Full Load; Full Week: Week #6

So technically speaking, I don't have a full load... yet. But the only class I haven't taken over yet is the Agriscience class. Instead, I have been doing a few more additional lessons with the Life Skills students. Because of this, I consider that to be a class in which I am teaching so basically a full load!

Past the honeymoon stage?

This week was interesting. Perhaps it's because my students are comfortable with me or perhaps I've been getting a little too relaxed. No serious behavior issues yet, but some of my newer classes I find that the students are a little more... charismatic and a little more social than what I find acceptable. Cell phones have been a bit of an issue. Some students are constantly on their phones. It wasn't an issue before except for maybe one student. Now it's a couple more. It doesn't bother me too much and I have them use their devices to find information so I feel that it is hard to regulate. 

The issue is actually that students might be on their phones but when I ask them a question they can still answer me! Maybe their answer isn't always the deepest answer, but I can't even catch them off guard. My cooperating teachers say they have similar issues too, which isn't entirely a bad thing (at least they are still following along), but I try to emphasize that it is not professional. I did say on the first day that I don't mind the use of phones for educational purposes but if I find that it is becoming an issue, we will have a conversation. So I did establish that expectation. Perhaps not clearly enough. Ms. Kane is going to have to get a little more serious!

One thing I've tried is to kind of make a light-hearted joke out of it. It doesn't always make them put it away but I think it shows that I do notice them on their phones. And the way their desks are setup, there's really not much hiding it anyway. Additionally, there have been a couple of times where conveniently enough, a respectful student asks a question that I don't know the answer to so I turn to whichever student is on their phones (gotchya!) and ask them to look up that information. I'm sure there are better methods to handle this situation, but we'll see how the following week goes.

A conditioned response

Another struggle that I found this week came out of assigning group projects. My cooperating teachers don't normally start with a bellwork or anything, but the students have normally all been very good about getting into the habit of completing bellwork. However, this week in several of my classes, they were working on group presentations. It's as if they completely forgot that bellwork was a thing.. instead they just walk into class and log onto the computer and begin to get to work. I'm happy that they're eager to get working, but it is so hard to reel them in and get them to hop off of the computer to do the bellwork. This has happened in several of my classes, and I think it's because they are used to just walking in and getting to work from before I arrived. Not a bad thing necessarily, but I was still a little taken off guard and had to adjust.

Chapter Degree Recipients

Greenhand Degree Recipients

Reciting the Creed

Chapter Officers

Greenhands and sandwiches

This week was also very full because there were several FFA events taking place. Students made sandwiches for their fundraiser which they were going to use the proceeds for their hunger awareness event. That same day, we had our Greenhand Degree ceremony combined with our Chapter Degree ceremony. I loved being able to help students out prior to the event with editing their speeches. I was also happy to see my students receive their degree. I tried to put myself out there and met some of the parents so that was really nice too. 

Goals and lessons

As I continue with my full load, I hope to continue to keep my head above water. I love teaching and I think that makes any challenge much easier to handle. A personal goal of mine is to be more on top of grades. I wish I didn't have to worry about grades... just engaging students in the learning! 

This week in plant science, we will have students finish their presentations and then we will review for their pest exam and then they will take the exam.

In small engines, we will finish talking about engine classifications and some of the systems.

In agriscience, I begin teaching the entire class and start with public speaking.

In welding, we just finished talking about safety and we are going to get into talking about welding techniques.

In animal bioscience, students are going to present their posters on dairy cattle breeds and get into selective breeding and later into dairy cattle production.

In food science, we are going to talk about pH in foods and do a neat lab with this which will lead us into how pH affects the method of canning, and then we will probably get into cold preservation methods at the end of the week. 

In leadership, we are going to continue talking about public speaking and styles of speeches.

Leaving Thought

"If there is no way, create one"