As my week three comes to a close, I begin to reflect on the learning that I had during the week. Some things I learned this week was to be real. Be real with the students and yourself. If you don't finish a lesson, it is best to finish it as soon as possible instead of moving on to the next unit or topic. Students will end up being confused and won't take your class seriously. I ended up starting my class and just apologizing to them. Because it is a small class, I told them to feel free to stop me and say Miss. Z, you are moving too fast for us today, please slow down. I told them that just like them, I am human and I never said that I was perfect. After that conversation, the train moved out of the station and moved along through the rest of the week smoothing. It was comforting to know that we ended the week on the right foot.
For my floral design class that I picked up this week.. well. lets just say the first day was really funny. I had a powerpoint and worksheet for the students to fill out, as I was going over the power point, one student had told me to go faster and finish teaching this material. At the end of class, Renee and I talked, and she told me that the students were trying to cue me in that this was more of a review than a teaching lesson. I was totally embarrassed and I knew something wasn't right but I couldn't quite figure it out. This was a great time for me to get help from Renee, as the only things I really know about floral design is in 2009 when David Bittner taught me how to make a boutonnière in my freshman class.. That was 8 years ago, but it's not like I counted or anything.
Overall, I had a good week with some ups and downs of teaching. It all is a learning experience, and I am excited to begin week 4 with a CDE day! Next week, my floral class is learning about single vase arrangements, greenhouse is learning more about on plant ID and parts of the flower, and I will be picking up animal science with a livestock unit.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Friday, January 20, 2017
Green Thumb in Greenhouse Production - Week Two!
Monday morning started as usual. Attendance was taken, students went to breakfast and I chatted to Mrs. Cambruzzi about our weekends. I was very excited this Monday. I could finally use the lesson plans that I had been working so hard on last semester and put them to the test. Period two came around, which was the Introduction to Agriculture class. During this period, Mrs. Cambruzzi and I decided to co-teach. She took charge of the students who decided to complete their junior prepared public speaking speeches, and I took over the creed students. I basically had the students work independently and just repeat the creed over and over again.
This worked for quite a while, until I saw the boys loosing focus. I then had them work in pairs. This seemed to work best. I also tried other games, but instantly got the feedback that it wouldn't help the students learn the creed. Renee and I did this every class period that we had intro to ag, every day and all week long. I then took over the greenhouse class. I even brought cupcakes in to talk about identifying the cupcakes and how that is similar to plant identification.
The bell had rung, and I had 5 students. Just 5. Apparently, the other half of my class had testing on that Monday and Tuesday. So the first two days of the week I went through my lesson and my students were great. They were somewhat shy at first, but they have definitely warmed up to me. On Wednesday was the first day I finally had the entire class together. I caught everyone up who had missed class, and we proceeded. Thursday I had students work on their powerpoint projects of identifying plants. It was perfect for their age because they were honestly interested in having more plant ID knowledge. On Friday, I held a lab where I had the students dissect seeds of monocots and dicots.
Lets start this out by saying, THIS WAS AWESOME. I had lima beans soaked in water over night, hard limas, pine nuts and corn all together. I went through some worksheets with the kids to help them understand the differences between monocots and dicots, and then we dissected the seeds. I had them tape it to the worksheets, and they really understood it. It was awesome to see them working together like that.
Next week, I will be picking up the class floral design. I plan on teaching principles of floral design and vase arranging. Soon, we will be creating vases for Valentines day to be selling. My greenhouse class will continue working on monocots and dicots, and we will be talking about perfect and imperfect flowers. Week two is done! I can't wait to see what week 3 has in store!
This worked for quite a while, until I saw the boys loosing focus. I then had them work in pairs. This seemed to work best. I also tried other games, but instantly got the feedback that it wouldn't help the students learn the creed. Renee and I did this every class period that we had intro to ag, every day and all week long. I then took over the greenhouse class. I even brought cupcakes in to talk about identifying the cupcakes and how that is similar to plant identification.
