Dwindling Down: Student teaching Week 12

A full load of classes until the end. After a week of being gone, I came back to teaching a full load (A fact that I love). It was nice seeing all of the students again. This was my last full week with this group of 8th graders, it makes me sad to start with a new class of 8th graders on Wednesday. However, it will be nice to get to know yet another group of students! The way the class has been going is I divide the class time in half, so half the period those who need to finish up their benches can and then in the second half we talk about something environmental science-based (usually paired with a super fun activity.) 

As time ticks on I have mixed emotions because I am excited to graduate and be done with college. However, I have fallen in love with Juniata Valley and it's students. It's going to be SO hard to say goodbye. I know that's not something I'm going to have to worry about for another 3 weeks, but 3 weeks will go by fast. I mean here we are at the end of week 12 and that seemed like no time at all.

So, enough of my small going away reflection. Here are some of the cool things my students did this week!

On Wednesday Juniata Valley hosted the area public speaking contest where a few schools came together to compete in different aspects of speaking. Everything from Parliamentary procedure to interview skills to extemporary speaking. Our Novice Parli Pro team is moving on (conduct of chapter meetings) and our Extemporary speaker is moving on as well! I'm so proud of the Blue Juniata students!

During class time I had students working on their welding projects, making bird feeders, injecting oranges, comparing apples, and having students share out presentations. It was a busy week this week for sure! 

 

Question for my readers:

What is the most entertaining activity you have ever done with your students?

If you are not a teacher- What is the most entertaining class activity you have ever participated in?

The JV interview

While student teaching I had the opportunity to set up a mock interview with the principal at Juniata Valley. Honestly, since I have been student teaching at the school for the past 12 weeks I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be for an interview. I believe when it comes time to actually interview for a teaching position my nerves will set in.

When Interviewing I felt very relaxed and when the questions started, they more so turned into a conversation. One thing I noticed while interviewing was the body language and the tone my interviewer had. You could tell that he was passionate about the school he was in and he cared so much. To me, that was extremely admirable and impressionable.

When being asked questions I was able to answer them well, however because of my lack of teaching experience (other than my few weeks of student teaching) I felt like I didn't have enough "real life" examples to back up what I was saying. I used as much as I could, but I only had so much.

Even though I don't have a whole lot of experience backing me up I was still able to give solid answers and the entire time I was positive in what I had to say. After the interview Mr. Estep and I took a step back and had a conversation, he gave me advice that I will carry with me while looking for my first position. The biggest take away I have from our conversation that I would like to share is even though I don't have a lot of experience I can still have a leg up against other candidates as long as I have a willingness to adapt and change with the school (ex. technological advances) and I come in with a positive attitude and keep that attitude through the duration of the interview. Whenever you are being interviewed, how you present yourself is how the interviewer is going to imagine you in their classroom.

-Never take for granted the power of a first impression!

The week of Travel: Student Teaching Week 11

This week started with a stop in Harrisburg to attend SLLC just for the evening. While I was there I was able to see my students and help score proficiency awards for Horticulture and Equine. I even ran into my high school Ag teacher and I was so happy to see her. We had a lot to catch up on. I was glad that even though I wasn't staying at SLLC I was able to spend dinner with my Juniata Valley students.

When I woke up on Monday morning I said goodbye to SLLC as we headed to Philadelphia For  a PAEE (Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators) conference. While there I attended workshops that gave me resources and ideas of things I can take back to the classroom. With an emphasis on insects. I found there are a lot of resources out there that help with teaching about macro invertebrates. I also learned techniques and skills I would need to approach teaching entomology to people who are weary about insects.

After I returned from the PAEE conference I turned around the next morning and traveled with my cohort down to Baltimore. There we toured schools to see how they were ran in an urban/city setting. It amazed me of how schools can utilize what little resources they have and teach from it. The big take away I have from being in Baltimore is the atmosphere. Students there outside of school live in fear almost every day of their lives. Some of the stories that we were told shocked me. However, when these students are in the school they can learn and feel safe. It's important for kids to be kids and being at school allows them to do that. Feeling safe is something I take for granted every day. As an educator you don't ever truly know how important you are in a students life.

We are doing a service learning project for one of the charter schools that is up and coming for k-3rd grade. We are going to be creating raised garden beds. I hope that this project will make a difference. I am going to be returning to teach my last 4 weeks at Juniata Valley and I'm happy to go back. These 15 weeks are going to be over before I know it.

