The Joys and Discomforts: Week #4

What a wonderful week it has been! I still feel like I am in the "honeymoon" stage. Sure there have been some challenges, and sure I've pushed myself in many ways, but I feel empowered. My students are great and my cooperating teachers are inspiring. I am so lucky to be where I am at; I truly believe this. Even though things have been going well, I am learning a lot and continuing to adapt and grow. I feel in all honesty that teaching is where I belong.


Now that I've got that off my chest, I can begin to really talk about the blessings and challenges of my week.

Welding students working on safety posters

Rolling with the punches

I believe I've been doing pretty well with flexibility so far despite my mental need for order and organization. However I find that a lot of my plans are changing. Some of this is due to things out of my control. For example many students are still out due to sicknesses and sports, etc. This has brought several classes down to half their size (no exaggeration!). Also, on Tuesday, there was a two hour delay, so two of my classes were cut out from there. This not only pushed everything back, but in Plant Science, I decided to move around a lesson to today rather than split a two-day lesson over the weekend.

Party Host E-Moment learning about weed pests

The other changes have come from my personal decisions. There were some projects or lessons that I thought were really neat while I was planning it, but looking at it now, 1) we don't have time, 2) I feel like they aren't a good idea anymore, or 3) the students are above or sometimes even below the level at which a certain assignment/activity is set at.

Small engines students demonstrating the function of engine parts

All of these factors combined can make it really challenging to follow a lesson plan let alone a unit plan. I know that it's all part of the experience, however, and adjusting to the needs of my students is of the utmost importance. The detail-oriented side of me is hoping for my plans to follow their original intent so I don't have to change so much!

A fourth classroom

I have two cooperating teachers, and then I work with the shop instructor, Mr. Statler, to teach welding. So I usually jump around 3 different classrooms throughout the week. However, this week, I had the opportunity to teach Life Skills students in their learning support room. These students are normally in my 3rd period Agriscience class, but due to the rigor and nature of the lessons and experiments the students in that class were doing, Mr. Clark thought it would be best to have separate lessons for them.


The topic is on alternative energy and fuel. I joined them in their learning support room and did little lessons with them every day this week. I had an aid with me who was a great help, but I was pretty much on my own as far as facilitating the lesson goes. I was up for the challenge!

Personal Tree Cookies

I had such a great time with these students. I think they really enjoyed me being there and enjoyed the lessons I was doing with them. On Monday, I taught them about chemical bonding. They got to make chemical bonds out of toothpicks and gum drops. Tuesday, we didn't have this class, but Wednesday, we talked about renewable energy and fossil fuels, and we did an activity with recycling and composting vs throwing things in the trash. Thursday, they did something completely different involving reading tree cookies to determine the age of trees, and talking about some by-products of trees. And today, Friday, I showed them a bunch of animal pelts, skulls, and footprints, and had them figure out what the animal was and feel the materials.

Making chemical bonds out of gum drops and toothpicks

There were a lot of things I noticed from observing them and working with them in the Agriscience class, and Mr. Clark shared some input on how he manages them. I also got to meet with the special needs coordinator this week who was able to give me insight on teaching with these students. Even though I did not have the experience or expertise working with students in that situation, I felt very comfortable with teaching them.

I don't always know if they've retained the information the next day, but I am confident that they are learning something, and that they enjoy some of the hands-on activities I am doing with them. They really are quite a joy to work with! I will be working with them for a few more days yet, and then we will be back in the classroom with the rest of the students. I feel like this is exactly the kind of experience I need and want to have so that I can better understand my students in years to come. And I look forward to working with them every day!

"The joys and discomforts of agricultural life..."

Just as the FFA Creed says, I hope to exert an influence on my school and community which will stand solid while I perform my duties during student teaching. I may not always know what the next day will bring, but I know that it brings me great joy to see my students and work with the teachers and staff at Greenwood High School.

Next week in Plant Science, I am excited to start the week with my problem solving approach lesson on Integrated Pest Management. This is the lab I did at Penn State, and now with some refining and a real class, I can try it out for real. I'm nervous but mostly excited, and I think this will change the pace compared to what we have been doing so far. The rest of next week, we will get into pest management and pesticide safety.


In Small Engines, the students are going to take the parts identification quiz, and they are even going to get their hands on a little inquiry as they try to assemble an entire engine based on what they know so far about the parts. They won't necessarily be putting it together using the tools and measurements, rather, they are going to try and see if they can figure out how the parts fit together and really visualize the functions of those parts in one whole engine. They will get started on energy conversion principles as well.


In Agriscience, I will still be with the Life Skills students, and we will be making butter, making plastic from corn, and making a potato battery.


In Welding, students will finish up on their discussion about safety, and get into tools a little bit, and then they will take their safety exam.


I am also picking up Food Science next week, where I will be starting on the Methods of Food Preservation unit.


My goals for next week are to work on planning in time for review of objectives/reflection at the end of the period. I try so hard to keep track of my time and I want to squeeze as much as I can into the class period but before I know it, the bell has rung. I need to work on stopping instruction earlier even if we aren't done yet in order to review.