The bell had rung, and I had 5 students. Just 5. Apparently, the other half of my class had testing on that Monday and Tuesday. So the first two days of the week I went through my lesson and my students were great. They were somewhat shy at first, but they have definitely warmed up to me. On Wednesday was the first day I finally had the entire class together. I caught everyone up who had missed class, and we proceeded. Thursday I had students work on their powerpoint projects of identifying plants. It was perfect for their age because they were honestly interested in having more plant ID knowledge. On Friday, I held a lab where I had the students dissect seeds of monocots and dicots.
Lets start this out by saying, THIS WAS AWESOME. I had lima beans soaked in water over night, hard limas, pine nuts and corn all together. I went through some worksheets with the kids to help them understand the differences between monocots and dicots, and then we dissected the seeds. I had them tape it to the worksheets, and they really understood it. It was awesome to see them working together like that.
Next week, I will be picking up the class floral design. I plan on teaching principles of floral design and vase arranging. Soon, we will be creating vases for Valentines day to be selling. My greenhouse class will continue working on monocots and dicots, and we will be talking about perfect and imperfect flowers. Week two is done! I can't wait to see what week 3 has in store!
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Welcome to McGuffey - Week One
Well, I have finished my first week at McGuffey High School! I was warmly welcomed with my own desk along with its own chair and everything!! I am very, very excited. The very first two days we had spent at the 101st Pennsylvania Farm Show. This was a really good way to start into the observation week. My first day was on Wednesday. My students were more than happy to finally see me at school. They continued to ask me if I was here everyday from now on, and I was happy to answer "Yes!". My first day was a little crazy. I watched Mrs. Cambruzzi teach all of her classes that day and it was really interesting. The students in every class would walk in and begin their work. There was almost no questions asked from them to her. Even with her out for 2 days, they knew exactly what they were doing. It was really neat to watch.
The only class that Mrs. Cambruzzi has that is repeated is her introduction to agriculture class. She has 3 of those classes in periods 2, 4 and 13. On Wednesday, she taught her periods 2 and 4, and then informed me to teach period 13. Period 13 is one of her 'bad' classes. All of the introduction to agriculture classes are all 8th graders. So I feel like I have a special opportunity at McGuffey to teach high school and teach middle schoolers! The main issue with 13th period is the boys. There are quite a few of them and they can be very rowdy. I did my best to teach the lesson like Mrs. Cambruzzi, but she did step in from time to time to help me control them. I don't have my classroom management down like she does quite yet, but it will come soon enough!
After the day was over, Mrs. Cambruzzi and I sat down and reflected on our day. At this point, we decided to talk about the day every day. For the first time, we stayed after school for 2 hours. It was SO beneficial to me to have that one on one with her. I also really like how she challenged me on the first day. I know I will be learning so much.. In fact, these next 15 weeks I feel like I will be learning more than I have in my entire college career.
Thursday rolled around and I watched and helped Mrs. Cambruzzi anywhere I could. It is definitely nice to have an extra set of hands. We started our day off with a planned fire drill at 8:30. This was another good learning opportunity for me. After the fire drill, we went back to class as planned. Around 9:30, the fire alarm went off again. Renee and I looked at each other with a puzzled look and took our students outside, just like we had done an hour ago. As we walked outside, we saw Mr. Leasure and talked to him. Apparently in the ag hallway, there is a lower emergency exit sign, and some of the boys are pretty tall and they were telling a story with their hands, and one of them swung his hands up and knocked the exit sign off! Mr. Leasure saw the whole thing and tried to fix it and sent a student to tell maintenance. I felt so bad for John, as it was a funny story but he made the whole school evacuate again.
As our eventful morning continued, I got to teach 4th and 13th period again. 4th period was good, I felt respected and they listened to me. I really love being in the teacher role. I am not sure why, but I feel at home. Although it may be because I moved to a place that I am not familiar with at all and this is the only social interaction I get, but I will take it! 13th period came around and I took control of my class this time. I asked them to sit in their assigned seats and it was amazing. The students really listened and did their work. Another thing Renee taught me was how to have a teacher ear on all the time. You can work one-on-one with a student and still manage a classroom. I had watched her do this and it is quite the special skill. She told me I will get better at it, and when I really practiced it in class, I could see the difference.
