This week was a bit stressful. Monday and Tuesday were the last two days of the third marking period at Mifflinburg High School. For that reason, I spent those days helping students complete their assigned welds and electrical circuits. I stayed after school both Monday and Tuesday, in order to give my students a chance to complete everything that they needed to get done before the marking period was over. I spent Tuesday night entering grades, in an attempt to get them in on time.
In Introduction to Agriculture, I continued with my swine unit. I was so excited for Monday, as we did an activity about ear notching. I talked to students about what ear notching is and why it is used. I then passed out cards to each student, that included a pig breed, a litter number and an individual number. I had students color a paper plate pig according to the breed, and then had them ear notch. Their challenge was to find their litter "mates". This activity went really well and was a lot of fun.
On Tuesday in Introduction to Agriculture, I taught students about swine facilities. I had them design a facility, in order to summarize what we learned in the lesson. Although I think that this lesson/ activity got the point across, I would like to look for ways to revise it, in order to make it more fun for the students.
Wednesday began the fourth marking period, which meant that the 2nd period Welding, and 3rd period Electricity classes were now beginning the Concrete and Masonry unit. However, before we began the new unit, I had students clean up the shop.
In Introduction to Agriculture, I taught students about retail and wholesale pork cuts. I had them take notes and then gave them the remainder of the period to work on their final poster (Swine By-Products).
Wednesday after school, I stayed for Parliamentary Procedure practice.
On Thursday, during 2nd and 3rd periods, students explored what concrete is. We talked about the 'ingredients' of concrete, why it is important and how it is used. I think that this lesson went well, and students seemed excited to be changing gears.
I was a bit disappointed with Introduction to Agriculture on Thursday. Students were given a week to create a poster about one swine by-product. They needed one relevant photograph, a paragraph about what the product is, and two facts about the product. I thought that this assignment was pretty straight-forward and relatively easy opposed to a test. However, many students either did not have the poster done or they threw something together at the last minute. I believe that if I would have given more time in class to complete this, the posters might have been better. However, with the short amount of time I am given to complete the swine unit (1 week), that would be nearly impossible.
With the posters that we did have, I had students participate in a gallery walk. They were to grade each of their peers' posters on a scale from 1 to 5. This gallery walk went pretty well, although there were some behavior issues that I had to address (particularly in 6th period!).
I left for home on Thursday night in order to be back in State College on Friday morning. We had another Student Teacher workshop on campus. We participated in a fine-tuning session for one of our worst lessons, and then participated in mock interviews. This was a great experience, and I feel more prepared for real-world interviews that I will face after graduation.
While this week might have been stressful, due to the end of the marking period, after school commitments and workshops, I can honestly say that it was one of my best weeks yet!
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