Week 13

Monday

8th Grade - Today we learned about how to safely handle raw meat. We read through the page in the book then they worked in pairs to complete the review questions at the end. 1st period went well, they completed it and we went over how tomorrow was going to go. 2nd period was in some kind of mood, I called them all chatty Cathy and it confused them. They then asked me if you could cut a chunk out of the cow and eat it and the cow would still live. This led us to talk about how they cut a hole in the side of a cow so you can put your hand in and look at how they are digesting the food. I also told them how I palpated a cow to measure the uterus, and their faces were priceless. I doubled over laughing. They kill me. It blew their minds. It was perfect. Tomorrow we are completing a burger lab and will get to have burgers to breakfast. YUM!

Leadership - Ohhhh they made me so mad today. They have not been hanging in their assignments, they are talking when each other is talking, sassing me and not the normal students that sass me. I made them reread the assignment rubric for the global and hunger unit and I made them repeat it because we had a public speaking unit and that is not how I taught them. Other students were not working well with each other and that was making me mad. I hope tomorrow will go better.

Ag Mechanics- I told them that I only have today and tomorrow as their "teacher" but that I would still be around to help out. After I said that a lot of them were like yay!! Then the said just kidding, they also kicked me out of the room. I didn't know if I should or not because that would mean they are bossing me around, but I was thinking it was so they could do a surprise for me and I like surprises... so I left the room. Mr. Stollar was in there... so it was okay. They then worked on their engines. I traveled around to the different groups and helped out. One group realized that they did not put their piston pin back in correctly... so they had to take everything back out and put it back in. Another group was having problems with putting their linkages back together and I didn't really know how it went back together so I called a more knowledgeable student over and he was like do you need help and I just kind of nodded and he came over and helped without saying anything to tear me down or the other students for not knowing how to fix it. I was proud of how maturely he was acting today, Mrs. B noticed it during 5th period as well.

Tuesday

Today was my last day with all of my classes.

8th Grade- Today we made burgers. It we co-taught and made sure everyone got their burgers made on time. Mrs. B got a lot of stuff together the night before which made for smooth sailing. She was also no technically there today since she had to bring her daughter to an appointment in the afternoon, so it was her, myself and the sub running this class. The students got to measure the temperature of the meat and Mrs. B and I were the grillers. I tweeted a picture of some students with the burgers. The students had a blast and it was also a time for administration to see what we do since they got to some and enjoy the left overs. However, for the rest of the day, I smelled like I was wearing burger perfume.

Leadership- Today the students actually worked well. They got a lot done and I did not have to do a lot of redirecting. It was very nice to see that with how crazy they were yesterday. They also decided to google me and some pictures from the blog and Teach Ag society came up. They then started to try to look up if Penn State was still the top party school and see if there were any pictures that way and I told them they were taking the joke too far and needed to get back to work.

Ag Mechanics - They are happy to not have to do bellwork after today. One of the groups tried to start their engines today, but it did not run. Another group was trouble shooting and the carburetor is broken and gas started to go everywhere. Students kept picking on me as usual. It was a good last day. The students have really impressed me with how far they have some and their mentality towards me as well. I am very happy with where we have ended up as a whole.

Wednesday

I spent first and second period organizing my desk and my note books. I also started to write my newspaper article and look at the jobs in Nashville.

Leadership - I should have checked to see if their computers worked on the projector, because they didn't. I then put my computer up and had them all save it on echalk. That worked out pretty well and we finally got into our presentations. Some days I feel like I never taught public speaking. Their presentation styles are lack luster and are just boring. I had to yell at a couple students for not facing their audience. We had a cool discussion about biological pest management and called my dad so he could explain what we are currently doing in our greenhouse.

I then helped a little with ag mechanics. The majority of the students have their engines all put together. We took a small gas engines class photo.. which was fun. I will really miss that class.

Thursday 
 I worked on a lot of assignments for Penn State in the beginning of the day and created a schedule to make sure I get everything done by the deadline. I enjoy the time to myself to get everything done. I talked to the class about their hiring process to be able to complete the mock interview on Monday.

Leadership - Today in class was a we need to get things done day. I created a list on the board of things that they owe me and I had them write down three things they wanted to accomplish on a sticky note. I then managed the classroom and answered questions related to the assignments and worked through getting their stuff done. A lot of students got a lot done during the time that we were there and it was generally a good day. At the end of the class a student told me to have a nice Easter and then I realized that I had kind of been jumping down their throats and I felt really bad about that. I told them that I wanted them all to have a happy Easter as well. I don't hate the class, I am just frustrated that things are not going how I envision them in my head. One student, who is kind of a challenge, brought be a cupcake today. I think things have come a long way with this particular student.

In ag mechanics I worked on grading everything that the students had completed in leadership class. It was good to use that time because it also motivated the students to work hard as well. There was a PAAE meeting in Harrisburg.... and I left with more than enough time....but I got lost like three times because I am not use to going to Cameron street from the Harvey Taylor bridge...so that didn't really work out well for me. I need to make sure I know where I am going next time. The meeting was interesting, it was my first time at one besides the northern region. It went well and i got to see a lot of the teachers that I had developed friendships with. The student that came for SOCS stayed until the meeting was over to see Mrs. B and I. His politeness always amazes me and I hope others learn from him.

Friday 

Today we didn't have school! So I enjoyed my time at Penn State catching up with friends and working on my Penn State assignments.