Another goal, which is perhaps a long term goal, is to create lessons that are more student centered rather than teacher centered. I believe it is my need for organization that prevents me from planning lessons where I don't have direct control over what the students are doing. But I know that it is so important for their learning and beneficial for their problem solving skills so I agree fully that this is a necessary change (and a good change). I hope to overcome this challenge though!

Leaving Thought

"Do small things with great love" -- Mother Theresa

Keyword: Flexibility: Week #2

I started this week with probably one of the neatest in-service days I'll ever have. There was a program for those teachers in the district who wanted to be certified to instruct archery. My cooperating teachers and I signed up for this course and spent the majority of the day learning about archery, safety, and shooting techniques.

Not only was it a great experience to get to know other teachers around the school, but it built my confidence in my abilities to perform something I once thought I wasn't good at. Once I learned the technique, I was constantly hitting bulls eyes! I won't get all deep and sappy, but I think that is the perfect metaphorical experience to compare to student teaching. I had been so nervous leading up until Tuesday (when I began teaching) but once I started teaching, I was fine. It felt great teaching and felt completely in my element. Sure there are things I still have to iron out, and I know I still need to develop my flow in the classroom, but I think just like archery, I just need to follow what I've been taught, try my best, and keep practicing until I hit that bulls eye. 


This week was the first week I started picking up Plant Science and Small Gas Engines. On Friday I also began teaching Welding as well. 

Lesson plans

I thought I would be holding onto my lesson plans like a crutch the entire week, but as it turns out, I didn't even touch them during instructional time. There are a few reasons why this happened. One, like I said, I felt good teaching. Normally when I get nervous I forget what I'm supposed to teach and I need to look at my plan. But running through it before the start of class and perhaps growing in my confidence allowed me to remember what I needed to do. 

For another thing, I reached a small crisis the night before when I realized that I needed to move around some of my activities. I realized it didn't make sense for them to learn one thing before they learn the next. I still taught the same things I was planning, just in a different order. So my lesson plans ended up being all out of order anyway. 

I do really like writing my lessons out beforehand because I like to think through what I will be presenting. But I feel that at least for now, I don't need to use them during class. I know there will be a handful of times throughout the semester where I will have to reference them in class simply because I put specific instructions or reminders in my plans. But other than that, I tend to write down my bellwork, interest approach, and the one or two activities we are doing on a sticky note and I'm good to go. 

Time flies...

One of my concerns going into student teaching was being able to accomplish my objectives and thus my activities within the 42 minute time period as I planned out in my lesson plans. This concern is now a reality, though it is certainly not the worst thing to happen. I tend to teach only one objective and get through about one activity. I still need to learn how to gauge how quickly students work which is part of the struggle. But I think we all agree that it is better to over-plan than to not plan enough.
 

I'm sure that there might be small things I can do classroom management-wise to get more done in one class period, but I think that more than anything, I realize how important it is for teachers to really think about what they need to teach vs. what they want to teach. I plan on removing a few lessons that I wanted to teach so my three-week unit wouldn't turn into a six-week unit. The lessons that I wanted to teach certainly relate to the unit, but aren't essential to understanding the core concepts. I considered having them do some of the work for homework, but I would want to spend some class time talking it over, which defeats the idea. Teachers need to be purposeful in what they teach!

Flexibility

Mr. Clark gave me a vocab word for the week which will probably hold firm for the entire semester; Flexibility. As I learn to adjust and I learn what my students need to thrive, I must be flexible. For example, Thursday I took charge of the freshman agriscience course so Mr. Clark and the shop students could work on the baseball dugout project. It wasn't planned, but I was able to take charge of the class and get them to finish what they needed to finish. 

Another example was that Mrs. Pontius was out on Friday. They had a substitute come in her absence. I was teaching plant science and had my powerpoint up and ready to go, but for some reason, the sub and I couldn't figure out how to hook it up to the projector. Instead of having the students sit there and do nothing, I quickly adjusted and had them work on the activity they were originally going to do at the end of the class period. Luckily it worked in my favor because they didn't need the powerpoint to do the activity (though it would have really helped with their understanding), and the activity ended up taking the whole class period (there's that time factor again). Had I presented the powerpoint as planned, they might have had to stop mid activity and pick it up again on Monday. Now I can just present the powerpoint and not worry about finishing the activity. I don't think it will always work like that but being flexible certainly helps get through that!

Looking ahead to next week

I learned a lot just in this first week, and I am eager to continue growing. I didn't talk about welding too much in this blog, but my goal there is to get my students motivated to want to participate. I sense a lack of will-power in my small class that I want to really crank up. Their class is also only every other day so I know it is even more important to build that rapport with my students.

In plant science, I will be teaching them about insect mouth parts. Then we will be identifying specific insects. Next, we will get into identification and classification of weed pests. 

In small gas engines, we will finish up our safety discussion and they will take their exam. Then we will start talking about what small gas engines are, and finish the week with tool identification and a little quiz on that.

In welding, I will only meet with them twice, so on Tuesday, I plan on going over my expectations and procedures. I just did getting-to-know-you activities with them on Friday so I could get them used to me and build that rapport. I will most likely have time to begin introducing arc welding as well. Thursday I will start getting into the safety.

Leaving Thought

"She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails" -- Elizabeth Edwards