Inquiry lab reflection

This week my the lab I had to present was inquiry based. It took me a while to come up with what I was going to do for this type of lab. Realizing that inquiry has multiple levels of difficulty for both the learners and the Teacher. This is because depending on different factors inquiry can either be somewhat structured by the teacher or it can be completely student driven. Either way you look at it however, it is the students who are posing the questions.

I personally found inquiry a hard concept to grasp, but I think with more and more practice I will be able to become better at it. I truly think inquiry is a great tool to get students to access their higher levels of thinking. Throughout school students are often spoon fed the information that they need. This does not lead to critical or individual thinking.

My lab was having the student score white-tailed deer antlers off of the Boone and Crockett scoring model. My idea was to just give them the worksheet and have them score the antlers based of the image on the score sheet. After they started I realized I should of included a demonstration showing them how to score the antlers because I had to interrupt the students once or twice because I noticed that they were doing it incorrectly. I recognized this as my opp.

For my gems:

• At the beginning of my lab I had them each choose a different animal that has antlers and look up information about them. I think it was good to show that there are other animals out there that have antlers rather than just white-tailed deer. 
• I feel as though my students enjoyed my lab because I had them doing a very hands on activity and it kept them occupied.

All in all I love the concept of inquiry and it makes me excited to see what student's come up with as they search for answers. Who knows maybe while they are researching something you propose they'll come up with something you never thought of/found. I can not wait to stretch my inquiry teaching techniques while I am out student teaching!

Week 11 investment- Inquiry

Inquiry-based instruction is a type of teaching method. This method entails the students driving the class forward rather than it being led by the teacher. The teacher may pose a question for the student's to solve, however it's up to the student's to solve the problem and figure out how to go about solving it. There are different level of inquiry. There is a very structured version all the way up to a very open level. A teacher who is new to inquiry may be more comfortable with a structured approach, so that way the still have a little control over what is going to happen. As a teacher gets better at instruction with inquiry The more loosely structured the class can be. Also, when talking about structure it would be easier to start with more structured inquiry and each time you use that method make it less and less structured. That way you are training the students on how to be open thinkers.

Inquiry follows the scientific method to promote critical thinking. Inquiry is often used in science classes, since science can be very lab based and labs are a good way to implement inquiry. When students learn through inquiry the go through 5 steps:
1.) Questioning
2.) Investigating
3.) Use evidences to describe, explain, and predict what is going to happen
4.) Connect evidences to knowledge
5.) Share their findings.

When using inquiry you are giving students the opportunity to drive their own learning and because of this you allow your students to become better problem solvers. With the way a lot of subjects in schools are led is by spoon feeding the students information so that they never really have to think of things on their own. When you give students the ability to learn and discover things on their own they will remember content better and will have a better understanding of how they can apply it to their own lives.

Enjoy this video that I found that helps me understand exactly what inquiry based instruction is:

All in all I feel like inquiry is a very useful tool that should be used as you are teaching. As a teacher you should always be pushing your students just a little out of their comfort zone, so that they are able to grow and I believe that inquiry based instruction can do just that.

My first National FFA convention

I would have to say my first trip to The National FFA convention was a major success! The FFA convention has a lot to offer to an agriculture advisors. I was able to obtain many flash drives with curriculum on them that gave me ideas for what I can teach to my students.

If I had to put my opinion about convention into one word I would say impressive. Just seeing students from all over come together in one central location was amazing. It was also cool to see that advisors either knew or remembered each other even if they taught thousands of miles apart. It showed me how close the ag ed family is and I really inspired by that. In ag ed even if you feel alone, you really aren't. At one point I made a comment of how I was trying to look for my friends to find in the Garth Brooks crowd and Ms. Russell said to me "you don't have to look for friends because you're already surrounded by thousands of them." that made me smile.

While at convention I felt that I was able to build a stronger connection with Ms. Russell and the more I got to know her the more I realized that I picked the perfect person as my cooperating teacher. While getting to know her I also got to know the a few of the students more. The students that came with us was a really good group. It was interesting to see how they interacted with one another and to see how they interacted with Ms. Russell and I. It was interesting to see all the different personalities, but yet all of them being good students.

The students we took were the state champs for parliamentary procedure. Watching how they were coached up and getting to see them preform parli pro was cool to watch. I will say, even though I didn't coach them personally I felt a sense of pride watching them. I will have to say though students are very forgetful when it comes to remembering important items. There were multiple times when a student would need something, but they had left it behind on accident. I still enjoyed my time with the students nonetheless

Convention was great, students are great, Advisors are great, AGRICULTURE EDUCATION IS GREAT!