Another week has gone by and I feel like I am a week older, not wiser, just older. This week was an exciting week. I taught my first class, took a field trip, and learned that although I was in high school just a short 4 years ago kids sure have changed!
This week started out easy enough. I was all jazzed to finally get those 8th graders in my room Tuesday morning. I had prepared a kick-@$$ lesson for them, got all the supplies ready and i was all set to jet. Then once third hour came around no 8th graders showed up. Ya see, in Pleasantville the 8th graders have a 5 day week, which means in the four days were are here, their cycle continues like a 5 day week. For example, Tuesday through Friday are days 1-4, but come next Tuesday it is day 5 and by Wednesday it is day 1 again. And we get them on days 1,4, and ever other 5. Turns out Tuesday was day 3 and not day 1 as i suspected, pretty confusing huh? Well Mr. Collins got a good chuckle out of this and so did, minus the red face i sported for an hour. It just goes show that even with all the preparation in the world, if u arrive early you still look like a fool. But then the next day i was able to rock out the lesson. Importance of Animals in Agriculture. We went over domestication and different products and by-products and then we made Ice Cream, they loved it. Mr. Collins says this is the most active group of 8th graders he has ever seen, and I believe him. They have a lot of questions and are seemingly in awe of all a chicken can do and demand a unit over chickens, which I will oblige.
On Thursday I was able to take two livestock judging teams to the Pork Congress in Des Moines at the Iowa Event Center. It was a great experience, since I was riding solo. I found out how much a group of high school kids can wear someone out! The biggest thing I got out of the experience was talking to other Ag Teachers. One first year teacher I know said something that agreed with instantly and a thought that I have had. "There was NO WAY I was like this when I was in high school." Even though I am sure I was, actually I was probably one of the biggest pains in the ass when I was a freshman-senior ;), It really helps me be able to see things from their perspective. Another comment I made to another Ag Teacher was "Do I look new here." he looked at me and said yes without hesitation. It felt so different to be on the other side of the fence, but it a good way. After we got home I was tired, but I was so much more happy with my choice to go in to AgEd and in the fact that I will be an Ag Teacher.
As the week winded down on Friday I assumed full control of the 7th hour Agronomy/Biotech class and we have some good ideas and big plans for them. Ranging from CDEs to the Crop Plot to BioTech and DNA we have alot to cover in a short amount of time, but I am more then willing to take it over. Well that is all for the week, I feel like I have more to say, but nothing comes to mind. I will probably be writing part two to this blog tomorrow, but as of now I have some lesson plans to finish up.... Have I ever mentioned how much i love 8th hour preps? Well anywho, in the words of the immortal Red Green Remember, "I'm pulling for ya. We're all in this together"
Peace Easy Lemon Squeezies!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
One down, many to go
Friday! You look forward to it as a student, but man, I think you may look forward to it even more as a teacher! Now don't get me wrong, I am loving this, but It will be nice to not know what the sunrise looks like, for a couple of days anyway. This first week of student teaching hasn't been tough, in fact at times I felt more like the Student in Student Teacher than the Teacher. I think that was due to the fact that Mr. Collins wanted me to ease into the job. It also gave me time to let my mouth heal, which by the way is healing nicely. The stitches are starting to come out, which is good,, but as it heals it seems to make my mouth smell quiet rotten. No one else has picked up on it really, maybe they are just being polite I don't know, but it isn't to refreshing. I am killing about one can of mints a day. It may just be paranoia, but it helps.
Anyway, back to my point. As the week progressed I started to feel much more comfortable around the students, I feel as if we have gotten to know each other better. I did not teach any lessons this week, per Mr. Collins orders, but I did work with the students on quiet a bit of things. The big push this week was finishing up record books and working on Proficiency and Iowa Degree Applications, which I have a fair knowledge about. So it was nice being able to help the students out with those and making sure that they have them filled out correctly. This week was also spent in the shop with the freshmen refreshing welding skills from last semester. It was nice helping them out, making sure they had everything set and when they had trouble helping to troubleshoot the problem with them instead of just telling them what they did wrong. The best welder in that class appears to be a girl as of right now, which is awesome. She is laying some of the best beads I have seen a freshman lay. I feel like I can say that because We did a lot of welding in Moravia High back in the day.
Well I think that i have summed up this week in my blog yesterday and the one today. I am looking forward to next week, I will start with the 8th graders. I have some big plans for them that I will tell you about later. Come next week we will be hitting those CDEs hard prepping the students for Sub-districts, which is just a month away, and then on Thursday is the big Livestock Judging contest at the Pork Congress. Well I hope everyone has a safe and eventful weekend. I will leave you with my predictions for the Championship games this weekend. In the NFC.... Packers 28 Bears 24, and in the AFC..... Steelers 21 Jets 7. Well you all have been great! Peace Easy Lemon Squeezies.
Anyway, back to my point. As the week progressed I started to feel much more comfortable around the students, I feel as if we have gotten to know each other better. I did not teach any lessons this week, per Mr. Collins orders, but I did work with the students on quiet a bit of things. The big push this week was finishing up record books and working on Proficiency and Iowa Degree Applications, which I have a fair knowledge about. So it was nice being able to help the students out with those and making sure that they have them filled out correctly. This week was also spent in the shop with the freshmen refreshing welding skills from last semester. It was nice helping them out, making sure they had everything set and when they had trouble helping to troubleshoot the problem with them instead of just telling them what they did wrong. The best welder in that class appears to be a girl as of right now, which is awesome. She is laying some of the best beads I have seen a freshman lay. I feel like I can say that because We did a lot of welding in Moravia High back in the day.
