My Advice to the Next Student Teacher

My 15 week student teaching experience is over (tomorrow)...

What?! How?!?

I feel like it was just yesterday when I thought that January would never end. Now I'm packing up my things and preparing to head back to Penn State to finish out and get my degree.

Here is my advice for those who come after me...

• When choosing your cooperating center visit as many places as possible! One of the things that lead me to choose Manheim Central High School was the way that it felt while I was there visiting. The connection between you and the teachers that make up the ag department will be vital for success. Believe me, by visiting you will be able to see if there is "chemistry" between you and the potential cooperating teacher. 
• Work like crazy in the Fall. Listening to your professors and completing every task that is asked of you will significantly make your life more simple during student teaching. 
• The SAME goes for while you are student teaching. It will be super hectic and the days will be a blur. Do the work. Write lessons BEFORE you teach them no matter how much of a pain that is. This will make you feel 3,000x better when you need to collect all of your plans to turn in when you head back to college. I feel successful because I started the binders when I started teaching and just kept throwing the lesson plans into the binders as I taught them. It was a great tactic to ensure success!
• ASK AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE. Your cooperating teacher will not get mad at you. They will not be annoyed at you. They will be so incredibly happy that you are interested in learning and taking the job seriously. You might even get an unexpected gem when they answer you! So please, for my sake and your sake and your students' sake...just ask the darn question.
• Do not be in a hurry to get home. Your cooperating teacher is investing their time into you and their students. You should do the same. Plus, cool things happen after the bell rings. This is the time where reflecting on the day and having "teacher talk" is a blessing. Students are there from bell to bell. Don't just be a student.
• Share a piece of yourself with your students. Obviously don't tell them the nitty-gritty details of your personal life but it is totally okay to share that you have siblings. That you have a dog, a car, parents, etc. This makes the students view you as a real human being that they can relate to and confide in. If you act like cold reserved individual then they will treat you as such. Trust me on this one.

May the force be with you while you start out in the classroom and may you always provide your students with information that will one day help them win Jeopardy. :)

-Angela (aka. Ms. Becker)

3: In the Case of an Emergency

During this week's fire drill, room 3050's emergency bag
sits and waits outside with the students.

Being Ag teachers, we know that sometimes our classes can contain hazards. In the shop there are saws, drill presses, and welders while in the classroom there can be chemicals, sharp objects, and other places where students need to practice extra caution for their safety.

But what about the instances where our actions don't determine if we stay safe?

This week we heard of the high school in Kentucky where a shooter killed and injured many individuals. Nearby in Lebanon county the Annville-Cleona high school was placed on lock down because of a crime committed nearby where the suspect was on the loose with a firearm. Other emergencies can occur when there is a building fire or a natural disaster. 

In these situations the most important thing to remember is student safety. Are my students here? Are they safe? Are they all accounted for? Each school has a different policy that a teacher should familiarize themselves with. To throw another wrench in the safety procedures, have you ever thought about how to keep your students safe if an emergency occurs while on a field trip? My suggestion is to make an "emergency bag" to take with you on every trip! 

What to put in your Emergency Bag:

• Bottled Water
• Pair of Gloves
• Tissues
• Emergency blankets
• Flashlight with batteries
• Glow Sticks
• Whistle
• Hard Candy
• Compass
• First Aid Kit
• Band-Aids
• Gauze Pads
• Antibiotic Ointment
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Medical tape
• Cotton Balls
• Hand Sanitizer

This is a list of items that are suggestions! Be sure to look at school policy to see what the regulations are for items that you can have around students. Add or remove items to this list at your own discretion. Always keep your bag at the ready and remember that student safety is our number one priority! 

2: You've Got a Friend in Me

Camaraderie

This is the word that comes to mind when I reflect upon this week. I was grateful to spend some time with fellow agricultural educators during the week. On Thursday night (1/18/2018) there was a meeting of the Lancaster County Ag Teachers at Lancaster Mennonite High School. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some teachers that I had never met before. We carried out the business meeting, shared our potluck feast, and got to work scoring record books from kids in the local chapters. Of course the conversation through all of this was pure gold. We laughed about our personal lives, confided in each other about situations in the classroom, and smiled. 

