The Reflection of all Reflections: AEE 412 Lab

As we wind down this final mind-blowing and fast-as-lightning semester of my college career on a campus, I am asked to reflect on one of the many beneficial experiences I've had in preparing for life as an educator. 

The 2 hours a week of AEE 412 (Methods of Teaching Agriculture) lab was one of the most memorable and beneficial aspects of this entire semester. After all, agricultural education is about "experiential learning" and what better way to "experience" the methods of teaching agriculture than to TEACH with them??

Some questions to reflect on: 

Was the teaching lab a positive experience? 
Absolutely! While I remember hearing intimidating stories about AEE 412 from previous cohort years, I never really heard much (negative) about the lab component... probably because it was the most exciting part of the class (not to say that lecture wasn't exciting ;) ). Working with my peers and consistently seeing applied teaching methods was very positive and helpful, especially with the reflective components and the feedback. I think I just recently said to a few of my lab classmates that I will miss lab time the most, as it is a bit more relaxed and fun (especially when you are not teaching). The role playing for classroom management was definitely an added bonus for entertainment, even if our group may have taken it a bit too seriously at times... but overall, the teaching lab was definitely a positive experience!

How would you improve it?
One of the major aspects of 412 lab that I would improve would probably be to increase the teaching opportunities (if it was made possible by scheduling). I think that it could also be improved by removing some of the online reflection aspects (that many people do not take seriously enough) and increase in-class, discussion-based reflection. I think a 10-15 minute time period in a Friday 412 lecture after each lab section is completed (so only 6-10 minute sessions) would allow all students to engage in discussion, be present and obligated to reflect, and save much time on behalf of the students with regards to blog/video reflections. Or, there could be, selected from the pool of recorded teaching experiences for the week, 1-2 highlight videos that everyone must watch (i.e. best examples) before attending lecture on Friday of that week, so that people can pull from the example and discuss personal improvements.

How have I grown personally and professional from it?
On a personal note, there is definitely a greater level of friendship between some of my cohort-members who were in my lab group (especially my favorite, "shares-a-lot" student, Annette) from this experience. And it is from these levels of interaction from the role playing that I feel much more comfortable with handling classroom problems. I definitely won't forget some of the conversations and situations of our role playing as I enter into a real life classroom with real students. Other than this aspect, the professional growth from actually teaching content I created/compiled is very encouraging and promotes a higher level of meta-cognition as I go forth and plan/execute future lessons/units.

How have I become a more reflective teacher and learner? How will incorporating reflection into a future career make me a better educator?
I am a very bad reflector. I don't know why, but I have always struggled to pull examples or stories or personal reflection from my life in making future decisions. I usually base future choices on the outcomes of past experiences, rather than all aspects of the experiences. This is, as I will admit, a very "fixed mindset" view and something I have been trying to change during this time in lab. I agree that reflection is important, especially if it occurs right after the experience, so I will probably be more proactive about developing immediate personal reflection and seeking immediate peer feedback/criticism from future teaching experiences.

What could have been more detailed/in depth in the AEE 412 lab expectations?
I think the expectations for lab were sufficient. The lab packet was a very helpful guide throughout the semester, but could use a few edits. I am sure that we covered a lot of expectations and information on the first lab day, but I am unable to recall that first week of transitioning back to the craziest semester ever :)

Overall, lab was a wonderful experience that served as the keystone to our fall agricultural education preparation courses.

Enthusiasm was the Rosenshine and Furst quality of effective teaching that I felt I reflected often in the teaching lab... check out my video that highlights these!

Here are some memorable photo moments from teaching lab (when I had my camera to capture them)!!!

Practicing with the D-SLR camera during my demo lab!

Emily and Todd, acting as great models

That time Emily found tape worms in the goat intestines from my IBI lab!

Get Creative. I know its in you.

