are not taken advantage of with proficiency areas that do not have any applicants in. Now, I can take this knowledge that I have learned and help my future students gear their SAEs to different proficiency awards, for them to get recognized and awarded for their hard efforts.

Another professional activity was a discussion with the teachers about where we want Pennsylvania Agricultural Education to be in the next five years. It was really interesting to listen to the different opinions of the new teachers and the ones that have been teachers for more than fifteen years. I also got resources for soils from a teacher that was grading and had extra packets with her.

Later, the Pennsylvania Department of Education sent a representative in to inform the teachers about Student Learning Objectives (SLO). These are becoming a requirement that school districts are starting to have their teachers do. She gave us resources that we can access on-line to help us out with forming them for our classes. She talked about having students complete a mock customer interaction and sales presentation where they earn at least a 75%. This aids with the students professional growth especially if they are staying on the farm. I frequently remind my freshman that are in my leadership class that they need to know how to talk to their customers on the farm if they are going to take it over. It is important to be able to show what we are teaching in our classes and how we are evaluating our students.

Through the professional development experiences I have learned a lot more about Pennsylvania Agriculture Education. It was also interesting to talk to Mr. Stollar about what we learned at SLLC because even he, who was at the old guys table, still learned more from just talking with other agricultural teachers. I think that just really goes to prove that there is always something to learn no matter what.

Week 7

Monday -

TODAY WAS ONE OF THOSE FREAKING DAYS! We had a two hour delay, I left to get at school really early to get a lot of things done.... but the roads were covered so I had to drive really slow. I felt unprepared for classes and my students didn't want to work. AND, did I mention, it was my first day teaching a full load??

Horticulture- Today, a bunch of my students did not come, and those that came didn't have very much energy. I take my vibes off of my students a lot, so I didn't have a lot of energy. And our classes were cut to only an hour. And I forgot what time class ended. And we were in the greenhouse. So, my students were late to second period because we all lost track of time. The students were starting to plan how to create their hydroponic systems. They started recording their materials, hypothesis, and title. Tomorrow, I hope to be a little more mentally organized and to have more energy!

Leadership- I have given my students weeks and weeks and weeks to complete their speeches. Did I mention weeks? Today, I gave them time to do the finishing touches on their speeches and really get to the nitty gritty parts of the speeches. Did they do that? No. They stared at me and said they weren't ready. Instead of using the time that they had to work on their stuff they just complained and tried to write petitions about how unfair it was. Some students actually used their time wisely and I spent extra time with them helping them out. I told the students that refused to work that it is really easy to grade a zero.

Ag Mechanics. - this class went well. I explained the bellwork procedures as well as the rules for the classroom. We then went over the four strokes of an engines and did the exercise that Dr. Ewing uses with the three students representing the intake valve, piston, and exhaust valve. Some of the students really got it while others did not catch on as fast. We then worked on horsepower and used an activity that I found on CoP. The students carried medicine balls 100 feet across the shop while they were being timed. This got them out of the classroom. (I didn't want to cold shock them by having them in the classroom for the whole period when they were use to welding the whole period). It went well and one of the students that is really good at math, went through the different steps on the board to help his classmates. Overall I think it went okay for a first day.


Tuesday - Today we went over a quick mini lesson about plumbing so the students would have a basic knowledge of how to create their hydroponic systems, we then went to the greenhouse for the students to actually start creating their hydroponic systems. The majority of the students were engaged and working, I had to keep directing a student back to working with his group. The individual kept getting distracted by their phone and headphones. A lot of students kept asking a lot of questions and "what if we try this?" or "I have an idea..." which I thought was really great since they were getting into the lesson. I feel like it could have been a bit more structured....but today I just also really wanted them to get a jump start on their projects. I feel like I am learning right along with them, which kind of stresses me out since I don't know the answers to everything.. but the students are really forgiving and we are learning together. Friday will be my last day with them since I will be at SLLC Monday and Tuesday. This kind of bums me out since they are a great group of students and I will not see a majority of them in other classes.

Leadership - class went well today. I laid out the ground rules for the public speaking in the class. The students drew at random to decide order that they would go in. All the students gave me their best, a lot aggred that they could have done better. Two made it through the whole speech, which really made me happy, because I was scared for a while with how they had been talking in class. I had them write a reflective piece on it afterwords to tie in what they learned. Tomorrow the prepared public speakers will be going.

Ag Mechanics - So today we were doing tool part identification. For my interest approach I started pulling parts out and asking them to tell me what they were. They could not tell me what a majority of them were, which was the desired reaction. And I was like okay, so I guess we need to learn about this today. We then watched a video about the different parts of the engine and went through a powerpoint while pulling out the different engine parts out of the bucket. The students then decided to pick on me and test what I knew. Now, I know about engines.....but I am not a fast thinker with them and I was kind of stumbling a little bit, but then it switched it on them. They were asking me questions that they knew, so I made them answer and explain. Which they did, with joy. I also jumped off the sinking ship of tool id and started on a worksheet they will be completing the next couple days. I again had two different students explain on the board how they got the different formulas for horsepower and peer teach. So, this class stressed out, but I talked it over with Mr. Stollar and Mrs. B, but they said I was fine, and the students are nice. It is definitely easier knowing that the students do respect me and that they were just good naturally teasing me rather than being nasty about it. I AM going to have to really be on my toes for this class and do my research so I will remain on top of the information and stay prepared.

