Week 12... Where has the time gone?!

Wow, I cannot believe that we are more than 2/3 of the way done with student teaching! Where has the time gone?! This was a super short week for me, as I was only here two days and there is no school Thursday or Friday... but those two days were awesome!

On Monday, I visited Hannah at Juniata Valley. That was a great experience (See previous blog post for more details about my visit!).

On Tuesday morning, I had a mock interview with Mrs. Shearer and Mr. Morrison, which was also a good experience for me, in order to prepare me for a future career! (Again, see previous blog post for more details on this!).

Because of my mock interview, I missed second period, but Mr. Kessler covered for me. This period, as well as third period are now on the concrete and masonry unit. Mr. Kessler began a concrete experiment with second period. Students were supposed to determine the amount of silt in sand used for concrete, estimate the moisture in sand and figure out the bulking of sand.

I picked up and taught this same experiment to third period. I originally wanted to have students "popcorn read" the instructions, then explain the process to them. However, this quickly went down the drain, as students were extremely talkative and did not seem engaged. I got extremely frustrated, and after thinking on my feet, decided to take a different approach.

The worksheets that go along with the experiment lay out the instructions very nicely and are very precise. I decided to split students into groups and hand out two sticky notes to each group. I told them that since they chose to talk, that indicated to me that they knew what they were doing, and for that reason, they were only allowed to ask me two questions (represented by the two stickies). They did not seem to like this, and the experiment was a little chaotic, but I think it got the point across. Once students got started, they seemed pretty engaged.

I was so excited for my Introduction to Agriculture class on Tuesday. I was teaching students about the ruminant digestive system, and I found a super fun, and kind of gross, activity.

I began class by asking them to make a list of everything they ate. They then shared their lists and we talked about what sheep and goats eat and why it is so different from what humans are able to eat. This led into a discussion and short PowerPoint about ruminant digestion. Students were surprisingly really engaged, which was evidenced by their questions.

After the PowerPoint, I had tins set up in the front of the room. Each tin had materials that represented one portion of the ruminant digestive system. For instance, the portion that represented the rumen contained toys with finger-like projections, jello and water. Another tin contained shower loofahs, water and wet grain (omasum), one contained waffles, feed and water (reticulum) and the last tin contained crumpled saran wrap and hair gel (abomasum). I had these tins covered with a plastic bag and numbered. Essentially, I took volunteers and each volunteer was responsible for blindly feeling the items in the tin, then describing it to their classmates. Based on those observations, students had to identify what portion of the ruminant digestive system it was.

This activity was SO MUCH FUN. Students' faces were absolutely priceless and they were so engaged. I think that this was a cool way to help students remember each part of the ruminant digestive system.

After school, Mr. Kessler, Mrs. Spurrier and I attended the New and Beginning Teacher meeting at the Country Cupboard. That was a nice opportunity to talk with other agricultural educators, and get some free resources!

Today was another great day! Mrs. Rice came to observe me, which is something that I always look forward to. During second and third period, I continued with the concrete experiment from the days prior. Students in second period were super engaged and on-task. However, students in third period weren't so much. They frustrated me a bit, as they were off-task and talkative. I really liked a suggestion that Mrs. Rice gave me today; As students were working through the experiments, they were having a hard time calculating the percent of silt. Mrs. Rice mentioned that this would be a great "teachable moment". From here on out, I plan on looking for these moments and taking advantage of them!

During my Introduction to Agriculture classes, I had students test sheep and goat products. I began with bellwork questions, then had students line up according to their birthdays. From here, they counted off into five groups and then were given sticky notes. These sticky notes contained letters and they were challenged to de-code the words (all of which were by-products of sheep/goats). From there, I had students share their words and then gave them directions for the activity. Students rotated through five stations and made observations about each of the two products, then tested them and tried to determine which came from a sheep or goat. For these stations, I had wool yarn vs. synthetic yarn, lamb meat vs. steak, goat cheese vs. cream cheese, goat milk vs. cow milk and goat milk soap vs. glycerin soap. This activity was a lot of fun and I think that students enjoyed it, too!

To wrap up the period, I had students pull out a piece of paper and gave them a pop quiz. The questions on the quiz were hard, and were things that we never went over. Students were getting very frustrated and kind of stumped, until I posted the last question; If Ms. Campbell gives a pop quiz on April Fool's Day, how many Introduction to Ag students will take it?. After they realized it was a joke, they weren't so angry with me.

Tonight, I will be attending the ag advisory meeting here at the high school. I am looking forward to this, as it will be a new experience for me!

Overall, I feel like this week went really well. I am so proud of the variety of activities that I had for students this week. I definitely can see myself growing and developing. From Mrs. Rices' visit, I have decided that I do need to continue working on a few things when I teach. First, I need to make sure that I am utilizing the objectives to guide the class and emphasizing why we are learning this. Second, I need to work on making my summary activities stronger. I have known from the beginning that this is one of my weak areas and I plan on continuing to refine that closing a little more.

I am excited for next week, as I am beginning the poultry unit and will be helping out with the concrete projects. Although there are only three weeks left, I am going to make them count by continuing to push myself and my abilities!