Students in our education system are not often enough challenged to be creative. Some people may say "oh, no, I'm just not a creative person..." but this is a falsity. We are all creative, given the opportunity and flexibility of a learning or exploring experience.
So, when we were surprised with a trip to the Dollar Tree and $5 (WOHOO MONEY!) for our final lab session, I was excited to test my creativity juices... even if it took a lot of juicing to get them going.
While I can successfully plan activities, I do struggle to add a creative edge, something that will really engage or interest the students. This was evident at the Dollar Tree, as I roamed around the entire store, looking at thousands of diverse items that could apply to many learning situations... yet I struggled.
I literally felt my head come under a higher pressure due to the amount of varied muscle movement (I think it has something to do with the side of the brain used in creative moments).
Either way, it took seeing someone else's creative idea to start connecting some items I was seeing to my wildlife ecology and management unit. I was surprised how quickly the juices came after that... I got some interesting items that can illustrate concepts of habitat and carrying capacity. I also picked up some practical items to use for an already-planned activity.
Anyways, it was a great experience, and even more exciting when I remembered I had a lot of cash in my pocket. I then may have gone overboard with my purchasing. But in the end, I learned about how our teacher minds can be stretched and challenged to develop instruction to best engage and spark interest in students... all by going to the Dollar Tree! : )

First day in my Cooperating Center... as a teacher!

Life Knowledge lessons are kind of fun and pretty easy to understand, but they won't be taught for the 6 weeks I will be the "teacher" at Wellsboro in the Spring :)
However, they did open my eyes to the field of resources for Ag Ed lesson plans! Don't forget the extensive list!**

So after 3 days of teaching at Central Mountain, I was able to sleep semi-well before driving into the great northern tier of PA for a couple of hours at Wellsboro Area High School.
Let me just first brag about my ag program... I love my kids already. They have a twitter handle (@wellsboroag) and my teacher is a CASE certified, national agriscience ambassador. They have some pretty cool resources (rabbit room, 3 greenhouses, forest lab, etc.) for being such a small program... and Wellsboro Ag Ed boasts about 20% of the school population. I think my high school ag program population was maybe 3% of the school population?
Anyways, with this already in mind, and knowing some of my students already, I was already excited to not have to walk into a completely new room and teach to a class of 30 crazy students (max 24 in my Wellsboro classes).
The LifeKnowledge lesson I chose was about being involved in all levels of the community. This was an especially exciting topic, as I got to listen to some of my students discuss the need to do more community service projects after a particularly enthralling National FFA Convention Session. It was so cool to be there, next to my cooperating teacher, as they started brainstorming in the van ride on the way back to the hotel :) One of those "I'm excited to teach" moments.

Anyways, back to the lab that I am supposed to be blogging on.
So I was able to do this lesson 2 times, mainly because the Ag Sci 1 and FFA/Leadership classes are back to back, and why not teach an extra class period? It was a cool concept, to be able to repeat a lesson, as it is something I will do in the spring with 2 sections of An Sc 2. I think it helps us, too, get into the reflective mindset of "okay, how did that go? did it go as I planned? what can be improved? did they gain something?" for ALL classes (not just repeats).
I really didn't have the same management problems with my students at Wellsboro as I did at Central Mountain. There were times in this particularly engaging lesson where students were unresponsive. Then again, they had probably never been asked to think about how to be engaged at the global community level before... so it was quite new to some of them. And even forcing them to think about local community engagement was good - I saw some sparks flying and was encouraged at their interest in thinking of ideas even if they didn't come up with a lot of unique ones.

I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to break them into groups to work, then present. I wish I had more time, though! Only 42 minutes per period at Wellsboro, and Mrs. Berndtson had to make a couple of announcements - so this was a good test to how I adapt an hour-long LP to a much shorter time period. There may have been some reason to cutting out one of the activities to allow for more group work/brainstorming, but I just liked the iceberg example so much, I had to keep it.

There were like 4 or 5 students who had BOTH classes (one after the other) so I had to come up with something for them to do the second period rather than participating in the same activity again. So, I had them expand upon one of the local community service ideas by making an "advertisement for community service" poster to hang in the school. It turned out to be for Operation Christmas Child, one of the activities that the FFA chapter decided to take on after convention. While the packing date was already over, the students worked together to color a poster for promotion of this opportunity - they can use it next year! I should have had something a bit more engaging for them to do, but the depth of this Life Knowledge lesson wasn't too challenging that there were a lot of extended activities.

Overall, it was a great time to get to know some of my students for the spring and talk to my cooperating teacher some more. I also got to talk to one girl about her mice SAE project and some others about them helping with the rabbits. All in all, this was a great chance to get into our classroom, practice using management techniques there, and begin building rapport. I am super excited for the spring!! I know it is going to fly by!

