The Dairy SAE

The student I went to visit is a girl who has been raised on a dairy farm. She is very passionate about her farming heritage and seemed to be very proud of where she comes from and what her family does. The visit occurred at her families dairy farm.

The preparation that was needed before going to the farm was first of all asking the student when she would be available. She then confirmed with her family when a good time for us to come would be. After that Ms. Russell and I coordinated schedules with the student. The day we were initially suppose to go school was cancelled. So, even though we still could have gone we decided to just wait until the following day because that was okay with the student's family.

The student had multiple things going on when it came to her SAE. Her SAE's were both entrepreneurship and placement. For entrepreneurship she raises both steers and dairy cattle to show and for the placement piece she works on the farm for her family.

When it came to evaluation for her show animals, specifically the steer the weight was taken to ensure that she was feeding him correctly. For the placement piece Ms. Russell keeps in contact with the students grandparents who are the main owners of the family farm. Through this communication she ensures that the student is performing well at her placement. lastly, for evaluation Ms. Russell checks records in AET to make sure things are getting done and to make sure the student is keeping up good habits.

The recommendation that was made to improve this student's SAE was to feed the steer more, since the weather has been so cold. That way he can still maintain or gain weight, so when she goes to show him he will be ready.

When it comes to grading SAE actually counts for a single credit. The students who are taking an Ag class have the option to also take a 1 credit SAE course. on the schedule it shows up as period 0 and counts towards their overall GPA. Not only does this help students towards graduation, but it also creates more completers for the Ag Ed program.

Snow my Gosh: Student teaching week 3

This was the week that was barely there. The snow and cold just kept coming. However, I powered through and made due with the time I had! 2 closings in 1 week along with delays as well. I was able to create eco bottles with my natural resources class and they really seemed to enjoy building them!

The class I want to highlight for this week is my 7th period class. This class is a class full of 8th graders. When I initially found out that I was taking on a class of 8th graders I will admit I was very nervous. I was mentally prepared to take on high school students, but I wasn't sure how I would feel about taking on a middle school age. Well here is my consensus so far. Those students are awesome. I gave them an assignment to research and make posters based off of an agriculture education topic that them and their partner had. They worked diligently for a day and the next day they presented the posters. I told them they only needed 5 facts for their poster and let me tell you many of the groups went above and beyond!

When it came to the students presenting, some were a little more confident than others. However, overall they did very well! It's easy to say I was impressed by this group. I also felt a little bit of pride as they presented because all of the groups hit the nail on the head for the topic that they were suppose to present.

With all this being said, instead of having nerves for the 8th graders, I'm quickly finding them to be one of my favorite classes of the day! It's funny how things work out.

The Slow and Antsy week: Student teaching Week 2

This week there weren't a whole lot of highlights overall. There were some things that happened here and there, but for the most part it was slow. I was starting to get antsy sitting at my desk and just observing, so Monday through Thursday were a little slow for me.

However, Ms. Russell asked me on Thursday if I wanted to start teaching on Friday and if I was ready. I jumped on that opportunity! I was super excited to take on a class. The class I got to take on was the natural resource one! This blog isn't going to be extensive, but it'll give you an overview of my week.

Week 2 Highlights:

- Start of the week Monday I was sitting in my vehicle waiting for Ms. Russell to arrive. She was still on time, but running a little later than what she usually does and I was curious as to why. So, in pulls Ms. Russell in her truck and she gets out and heads to the bed, puts down the tailgate and without any explanation, she pull a rooster out of a cage and puts him in the chicken coop with the hens. (another only in an Ag class moment)

- I went to a committee meeting with Ms. Russell. This committee was focused on the school safety, so the school safety committee (It was kind of funny that Ms. Russell is on that particular committee after she had cut her finger last week).

-In order to raise money the life skills students do a lunch every 3rd Friday for the teachers at $6 for either a steak salad or a spaghetti dinner. I was able to participate and buy a lunch from them, so that way money can go towards a trip that they take. The students really seemed to enjoy making and serving the food.

-Friday morning there was a 2 hour delay and it was nice getting the extra time to sleep and get ready to take on the day, especially when I knew I would be teaching my first class. 

-*BEST HIGHLIGHT* I GOT TO TEACH MY FIRST CLASS! The students walked into different materials set out on their desk, they were intrigued as to what was happening. I went through my entire lesson with them, but I went a little faster than what I wanted. The students seemed excited about some of the things I had in store for them, but there were other things that made them groan. One of the things I am going to do with this group of students is a daily bird call, one student groaned and claimed it was going to be difficult because I plan on quizzing them every Friday on the bird calls they learned that week. It was funny to see how students react when you show your own interest. I did an exit ticket and what they had to write down is what they were most excited for learning in this class, I had expressed to them in my introduction that I have an obsession with birds. In over half of the exit tickets the students put down that they were excited to learn about the birds.

-The last highlight I would like to bring up is the students were waiting quietly for the bell to ring to be dismissed from class (this was another class not the one I taught) and out of no where we hear this loud ting. We look over and the leg of a table had fallen off! the student sitting there got blamed (all in good jest) and the class scrambled to try and help put the leg back on. When the students were rushing to help, instead of sitting the table gently on it's side, they put it down with a bang in the chaos of the event. after the table was safely on it's side Ms. Russell obtained a screw driver and they fixed the table. Oh boy! what a hilarious way to end the week.

