Life Knowledge Reflection

Discovering the FFA

On December 6th, I was able to visit Ms. Marsh's introductory class to teach a Life Knowledge FFA lesson to practice teaching students in a higher-stakes-environment. 

Throughout the lesson I grew frustrated at my perfectionism, still trying to get over that part. Walking into a class for one day, with students that don't quite get why you are there, without time to go over rules and expectations or even introductions, is difficult to understand the flow of the class.

Somethings I learned:

• Students don't readily know what the FFA has to offer
• Students can think that the FFA is just for agriculture kids, not for them, and its hard to change this
• When they has this thought, a lesson on FFA involvement is automatically dis-interesting to them.
• When you use a student's name, even if they are the disruptive student or off task, they try their best to listen or day as you ask (at least for their first class with you)
• Receiving summary letters from my students helped me learn who they are, how well they learned the lesson, and where their interests are for FFA in the Spring. 

Ag Demo Lab

How to use a Wire Nut

For AEE 412 we are required to develop a multi-step psycho-motor demonstration of agriculture mechanics to a group of our peers utilizing the method:

1. Teacher Says, Teacher Does
2. Teacher Says, Student Does
3. Student Says, Student Does

My topic I selected was fastening a wire nut for electrical wiring. The steps I used were:

1. With two pieces of wire, strip ½” of the plastic coating off one end of each wire.
2. Determine the size of the stripped wire end with the gauge holes on the wire ripper.
3. Select the appropriate wire nut for the number of wires and gauge.
4. Arrange wires together, ensuring all the ends are lined up and place them in the wire nut.
5. Rotate the wire nut clockwise until you feel the wires turn and lock together.
6. Test the connection by gentle tugging on the top of the wire nut.

What I learned:

1. Detail and Clarity are key for student expectations.
2. The method is sound in ensuring the demonstration is thoroughly absorbed.
3. Providing distinct steps aid in student learning for specific tasks.

Micro-teaching

Micro-Teaching at Bald Eagle High School

On November 12th-15th Brooke Ostrander, Beth Winklosky, and I were scheduled for one day of observation and three days of teaching at Bald Eagle High School with Mr. Biddle. I would be teaching three days of public speaking with their Agriculture Leadership class. Completing a leadership development event is a requirement of the course for all students to participate in. 

I had the opportunity to work with the students on learning what ethos, logos, and pathos (rhetoric devices) were and how to use them in speeches. Unfortunately on the last day, our lessons were canceled with the first snow day of the year.

Somethings I learned:

• Balancing the pace of student work is difficult, but not impossible, students that process information faster can aid in helping other students learn. 
• Bell-to-Bell class learning is highly enforced, if you don't have anymore planned work move on to the next day's activities.
• Student's misbehavior may not be deliberate or malicious, it may be them genuinely having fun while learning (I still am not quit sure how to handle this)
• Classroom flexibility is critical, weather and other issues will arise and push your classwork backward.

Weekly Investment #14

How does a Professional Learning Network impact our teaching practice?

Reflecting on our week in Texas

#PSUAgEd19 departed for San Antonio, Texas for our FAST Symposium at the NAAE Convention on November  26th, at early hour of 6:15 am. We proudly navigated to Texas on our own and met with Dr. Foster to reflect on our past experiences since we had last seen him, prior to micro-teaching.

Once we were on the same page, we had the week ahead of us to attend FAST, Participate in Regional Meetings, be recognized as Pre-service teachers during one of the General Sessions we attended, Be recognized as Region VI Outstanding Postsecondary Agriculture Program, listen to the opening session of ACTE, and learn from the Professional Development Workshops that many of us loved. 

We left the conference with many ideas and inspirations. But most of all we left with 80 new pre-service teaching peers to lean on, and countless connections to our professional network that had asked us to be utilized if needed. 

Influence of NAAE on my Classroom:

1. Interactive notebooks: For a "paperless" school, printed copies of paper may be restricted, but students can still use notebooks to engage in addition to their notable apps.
2. You may not be able to change a student's home life, but notify your supervisors and give them the best experience during the time you CAN change (aka while you have them in class.)
3. Global learning is critical in today's economy, and you can utilize your local community to accomplish this at AgCultures.com and Core101.org

Also, I had the ill fortune of making a trip to the ER. Although this was unexpected and unfortunate for me to miss some workshops and sessions, it brought a good learning experience forward for the team to learn from. 