Mrs. Berndtson, my cooperating teacher. The students say we look like sisters... what do you think? 

**My current list of resources for lessons, powerpoints, info, etc (currently on a sticky note on my computer desktop):

Resources:

1. Glen Rose FFA http://www.glenrosearkansasffa.com/lesson%20plans.htm

2. GA Ag Ed http://www.gaaged.org/Browseable_Folders/Curriculum/Lesson%20Plans/

3. CA Ag Ed http://www.calaged.org/resources/curriculum

4. NAAE CoP

5. CTEonline.org 

6. Craig Kohn , Wisconsin http://wuhsag.weebly.com/

7. Idaho http://www.uidaho.edu/cals/ae4hyd/secondaryagcurriculum

8. FFA Learn https://www.ffa.org/FFAResources/ffalearn/Pages/default.aspx

Entering the real world... Teaching with REAL students! Micro-Unit

Playing with the big boys... means teaching to real, live, breathing high school students. 

It's kind of crazy that we (meaning my entire cohort) were exhausted after 3 days of simply teaching 1 class... I can't wait to see what that first week of teaching in the spring does to us with 5-7 classes a day :) 

Anyways, Central Mountain. I worked with Ms. Hack and taught the Wildlife and Fisheries class (3rd period) with a Habitat mini-unit. This included content about: habitat components, common PA habitats, carrying capacity, and limiting factors (natural and cultural). 

Day 1 was as day 1 as you would have expected. I thought I was pretty prepared and had a good handle on my content. However, we ran out of time and an activity that I had planned did not go as I anticipated (see photo) so I was a bit flustered. I had a few management cues to work on - giving time for students to process, giving clear directions, stamping out chatter from the start, etc. However, I think it went well considering I had a class of 30 students. There were definitely some notes from Mr. Seaman that I took into preparing for day 2. 

Trying to get them to do a circle sit when they didn't want to touch each other...  fail

 Day 2: the testing day. They kind of know who you are and how you work... so they begin to test you a bit. I had a cool activity planned (Project WILD shout out!) to reflect carrying capacity, but later learned it did not seem very "mature" for the students. I also didn't lay out in my mind the concept of the activity that well, and felt like I was not portraying the concept correctly at all when we were participating in it. While Mrs. Rice said I knew the content and seemed to do well, I still felt like I was really messing up - what was going wrong? Why could I not prepare for it well enough? What can I do better to get them all engaged? Well, there aren't really any clear answers to these questions... but I think my hard work and preparation for day 3 really paid off.

Day 3. I was awake until 2:30 AM to prepare for this day... while this doesn't seem that feasible in preparing for classes (x 6) in the spring, I know that the work put into this week will definitely help ease the load in the spring. The students were doing another activity Thursday (Project WILD rocks!) about a turkey population and limiting factors. It was pretty fun, and even included math, but they were more engaged and interested. I also didn't have as many problems with management because they were doing something and I was not trying to lead them in something. 

Overall, it was an excellent (but exhausting) experience. I definitely didn't know as much about TEACHING to real life kids as I thought. There is some credit I can give to State FFA Officer activities in ag classrooms, but looking back, I recall that those were mostly games and fun stuff. We didn't teach too much :) 

SO: concepts to take away for SUCCESS

~be prepared. really. know your stuff.

~set the stage by creating a felt need for the content. I am very bad at this. 

~don't second guess yourself, it will remove credibility and focus from the class session.

~keep directions clear/concise 

~ask high order questions and get them thinking

~teach for many years... then maybe you'll get it down
~remember - no matter how much you plan, it will never go the same as you expect it to in your head! So stay calm, be flexible, and have fun!

Inquiry Based Instruction in ACTION. Time to ruminate!

Get ready to read about the most unique lab preparation experience you will probably ever encounter... at least in AEE 412. 

DISCLAIMER: while this may be my most exciting lab reflection blog post yet, it also does contain some photos of internal animal systems... this blog post is not for the feint of heart (or stomach) but should be JUST FINE for all you AEE majors who will be teaching this stuff! 

While we were told that Inquiry Based Instruction can be the most difficult concept to prepare for, facilitate, and feel successful about of all the methods we have encountered thus far, I felt pretty excited to test the IBI waters with this lab. 

