SAE Visit #2

On Monday evening, I had a visit with Jeremy Clark to observe his SAE project at Grease Monkey. Jeremy works around 30 hours a week at Grease Monkey and his responsibilities include restocking parts, completing tire rotations, air filters, replacing head lights and windshield wipers and taking care of any other customer's cars needs. Jeremy is currently enrolled in the SAE Leadership class in is highly involved in his SAE's and the Chapter. Jeremy updates his AET weekly, on how much work he is performing and what he does hour by hour. Once a month, Jeremy puts in his pay stubs to add all of the numbers up. Some goals in Jeremy's future include working full time once he graduates, and then becoming a mechanic after some schooling.

Some recommendations I gave to Jeremy was to try and include some growth in his SAE. He could explain how the responsibilities have grown over time and how it has helped him grow as a person and a valuable employee. I also recommended that he should update his references list to include his Assistant Manager and his Full Time Manager. Otherwise, this was a successful and fun SAE visit!

Week Eleven.. I Hope My Fish Went to Heaven

Well, you read that title correctly. This week was rough. My students really pushed me over the edge this week.  If you would like to know the fish story, feel free to contact me directly and I can share, otherwise I will talk about my teaching this week.


Some gems that I had this week were having my 8th graders go outside, and collect cuttings from trees to identify the leaves and buds on the trees. I made this into a nature activity where I could take the students outside and they could feel more connected with nature. They really seemed to like it, and they enjoyed taping and labeling the parts, which lead them to asking more questions. So usually a weak point I have is being creative, but I think I nailed this one!

Some opportunities for improvement include my classroom management, again. Having students not respect my space or my things really has bothered me this week. I feel that I try and give my best self to the students every day, and in return I get some mean comments and actions towards me. I know that they are kids and maybe they don't understand.. and maybe I have too high of expectations or I am too conservative, but time will tell. I just need to relax more and work on classroom management.

Another gem that I encountered this week was my animal science students throwing me a surprise birthday party! Even though they thought I turned 21, and I really turned 22, it was super awesome that they did that without me knowing. It made me feel like I had a connection with them and I was making a difference.  A few days later, I even had a student get me a gift and a card.. and it was from a student who I find is pretty quiet and soft spoken. Her words of kindness and encouragement really helped me get through the week, so thank you for that.

Looking ahead!
Intro to Ag: Leaf Identification/Parts
Animal Science: Reproductive System Presentations!
Intro to Construction: Electric Unit


**Side note: Sorry for the lack of pictures. I will try to update them by next week. Currently my parents drove out from New Jersey to see me, as I have not seen them since Christmas! We are spending the weekend together and my email isn't working with pictures.. so I have them, they will just be added a little later!!

March 16-17 Seminar

On March 16, a Thursday evening we had the opportunity to talk for 3 hours with Caleb Wright and Dr. Elliott about Cultivating Change in agriculture. This can be a touchy subject for some people, but it was great that a small group could feel comfortable enough to discuss some of these issues in the ever-changing global agricultural community. We also talked about how to really include diversity in our agricultural programs. Diversity include your culture, race, religion and even how people identify themselves. It was great to have this small little introduction of having inclusion in the classroom.

The next day, we had the opportunity to go over some bad lessons and some good lessons that we had in the classroom. It was nice to talk about this, although I do wish I could have heard the entire cohort's problems and solutions. Later in the day, we had mock interviews which I really enjoyed.  I am not sure if I want to teach agriculture in a high school setting yet, so it really was a great opportunity for me to experience this. I appreciated the time and questions that they asked me, and that almost real life experience.  It was great to even talk to them after. Some of the interviews helped me decide if I really wanted to stay in the education world or take a step out.

Overall, I had a great weekend, but I did miss my students.  Here's to week 11 and learning and improving more!!

A Little Zen in WEEK TEN

I can't believe week 10 is over! As most other schools went to SLLC and snow storm Stella came through, most schools had two hour delays and no school, but in Washington County there was no snow, so we had a regular school week.