Week one was great. It went by too fast. Tomorrow I will be teaching my lesson plans with the greenhouse production class. This week I am starting off with learning and identifying plants. This will then go into scientific classification, using a dichotomous key and classifying plants in many different ways. From there, I plan to have the students then use this knowledge and plan out when or how they may order plants or plan a landscape.
Well... Here comes another great week! Wish us luck over on the Western side of the state!
The only class that Mrs. Cambruzzi has that is repeated is her introduction to agriculture class. She has 3 of those classes in periods 2, 4 and 13. On Wednesday, she taught her periods 2 and 4, and then informed me to teach period 13. Period 13 is one of her 'bad' classes. All of the introduction to agriculture classes are all 8th graders. So I feel like I have a special opportunity at McGuffey to teach high school and teach middle schoolers! The main issue with 13th period is the boys. There are quite a few of them and they can be very rowdy. I did my best to teach the lesson like Mrs. Cambruzzi, but she did step in from time to time to help me control them. I don't have my classroom management down like she does quite yet, but it will come soon enough!
After the day was over, Mrs. Cambruzzi and I sat down and reflected on our day. At this point, we decided to talk about the day every day. For the first time, we stayed after school for 2 hours. It was SO beneficial to me to have that one on one with her. I also really like how she challenged me on the first day. I know I will be learning so much.. In fact, these next 15 weeks I feel like I will be learning more than I have in my entire college career.
Thursday rolled around and I watched and helped Mrs. Cambruzzi anywhere I could. It is definitely nice to have an extra set of hands. We started our day off with a planned fire drill at 8:30. This was another good learning opportunity for me. After the fire drill, we went back to class as planned. Around 9:30, the fire alarm went off again. Renee and I looked at each other with a puzzled look and took our students outside, just like we had done an hour ago. As we walked outside, we saw Mr. Leasure and talked to him. Apparently in the ag hallway, there is a lower emergency exit sign, and some of the boys are pretty tall and they were telling a story with their hands, and one of them swung his hands up and knocked the exit sign off! Mr. Leasure saw the whole thing and tried to fix it and sent a student to tell maintenance. I felt so bad for John, as it was a funny story but he made the whole school evacuate again.
As our eventful morning continued, I got to teach 4th and 13th period again. 4th period was good, I felt respected and they listened to me. I really love being in the teacher role. I am not sure why, but I feel at home. Although it may be because I moved to a place that I am not familiar with at all and this is the only social interaction I get, but I will take it! 13th period came around and I took control of my class this time. I asked them to sit in their assigned seats and it was amazing. The students really listened and did their work. Another thing Renee taught me was how to have a teacher ear on all the time. You can work one-on-one with a student and still manage a classroom. I had watched her do this and it is quite the special skill. She told me I will get better at it, and when I really practiced it in class, I could see the difference.
Week one was great. It went by too fast. Tomorrow I will be teaching my lesson plans with the greenhouse production class. This week I am starting off with learning and identifying plants. This will then go into scientific classification, using a dichotomous key and classifying plants in many different ways. From there, I plan to have the students then use this knowledge and plan out when or how they may order plants or plan a landscape.
Well... Here comes another great week! Wish us luck over on the Western side of the state!
Monday, January 9, 2017
Farm Show Field Trip!
Today I have the wonderful opportunity to travel with Mrs. Cambruzzi, Mr. Leisure and Mrs. Hoover with a total of 46 students! It was pretty special to finally see my students and be able to tell them that today was the first day of my student teaching, and that I can see them everyday for the next 15 weeks! We started our day by loading up the bus early in the morning and traveled to the farm show. Once we arrived at the farm show, I walked around with the other teachers. It is such a different feeling to be walking around the farm show with teachers and not students. We talked to other teachers and discussed some things for us to do when I begin teaching in the classroom. We then went to watch our students get their jacket and collect their Keystone Degree's. We sat with all the students and they were all really well behaved. That evening, we then took them to a local hotel. We got to eat pizza with the students, and I think my favorite part of the night was playing minute to win it games and board games with all the students. It let me show my silly side and the students really enjoyed it. Well, I am signing off here, as I have to go make sure the lights are out in my students room!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)