I will be teaching animal digestion in the spring at Wellsboro, and based on a positive personal learning experience from digging into a real digestive system (see the shout-out from my summer EARTH University blog), I figured it would be optimal to provide a digestive system for my "students" (aka college-aged peers) to work with in summarizing my imaginary digestion unit. 

I called the local(ish) butcher shop in Spring Mills, PA on Friday last week to ask about possibly having any digestive systems on hand from an upcoming butchering. I explained that I would use it for an educational lab at Penn State and that I could come pick it up Wednesday. While I would have loved a ruminant system, I didn't really NEED one, so I just told him that anything smaller than a bovine digestive system could work (pig, sheep, goat, etc.). 

He said they were going to be butchering on Tuesday, some beef and some sheep. I asked for them to set aside a digestive system of a sheep (from esophagus to small intestine) so that I could pick it up Wednesday morning. He said no problem. 

I called Tuesday to verify that they would still be able to hold from that day's work, but never received a response, so I drove out to Spring Mills on Wednesday morning hoping for the best. Lab started around 12:20 so I wanted to be back in Ferguson by noon. 

When I and my lovely assistant, Alyssa (sophomore AnSci student), arrived at the butcher shop, they informed us they hadn't kept anything (someone forgot to mention my call) and that it was all outside in the "bins." With this much foreboding statement, one of the guys offered to go out with us and see if anything was salvageable from these bins... Note photo of first glance at the "bins." I didn't think it appropriate to show what was actually in them... 

See the sticker that says "Inedible?" Well, it is accurate.

 Needless to say, we decided not to go digging in aforementioned bins but to brainstorm another option. The guys told us that if we waited around until about lunchtime, some goats were coming in to be butchered and we could take a system from one of them. While this would have pushed back our arrival at Ferguson for lab time, I verified with the lab instructor that I could be a bit late... with digestive system in tow.

While I did not capture photos of the two hours Alyssa and I spent at the butcher shop that morning, let me just say that it was one of the most hands-on educational meat science experiences I have ever had! The guys were so nice at this shop - they asked if we wanted to look around the place, in the coolers, the cutting room, and even be on the kill floor for the goat butchering! While you all may not find this interesting, Alyssa and I took them up on the offer and donned some white lab coats and hair nets to stand in entrance of the kill floor room for the goat arrival...

After getting to know the two main butchers, Bill and "Chicken," and talking with the USDA inspector present, we gathered the ruminant digestive system to come from the first goat and headed back to University Park.

My dear lab group was so very kind to endure the smells that came from the digestive system (not that pleasant) and, for the most part, was involved in the process. The interest approach was giving them these five samples of hay and asking them to gather observations. They were intended to reflect the various steps of forage breakdown in the ruminant system. For the activity itself, the students' only instruction was to "relate these samples of hay to whatever is in the big black bag on the table (aka the ruminant system)."

From top, counterclockwise: dry hay sample, somewhat wet "cud" sample, reticulum partially digested, omasum coarse sample, and finally "puree" abomasum hay. 

While I felt a little strange just sending them to play with the digestive organs without guidance, Emily quickly jumped on the ball (due to extreme personal interest) and kind of led the group in the activity. She, right away, asked for the supplies to get started (butchering knives - something I won't as readily just hand to high school kids) and got started. Some group members were not as keen to dig in, but I gave the option for disinterested students to focus on taking notes/observations for the group. There still was the problem of a disengaged Todd, so I should have pushed him to play a bit of a more active role than just feeding information and watching.

Casi taking notes, Todd giving information, and Annette assisting Emily (ring leader)

It was also difficult, in this "student-centered" situation, to really allow my level of "teacher enthusiasm" to show, as I wasn't really teaching, but rather guiding in learning. The students did an outstanding job of asking questions, answering them, and exploring the system. They cut out some of the actual partially digested food samples and (with some directing questions from me) related them to the original hay samples.

While the time did seem to go fast, I was afraid that, after they related these items to the system, they would think they were done... and they achieved their abstract goal within 10 of the 20 minutes of "dissection" time. However, it was exciting to see that they still kept self-teaching about the connections in the system, linings of the ruminant compartments, and - perhaps the strangest thing that occurred that day - finding tapeworms in the small intestine. It was at first kind of disgusting (well, overall it was) but encouraging that Emily knew a bit about them and shared with the other students that they aren't harmful to the intestines or the meat, but that they just decrease the overall feed efficiency of the animal.

