Why are we interested?

 What happened?

·      Wednesday, we presented an interest approach from one of our lessons. I choose my lesson on welding and striking an arc. My interest approach was giving two ice cubes and candles to my students and telling them to figure out a way to weld them together. Over all I thought it went well even though I am currently sick and could barely talk. Since I’m sick there was some things, I left out that I would have included to shorten up my time I had to talk. I was told that this could be either the best or worst interest approach I could use. It could be the worst because it can easily turn into just an activity that the students don’t get a lot out of. But it could be the best if you relate it to the content and play it up to be super cool almost like a magic show that gets the students interested to try and do it as well. 

Ice drop!

 How does it relate to what I know about teaching and learning?

·      Through this activity I know that I have to relate the interest approach to the lesson or content that we are learning. Also reminds me that in order for students to care they have to find something interesting in the class to want to do what I have set up.

 What did I learn from the experience?

·      I learned that you have to play up theses interest approaches and make them seem really cool and that your super interested in it to. If you don’t the students won’t be interested in it either because your attitude and the way you carry yourself rubs off on the students. I also learned that I need to find clearer connections to my lesson or topic for the interest approaches. I also learned that even if I’m not feeling 100% that I need to adapt the lesson or act like I am because it changes what the students get out of the lesson. Since I did skip over parts because I didn’t want to talk as long (if I was actually teaching I would have taken a sick day) . 

How can I apply this as an Agriscience teacher?

 I can apply this by thinking about my interest approaches longer because often I feel          like it’s something that is skipped over or not given much thought. But they are important because it’s something that could get that one student that hates everything interested in a topic that you teach.