ALWAYS :

1. Have medical information for all students readily available
2. Develop a clear action plan, Assign your students to group in with another chapter/use a second chaperone, as you accompany the student.
3. Communicate to the parents, other chaperones, and students appropriately.
4. Record the actions taken to ensure the student's safety and medical attention.

It was different because I was not a minor, although I am thankful for the discussion of planning that happened as a result of this misfortune.

Virtual Mentor Exploration #3

What are the best tips/resources you would provide to a new teacher regarding special needs accommodations?

1. Ask for help: Utilize the help of Special Education Teachers, Administration, the student's case worker, their parents and even the student to make sure their needs are being fully accommodated.
2. Record evidence of your accommodation. Yes, students will lie about your actions to save themselves, recording evidence ensures you were clear and accommodating to their needs. A good tool would be a check off sheet that you initial and date to turn in/file.
3. Address lab area accommodations that may not be specified in the IEP, a walk through with the student, parent, and caseworker may be beneficial to quickly identify their needs in the shop.

"Last piece of advice... have patience not only with the student but with yourself. I think this is always uncharted territory for both you and sometimes the student. You are not always going to make the right decisions and that is okay."

Weekly Investment #13

How does this work in “RealTime” 

Between the Buck Institute Books and other professional sources of Project-Based Learning have given me a strong background of knowledge for implementing Project-Based Learning during student teaching.

I aspire to create a few units during the spring semester to exercise this knowledge in Project-based learning. This seems easiest to implement with the Small Gas Engines course that I will be teaching with Mr. Bowen on.

Engine disassembly, trouble shooting, and re-assembly is a two unit long project that students will complete with engines that they obtain from the community. Mr. Bowen, in the past, and I plan to continue, have students find an engine in the community from various places. Once they bring in their engine we complete a pre-test on the engines to determine their overall condition, then we work together on disassembly, measuring, troubleshooting. We order parts and getting the engines up and running to be returned to the community.

This method of project based learning will facilitate student learning through the project rather than teaching them first and asking them to apply the knowledge later.

Inquiry Based Instruction Lab Reflection

Inquiry based instruction ended up being a whole lot less scary than I though! With the help of AgI2 instruction materials and the advice of Miss Krista Pontius I entered the lab with a pretty good handle on things.

My Lab

I practiced a lab that I hope to use in student teaching. Through dissecting an egg students can learn the basics of using scientific equipment, the metric system, completing a lab report, and understanding their expectations in an inquiry based environment. 

I had received positive feedback on my clear instructions and scaffolding for understanding student expectations, also my peers liked the step-by-step example of calculating mass and percentages prior to having to calculate their own.

I received constructive feedback on explaining the importance of the lab from the student perspective and allowing for more hands off learning that inquiry truly is. 

From this feedback I wanted to ask a few questions for my mentors:

1. In your first inquiry lab, is it better to error on the side of caution and structure or would you recommend jumping in the deep end and seeing what happens?
2. How do you gauge when students need more scaffolding and structure to achieve their goals?

How can we demonstrate Inquiry-Based Instruction?

"This national survey of 216 agriscience teachers investigated the current attitudes and practices related to reading in agriscience. Agriscience teachers generally appreciated reading for personal development and learning, but were in less agreement about allocation of time for reading. Further, teachers agreed that reading was important in agriscience, but were in less agreement about their role in teaching content area reading strategies (CARS). Reading is a fundamental part of instruction in agriscience, with nearly 20% of class time being devoted to reading" (Park & Osborne, 2006.)

1) Why does literacy strategies matter in ag class?

 Incorporating reading literacy strategies in class not only reinforces a critical skill for students, but it allows them to read, process, and format the information that learn in a way that make sense to them. Rather than being spoon-fed information, students can develop real skills to think and research independently.

2) How do we connect literacy skills to IBI.

We can utilize literacy strategies in our classroom to encourage students to rely upon their literacy skills in IBI. These strategies can include the following:

• Reading Anticipation guide
• Inside-Outside Circles
• Think-Write-PairShare 
• Numbered heads together
• RAP (Read-Ask-Put)
• Prediction Pairs (Usually for in-class reading)
• chapter tours
• double-entry diaries
• vocab strategies 

My favorite strategy that I will apply in the spring while student teaching: RAP (read-ask-put)

This literacy strategies can be applied to literally ANY topic I can think of, which is why I love it! Researching, specifically when reading scientific research papers, is daunting even for me, much less students. Teaching students to be effective paraphrasers will help them comprehend readings while they are learning through IBI!

What is inquiry-based instruction?

1) Why use Inquiry-Based Instruction? 