Emily struck the gold mine - and the facial expressions speak for themselves.

Overall, this was an awesome learning experience and unique opportunity to try out IBI. I think I could have allowed the students to make their own conclusions with a little less input, but I was running out of time and wanted to make sure they met the goals of explaining how they went about the process.

I can definitely tell you that I will not forget this week's lab prep and execution anytime soon!

Assessment and Evaluation - reaching the bar!

Sometimes, as learners, we don't like the word "evaluation" as it means we are being tested. However, we do like the concept of "grades" so that we can see how well we do. How is it that students can be so split between the same thing?

Assessment and evaluation are/should be utilized to gauge student learning using various methods and tools. According to Newcomb, et al, in chapter 14 of "Methods," we use assessment/evaluation to understand the needs of the learners, encourage instructional improvement, give motivation and self-appraisal for students, and develop instruction and grades. These are all important reasons for assessment, and I believe they effectively display its significance in the learning and teaching model.

There is an article by ASCD, however, that points out something that we should always remember in assessment - it should be FOR student learning, not OF student learning. I think this can be a gray area in instructional development, but this quote from the article really sums it up:

Unlike assessment of learning, which attempts to get a fix on what students know for the purposes of giving grades or evaluating schools, the array of test-like events in assessment for learning is always linked to the question “What's next instructionally?” Students are key players in this endeavor because one aim of this assessment approach is to empower students to monitor their own progress toward clearly understood curricular goals.

The author points out the concern of standardized tests in threatening this value of assessment. As national standardized tests are an example of an assessment OF learning, they are currently threatening to replace the need for frequent assessment FOR learning in the classroom, as schools are being threatened by poor standardized test results. The author calls for "instructionally sensitive accountability tests" with a few recommendations that would probably help with the standardized testing system. While I too am slightly opinionated about national/state standardized tests, I do not think I should digress from this blog entry much more... sooo...

What else about assessment? Well, there is the "how." We can use tests, careful to structure them properly and identify the best methods given the content. But we must maintain VALIDITY (making sure the content is tested properly) and RELIABILITY (making sure there is consistency in grading) for our tests. So, next time you pick one of the major test types (multiple choice, short answer, true/false, matching, essay), be sure you check that your test is valid and reliable. I used to think that testing was created to be tricky, to deceive the students, and in reading Methods (ch 14), it may seem that way, but after taking an educational psychology course that truly outlined the significance of assessment/test item structure, I agree that we really need to stick to the structure to evaluate genuine learning.

Another aspect of assessment that I think is not commonly considered, at least outside of Ag Ed, is affective assessment. We want to make sure our students are developing as a whole person, so why not assess them on it? They types of affective assessment listed in the Methods book were helpful to understand how we can go about pursuing effective whole person assessment.

And... PERFORMANCE! Whether it is a skill sheet or product evaluation, we have a great need for performance (psychomotor skill) assessment in agricultural education - we are, after all, known for our experiential learning foundations. One of the interesting things learned from this week's readings was the article on "Evaluating learning in lab settings" (by Warner, Myers). This article outlined some really cool CONCEPT MAPS that I have never seen/thought of to use for student assessment. Additionally, it proposed the "vee map" - a REALLY COOL reflection of assessing student achievement of the scientific method in a laboratory/experiment situation. I have never seen this model but intend to use it to make the scientific method more applicable to ag laboratory experiences!

Vee map example!

Compare/contrast concept map - simple but great to reflect understanding!

Then, let's not forget how we pull assessment together into GRADING. Students like grades... when they truly reflect their learning. Grades also must reflect objectives in the course/unit, otherwise the assessment structure of a program is useless. Grading should also include variety (of assessment) to accommodate different student learning/testing styles throughout the course. Within grading, we must be RELIABLE (mentioned above) so we have to be sure to use RUBRICs effectively! These rubrics, as identified by Stoughton and Myers ("Creativity and working with rubrics"), can either be task-specific or generic. Within each of those two types, we can develop an analytical (proficiency) rubric or a holistic (achieved it) rubric. We just need to keep certain our criteria and rubric values are appropriate for the content learned and assessed.

