Week 11

Monday 

8th Grade - I thought today went a lot better! I thought that had I much more energy and was asking 8th grader questions and interacting with them on their level...but then Mrs. B said my gentlemen in the back were still talking during most of the class. :( dang it. I can only improve though and if I felt like I did better today, maybe I will actually start improving.

Leadership - They did group work today to come up with different games and worksheets to learn how to identify seeds. I tend to hover a lot during group work and they just keep asking me questions rather than working in their groups and doing the work themselves. So today I forced myself to sit behind the desk and manage from there. It was hard to do this. A lot of the groups did not think very far out of the box and it was annoying to me. But, I guess they will get annoyed tomorrow when they have to do the same thing over and over again. A student was sassing me later on in class, I really need to learn how to be firmer and follow out my threats. I also need to be more organized so the student knows when they are going too far and I will have proof for mom and dad that their child is acting up.

Ag Mechanics - They are so smart when they actually shut up. I am also running into the problem that everyone is disassembled, but they do not have all of their parts in. So there is a standstill. Mrs. B suggested creating a bulletin board for them to have things to do during the class period. It can be employable things and practical skills that they can use. It will be posted for them to work on their time.

Tuesday 

8th Grade- I don't know how to do this class. I think because it is so structured in Mrs. B's way, that I just do not feel comfortable with how it is laid out or the points to touch on. Today we did the butter lab. Mrs. B did the first class and I did the second class. I had read over the lab materials, went over their worksheets, I thought it would be okay. But then she started comparing the milk fat percentages with the milk fat in milk vs cream and the price differences. My brain was not wired to work that way. I did the lab portion of the class correctly, no one broke anything. However, I stumbled through comparing the prices and talking about fat percentages. I am also having a rough time because I do not have everyone's names down. I typically learn peoples names by having interactions with them. However, I don't really have one on one interactions with the eighth graders. The classes are only 40 minutes and it is a lot of lecture rather than group work or activities. I am really frustrated with myself in this class because I am not living up to the best of my abilities.

Leadership - I liked my activity today. Before lunch they went through everyone's stations and competed in the activities for seed identification with agronomy. We developed a winner and the students went through and self graded themselves on how they think they did on their projects based on creativity, usefulness, and quality. Afterwards, we have a powerpoint that showed different agronomic plants. The students guessed what the plant was then we talked about it. This went pretty well. Except I am being bad. I yell at some students more than others for phones and I am not really being fair. I wasn't totally noticing I was doing it until Mrs. B pointed it out. I am really going to have to work on this because I don't want to be unfair and I don't want to cause frustration with my students. I am not satisfied with how this class is going. I need to step up my game these past couple weeks.

Ag Mechanics - Today since the engines are taken apart, and we are waiting for parts, I did a speed round for a powerpoint of parts. I didn't read off the screen, I kept clicking unless they had questions or I asked them questions about how things worked together. I then assigned them ten parts and tools that they had to find in the shop then present to the class. This went well. Some students complained, but you cant please everyone. The second half of the class I allowed them to continue cleaning and tinkering with their engines. Tomorrow, we will complete the other fifty tools and parts. Although, I am slightly concerned that my shop represents a zoo sometimes. The students are always really hyper since it is the last class of the day and they actually get to experience things hands on.

Wednesday

8th Grade - I felt like today went well, but I wasn't totally satisfied with it. I was still pretty frustrated. However, Mrs. B said it was my best class yet! So at least I am improving. We learned about shearing sheep today. I dug out my ANSC 201 notes so I would have the technical background knowledge. I got a cotton kit from the Family and Consumer Science teacher as well as wool patterns that the students could pass around. Mrs. B also had shears and brushes for carding the hair. I also learned that angora rabbits can be used for wool also. New fact every day. For first period I gave them assigned seating and that worked much better, the whole class was paying attention for once. Second period, there is this one student who is so cool, he sows! I really hope he joins the agricultural program next year at the high school.

