Getting Situated: Week #3

There's a bug going around the school and it's not the kind we're learning about in my Pest Management unit! Everyone is catching the nasty cold and flu this week so we've had to be diligent about hand washing and personal space. Many were out sick, and I definitely caught it too... gah! Despite all of this, I was able to push through the week and make the best out of it. The students are real troopers!

I'm really starting to feel situated in my placement now. While I don't have a full class load yet, I am comfortable with my students. I am starting to find that flow as well, and I think the students can feel more comfortable because they see that I am a little more relaxed as well.

Students in Mrs. Pontius' Food Science class doing an experiment

Time savers

One of my issues is that everything takes much longer than anticipated to complete. I don't mind going at the pace the students need, but I worry sometimes that the application or the "fun stuff" is also getting pushed to a later time. In some cases, they cannot move on until they understand the content, so it's challenging for me make it more interesting. For example, today I wanted students to go through a powerpoint and take some notes about weed characteristics about specific weeds. Following this, I was going to try a party host moment with them where they would pretend to be a weed. They would introduce themselves as the pest and would ask questions about the other. For example they might ask, so do you come here annually, biennially, or perennially? It was supposed to be kind of cheesy but kind of fun!

The issue is that we didn't even get through the whole powerpoint today. We did do something else before hand but if I didn't do that, that would have meant we would have spent the whole class period on just the powerpoint.. a big no no!

One suggestion for me was to have guided notes for them where they could fill in the blanks instead of recording all of the notes. Mrs. Pontius said that even though I told them several times that they didn't have to write everything word for word, there are still some of those high achieving students that will do that. Writing everything down from the powerpoint takes a lot of time. Guided notes would have saved that time while still addressing my concern of making sure they were engaged while I was presenting. 

I need to begin thinking of more ways to save time and work for students so they aren't worrying so much about writing everything down, and rather, just practicing, identifying, and otherwise learning. 

Discipline and management

I really truly enjoy my students, however kids will be kids! I haven't really had too many discipline issues, but this week I did start seeing some really minor things. In plant science, I had given students a little research activity on insect pests and they were to present their insect to the rest of the class. We didn't finish the research portion the first day, so I gave them about 5 minutes the next day to work on it and then present. There was one group that had finished it the day before, but their friend who was absent that day had their packets. So they couldn't present that day. 

Classroom Expectations, Procedures, and Consequences

I should have done a better job walking around and making sure students were prepared, but they also didn't care to address this issue with me before hand nor did they attempt to re-look up any information to help solve the situation. It was a pretty informal presentation, but still certainly not fair to the other students who put in the effort. There wasn't much I could do except wait until the next day for them to present. I realized afterwards that it would have been such a great time to point to my expectations posters behind me and remind them of the preparedness expectation! But I thought about it after the class was over so it was an opportunity missed, unfortunately. Either way, I now know to be more diligent with that and to not pair certain students together if they cannot complete that assignment. 

Wrapping up this week

Overall, I think there was a lot of learning for both myself and the students! Another hurdle I will need to tackle is catching up students who have missed two or three days! That's going to be a challenge, however I'm hoping that I can work through this and get them back on track soon.

In other news, I guest taught in the Spanish class today. I spoke about my experience in Mexico (because I can never talk enough about that!). I even used a little bit of Spanish and had them practice some key vocab words. While it is not teaching in the formal sense, I enjoyed getting in front of students and sharing my knowledge. It was really a confidence booster and now hopefully I've made a connection to those students who are in my other courses. I think it goes to show that teaching doesn't always need to be formal.. they can learn through experiences of others. Learning can happen by simply sharing the wealth and engagin in discussion. 

Going forward

Going forward from here, my goals next week are to work on grades and putting grades in the grade book. In this, I plan to sit down with my cooperating teachers and have them show me how they do it and have a conversation about assessment, etc. 

Another goal is to catch up students who have been behind. Hopefully they will all be healthy and back in class by Monday so we can start from there. 

Next week in plant science I will be finishing up with weed pests and do a hopefully brief lesson about diseases. Then I will assess students with their pest ID quiz. Following this, I will get into pesticide application and usage. 

In small engines, they are just wrapping up on tool identification and they will move on to talking about what small gas engines are and then into parts identification.

In welding, students will be talking about safety and will make a safety poster presentation. My hope is to complete the safety portion next week, but they meet every other day, so I will need to be adamant about connecting concepts from two days before!

Leaving Thought

"Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds. You can grow flowers or you can grow weeds" -- Unknown