PSA does not = Public Service Announcement. Problem Solving!

PSA? Well a Public Service Announcement could be a tool in presenting a problem for the Problem-Solving Approach to teaching, but they are not equivalent.

PSA lab - time to pick a unit we will be teaching and use the problem-solving approach to teaching in order to present the unit. Now, let's reflect.

So this was probably the most frustrating lab to prepare for because I did not realize how much investment was required in thinking/cognitively preparing a problem that you would need to fully understand in order to guide your students in their own learning process. I also did not understand that this was intended to simply be the first day of the unit, thus making me stressed to believe I had to spend 5 hours on lesson plans (that I still wasn't proud of) for all lessons in this unit. I know that seems silly now, but I only did realize while trying to plan the lab that I was not prepared with enough knowledge of how to write a PSA lesson. However, maybe this is the challenge... figuring out what works best and thinking deeply about approaching your content is what takes the most time.

With that said, there was obviously much frustration in the preparation process. Also because I really wanted to use a real-life situation/problem to give the students rather than making up a scenario (which I am not that creative about anyways).

Seeing some other classmates present, I did realize how I might have changed my approach to planning the problem, but I still think my content was just a little tricky for making a PSA - biodiversity and issues of PA wildlife. So this was my problem solving lesson - I presented the students with the following statement:

Pennsylvania is home to an estimated 25,000 species of plants and animals. 800 of these species are rare, threatened, or endangered and at least 150 of these species have been lost from PA in recent history. Of that 25,000, mammals and birds make up only about 470 species. Within that 470 species of birds and mammals, 20 are endangered, 7 are threatened, and 1 is extirpated.

Pennsylvania has one of the highest land development rates in the U.S., even if our population growth is not nearly as dramatic. This development occurs outside urban centers, creeping into farm and forestland. In 1982, developed land covered about 10% of PA, but in 2003, it covered over 15% of the state, an increase of more than 50% in 20 years. 

I was intending for this statement to be a "situation to be improved" but it ended up being more of an opportunities/factors problem. Again, probably because I wasn't fully understanding of the problem solving approaches and their distinctions.

When actually presenting my PSA, I was not nearly as confident because the whole concept was still new and somewhat unfamiliar, so my teaching was not as high energy as normal. I also noticed that I was a little dry, even with such an engaging session as letting the students lead. I should always remember that it is about the students and their learning experience, not about my feelings or appearing as being successful in their eyes. I also realized the true difficulty that lies in allowing our students to think critically. How to we make people think deeply!?! Well, get into their heads. Find things that make them interested and ask "why is this important"? (another question I did not cover well in my lesson). I really highly believe in critical thinking in the classroom and love the concept of Inquiry Based Learning... but never realized how hard it is to work from scratch.

But yeah, we are here to learn, so I will continue to grow from these teaching labs and hopefully become a better PSA-writer/teacher!

Problem Solving... in teaching!

Okay, so we all know that when solving a problem, we apply a lot of previous knowledge, base understanding, and decision-making skills. However, did we all know that problem solving in teaching is a very effective tool to develop students' sociocultural strengths and constructivist domain? Yeah, those words are big for me too, but its okay. It basically means that, if we structure problem based learning properly, we can develop a student's ability to engage with others and build on previous learning/past experiences to solve real problems.
Little did I know before reading this week's readings - Problem Based Learning (PBL) includes the following categories:

1. Problem solving
2. Inquiry learning
3. Project-based teaching
4. Case studies

I don't know how I clumped those teaching methods previously, but now things are much clearer and I understand how I can utilize them as a teacher

Let's not forget as teachers, we must use problems that:

• provide new learning experiences
• provide new knowledge (or motivation to learn new knowledge)
• build on existing knowledge

And here's how we do it in real life vs. the classroom (classroom in parentheses):

1. Experience a provocative situation (interest approach)
2. Define the problem (objectives to be achieved, questions to be answered)
3. Seek data/info (problem solution)
4. Formulating possible solutions (problem solution - develop possible solutions, acquire new knowledge/skills, formulate conclusions and general principles)
5. Testing proposed solutions (testing solutions through application)
6. Evaluating the results (evaluation of solutions)

So what was the coolest thing I learned? 

