Week 4: Learning on the Go

I have learned so much this week - about myself and my teaching style.

I have learned that while I thought having all my lesson plans for my first 6 weeks done ahead of time was super nice - and it is - it also means I have forgotten what materials I have and pretty much have to redo them anyway. I have also had to adjust a lot. Things have taken way longer than I have planned. I really need to work on timing. Mrs. Hoover and I have also had to rework some things to ensure plenty of time for students to get their FFA Week projects done. This has resulted in me cutting out some lessons I had planned.

This week students worked on posters for the 1st paragraph of the Creed!

After FFA week, I think I will be able to reset and make some more adjustments when I do my planning week by week. I also need to get better at interest approaches. This is something I struggled with last semester and still do. Coming up with them is really hard for me and ones that I think are really good, my students hate. If they do like it, it takes way longer then I had planned for which pushed things over. 

Its really hard to learn about soil horizons sitting in the classroom - it reached 40 degrees so we went outside instead!

Furthermore, I have one class that I have twice a day that I think I will need to plan for separately. Just two complete opposite classes and I think one of those two classes needs push more than the second. At the very least I need to build in extra “flex time” activities for them to help them grow more. 

There was a great Twitter tip I saw this weekend too about using google calendar to organize your materials for your lessons. I cannot wait to start trying it!!

I think these things are all fixable and I need to be aware of them, reflect on them, and act on them. I am looking forward to the next few weeks!

When its your prep period and there are baby guinea pigs!