Inquiry based instruction engages students in real world problem solving that trains students to become self-motivated. Students can practice critical thinking, developing hypotheses, determining credibility of sources, and much more. Mrs. Ranck mentioned also, as teachers, varying your method of instruction is equally as important for the teacher to refresh yourself between classes.

2) How is Inquiry-Based Instruction different from Problems-Based? 

IBI is similar to Problems-based in many ways, although the defining difference is the solution your students resolve to. For problems-based learning there is one best answer your students will come to. In IBI, the students work through a question they propose, in a way they feel best, to come to a conclusion they think is best.

3) What are the key elements of IBI? 

With IBI it is essential to understand that it is not a cookie cutter with a checklist of items you reach. It is a spectrum of independence that the students are given to have control over their own learning. This chart that Krista Pontius from Greenwood High School gave PSUAgEd19 helped shape our thinking in developing lesson plans.

She stated, any lesson plan she makes, she looks at this chart and thinks to herself "How can I get this lesson further to the right of the Chart?"

During My student teaching I plan to replicate her philosophy during the lesson planning process, simply asking "What can I do to shift this lesson farther to the right?" 

National FFA Convention & Expo

My Travels with Grassland FFA

Dover FFA was unable to make the annual "pilgrimage to mecca" (National FFA Convention & Expo) so I paired up with my virtual mentor Mrs. Ranck and her program. Grassland FFA and Pequea Valley FFA traveled together, departing Tuesday Morning and Returning Saturday Night. 

• Touring WVU - This was a college visit on the way out to convention, it is a feasible option for students interesting in going to college and the students enjoyed the break in travel.
• Touring Indianapolis Speedway - Students that enjoyed Ag Mechanics really enjoyed this visit, and because it is a popular tourist destination other students engaged in the tour as well.
• Spending four hours in the expo - As I reflected with students they stated that they had wished they had been more productive with their time. They loved exploring for that long of time, although they wished they had made better use since they under estimated the amount of things to do and see. 
• Opening Session - We opted out of the Garth Concert and went to the Wednesday Night welcome session. The students were blow away by the laser show, the professionalism of the National FFA President, and the keynote speaker.
• Traveling to Louisville - A 2 hour drive took us south to visit other landmark stops that our Advisors discovered when the convention was in Louisville. I'd say it was worth the drive. 
• Touring Churchill Downs - Of course our horse girls were beyond excited, although the museum was extremely interactive and the tour had many fun facts for our other student that everyone was happy for the experience. As an Educator I adored the application to not only animal science, but soil science, agribusiness, and even floriculture.
• Touring Louisville Slugger Museum - Our sports guys on the trip greatly enjoyed this stop, and everyone got a mini-bat with the tour, whats not to love? Again as an educator I loved the application to Forestry, Sustainable Ag, Ag Mechanics, and Agribusiness.
• Touring FFA - CST Corteva - this tour was HEAVY with science. The tour was excellently put together and the facilities are amazing, although the biology and chemistry of their agriscience center may have been overwhelming for some of the students. Regardless, their now know more of the endless opportunities in agriculture!
• Touring FFA - CST Lawson Cattle Facility - This windy and rainy stop was worth stopping for because the students learned about animal science and diversified agriculture. 
• Session 7 - Students were influenced by the story of the National FFA Secretary during her tear-jerking, and inspirational retiring address as well as being inspired by the keynote speaker!

Driving home I was able to reflect on the things I loved about our trip, things I may change for my future program's trips, and how I would describe the worth of the trip to my administration. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to learn from Mrs. Ranck, Mrs. Van Sant, and Mrs. Masser. 

My Professional Development Workshop

On Wednesday I participated in the AFBF Purple Plow workshop to learn about their free resources for Problem-Based Learning. 

My Take Aways:

1. Purpleplow.org is a STEM solutions website to aid teachers in problem-based learning. 
2. Puzzlers are great for 1-2.5 hours, therefore they would be great for utilizing over a day or two in the classroom. 
3. Challenges are semester long explorations that teachers enter into online, obtain the resources, students go through the problem solving process, and then submit their results to AFBF for a chance to win a 3D printer or VISA gift cards.
4. All resources are found at http://www.purpleplow.org/

Interviewing Teachers

I had the opportunity throughout the trip to interview three teachers (Mrs. Knapp from Wisconsin, Mr. Renshaw from Georgia, and Ms. Ward from New Hampshire) from three different states with the following questions.

 

1) When we leave on a field trip/FFA event, what are the rest of our learners doing? 

