Week 13 Student Teaching

I Teach Students

This on Friday, April 5th I taught my last lesson for Ag Engine Care. I begin to reflect on the strides I had made toward learning how to teach content that I was uncomfortable with. Instead, I came to a better conclusion.

I had grown tremendously in my content knowledge of Small Gas Engines because of the help of Mr. Bowen. I had taught the basics to students and brought something new to the class every day, but I worried that I didn't teach my advanced students a darn thing.

I announced in the last 5 minutes of class that it was my last day teaching, and Bowen would be on his own the rest of my time here. I asked them, since they contributed to my learning experience in college, if they wanted to, they may sign my graduation cap. A large amount of the students jumped up and grabbed a sharpie.

This experience made me feel appreciated. I was harsh some days, unhelpful other days, and I began to feel inadequate in making a difference to their learning. When they signed the cap, I realized they appreciated me for SOME reason, which made me think. 

I came to the conclusion after some reflection that throughout the experience my ability to hold them accountable to being professional human beings in a "workplace" helped them learn tiny nuggets of knowledge toward the real life. Often times the informal conversations added greatly to this.

Even though I struggle with the content, I made an impact on their learning. I can apply this to any course I ever teach in the future. 

Week 12 Student Teaching

Using My DIY Project

One of my project for the Penn State Agricultural and Extension Education 495 course is to complete a DIY project of professional development. I was fortunate enough to be notified of an awesome source of professional development within my placement school. Mrs. Sheffer is a member of the Paideia National Board Council, and she was willing to train me in a Paideia practice called Socratic Seminars.

Socratic Seminar

1. Provide the students with a challenging text for them to analyze and form opinions on, prior to the seminar.
2. Read the pre-seminar script, which includes:
• Setting a class goal, developing goal, and one achieving goal from the goals provided.

1. Students participate in the seminar through active listening and contributing discussion's rooted from the text provided. 


• During the seminar students are working towards achieving their goals, such as talking twice, actively listening, not talking while others are, using quotations from the text, etc.
• The teacher's role is to facilitate the discussion by posing open ended questions, which can be opinion, analytical, or other types.
• Additionally, the teacher notes the flow of discussion and what is contributed by which students on their "map."
  
2. Read the post-seminar script, which includes:
• Completing the Paideia's Reflection Paper
• Giving themselves a letter grade for their progress toward achieving their goals.
• Ranking the class on a 1-10 scale for how well the seminar went.
3. The next day, students are asked to write a response to the Socratic Seminar and what was discussed.

My Experience

The socratic seminar was used in my small animal science class during the "animal rights versus animal welfare" unit. The text we provided was The Ethics of Animal Research, which was challenging to my students. 

To aid my students who had difficulty reading the text, I read out-loud, and paused at the end of each paragraph to allow time for them to highlight if they agreed or disagreed with the statements. Additionally, students were asked to research terms they weren't comfortable with or examples of animal testing.

During the seminar, 5 students dominated the discussion. Our class goal was to speak voluntarily at least twice. I began the seminar with a round robin question, which all were required to answer, "What percentage of the statements in this research article do you agree with?" Which transitioned into my opening question, "Our class is evenly split, 8 of 16 people say that they agree with 50% or more of the statements in the article, what quote made you agree or disagree with the idea of animal testing?"

Other Questions asked included:

• What is your interpretation of the statistics in paragraph G from GP Net.com.
• What do you think of the UK's Home Office Publishing anonymous animal research projects in paragraph I?
• Closing: How do scientists implement the 3R's (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) of the use of animals in research?

Question for you: How can I encourage students to speak more openly? My training suggested calling on specific students in a way that gives them a second to think. Such as: "Luke, I see you agreed with 70% of the statements in the paper, what do you feel about the quote from paragraph H that states..."

SLLC

Making Meaningful Learning Connections 

ACES was my first attempt to take students on an overnight trip with the FFA to learn from, and I learned a lot of great things, refer back to my ACES blog. SLLC was my second attempt and I had the opportunity to plan and structure the trip to add learning connections beyond what the conference had to offer.

Planning SLLC

1. Get approval from school board and van reservations
2. Announce the Conference as soon as you can following the State Registration Opening
3. Get a sign-up sheet with minimum information (Including dates of the conference, teeshirt size, roommate preference, signatures needed from parents and teachers, and price of the conference)
4. Register Participants that have paid
5. Hand out packing and To-Do List
6. Get last minute administrative sign offs for the trip

Structuring the Conference for the Students

• This begins with the packing and to-do list. I added the schedule so the students knew everything I knew.
• I created a GooseChase! (Check it out below)
• Have check-ins daily with expectations for the next day
• Reflection on the way home: What did you learn? What did you enjoy the most? What would you do differently to better prepare/get more out of the conference?

GooseChase:

I was introduced to GooseChase on my Domestic Study Away to Wisconsin. I thought about creating this for Mid-winter Convention and ACES but never got around to learning how to do it. With a little extra time for learning I got ambitious, which I am now thankful for.

I created my GooseChase in less than a half hour for my students to join on their personal devices. The students we took to SLLC were responsible, motivated, and competitive. This seems to be a great mix for success with GooseChase.