Question for my readers:

How would you go about making sure that your room always feels like a safe place for your students?

Full weeks do exist: Student Teaching Week 10

For the first time since I started teaching there was actually a full week of school! you can also add a day to that because on Saturday I attended the Blue Juniata auction that is held every year as a fundraiser for the chapter. So, not only did I get a full 5 days, but a 6th day as well. (A full week for me however meant 3 days with my cooperating teacher and 2 days with a substitute. Ms. Russell had to spend part of Thursday and all of Friday preparing for the Auction.)

This week I was able to move the students a little farther in their shop projects and I was able to begin a unit on wait for it... BIRDS I was so excited. I was going to go ahead and do a plant unit with my students after plumbing, but they expressed wanting to learn about birds instead. I ran it past Raylene and she let me go for it! I am truly in my element with this subject. Another thing that made me ecstatic was I proposed the question to my 8th graders about what they would want to learn after they finished their wood shop project and multiple students said "hunting and fishing", so I took that and made it a little broader asking if they would be okay with environmental sciences and they were all on board. In my head I was doing a super happy dance.

On Thursday I had a speaker come in from the Conservation District to teach my natural resource class on how to use the Biltmore Stick. We were able to go outside and it was very nice.

On Friday Miss Victoria Herr came to visit me and it was very nice having her there. It was a sense of comfort knowing that someone on the same level of teacher was there to support me and see how I am doing.

As I had mentioned on Saturday the Blue Juniata FFA held an auction. As soon as I got there a couple students exclaimed MISS BLOOM IS HERE! They were so excited to see me because they already had a job lined up for me. Cutting pies, yay. It was fun though getting to meet new people and learn things about people in the community. It made me realize, depending on what type of fundraisers you have. It's not just an event to get money, but fundraisers can bring communities together as well.

For my readers:

Are there any fundraising ideas you may have that would not only bring in money, but promote coming together as a community as well?

Shop, shop everywhere! Student teaching week 9

This week was pretty significant for me in the terms that I ended a lot of theory in the classroom and started to apply it to practices in the shop. When it came to ag mech I’ll admit I was very nervous and wasn’t sure how I would do teaching it. This past week I impressed myself. I taught soldering, brazing, MIG welding, and started a wood shop project with my 8th graders!

I would say I feel more and more confident teaching in the shop every time I am in it! Who knew that the girl passionate about environmental science would love teaching shop! Natural resources will always be my passion, but Ag Mech is definitely second!

What’s my favorite part about ag mech you may ask.. well let me tell you! I love seeing students attitudes change in a positive light! For example when we went to weld a lot of the students were super nervous and didn’t want to do it at all. After some guidance and some demos they finally tried it and all of them agreed that it wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be. There were quite a few of them that actually enjoyed running beads when they didn’t think they would!

Another awesome thing about teaching these skills is often after students do them they feel proud of what they had accomplished. For brazing practice they brazed a couple washers together and let me tell you, some of those students faces were beaming with pride and joy!

I’m excited for this coming week because I get to go back into the shop with my students to work on projects or to teach something new!

To my readers:

Have you ever done anything shop based? If so, what was your proudest creation?

Turkeys, Assembly’s, and Delays: Student Teaching Week 8

To kick off this week we had a 3 hour delay and there was a chance that I was going to teach without power. In the 3 extra hours I had I adapted and planned, so that I was prepared to teach without that power. When I got there the power luckily came on about 10 minutes before classes were getting started. However, I realized if I can adapt to teach without power it makes teaching with power seem that much easier.

On Tuesday we got in 22 turkeys to raise and I jumped on the opportunity to use them as a research project with one of my classes. We decided to compare different feed brands and take their weights on Tuesdays (Turkey Tuesdays)  to see which made the turkeys gain more weight each day.

On Friday we had another delay and an assembly as well, so there wasn’t much class time at all. The assembly was for a program that JV does called CHAMP and it’s basically a miniature THON for their county. It was awesome seeing everyone in the auditorium together. When I say everyone, I mean everyone K-12. Seeing all the student there supporting this cause to raise money to go to families in the county that needed it. Juniata Valley alone raised $11,504.53. With a last minute $20 being thrown in there for one of the high school teachers to come up and kiss a pig on the lips (the pig bit him by the way).  The students really seemed to enjoy their time at the assembly and so did I.

Question:

How can we incorporate an event in FFA that deeply impacts the school, schoolwide?