Sometimes a good laugh and a smile is all we need. These are the moments that make you feel light-hearted and good on the inside. Not only do we need friends that can supply an endless amount of joy to our lives, we need a support network of colleagues as well. I find it amazing, just how large of a network we have as ag teachers. There are people to support us locally, on a statewide level, and even across the country. 

I hope that as I "age" in the profession and gain more experience, I can support and mentor those that come after me. I am sure that they will appreciate having a helping hand, advice, and a friendly face when needed. Until next week, I hope you find yourself in a situation where you can't help but smile. 

1: Overwhelming to Start

If you read my blog earlier this week then you know that I spent my first day of student teaching at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. It was a great day!

Thinking about the rest of my first week, I made some interesting observations.

1) After seeing kids in class every day, you can begin to notice when something is "off."
So far I've been able to hear my cooperating teacher's observations of the students and how to tell when they might be having a bad day or something of the sort. I look forward to being able to recognize the changes in my students as time moves forward.

2) Planning is great but you will always stray a bit from your lesson plan. 
Repetition can help with this but in a lesson there will always be a few things that you forget to do or tell your students. This happened to me on Friday afternoon as I taught my first class. It was okay, no one died, and I just corrected by giving them the info a bit later in the lesson when I happened to remember it.

3) There is time to improve! 
No reason to fret because although I feel great that week one I know that there are fourteen more to go and that I can keep improving! Stay tuned to find out what I learn next week.

Inquiry Based Instruction: Take One

Last week in #AEE412 lab we were tasked to grab a lab-aids kit and write an inquiry based lesson using at least one thing from the box. This was quite a challenging task but it went really well! I'd like to focus on the gems and opps of the experience!

Gems

• My peers gave me great feedback! I taught my lab on Monday and was glad to hear their encouraging words. Shoutout to Michala Khulman as she told me that I sounded like a "real teacher" as I spoke to the class. This made my day!
• Secondly I was having quite the rough morning. I was able to overcome the things from outside of class that were weighing on my mind and still show enthusiasm, encouragement, and positivity.

Opps

• I did not feel that I was as prepared for this week. I had noticed a few things during my lesson that I would have liked to reorganize if I do it again. I wrote these things on my lesson plan in hopes of changing it in the future. 
• I sometimes felt as if I just wasn't doing anything. This will surely go away with practice. I look forward to the time that I won't feel as if I am a helicopter just hovering over the students as they learn. 

Overall it went very well! I look forward to utilizing more IBI instruction in my classroom to effectively question students and push them to dive deeper into learning!

#AEE412 Sunday Reflections 9: Do You Dare To Inquire?

When you read the word "inquire" what do you think of? Perhaps you think of questions, brainstorming, or problem solving. Any of the prior are correct! In the world of education inquiry based instruction certainly does not fit "inside a box." It actually happens to be more of a sliding scale as you can see in the photo on the right. To sum it up, inquiry based instruction uses a student's curiosity to answer scientific based questions while increasing problem solving skills and maintaining rigor. 

This past week at the 90th annual National FFA Convention I attended a workshop that was about "Inquiry" that was put on by DuPont for pre-service teachers. I thoroughly enjoyed the content that was presented in the workshop and am excited to explore more about inquiry this week in my methods course. This also went along nicely with the readings that I did for this weekly reflection. 

It has become quite clear that inquiry lessons can increase motivation and interest in the classroom. I was able to participate in a few activities during my workshop that I attended. As I mentioned the green photo is a scale to compare a lesson to in order to see how much inquiry it includes. When reading a scale such as this one, it is easy to mistakenly believe that a lesson is better if each "feature" fits into the "D" category meaning that it is extremely student-centered. It is crucial to recognize that you are not doing your job if a lesson is entirely student controlled on this scale! There must be variation across the features in order to reach the full potential of the lesson/activity. I plan to check my lessons against the scale to see how they line up. The instructors of the workshop made it clear that implementing inquiry into our instruction is not difficult. When checking some lessons that we had already designed, we would be surprised to find that some inquiry is already included! It simply takes some thought and checking on the chart to see where we stand. Include that inquiry, its easy!