Leadership - Today was a committee day. Today everyone had a sticky note on their desk. I instructed them to put their cell phones away and that I did not want to see them for the rest of the class. If I did or if they were off topic they would get a camel on their sticky note. Each camel was a one point deduction. Some of the students got multiple camels, but it was a way for them to visually see what they were doing wrong. For the ticket out the door, I wanted them to write how they accomplished their goals. I was expecting a paragraph. I got a sentence. I was upset with their work, but Mrs. B said students like to take the path of least resistance. So I am giving them the opportunity to fix their answers tomorrow at the beginning of class.

Ag Mechanics - For the first half of class the students found the second half of the tools list created for the carer development event. Mr. Stollar gave a twenty minute presentation on the caburation system, comparing the old ones to the new ones. Students engine parts did not come in. I told my students that I want them to be started before I leave or I will feel like a total failure. But it is not going to happen until the parts start to come in.

Thursday 

8th Grade - Today we learned about Pearson squares for determining the fat percentages of ground beef. First period I took too long to do my explanation. I need to work on being clear and concise. Also with writing on the board. I need to get better handwriting and organize myself on the board better. Second period went better again. Mrs. B kept making weird faces and it was kind of freaking me out. I felt like I was doing a bad job and I was getting really frustrated with how I was doing with explaining math. Turns out, she got bored watching it twice and her throat was kind of hurting, so I really need to not look at her unless I have a question. The students also asked me if I was a junior or a senior and where I wanted to teach and what I was going to do with my life.

Leadership - Today we worked on our media products. For the first half of class I had the #dlead4hunger on the twitter feed on the front of the board. The students enjoyed watching their tweets showing up on the screen, however it was a little distracting so I took it down the second half. A student requested to have the camels again today so instead we had moose. Only one particular student got moose. Most of the groups were working well together and getting a lot of stuff done. One group packed up with 12 minutes left in the class. This made me really mad especially since they have a lot of stuff to finish. I yelled at them for it and they didn't understand why I was upset with them. I found out a particular student doesn't really like me and is counting down the days until I am gone.... I can't wait to hear how that goes since Mrs. B is more strict with them than me.

Ag Mechanics - I found a small gas engines career development event test, so I printed out the first thirty six questions. I told the class to get into pairs and told them the team with the most correct would get a prize. We had a football, water bottle, cards, and a bag. The class was quiet with everyone working hard on the paper, it was actually quite impressive. The test was also worth 20 points for a grade. One team was especially passionate and stood over my shoulder while I graded their test. After they were done, we went out to the shop to work on the engines since some of the students parts came in.

Friday

8th Grade - Today we learned about the female reproductive track of a hen and the different layers of an egg shell. I had them try to label the parts with groups in their notes, then we completed it on the board as a class. I talked about all of the different layers and their purposes. When then read the notes together and had then completed an activity. They picked different parts of the female reproductive track from a cup and had to stand in that spot. Someone was the mapper and had to make sure everyone was in their correct area. The narrator had to tell the story of what was going on. One person that was the yoke traveled down a line though the different reproductive areas and got different parts added on such as the albumen and shell and shell membrane, then was hatched out at the end. The student were funny because none of them wanted to say vagina.

Leadership - Today we worked on SAE projects. I played music during class if they stayed quiet and worked, that worked pretty well, didn't really have any problems today. I worked with a student who's original SAE idea fell though and wasn't going to work anymore. I also helped another student start to set up the display case. Ag Business figured out how much money I am not going to make when I start teaching.

Ag Mechanics - The students parts came in today so we started putting our engines back together. Monday I am going to incorporate another aspect of the career development event. However, today since we had a 5th period and the day was shortened, I figured it would be good to get a lot done on the engines to get them reassembled. The students like to pick on me too much because it makes me smile and they like that. However, they like to swear or pretend swear because then I yell at them about it.