Well I think that i have summed up this week in my blog yesterday and the one today. I am looking forward to next week, I will start with the 8th graders. I have some big plans for them that I will tell you about later. Come next week we will be hitting those CDEs hard prepping the students for Sub-districts, which is just a month away, and then on Thursday is the big Livestock Judging contest at the Pork Congress. Well I hope everyone has a safe and eventful weekend. I will leave you with my predictions for the Championship games this weekend. In the NFC.... Packers 28 Bears 24, and in the AFC..... Steelers 21 Jets 7. Well you all have been great! Peace Easy Lemon Squeezies.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tonight We Are Who We Are
When I tell people that I have about a 45 minute drive every morning, giver or take, most people think that it must be awful. To be honest it isn't bad at all, mainly due to the Elvis Duran Show and the fact that even though 107.5 may play a total of 4 songs during my commute, there is about an 85% chance at least one of those songs will be a Ke$ha, Enrique, or Lady Gaga which of course gets me pumped up ready for the day. I have been arriving at the school around 7:40 for this first week, since I have no classes and the fact that we have two built in preps, one at the end of the day which is nice to get my work done at the end of the day. When I get to school Mr. Collins and I talk about what is on tap for the day and help out some students who have some questions. Next week I will probably start arriving at around 7:30 so we can start working with students on CDEs and helping them get ready to judge some swine on Friday! I am so jacked for that, hopefully we can do decent and get some students excited about judging this summer.
So today during the 4th period prep I ran to Knoxville to pick up some plywood so we could finish up some of the inside of the greenhouse so we can get the heat turned on, which happens tomorrow something else we are excited about. But anywho, on the 10 minute drive to town I was actually blessed to hear Ke$ha, Enrique, AND Lady G on the trip! The only problem is they cut out the Ludacris part of Enriques "Tonight". I hate it when the do that on the radio! When they cut out the rap part of a song, it is generally the part that really gets me going. Back to my point, When we get the greenhouse up and running Mr. Collins and I have some pretty big plans for it that I hope we can get going before I leave. One of them is utilizing a hydroponics system with water from the Aquaculture tank. Not only could we save on water but also fertilizer, as the manure produced by the fish would be more then adequate.
I also beginning to work with the Juniors on their the CDE and also getting their record books update so they can fill out their proficency and Iowa degree applications. I really like this group of juniors, they are a group that is excited to learn and seem like that are excited about the FFA. I am also working with the Freshman as they work with the Conduct of Meetings. They are slowly coming out of their shell and I am really pumped to see what they will be able to. Well Kiddos that is all, I know that I kind of rambled there and that you may not see how Ke$ha is related to AgEd, but her tuneskies get me pumped, and when I am pumped then I think I am a much better teacher. Next time I will hopefully be talking about how my first lessons went, which are already finished and hopefully the students enjoy them as much as i enjoyed writing them ;). Welp until next time Peace Easy Lemon Squeezies!
So today during the 4th period prep I ran to Knoxville to pick up some plywood so we could finish up some of the inside of the greenhouse so we can get the heat turned on, which happens tomorrow something else we are excited about. But anywho, on the 10 minute drive to town I was actually blessed to hear Ke$ha, Enrique, AND Lady G on the trip! The only problem is they cut out the Ludacris part of Enriques "Tonight". I hate it when the do that on the radio! When they cut out the rap part of a song, it is generally the part that really gets me going. Back to my point, When we get the greenhouse up and running Mr. Collins and I have some pretty big plans for it that I hope we can get going before I leave. One of them is utilizing a hydroponics system with water from the Aquaculture tank. Not only could we save on water but also fertilizer, as the manure produced by the fish would be more then adequate.
I also beginning to work with the Juniors on their the CDE and also getting their record books update so they can fill out their proficency and Iowa degree applications. I really like this group of juniors, they are a group that is excited to learn and seem like that are excited about the FFA. I am also working with the Freshman as they work with the Conduct of Meetings. They are slowly coming out of their shell and I am really pumped to see what they will be able to. Well Kiddos that is all, I know that I kind of rambled there and that you may not see how Ke$ha is related to AgEd, but her tuneskies get me pumped, and when I am pumped then I think I am a much better teacher. Next time I will hopefully be talking about how my first lessons went, which are already finished and hopefully the students enjoy them as much as i enjoyed writing them ;). Welp until next time Peace Easy Lemon Squeezies!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Impacting Students and Changing Lives
The first day as an Agriculture Educator in training went off with out a hitch. Today was spent mostly observing and meeting with the students and other teachers. Mr. Collins and I discussed the future plans for the spring and the CDE contest. I talked Mr. Collins into starting up the Livestock Judging team earlier than normal. We will be taking a group of students to the Pork Congress next friday and having them compete in the Judging Contest. So that is pretty exciting, if anyone else is interested, I know it is a short notice but here is the link to the webpage on the Iowa Pork Producers websitehttp://iowaporkcongress.org/seminarsdetail.php?Bxw6AVZuTXZ-TRI~.
Today was also a reminder about how spacey High School students can be, it is really kind of comical. No real specific stories today, but I am sure that in the future there will be some good ones. Well that is it for tonight, nothing to spectacular of note today, just getting my feet wet, with both teaching and this whole blog thing. Hope everyone has an AWESOME evening! Peace easy Lemon Squeezies
Today was also a reminder about how spacey High School students can be, it is really kind of comical. No real specific stories today, but I am sure that in the future there will be some good ones. Well that is it for tonight, nothing to spectacular of note today, just getting my feet wet, with both teaching and this whole blog thing. Hope everyone has an AWESOME evening! Peace easy Lemon Squeezies
Numeral Uno
So, I decided that I would start up a blog to keep people up to date on how I am doing as a student teacher. I will update this periodically diagraming my sucesses and failures as a student teacher. This is just my first blog that I threw together over lunch, hopefully I will update later on this evening and let ya'll know how day one went!
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