• Students complete online work so the teacher can hold them accountable for working in class.
• Students watch National Convention Sessions either live-stream or saved sessions. 
• Students work on large, complex projects that would be presented when the teacher would get back.

2) Do we approach FFA as an instructional tool or as a club? 

• All three said it is a hybrid of both. The FFA is more than a club, although it is not pure instruction, there is social implications and non-academic learning occurring in the FFA. 

3) How have made sure purposeful, intentional and explicit learning occurs? 

• Students come if they qualify for a CDE (the CDE is used as an extension of classes they may have been in)
• Students have assigned tasks they must complete such as attending a student workshop.
• Students plan their trip with learning opportunities in mind, then the teacher reviews the plans to adapt them as needed to accommodate travel time, budgets, and administrative approval. 

The Substitute Lesson

Prior to #PSUAgEd19 travelling to The National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana we had to experience planning for a substitute teacher since we would be gone from class with our students!

What We Did:

On Monday each member drew three cards from the AFNR standards and selected one card that they would most like to develop a "substitute quality lesson plan" for. 

On Wednesday we were surprised when Ms. Morey told us we would have to exchange lesson plans with another student in Lab. We were given 10 minutes to review each others lessons and expectations and that was all. 

How it went:

I was paired with Sara Lang, who had a lesson on blind spots, flight zones, and livestock handling for the substitute to give. During the 10 minutes I asked clarification questions and gathered the materials she would have left behind for the sub to use. 

I got up, winged some of it, but overall it was an easy lesson plan to follow. The students were engaged and learned the content explained to them.

Overall, the process was less stressful than I thought it would be. I attribute this to the fact that all students in class are Ag Education majors, in real life you could get a retired English teacher for your sub that doesn't have an Ag experience what-so-ever. That I what scared me the most because they would have the content knowledge to educate the students.

What is your real-world advice for planning for a sub teacher?

I have brainstormed ideas like having students know that when a sub is in they have a UPS/Fedex Day. (they can do anything they want as long as they deliver in one day, pertaining to the content being covered in class)

In my past I've seen teachers simply show documentaries all class, but this doesn't seem engaging and motivating for students.

What are your thoughts?

Weekly Investment #9

Is Our Toolbox Full?

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We've been given a plethora of teaching techniques to utilize in our spring classes. How I plan to implement them in the fall is essentially up to me, but why would I not follow in the footsteps of great thinkers and educators?

Differentiated Instruction:

When a teacher is teaching to multiple intelligence, most of the time they will be able to achieve some differentiated instruction techniques. DI can be used in all areas of education, and is particularly useful in agriculture education, because after all our students won't be listening to lecture and taking tests in the workforce. They will be working in collaboration with others, utilizing psychomotor skills, rationalizing and synthesizing factors, and truly working within the problem solving mindset. 

How I can Utilize Individual Teaching Techniques in the Spring:

1. Teach how my students will learn.
2. Assess in ways my students will best show off their work, this can mean multiple options for assessments.
3. Tailor supervised studies to meet students interest and teach cognitive and affective learning.
4. Leverage interest in experimenting.
5. Independent Study is fabricated by the student, in a way that best meets their learning styles and interests, minimal teacher influence is needed but supervision is still provided.
6. Student notebooks, different from notes they write in class, can be a reflection tool for them to synthesize knowledge in their own way, that they have learned. 

Virtual Mentor Exploration #2

"What strategies or resources do you use to help your class/program be responsive to cultural diversity and English Language Learners?"

The FFA and agriculture education have had a consistent struggle with achieving cultural diversity in their classrooms and chapters. Ultimately your program should reflect the community which you live in, and my awesome virtual mentorship team provided some feedback for me to look into when achieving cultural diversity in my classroom and accommodating ELL students. 

Big Take Aways:

1. Providing Spanish FFA Documents such as the manual and other resources to Spanish speaking students often makes them feel included.
2. Attending Professional Development events regarding ELL and Cultural Diversity is valuable.
3. The "We Are FFA" and "Somos FFA" movements were apart of a large launch for National FFA to create more diverse resources for students. 
4. Cultural Diversity and Acceptance of ELL students is ultimately up to the leadership, membership, advisors, chapters, and supporters.

After the conversations I had with my mentorship team, I am excited to start including culturally diverse members into my program!

PS: MY MENTORSHIP TEAM IS AWESOME!

Weekly Investment #8

How do Teachers assess and evaluate?

Assessments and Evaluations of learning are a critical component for teachers to have in their classrooms. Not only is this tool for teachers to evidence learning in their classroom for reporting, but it is a way to gauge if your students truly accomplished the objectives set forth in your lessons. 