My tips for making a great GooseChase:

• Make Teams: Stepping out of your comfort zone is easy with a friend or two
• Have some "getting started" missions: when they first join their team they will be chomping at the bit to get started. Load this with information that is key to know ahead of time
• I asked them to research their State legislators for the Conference Breakfast on Tuesday
• I asked them random PA FFA facts for them to know, like who is the executive secretary or the name of our state degree. 
• Have tasks at varying levels of difficulty
• Easy like: "get a selfie with a state officer/Person from North/South Central/West/East"
• More Difficult, Like: "Get 40 signatures at the "Glow Rave" and submit photo evidence"
• Fun like: "Bust your favorite dance move"
• Use the Missions for Selfish Reasons:
• Get photos for the scrapbook or social media through the photo missions
• Evidence Learning to Administration: What content did they learn? Community Service?

The 2nd SAE Visit

Visiting an Established SAE

My first SAE visit was to a placement that we helped him establish the week prior, for my second SAE visit was to a student that is a junior that has had strong SAE projects since his freshman year. 

Summary of the visit:

My student, who is an officer but I do not have in class, he previously had a swine production SAE that he enjoyed. He made a business decision the year prior to switch to a meat goat breeding operation since goats were selling for much more than the pigs were. 

He had approximately twenty breeding does that were kidding for the first time that spring. He had three does that had kids (two with a single kid, and one with twins.) He bought a buck and plans to get a second season of kidding for later in the summer. The previous breeding season he leased a buck, therefore by buying a buck out of the genetic pool he will be diversifying his herd. 

What I learned:

• Use questions to get students to talk more than you (the teacher) so you take a listener role.
• Ask questions about growth since their first SAE.
• It can be informal, be silly and have fun, to build rapport with the student if appropriate. 
• Take time to meet the family and discuss their involvement in the FFA, SAE, or potential classroom activities. 
• Don't hesitate to contribute your knowledge to the project even if you are not an expert in that area.

Week 10 Student Teaching

Reviewing: when is it a waste of time and when is it constructive?

This week we finished a rather large unit in large animal science and I had two days of review. The first day was dedicated to a "wake up call" for the grade book to sum things up for the marking period, as well as starting independent work on the study guide because of several snow days and delays. The second day we experienced BreakOut EDU boxes for group review, as well as bringing things up to the whole class to review items.

My Rules for Review Days:

1. Students must always be working: Making up work, Completing the study guide, or Studying other material in the unit
2. Students should participate in group review and independent review.
3. Students should ask for clarification for content after they have asked their peers.

How do I prevent this from being a waste of time?

Technically, the content has already been learned and you should have an understanding of student knowledge from your formative assessment. I see the benefit of reviews for students who were absent or if you covered large amounts of content, but how can I prevent this from becoming a wasted day?

Starting an SAE

My SAE Visit for a Student Just Starting

I was fortunate enough to experience starting an SAE with a freshman student. My student, his two parents, Mrs. Barzydlo and myself sat down one evening and officially started the SAE Record Books in TheAET.com for two projects. 

It was a unique experience because the student's parents were highly engaged and supportive in the process. They threw out many ideas for the student to choose from. They asked helpful questions like "What is an SAE?" "Why does he need an SAE?" in ways that were non-threatening, simply from a place of inquiry to better know their expectations to help their son. 

The Types of SAEs the Student Started:

The student decided to start two SAE books. 

1. Placement SAE - Stermer's Auction Service
2. Entrepreneurship SAE - Livingston Farm Grain Plot

The Placement SAE is a place that the student displayed auction items and handles livestock in exchange for an hourly wage. The student learns critical career skills including workplace expectations, communicating with bosses and customers, and other aspects of employment that he cannot learn from his family farm. Additionally, he learns about handling livestock and agricultural equipment. 

The Entrepreneurship SAE was developed when his father agreed to sell the student a plot for grain crops on the family farm in exchange for the labor it takes to successfully grow and harvest the crops. The student will become proficient in an area he struggles, crop production, opposed to animal science where he has experience with raising cattle. 

How do these SAEs contribute to the student's future?

The student has expressed interest in working for the family farm, in addition to other agricultural workplaces. These on farm and placement experiences will develop an agricultural professional network, career readiness skills, and a learning space to apply concepts of critical thinking and self-motivation for success. 

Week 9 Student Teaching

Having Live Animals in Class

Our Situation: 

At Dover Area High School we do not have availability to keep live animals in the class or ag program. During my time teaching two animal science courses I wanted to bring some live animals into the class to give it some realia. This required more planning than meets the eye.

Planning it out:

• Two months out I coordinated visiting timeframes for animals to come to class with the people who were bringing them.
• About two weeks out I set a definite day and "snow-date" incase weather hindered our plans
• One week out I confirmed administration approval to have guest speakers with animals in the classroom.
• Two days out I sent a school wide email out, warning other teachers that animals would be coming to the school in case students would get distracted looking out windows and potentially louder noise then usual.
• The day before the visit I coordinated parking, arrival time, sign in procedures, and what is expected of the visitor and my class's expectations.
• The day of the visit I coordinate with the main office the times of arrivals for the visitor as a reminder to keep everything running smoothly.

The Actual Visit:

Students love to get their hands on actual animals, but unfortunately some students can be spoil-sports for the class. A few complained about the cold when working with the horses outside and a few complained about the poop when working with the goat inside. Overall it was worth it for the rest of the class.

When they are visiting you must find an appropriate amount of "downtime" for the students to interact with the animal and get used to seeing, feeling, and smelling the animal. Then we begin asking questions. I did this in two ways - first, I had them write down questions as a bell ringer, second I allowed them to ask questions about things they saw on the psychical animal.

Questions for Readers:

How can I maximize live animals in the classroom? I was able to have two components to every visit, the students asked questions as a large group but also had an individual activity for handling the goats and horses. What other tasks can I have them do without taking away from the experience of meeting a horse or goat for the first time?