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References:

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2011) What inquiry-based instruction? Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC07500.pdf

Warner, A.J. & Myers, B.E. (2014). Implementing inquiry-based teaching methods.Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC07600.pdf

Alberta Learning. (2004) Focus on inquiry: a teacher’s guide to implementing inquiry-based learning.Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/313361/focusoninquiry.pdf

Thoron, A.C., Myers, B.E., & Abrams, K. (2011). Inquiry-based instruction: How is it utilized accepted, and assessed in schools with national agriscience teacher ambassadors? Journal of Agriculture Education, 52(1), 96-106. DOI: 10.5032/jae.2011.01096 

Problem Solve This!

This week I taught for twenty minutes in my teaching methods laboratory demonstrating the problem solving approach. I believe that it went very well! If you have been keeping up with the blog, you will may remember when my "Sunday Reflection" was about problem solving a short time ago. It was fun this week to try my hand at a type of instruction that benefits learners but can feel a bit awkward to a new teacher due to silent time.

Gems

• To begin the problem solving approach, I presented students with a real question/problem which drew them into the lesson! I had told them that homecoming was approaching and was just three short weeks away. This automatically seemed to draw interest. My problem was a "forked road" where I asked if it would be better to purchase their date a corsage/boutonniere  or to make them one. Students then talked about what factors would go into determining this and made a budget to figure out the cost efficiency. 
• I spoke to each student as they were working on their budget. This allowed me to keep them on task and find out what they were thinking. 

Opps

• My classroom management was a bit subpar this week. The students in our lab are actually our peers and I was unable to decipher if his/her behavior was a classroom management issue or if there was an issue that he/she was dealing with that day. 
• I could have probably left the students in silence to work on their budget for a longer period of time. It just feels so awkward standing in front of the class and not doing anything! 
• This may be very generalized but I need to increase my confidence in teaching, planning, and timing. 

If you have any tips on how to utilize questioning in a problem solving approach without feeling awkward or increasing please let me know! 

Thanks for reading!

#AEE412 Sunday Reflections 7: Assessing Student Learning

This week we read about assessments! I appreciate that each week our reading gives us a small taste of what we can look forward to learning in the upcoming class sessions (starting with "money Monday" as Dr. Foster likes to call it). On my road to a teacher I find that I am constantly learning things that I never knew! One thing is for certain, I know that we have to grade our students in a fair and accurate way. With the past few years as a college student it is easy to snap straight to "test" as the only way to assess learning. I appreciate that my education courses have jolted me out of that mentality and reminded me that there are many other ways to assess.

Think back to when you were a student! Did you consistently like being drilled with exams? Ask me that question and I would say, absolutely not! I can think back to one of my favorite classes which was high school biology where we often completed dissections, presentations, and other lab activities. The variety of assessments that we had in that class certainly was a more collective way to test the knowledge and skills that we gained.

As all Agricultural Educators know, our classes are never "black and white." Students are learning hands-on at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and should therefore be assessed at those levels. This certainly does not mean that every assessment needs to be a test or a project but they need to see if the learning objectives are being met! In order to do this we must provide formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are incorporated throughout the unit and a summative assessment is taken at the end of a unit.

I am reminded about our opportunity to complete a SLO or Student Learning Outcome in the Spring during student teaching. I look forward to this opportunity to assess students while assessing my performance. The link below includes a reference that I found regarding SLOs! It helps me to better follow the steps in figuring out what my SLO should be. Check it out.


https://www.nvcc.edu/assessment/_docs/PS4.methodsforassessingSLOs1009.pdf

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References:

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Cornell University Center for Teaching Excellence. (2015). Assessing student learning. Retrieved from http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html

Jung, L.A. & Guskey, T.R. (2010). Grading exceptional learners. Educational Leadership, 67(5). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/Grading-Exceptional-Learners.aspx

Roberts, J. E. (n.d.). Methods for Assessing Student Learning Outcomes. Retrieved October 6, 2017, from https://www.nvcc.edu/assessment/_docs/PS4.methodsforassessingSLOs1009.pdf

Stoughton, A.L. & Myers, B.E. (2008) Creating and working with rubrics Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06900.pdf

Warner, W.J. & Myers, B.E. (2010). Evaluating learning in laboratory settings. Retrieved from  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06000.pd

#AEE412 Sunday Reflections 6: Problems to Solve

We have recently spent a lot of time getting to know the problem-solving approaches (forked-road, possibilities factors, situations to be improved, effect/cause).  In this week's readings we learned about problem based learning and how it evokes a higher level of thinking. This is magical for teachers because learning about problem solving and problem based methods provides a path on which students pick up 21st century skills! 21st century skills are essential in creating functional and successful adults. You can find 21st century skills in the image below.