These assessments are given in two ways. One way is formative assessments, which are "temperature checks" throughout the lesson and learning process to gauge your students progress in learning. Another method is summative assessments, which are completed with a pre- and post-assessments before and after a lesson, unit, or course. 

These two methods are to be used with every lesson, unit and course your teach consistently. One cannot fully replace the other, because they serve very different tasks. 

How can I assess students in a laboratory?

Tests can be hard to implement for laboratory/shop work in agriculture. One of our readings had great examples of various methods of mapping out concepts learned that foster student creativity while assessing their learning. 

 

                           Brace Map                                                          Concept Map

 

                              Flow Chart                                                      Student Portfolio

Maintaining Clarity in Assessments:

As you well know, a critical part of assessments and evaluations is clarity. This comes in the form of rubrics. Ideally, the rubric would be given with the instructions for the assignment and would have the following characteristics:

• A list of criteria for the assessment
• A point value for each criteria for students to identify key components of the assignment
• Enough freedom to foster student autonomy or creativity
• A matrix which correlates students' actions to a specific point value.

FEEDBACK WANTED:

How can teachers incorporate peer-review ans self-graded assessments into our evaluation process without introducing social bias?

Reflection on the Problem Solving Lab

Problem Solving Instruction

BeMy goals and aspirations for problem solving instruction were somewhat met. I had successfully asked an mildly interesting question which posed a problem for my students. Although my lesson quickly fell apart for several reasons.

1. The lesson was following the unit on "Tragedy of the Commons" and was fairly content heavy. Therefore, my lab-mates that were unfamiliar with the tragedy could not interact with the lesson the way a student would if they had been in class for the unit.
2. I had wrongly thought I needed to show the resolution to the problem in my 20 minute Edthena video; Therefore I cut a large chunk of problem solving time out. THIS WAS SO WRONG.
3. My students lost the original big picture problem about half way through my lesson because I have been asking several smaller questions that were causing them to think a bit off track.

Giving myself some credit, even though I think I failed:

1. I understand, the lesson would have gone better with students that had content knowledge.
2. I understand, I do not need to show a resolution within 20 minutes of posing the problem.
3. I understand, other questions that you stumble upon can be welcomed as long as the provoke thought and you can still steer back to the original problem.
4. Writing the original, big-picture problem on a board for students to reference would help with clarity. (BECOV IS LIFE)
5. I am handling student discipline issues well in class, I had a student make a rude comment and quickly and simply nipped the problem without drawing extra attention from other students. This allowed me to defend the student being picked on and demonstrate expectations and consequences in class. 

In Summary:

Problem-solving instruction is tricky, but is one of the best ways to get students engaged and thinking. By posing a problem, we easily identify the "why" in student learning. 

I realize I would nail all my labs on the first try, I know where I messed up and I know where I can fix these mistakes. I look forward to practicing and getting better at problem solving instruction!

Weekly Investment #7

What is the Problem-Solving Approach?

The problem solving approach is the root of project based learning for students to utilize projects "as the main course" for active learning, rather than "dessert" as a way to applied knowledge after it is learned. For years in education we have separated learning knowledge and applying knowledge, with the problem solving approach we marry the two into one learning experience.

What is Problem Solving? 

Problem solving, otherwise known as the scientific method, begins with an experience and asking a question. From here teachers can guide their students in their learning by aiding in background research, developing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and analyzing results to develop a conclusion.

How is Problem Solving related to Project Based? 

Students can problem solve in the form of various projects. These projects are where project-based learning comes into play. An interesting part of utilization that caught my attention was "the project" can be used interchangeably with "the unit" when project-based learning is fully implemented.

Why?

Project Based Learning and the Problem Solving Approach guide students in developing real-world problem solving skills. Rather than learning rote knowledge students get two forms of knowledge, firs the content they are working with and thinking about, and second the knowledge and practice of the process of problem solving. 

Learning is an active process and is searching for meaning. 

Types of Problems:

Well Structured: The problems always are solved with the same, step-by-step solution.

Moderately Structured: The solutions require adaptions and various strategies to fit to a particular context.

Ill Structured: The students begin with a vague problem and unclear goal. Students solutions are the least constrained and there is not one answer.

There is a time and place for all types of problems within the classroom, these types of problems should be utilized throughout the duration of the course, as projects and problems for students to address.

The First Unit

Thank God for the Growth Mindset...

