Week 4- constantly learning

We all know that this is a learning experience for me so I thought I would share some of the things that I learned throughout this week and highlights. 

 

1. it's ok to revisit or repeat lessons 

·      This week in my plant science class we were going over leaf structure and anatomy. This lesson was only planned for one day that included a lab looking at stomata. after taking notes we did a matching activity with different leaf venation, arrangements, and leaf types. This activity took way longer than I planned for and we were running out of time for the lab. I decided to start the lab with the remaining time left about 40 minutes. I thought that would be more than enough time to complete the lab, I was wrong. I learned that not every student reads the instructions or listens to them when going through them as a class. So, the lab did not quite go as planned, some students got half way done other barley started. 

 

So, what did I do? we completed the same lab the next day. This gave me time to talk to CT about effective instructions and some more ideas on how to improve the lab so that students get the most out of it. The next day the lab went way better and students were able to complete it with little to no help. In the moment I could help feeling a little embarrassed that my plan didn’t go the way I thought it would and that I was going to have to go back and reteach the same lab again. But in the end, I’m glad that I did and had someone to guide me through the process of what I could improve on.

 

2. notes...

·      My students hate taking notes which became a bit of a problem this week for me. There is a lot of terminology within plant science that is necessary to know to understand different plant processes and such. Most of the class does not take notes, in my mind they are only hurting themselves since the unit exam questions will be pulled from the notes, but I also want them to do well in the class. But there is also a lot of complaining about having to take notes as well which my CT had to address after the 3^rdday of the week. This is troublesome for me because I’ve been trying to keep lecture/note time to about 15 minutes then switch to an activity and lab. I thought that keeping notes short would be great because there are so many labs and fun activities that can be done but they take more effort to set up for myself which the students don’t see. I guess what I learned that even if students don’t enjoy notes it's necessary for them to learn the processes before they demonstrate it, and to take comments on note taking from students with a grain of salt (because no one likes taking notes even if it's only for 15 minutes). 

 

3. Sub plans are hard 

·      I wasn’t in school Friday because of a family matter which meant I was creating sub plans, which I haven’t done before. Thankfully my sub is my CT which is obviously a very knowledgeable agricultural teacher which makes it easier because I just give her my lesson plans and she can teach all of it easily. But now coming back in on Monday I feel lost even though I was only gone one day. Trying to figure out where my students left off Friday and will start on Monday is a struggle just because I wasn’t there to see them work. I’m also sure that my sub plans could use improving and myself to check in throughout the day to see what was done each class could be improved upon. This is something that I’m looking forward to working on and improving because I want my students to still learn and have a valuable day even if I’m not there teaching, luckily, I will get to work on this more throughout the semester. 

 

 Highlights 

   1. students brought me food!

•  I got brownies this week and whoopee pies they were both amazing!

   2. helping students 

• this week I got to advise a student on college section and help with some research in each college that they are interested in (including PSU!) to find out testing requirements, what degree opportunities, and benefits of each university. As well as helping to create a high school schedule that would be beneficial for the degree that they are pursuing. I love helping students with this and giving my personal experience to help them. 

   3. Helping a student prepare with creed speaking

• This was my first experience with FFA creed speaking and helping to prepare a student. I didn't know much about how the actual contest is ran since I never participated in it myself or seen it. But I was able to watch her give the creed and give some basic public speaking advice and how to get over the nerves of speaking in-front of judges. we went over some sample questions that could be asked during the contest and tweaked some responses so that they are professional and get answer to be clearly given. this was a great experience for me and one thing that im looking forward to helping other students with and learning more myself about all the CDE and LDE opportunities and how to coach them.