Now, as I read and learned about involving students with an applicable problem that they will want to solve I am drawn back to inquiry based instruction. I am incredibly excited to learn more about inquiry-based as I feel that my knowledge on this method has been slowly increasing. I have applied to the Inquiry-Based Pre-Service teacher workshop at this year's National FFA Convention and am anxiously awaiting a response to see if I was accepted as a participant. I really do believe that
inquiry helps students to retain information longer and at a deeper level. It is said that students will learn what they do. If your class makes students memorize content then they will learn how to memorize. So by providing opportunities for students to utilize resources to solve real-world problems they will be able to do the same thing any time they encounter a problem. Project-based learning allows for this authentic process to take place. I can remember learning the scientific method and how to critically think about hypotheses and experiments and why these tests even mattered.

As teachers who strive for nothing less than the best, wouldn't inquiry be something that we would jump on board with without hesitation? I would believe so and therefore I can't wait to master it!

Check out this video below where a teacher from Bolder, Colorado shares his experience with inquiry based learning. It provides a good example that could be utilized in a wildlife or environmental classroom!

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References:

Kirkley, J. (2003). Principles for teaching problem solving. Retrieved from

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8503&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). The main course, not dessert: How are students reaching 21st century goals? With 21stcentury project based learning. Retrieved from http://bie.org/object/document/main_course_not_dessert

Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J.R. (2010). 8 essentials for project-based learning. Retrieved from http://www.sbcss.k12.ca.us/attachments/article/1058/8_Essentials_article_small_file_size_Oct2012version.pdf

Phipps, L.J., Osborn, E.W., Dyer, J.E., & Ball, A.L. (2008) Handbook on agricultural education in public schools, 1st Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

(2015, August 18). Retrieved October 01, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqPaKTsDIU

Unit Plan: Gems and Opps

Reflection On My First Unit Plan

http://blog.gradeable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/teachers-end-of-school-year.jpg

This is my first attempt at writing a unit plan! I took the bull by the horns and dove into writing it. I must say that it contains a lot of information and I was not sure whether the flow of the lessons, topics of the lessons, and time of the lessons. I am now in the process of revising my unit plan so that it can better serve my class and prepare them for careers in the dairy industry as well as the different CDEs that it applies to.

Gems

• My unit plan is very organized and has all of the needed information on it. 
• I feel that although I am an "animal science guru" dairy is my LEAST comfortable species. I researched what needs included when teaching information about dairy systems and will continue to become comfortable with the content as I move forward. 

Opps

• My objectives for each day could benefit from some altering. SMART objectives are key in utilizing your days to their fullest potential. Since writing my plan our AEE 412: Methods class has learned about objectives that facilitate action. 
• Adding more statistical data to my "reasoning" for this unit can be a benefit
• As mentioned above, I'm not a dairy expert. Asking some of my peers about the industry and what they think about my plan might be useful as I move forward. 

Moving forward my hope is to become stronger and more confident in the decisions that are made when planning a unit and the lessons that are contained. I will keep you updated as to how it goes as I continue along my #TeachAg journey. 

#AEE412 Sunday Reflections 4: Collaborative Learning

Collaborative Learning is Grand!

This week our readings discussed group or collaborative learning, writing purposeful learning objectives, and facilitating instruction. All of the topics are important but it seems that collaborative learning techniques happened to stick with me the most. I believe this is because I have made the connection between utilizing groups as a teaching tool when I'm a teacher and having them used on me! Within our Ag Ed courses here at Penn State Dr. Foster, Dr. Ewing, Dr. Curry, and Dr. Rice demonstrate different ways to teach our students increasing their level of comprehension and moving to a higher level on Bloom's Taxonomy. Having these techniques demonstrated on myself, I hope to use some of them as I cross the line from student to teacher. 

