Week 3: The Adventure Begins.

Surviving in the Jungle - Chapter 1


Monday started out fairly normal in the jungle this week. Seeking out two new classes of high school students, this meerkat (me) was able to conquer Animal Science lovers, however the the Horticulture enthusiasts slipped away - their witty attitudes surpassing mine.

At the watering hole (also known as the cafeteria), the Queen of the Jungle (Mrs. Hoover), was able to overthrow two fierce animals whose bold and malicious statements were sure to cause destruction. It was this lioness's sharp thinking and cat-like reflexes that were able to bring peace to the jungle again. Her trusty meerkat was able to aid with the peace keeping procedures.

Tuesday gave the meerkat a second chance with the horticulturists. This meerkat needed to take advice from the lioness and show the students that she could roar, too. The meerkat was nervous and scared, but could not let the animals of the jungle see or smell this fear. If they did, it may cause an uprising. Luckily, the meerkat succeeded this time. The lioness assured the meerkat, it gets easier with time.

make lists of how soil is
used in different areas.

The horticulturalists worked together to  

Wednesday led to an uneventful day, but Thursday the meerkat was left in charge when the lioness was not able to be there. While there was a lion in training (substitute) in the habitat, the meerkat held her ground. She was proud when the day ended. She was able to maintain order in the jungle that day, teach classes that lioness was still in charge of, and remain organized and composed all day. She was surprised and impressed.

                                                  

                                                              The fearless lioness sent the meerkat a gift
                                                                 for leaving her in charge without much notice! 

Gold medalists: Riley, Karis, Destiny, and Chloe

The week was coming to a close and the lioness and meerkat took some jungle animals from their preferred location to one across the way to battle for the trophies of milk quality. After a full day of battling in tasting, smelling, presenting, and showing some skills, our "kids" came out with gold and bronze medals in the overall team competition. Furthermore, many did well in the individual competitions including more gold and bronze medals. The glory was taken home to celebrate with the rest of the pride.

Competitors worked hard to identify strange and unknown cheeses and milk impurities. 

 

Bronze medalists:
Alex, Haley, McKenzie, and Morgan

                    Stay tuned for next week's adventure... 

Fearless Competitors:
Camila, MacKenzie, and Crystal

Fearless competitors:
 Cheyenne, Peyton, Ashlin, and Reagan

First Class - Great Beginnings

This week I started with my first class! We battled 2-hour delays most of the week, but overall, I think it went pretty well! My first class was Agricultural Leadership and Communications. The class consists of seven seniors. The goals of the week were to meet me, identify and define SMART goals, and complete proficiency applications.

While I think that the classes went well, I find it really hard and awkward to teach a class that small. I feel like if I stand up in front of them and put on my "teacher voice" it is really formal and again, awkward. Mrs. Hoover would put them all at one table a lot and sit with them which I think works well, but feels almost too informal. I think it will take me some time to find a good teaching method for this kind of class.

My first day, I went over my classroom expectations and procedures with the students and tried to get to know them a little bit. They all have some interesting facts they wanted to me and asked me some really good questions as well. I am looking forward to doing this with two more classes next week - however, I need to slow down a little I think. My brain sometimes goes faster than the words coming out of my mouth and I need to keep that in mind.

Mrs. Hoover and I also got a lot done, I worked a lot on my lessons for the next couple of weeks, and observed some classes. (Check out my observation blog!) I was also able to attend an IEP meeting this week and that was a really good experience! While this week left me with a lot of time to observe and prepare, and not a lot to write about, I look forward to picking up more classes over the next few weeks!

Classroom Observations

This week I have had the opportunity to observe two classrooms outside of Mrs. Hoover. I observed a middle school math class as well as a high school chemistry class. It was very interesting to see the way the classes were run in comparison to the agricultural classrooms that I have observed.

Students in the chemistry class came into a well-organized class took their seats, ready to start the day. Students got out their ticket-outs from the previous day and went over them with the teacher. The teacher thoroughly went over sample problems. He also let the students volunteer to go over problems and complete them on the marker boards at the back of the classroom. He also used analogies to explain confusing and abstract theories.

The math teacher probably had some of the best classroom management I have ever seen. All of the students came into class and immediately put their bags in a taped off area in the back of the room. All the students got out their homework and the teacher began checking it, while the students copied down their homework for the next night. Then the teacher used a randomize to select which students needed to go up and complete the homework for the rest of the class to see. The teacher then gave the students other practice problems on the Smart Board. First, the students needed to complete the problem on individual marker boards. Students were given directions clearly and followed them with ease. She also used a reward system to help motivate the students. 

My first week as Mrs. Hoover's Student Teacher

This past week has been wonderful! Check out my Mid-Winter convention blog to read about my Farm Show trip! (https://karliewrites.blogspot.com/2018/01/late-nights-call-for-sleepy-students.html)

Wednesday was my first day in the classroom - I have my own desk right next to Mrs. Hoover's and we have been working on my assignments since I wasn't teaching last week. I also starting working on a fundraiser that we will be starting on Monday. The ag department is going to sell hoagies and I am going to run the fundraiser for Mrs. Hoover.

I also realized how important it is to really give students my full attention. No matter what I am doing when a student talks to me, I try to make sure I am looking at them and really listening. I want to make sure that I keep working on this as the semester continues. I also got to go to my first staff meeting! Administration explained students' senior projects and distributed the rubrics. So that was that.

Overall, I think that this week was a success and I cannot wait to keep working with Mrs. Hoover and her students! I can tell that this is going to be a really good student teaching experience for me! Next week, I am excited and ready to tackle my first class!! 

Late Nights call for Sleepy Students

On Monday, I started my first day as a student teacher at Fort Cherry. My alarm went off at 4 AM and I made my way to meet the bus at McGuffey High School. Mrs. Hoover, Mr. Laesure and I got the students aboard. We then made our way to Fort Cherry to pick up the rest of the students and headed to Harrisburg. My first day of student teaching was here and I was more than ready!

The weather was not the best on Monday, and as we were leaving both Fort Cherry and McGuffey school districts had cancelled school for the day. We all talked about the situation and talked to people ahead of us on the road and they said that the roads were clear. The bus driver was confident, Mrs. Hoover and Mr. Laesure talked to their school administrators and we decided to keep going. The rest of the trip to Harrisburg was pretty uneventful. I am really glad I was able to see this scenario play  out and how to make these decisions.

We were able to make it to the Farmshow complex just after noon. Students were given explicit directions as to what needed to be done BEFORE they left the bus. I observed this often on the trip. We always gave students directions prior to them leaving the bus so that we had their attention and it was not chaos. We were then able to meet students in the large arena for the Mid-Winter Convention. Five students received their Keystone Degree this year and two students received a jacket from the PA FFA Alumni.

We took the students to Hoss's for dinner and then to the hotel to change. Then we took them to a local bowling alley for 2 hours. Mrs. Hoover's and Mrs. Cambruzzi's advice was simple: wear the students out! And to spend as little time as possible in the hotel.

The following day we took the kids to Hershey's Chocolate World where they were able to learn about proper chocolate tasting and some even were able to make their own chocolate candy bar! The trip home gave us ample time to discuss things that could be changed in the future. One of these would be to have a single drop-off/pick-up location instead of picking up at both schools to cut on travel time. Looking back, I can also acknowledge that there were no behavior issues on the trip and all of the teachers were well respected and had good rapport with their students. I hope that my trips with my ag program go this smoothly, even with weather hiccups!!