First, shout out to my AMAZING Cooperating teacher. Mrs. Barzydlo. She sent me over her unit plan template, helped me identify unit goals she trying to cover in the first unit, and gave me guidance on two great summative assessments for the unit.

Building the Unit Plan

1. Unit goals are easy to identify, lesson objectives to help scaffold students up to those big picture goals.
2. Summative assessments can be challenging to write to reflect the level of thinking you taught your students on.
3. It is rewarding to have a grand-plan to follow when visualizing how one lesson flows into the next.

Peer Feedback

1. Its always interesting to see how others minds work, for me I'm analytical in nature and prefer listed items. For my peers, color, headings, and paragraphs work better for chunking information.
2. There are many ways to accomplish the same task, methods of teaching and how a unit flow together are very dependent on the teacher's and students' styles.
3. Your peers always have your back with grammar, spelling, and checklist items!

Comment below:

1. What challenges you the most when writing a unit?
2. How do you approach and overcome that challenge?

Weekly Investment #6

How do we transition between techniques utilizing effective questions?

Let me geek out for a second, in this week's readings I found a strong connection to my Summer Reading, DRiVE by Daniel Pink! It was even referenced in one of the readings.

Are all questions the same?

Not a chance. Effective questions are meaningful and understandable to students, they challenge students, but are not beyond their reach.All questions, open ended versus  closed, various levels of thinking or more varieties have a place in the classroom for different purposes.

• Closed-ended questions (yes/no response, or multiple choice) quickly check comprehension.
• Open-ended questions require expanded thinking and processing of information. 
• By discussing the questions in groups, students can learn from a variety of perspectives.

What is the coolest teacher “question tip” you want to incorporate?

I often think of questions as a transition piece, simply connecting to chunks of information together. Also, I think of questions as a form of assessment. Both of these are correct, but that doesn't discount other roles questions can play. The first 'Tip" I read hit me upside the head.

Determine your learning objectives and align the questions with the objectives.

Why would asking questions at higher levels of cognition (think Bloom) matter?

First, if you're following my tip above you'll want to ask questions at different levels to align with the learning objectives that you are assessing. 

Second, assessing high levels of cognition allow you to understand how deep a student's level of thinking and learning are occurring at. This assessment also can serve as a form of scaffolding, by asking several smaller questions to get to an end result we can scaffold what the student knows and guide them to piecing together information. 

What is Student Agency or Student Voice?

Student agency is learning through activities that are relevant to learners, driven by their interests. To put it simply, student agency gives students voice and autonomy in their learning. 

Student agency is the one of the core values of inquiry based learning.

Interest Approach Lab Reflection

"The Interest to this Approach is so Dang Frosty!"
Olivia, Beth, and Lisa's quote from our Interest Approach Rap

The purpose of this lab was to adjust our focal point to creating a good hook for our students to grab onto. We were inspired by Lancelot's Principles of Interest which, upon reflecting on my experiences, made A LOT of sense. BUT, Let me tell you, creating an effective interest approach stumped me. I mean, I created good ones before but I think my cold gave me writer's block.

My interest approach:

For day #2 of the first unit in Large Animal Science we are learning the steps of the scientific method and how land-grant universities utilize the scientific method.

I attempted to harness the power of Primary Principle #1 and Secondary Principle #6. The interest approach was to have my students form groups around a lab station with no more than 6 per group. At the lab they will find photos of a species of large animal, but with characteristics they may not be familiar with, such as a Duroc with a red coat or a La Mancha with tiny ears. 

They are given two minutes to write down any questions they have about the Phenotypes of these animals (this term is used specifically to highlight to science terminology and connection). Once the two minutes are up, I use the transition question "How do scientists go about answering questions such as these?"

For lab purposes, due to the lack of people, I adapted the lesson to fit the class I was working with.

How it Went:

Gems

• As the students were writing down their questions, I asked them questions such as "If that pig is a female, what would she be called?" to jog their memory of last class's terminology lesson.
• The students asked great questions and I mentioned that I was proud.
• A Student wrote "I don't understand" down for a question and I couldn't tell who it had been by the hand writing, so I announced "Please free feel to stop me at any point in the future if you don't quite understand what's going on, I'd love to help clear things up for you."

Opps

• As my peers mentioned, for an Ag student this may be too easy
• In fact one of my peers was given the role "Knows-it-all" and I didn't respond how I wish I would have
• I stated "Well, if you know it perhaps you can tell me what we are doing?"
• This was aggressive, looking back, I would want to say "Perfect, I'm glad I have a great student to help me/role-model what needs to be done."
• A Student asked "Must we do all these photos?" and I replied "Well, until you engaged" which as soon as it came out of my mouth I wanted to hit my forehead because this was unlike me.
• I should have responded, "Well, lets see how you guys do first, If you ask some really good questions maybe we won't have to look at them all."