Digging deeper into the tactics and structure of collaborative classroom activities, I can clearly see where this benefits students. Instead of simply listening to a lecture students can make more connections between the taught material and their own thoughts. Personally I gain vast amounts of comprehension in group situations. The fact of the matter is that many people see things differently. Just as our weekly investments focus on different points of the reading, group members will all pick a different facet of the content that they are working on and bring a different view to the discussion that they are a part of. Not to mention the fact that the way a teacher tries to teach something might not click for a particular student. Having group work allows for more discussion and even some clarification from other students. When used correctly collaborative learning can really make a positive difference in the classroom!

This week I found a great video from "Teaching Channel" which I have included a link to in my references. In this video, a high school teacher from Texas talks about the 1-3-6 approach to group strategies in his classroom. When a topic is being approached first the students individually comprehend what they learned. They then get into a small group of three and discuss the topic. Finally their group of three pairs with another group of three to gain even more perspectives and provide some personal views of the topic. If desired, each group of six can quickly share what they decided was the most common theme in their discussion. I like this approach to a collaborative activity and will have to test it out in the classroom to see how well it works in meeting comprehensive objectives!

Do you have any thoughts or tips on group teaching? Any stories or examples you would like to share? Please comment!

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References:

Groseta, K.J. & Myers, B.E. (2006). Using cooperative learning in formal and nonformal education. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06200.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

(n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/1-3-6-protocol

Whittington, M.S. (2005). Writing objectives in secondary agriculture courses that challenge students to think. Agriculture Education Magazine. Retrieved from  http://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume77/v77i5.pdf

I *faux* Taught the First Day of School!

This Wednesday in our AEE 412 "methods" lab, I taught my first day of school lesson! I think it went well as it was my second time teaching in lab and this go-round was much better and less nerve racking than the first. I found some "Gems" and "Opps" that I'd like to share. Gems are positive things that I did well and opps are opportunities where I could have done better. Here it goes!

Gems

• I feel that I was upbeat and enthusiastic through the lesson. 
• I transitioned well from greeting students at the door into bell-work and onto my expectations.
• I did well at keeping student's on task when taking an introductory quiz. Some students were trying to talk instead of staying on task, others were sleeping. I tried using engaging questions and proximity control to keep them on task.

Opps

• A few of the students probing questions could have been answered with more finesse. Some of these situations were downright hilarious and it was rather hard to keep a straight face and answer them correctly. Side note, the students were actually my fellow #PSUAgEd18 cohort members. 
• I wanted the students to introduce themselves using an activity with a large plastic ball which I would have written questions on. I could not find a ball at the local Walmart so I had to settle on a snowball game. It worked really well but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. 

Please comment and let me know how your first day of class usually goes. How do you respond when student's ask you awkward personal questions? What activity do you use to introduce yourself to the students? I look forward to reading your comments!

#AEE412 Sunday Reflections 3

Program Planning 101: Planning to Succeed

I just love when multiple classes share a common theme at the same time! This past week in both #AEE412 and #AEE413 we learned about the importance of program planning and how your curriculum connects to the rest of your program. Currently my focus is on lesson plans and where to start!

Today I am spending my time writing a lesson plan and a unit plan. It does seem like a great deal of thought and planning must go into just one lesson! Now, I image all of the veteran teachers reading this and laughing as they say "Duh!" Remember I'm just getting started and am attempting to figure out my organization style of a lesson plan and how to fit standards as well as write clearly stated objectives. It's all new to me! 

Beginning with an end in mind is the advice that I have heard repeated the most. Think about what you want your students to learn and be able to do and then decide how you're going to get them to reach that goal. I feel that the approach to unit planning is similar as well. My hope is that I will figure out a way to create my unit plan and lesson plans with objectives that will satisfy what my students need to know based off of industry standards and local need. I am utilizing resources given to me in class and those I have found on my own.

Check out the Missouri Program Planning Handbook that I have linked below. Its a cool resource that I feel breaks down many aspects of a program and provides help in understanding why Ag teachers must have many aspects included in a successful program. Also check out the Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning from Michigan. They break down the steps they think should be taken very nicely.

Do you have any advice or suggestions to help me in starting my planning?

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References:

Agricultural Education Program Planning Handbook for Missouri Schools. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://dass.missouri.edu/aged/resources/handbook/

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5