My final thought I want you all to know is I had SO much fun teaching my first class, I know things aren't always going to be sunshine and glitter, but today (Friday) I would call a win! I am so excited to continue teaching!

Mid-Winter Convention

STUDENT TEACHING

FARM SHOW

50 STUDENTS!

The time has come that I started my student teaching and let me tell you the first day was a time to remember. kicking things off with a trip to FFA mid-winter convention at farm show. When we started our travels we had only one bus and we took 50 students down with us to mid-winter convention. That was one full bus. Some students were sitting 3 to a seat and no one was alone when it came to sharing a bus seat. That many students if I'm being honest gave me a little bit of anxiety to be in charge of. I was just glad that there were 2 other teachers alongside Ms. Russell and I.

When we got there and released the students I had to remind myself that they are high schoolers and they are going to be okay. I spent most of my time walking around with Ms. Russell and every once and while talk with the students that would happen to pass us by while they were walking through the complex.

Before the Mid-Winter session started I met with KP backstage and she gifted me with a bag to kick off student teaching! It was awesome and to that I say thank you very much KP!

While sitting and watching the state officers do there little skits it made me smile. They looked like they were having fun, despite probably being slightly nervous. When it came to getting the Keystone degrees There was a sense of pride in the building because these students worked so hard to get to where they are. All that was awesome, but what really gave me chills was seeing the large group of new members surrounding the arena and putting on their jackets for the first time. As a student teacher and a future advisor that moment really opens your eyes. That moment wraps everything up to the realization this is why the advisors are here. To see student grow, to seem them overcome obstacles and work their way up through the program.

Students are the future and I'm so glad that I am going into a profession to watch them grow. 

Science Classroom visit

On Friday I went to visit another science class in the school to observe the difference between an Ag science class and a "normal" science class.

The class I went to observe was an earth science based class and they were going over the water cycle. They were given a worksheet that they had to fill out definitions on and since Juniata Valley is a 1:1 school the students used their Chromebooks to find the definitions on USGS. It was different in the aspect that what they were doing was very worksheet based compared to being in the Ag room.

When it came to student interest, only a couple students seemed to really care what was going on. Overall they seemed a little bored with what was happening. What surprised me was there were students in that class that I had already met because they were Ag kids. However, the way they acted in the science class was different than how they acted in the Ag room. There was one student in particular that caught me off guard because my impression on him was he was a nice kid, but in the science room he had a lot of back talk for the science teacher.

There was a lot of joking back and forth between the students and the teacher, however there would be a point where the joking would go a little to far which resulted in the teacher semi yelling at the students. With that being said, even though the students would go slightly astray, they still would still work on the worksheet they were supposed to. The day before I observed the students had watched a movie and only had 10 minutes of it left, so most of the class involved the students begging to watch the last of it.

The way the teacher handled it was since they weren't extremely bad after they filled out their worksheet and did a short 15 minute lecture on the water cycle, he allotted the last 10 minutes of class for the students to finish the movie they had started the day before.

My conclusion: Science is cool no matter what the subject area, but not every student is going to think that way. In a general science class you get all students, which means there are going to be students that are uninterested. However, since Ag is an elective the students in the class are going to tend to show more interest into what is happening.

The Start of Student Teaching: Week 1

I have officially completed my first week of student teaching. When I switched into the Agricultural and Extension Education Major I thought this day would never come and it seemed like it was always just a thought. As this semester approached student teaching was getting closer and closer, but it always seemed so distant. However, here I am.

To kick off student teaching the very first day was a trip to Mid-Winter Convention for FFA at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. However, before we went down I went into the classroom that I would be teaching in and I found there was a desk for me along with welcome notes all over it, made by the life skills students. Walking into that truly made my day. After all the students were gathered we headed down to the Farm Show. It was a fun first day being able to see all the students from all over the state joining together for one event. We took down a bus load of 50 students. 

Throughout the week some things happened here and there. It was nice meeting students and other teachers without having the stress that I know will be coming soon, since I will be taking on responsibilities of leading classes.

Week 1 Highlights:

-There was a student that came in requesting to use tools to skin a raccoon that he had trapped that morning. He ended up skinning it in the bed of his truck (only in an Ag class right?)

-Watched a group of students practice presenting their tractor restoration project, that they will be presenting at the farm show on Saturday to hopefully come home with an award. (It was cool to see the progress they had made from stumbling through their presentation on Monday, to doing an alright job on Friday)

-I was having a conversation with a student about what I would be teaching them later on in the class and I had mention welding. The student lit up and went on and on about how he welds at home and he was so excited that I was going to be teaching welding. Just listening to the passion the student had for the subject made me smile. I really hope that I can find what makes every student light up.

-Ms. Russell was using the Mitre Saw and as she was using it a piece of wood kicked back and cut the inside of her finger. It wasn't deep enough for stitches, but it was deep enough that she had to go see someone about it. We have lunch and a planning period back to back, so there are no students to oversee from 10:30 to 11:52. During that time frame she went to go get it checked out. However, she was not able to make it back in time for her next class. The Principal ended up coming down to monitor the class, while I semi took the reigns and helped the students continue working on what they had started working on the day beforehand. Which was suturing bananas. I wasn't 100% sure how to suture the different stitches, but I watched some quick videos and figured it out and ended up helping the students work through their suturing. I felt accomplished because I was able to move the class forward on what little I knew about the subject.

Soon I will be picking up classes and I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. Week 1 down, 14 more to go.