Wednesday -

HUMP DAYYYYYYYY! 
Today we operated on a two hour delay schedule...except in the morning since the students were being dismissed two hours early.

Horticulture - we continued working on our hydroponic systems. We reviewed what we need to have on them as a class before going out to the greenhouse. In the greenhouse, the groups got to work and stayed on task. They kept working together and helping each other out with their different strengths. Class was only an hour today, so I wanted to make sure we got to work on the hydroponic systems. The next two days will be half time in the classroom and half time in the greenhouse.

Leadership - today we started the prepared public speeches. The students did well. We did not get to finish everyone today due to the shortened schedule but we will finish the last three tomorrow. The students did a really good job at listening and asking questions. I told the students that they could get bonus points for good quality questions.

Ag Mechanics. My brain does not think fast with ag mechanics. Like really slow. And math is not my strong suit. The students like to test me to see how much I know. This is causing a problem. I get flustered with my lack in math knowledge and technical skills, especially when they keep asking me. I believe if I was working with them one on one it would go better because I would have more time to think. However, I don't because I am in front of the class with everyone looking at me. The student that is really good at math and everything is the one that keeps bombarding me with questions. Previous to me starting this class, I got along with him. I think he is frustrated with my lack of knowledge. I feel like I need to have a one on one conversation with him to see if he would be willing to help me with the technical portions of the class. I need to work my butt off for this class. I wanted this challenge, it is one of the reasons I picked this school, but now I need to step up to the plate.

Thursday - Today in horticulture class we learned about indoor pollination. I made guided notes to make the powerpoint go a little smoother and to not have to wait a lot for the slower writers. After we finished the lesson in class we went out to the greenhouse. Some of the students were finishing up their hydroponic systems, so they started on seeding other plants. I like to keep everyone working. Some of the students were discussing different ways to run their hydroponic systems so it was good student collaboration.

Leadership - We finished more of the speeches before lunch. One student did not complete their speech or bring it with them so they introduced themselves to the class and said that they would have it tomorrow since they were unprepared. After lunch we worked on committees and they got a lot of stuff done. I floated around a lot and worked with the different groups.

Ag Mechanics - Last night, I prepared a lot, I did all the math homework, I had a friend from college double check my math and micrometer readings. I wanted to be prepared today. The student that I had talked about yesterday came up to me before class started and apologized about yesterday. Apparently his math teacher said something do him ( I have never met this teacher as far as I know, and we speculate another student mentioned something). Anyway he seemed really genuine and I explained where I was coming from and that I was worried that I was frustrating him and he said he just wanted to make sure the other students didn't get confused. The end result was that we were cool and everything was fine. I attempted to go over the micrometer worksheet on the board but I feel like I never have their attention, so I ended up just traveling around the classroom and teaching in groups of three or so. This worked so much better because I was able to take my time and make sure that they really understood it. The students wanted to do well, they kept coming up to Mr. Stollar and I to make sure their answers were correct. Next, I have them a list of things that they had to use the calipers on in the shop. I had them work in groups of two. I traveled around to different groups and made sure they understood how to use the calipers correctly. The student that is really good at math, pointed out that I asked for the width of the table and asked if I wanted depth instead. I thanked him for my typo and went around to the different groups and told them about my mistake as well. I get so frustrated with myself when I mess up. I really need to work to make sure he doesn't think I am frustrated with him because I should never get frustrated at a student for being intelligent. I should promote him so much for that. Which I did, I had him do the ag mechanics CDE, which was his first CDE, and he got first place. As I traveled around to the different groups I got to get a lot of rapport with the students and really work on them with that one on one basis. At the end of class I was not as anal about them gathering around the door and instead went up to them and talked to different groups of them. Hopefully tomorrow will be like today and go well.

Friday - Horticulture went well today. I had the students read an article about global hydroponics then we had a discussion about it. It was good to have the global part because a lot of students did not even know what continent England or Israel were on. We then went to the greenhouse to plant plug trays as they came in today. All the students were on task and the operation ran smoothly.

Leadership - my students seemed extra squirrely today and like they did not get along. I don't think I did a good enough job of connecting the content with our activity of building towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows. Mr. Frederick sat with one of my most active freshman boys, which I think was good for him, since he had an authoritative figure with him constantly.

Ag Mechanics - Today went better again. I met with Mr. Stollar before school started that day and went over my math problems again. I also had them out in the shop for a little bit to test the compression on their engines. In the classroom I went over the piston displacement formula on the board then assigned them a problem. I traveled around the room and made sure that all the students understood what was going on. I then handed out a quiz for them to complete. It was to show me what they had learned throughout the week and it was the end of the introductory unit. I want to start tearing our engines apart next week. I think that this class will be much better when I can work with the students in smaller numbers.