In summary, with my cold, my sassiness came out and I was miserable. As a teacher I'll need to fight through this, but I do realize even Good Teachers, have Bad Days. I definitely learned from this experience quite a bit and look forward to the next challenge ahead. 

Weekly Investment #5

What structure do we need in our instruction? Applying Instructional Design Techniques 

"Imagine embarking on a road trip across the United States to a specified, but unknown to you destination. To further complicate the situation, you are forbidden to take a map or to stop to ask for directions.  Obviously, the frustration would quickly become overwhelming and the anxiety of “it all” could cause you to give-up before you really got started.

Students feel the same overwhelming frustration and anxiety when teachers fail to provide objectives, the roadmap, if you will, at the beginning of the class session."

By M. Susie Whittington, 2005 Agriculture Education Magazine

Key instructional design techniques such as objectives and proper assessments for those objectives give students the structure needed to learn. Additionally, simply including these items in your lesson plan is not enough. 

You Must:

1. Fabricate quality objectives based on what you want the students to accomplish
2. Develop proper scaffolding in the lesson plan to achieve this goal
3. Create an effective assessment that gauges how well students met your goals and objectives.
• It is critical to assess the objective, be sure to match the level of Bloom's taxonomy that the objective is on, to the assessment. 

Speaking of Bloom's Taxonomy:

How does Bloom’s Taxonomy impact instructional design?Your lesson is centered around the daily objectives, Bloom's taxonomy ranks these objectives on different levels on comprehensions. Well designed units and courses ask students to "level up" with their understanding of the content as they continue to work with the information.

How can Group Teaching Techniques be Effective? 

 Working in small groups allows learners to develop a wide range of social skills such as listening to others, taking turns, contributing ideas, explaining oneself clearly, and encouraging others. These social skills are equally critical to learning and development for career readiness. Unfortunately, most objectives are set to meet state standards, which don't account for these soft skills beyond elementary levels. 

Lab #1 First Day of School

First day in Large Animal Science

In January, I will have the good fortune of teaching my first lesson on the first day of the new semester. This means I will truly have new students, right out of the box. Therefore, the lesson plan which I created and gave a 10 minute snap shot on, would be an incredibly useful tool for student teaching.

For this lesson I formatted my lesson plan, in addition to a classroom management plan with included three posters. These posters have the Procedure, Expectations, and Consequences for my classroom.

Check them out and leave feedback on how you'd revise them and why:

Two points of clarification that you may not know about my classroom management posters:

1. The Tech Break, on the procedures poster, is a 5 minute break during the block for students to go to the bathroom, check Schoology in other classes, or check their cellphone. This is considered a "temporary fly zone" in a "No Fly Zone" classroom.

2. The discussion after class under consequences is rooted in the theory of Restorative Justice which I was excited to learn about over the summer. (What are your thoughts on restorative justice?)

Reflecting on my 10 minute snap shot:

Strengths: I put a lot of thought into the lesson and the flow from the student's perspective. 

• I ensured that I mentioned the class upon greeting the students at the door, to weed out students that may be in the wrong class. 
• I had name cards at each seat to address assigned seating without bringing attention to the subject. 
• Once at their desk, students found all the material handouts they would need for the day.
• The bell ringer was written on the board and verbally prompted immediately, allowing minimal time for goofing off.
• As my peers and mentors mentioned, my Alliteration Name Game (when I prompted students to pair an adjective describing themselves with their name) utilized minor cross-curricular terminology and aided my learning in not only the student's name but the student themselves.

Suggestions: Overall I was incredibly happy with my lesson, but as always there is room for improvement. I was thankful my peers and mentors offered meaningful feedback for me to work with.

• I failed to write down the objective on the board or on the power point. It is critical that I look at the big picture as a whole for the day, not just task by task and hope that students get what I want them to.
• In my Alliteration Name Game I had no idea that I responded to what student's shared with just their name. I was gracious when Mrs. Barzydlo pointed this out in Edthena, of course I was still learning about them from what they shared, but I wasn't giving the student validation that I had heard what they said. 
• At Dover Area High School, teachers are asked to use the terminology Bell Ringer, and write an agenda on the board for students to copy. Although I did both tasks, I failed to use the correct word "Bell Ringer" opposed to "Bell Work." 
• I like the schools decision to utilize school wide terminology for students to connect procedures across the board. Prompting the students to do Bell Ringers will result in less resistance when the whole school is using them. I have to retrain my language to make this happen!