My gem for the week was engaging my 8th graders into making 3D flowers and labeling the parts of the flower. I thought this would be a great way for them to work in groups and collaborate their creative skills. This worked out well as my 8th graders are the most creative students that I have. They really put thought into their work and wanted to create the most unique flower with all of the parts included.

My opportunity for improvement this week would be checking for understanding in my students.  I have yet to master this skill when teaching students. I try to ask different questions, have multiple tick out the doors, and I check them to see if students really understand what I am trying to teach and get across. I will continue to try and improve this, but I know it will take quite a bit of time.

Looking ahead for next week:
Intro to ag: Stem Parts/Rood Parts
Floral design: Planning a pollinator garden
Greenhouse: Planting for the greenhouse/Soil triangles/
Animal Science: Reproductive systems
Intro/Advanced Construction: Electricity!

Week NINE Just Seems So Fine

I can't believe that next week we will be starting week 10. I feel like it's still January, not March! Anyways, this week was a good week as usual. Classes ran quite smoothly and I enjoyed myself as usual. I had one class this week where it was a total flop. My greenhouse production class is learning about different soils and soil triangles. I am really passionate about soil sciences, but it can be difficult to get other students interested in soil. I began class in the classroom and went over the bellwork and objectives. I had a class discussion about why soil is important, why we should care about soil and how can we tell the differences between soil. I thought the discussion was good because my students did seem interested and wanted to know more. I took them into the lab and I gave each of them soil. I then went though the steps of how to make a soil ribbon and complete a ribbon test. This is where my lesson fell apart. The students didn't understand what I was trying to get them to do.

After class, I took a step back and then I realized maybe I should have shown a video of a soil ribbon test. There we're a lot of things I should have done differently, but that's okay because this is still a learning process for me!

One thing that has gone exceptionally well is my classroom management with the 8th graders. It's so much easier if I split them up into different groups everyday, and I tell them that if they behave and there is no horseplay, we can go into the greenhouse and work on their experiments. They enjoy going to the greenhouse, and they don't want their plants to die, so it's perfect for them to have a goal. The 8th graders are starting to rub off on me and become one of my favorite classes to teach.

Looking Ahead:
Monday & Tuesday: SLLC
Construction: Observe
Intro to Ag: Plant Science - Anatomy of plants
Greenhouse: Soil Science & Prepping the greenhouse
Floral Design: Pollination garden planning
Animal Science: Digestive Systems

Week EIGHT & I'm a Little Late!

Well, week 8 is now complete! Sorry for the late post everyone! After school, I went with Renee to her new house and helped her paint and do some electrical work, which was really helpful before I go and teach electricity to my students!

Anyways, week 8 was filled with some great things! This week, Courtney Cowden came and presented to our students and got some of them Beef Quality Assured, which is great for this area because there are so many beef farms out this way! One other super awesome thing that happened this week, was that I started to begin my soil science unit with my greenhouse class. It was awesome to see how much they knew, and then we began talking about soil horizons. We then finished our week off with some soil horizon pudding, which the students seemed to really enjoy.

This week, my biggest struggle was having consistency and control over my intro to agriculture classes. I have 3 intro to ag classes, one first thing in the morning, one mid morning, and then one at the very last period of the day. My students are extremely academic, and some classes are stronger in skills then others. My biggest problem was wrapping up the presentations of all classes. I had some students and classes finish a day early, while I had others go right up until Friday. It is VERY difficult to have consistency in these classes, especially when they can be different times of the day and different class sizes. For example, my largest class is my last one of the day also has the most boys in it. This can be a challenge for when that "School is almost over for the day" excitement comes through. I am struggling with channeling all of that great energy into projects and so forth. I know with practice I will get better, and I felt like this Friday was better than Monday, but that is one thing I really worked on for this week.

Looking Ahead!
Intro to Ag: Plant Science - Anatomy, What do plants need, greenhouse prep
Greenhouse: Soil Unit - Soil Horizons, Soil triangle, soil erosion.
Animal Science: Goats & Sheep then Digestive systems!!
Floral Design: Community Based Unit of Instruction. Garden Planning!
Intro to Construction/Advanced Construction: Observation of Masonry