Virtual Mentor Exploration #1

"What is your teaching philosophy and/or core values as an agriculture educator?"

This week I was able to Call, Zoom, and Email my virtual mentor team to pick their brains about the prompt listed above. Their responses were intriguing and I felt very compelled to share them with my readers.  

Kevin Keith: National FFA Organization Local Program Success Team member

• ‘Each student in unique, just like everybody else’… they all learn differently, have a different life experience and know more about one topic than anyone else does.

CONNECTION TO WEEKLY INVESTMENT #4 BLOG - Learning Modalities, Multiple Intelligence

• The sweetest thing that most students ever hear is their name, the name that they prefer to be called by, and the preferred pronunciation of it. I have had students with oddly spelled names and had them remember for years that I was the “one person” who remembered how to spell their name and how important it made them feel. 

CONNECTION TO WEEKLY INVESTMENT #4 BLOG - Angela Maiers, You Matter  

• I strive to provide a safe educational environment where a student can develop emotionally, mentally, socially and become a leader in their own way/right (maybe by example, maybe by word, deed, mentoring relationships, etc.)  

• I believe in transparency, in admitting mistakes and apologizing and doing everything I can to ‘make it right’.  

• I believe in the importance of experiential learning, in applying learning to the actual world that the students can grasp… in helping them understand why they might need to know something, how they might use it, and why it might make a difference to them.  

• I believe that one of the most uncommon things is common sense and that we are fools to assume that anyone is a master of common sense.  

• I believe that safety and a knowledge of safe practices in classrooms, laboratories, the workplace, etc. is paramount to success of our educational programming.  

CONNECTION TO AEE 350 - Safety Contract Assignment 

• I believe that it is no accident that agricultural education include classroom and laboratory learning, work based/experiential learning, and leadership, personal growth and career success through the FFA, as it’s philosophical base and feel that it is criminal for any of our teachers to rob the student of one or more of these important components.  

CONNECTION TO AEE 413 - Three Circle Model & Program Planning

• Finally – I believe in a concept I call, “Ya Gotta Wanna” – I believe that everyone can achieve, but it doesn’t just happen, you need to plan, to set measureable goals, to practice, to adjust and refine your plan, goals and process, to measure progress, and practice more…

Mrs. Katie Ranck: Agriculture Educator at Elanco, #PSUAgEd16

Katie believes in fully implementing the three circle model. She utilizes a day in class to cover the three circle model and why it works for agriculture education, this help her students find meaning in what she asks them to do.

SAE is a heavily weighted portion of her students grades. She acknowledges that this is an extrinsic motivator, but owns that there is further recognition and opportunities for her students for them to reach own their own, at an intrinsic motivation level.

FFA is encouraged for all students. I'll have the opportunity to see her implement this circle when I travel with her to the National FFA Convention and Expo this fall!

Classroom instruction is something that she dedicates herself to whole-heartedly. This summer, I saw her investments she made for her students by attending the PAAE conference. 

She added to our phone call that she was beginning her Master's Degree and they had just began philosophy work in the program. The irony of reflection that she was going through for class made it easy to discuss this topic for her. 

Mrs. Renee Cambruzzi: Agriculture Educator at McGuffey

My teaching philosophy is simple; respect, nurture and guide. High school students still need to be nurtured and guided but treated with respect and consideration. They deserve a teacher that is caring and compassionate but is holding them to high expectations and challenging them to reach their greatest potential.

I believe a teacher's role is to guide rather than act as the primary source of information. Students need the opportunity to discover for themselves and practice skills in real-world situations. Providing students access to hands-on activities and allowing adequate time and space to use materials that reinforce the lesson creates an opportunity for construction of knowledge.

CONNECTION TO AEE 412 - Scaffolding

I believe students need to have the opportunity to study things that are meaningful and relevant to one's life and interests. Developing a curriculum around student interests fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn.When students have ownership in the classroom they are motivated to work hard and to reach their goals.

CONNECTION TO SUMMER READING DRiVE - Autonomy, Intrinsic Motivations

I believe that it is important to nurture positive student / teacher relationships. The more you understand about the students in your room will help you to develop a community instead of just a class. In the classroom community, students learn to effectively communicate with each other and are more likely to feel safe to share their ideas, fail and learn.

I believe that as an agriculture educator it is my job to never stop learning. It is important to make professional development a priority each year to improve teaching practices, curriculum and student success.