Problem-solving in teaching can be done using two types of problems:

1. Well-structured problems = problems that have one clear solution, thus little declarative (factual) knowledge is needed and the structuring of these problems is easiest
2. Ill-structured problems = problems that have multiple/unknown/uncertain solutions and therefore require much more declarative knowledge, as well as procedural knowledge to decide upon the correct response and reason through it. These problems are more difficult to construct (by teachers) but have the most real-world application (transfer). 

You would think you wanted something with the word "well" in it rather than "ill" but in fact, we, as teachers, should constantly be trying to develop ill-structured problems for problem-solving in teaching, but ONLY if we provide the opportunity for the students to learn all the declarative knowledge they need to! 

I love how this dude (with the crazy earrings) addresses ill-defined problems as "gnarly" and "wicked" but how he closes with the simple satisfaction of how, using multiple disciplines, we can get through the problem and find out the best solution... but I would not recommend allowing your students to celebrate solving these problems by sitting on the couch and drinking a beer. 

Lab 3 - DEMO DAYS!

What did we do in my demo? Well, you may not think it is that relative to ag mechanics, but I'll tell you that there are certainly a lot of mechanics to understand in a DSLR camera and there are a lot of agricultural applications to photography... but really, we need to be able to understand equipment to use it, and many people do not know how to properly use a DSLR digital camera, but they are more often than not becoming a popular consumer item rather than your simple "point-and-shoot" camera.
So what did a simple, intro photography demo include? Well, I had to review some tricky terminology (see this dropboxed job operation sheet with vocab) before getting started, and I admit that it was a bit much and a bit too fast, and not a lot of "demonstrating" but given the nature of the activity, I thought it was important contextual info.
While it was a little disengaging with so much info, I do think my "students" learned something informationally new before even psychomotorally learning how to do something.
Classroom management wasn't too difficult, not that I recall, because I think the content was actually new to my cohort-members, distracting them from their roles ;) But I find that it can be difficult to manage the class when you are focusing on showing something or getting ONE student to show something.
One thing I do recall learning is how to try and apply this to what the students are doing in class/ag, especially as I TRANSITION from item to item in my lesson. It's important to make connections so that the students can place value in the content being taught.
For practice, it would be more helpful to have several cameras so that the students could simultaneously take photos, or pair up. This would depend on your program's resources and, hopefully, your school has some sort of photography class and a few cameras to use.
Above all, I really enjoyed this lesson/demo because it is something I am really passionate about - and while we have three types of passions (Dave Burgess, Teach Like a Pirate) - occupational, content, and personal - its a great place to be when you can align all three to allow your students to learn something new!!
OKAY now time for SHARING! Here are some photos that were taken by your peers in their demonstration practice :) Enjoy!

Emily? 

Annette... 

Annette again, I believe :) What a photographer!

Weekly Writing! Cooperative learning, field trips, and questioning!

Let's review the questions-based article - effective questioning techniques reflect the appropriate level of learning. This makes sense, right? Well, you would think so, but I am sure we have all had the incorrect question given a different level of learning or we have asked ridiculous questions to gauge understanding of others. I think it all lies in the context and the students' level of understanding. I love that we again come back to Bloom's taxonomy... He's just a rockin guy and developed this great way to clearly lay out how our minds work - WE ARE TEACHERS, let's use this as a way to develop the BEST LEARNING EXPERIENCE EVER! So let's not ever forget Bloom's... especially when developing questions.

Cool way to look at Bloom's revised taxonomy.

What else has to do with questioning? Open vs. closed questions. In ag, you may think we usually ask closed questions, but it is so important to include open questions - especially since we know (from this article) that both open and closed questions may be used at any level of Bloom's. 
It's important to know HOW to ask questions and what to do with them. Although I love talking to students and just sharing my knowledge, I have learned from leading a Bible study over the past year or so that ASKING questions is so important to gauge understanding and allow students to share what they've learned. It also allows for the most internal processing and, hopefully, cognitive processing to move up the Bloom's ladder (depending on question structure).
So one of this week's readings had to do with cooperative learning strategies (and were from UF!), something that I really enjoy... mostly because of my extrovertedness (take the Myers-Briggs test!).
Cooperative learning = group work? Well, here are some benefits of "cooperative learning," whether or not it's the same as group work: 1. Allowing different level learners to explain the material to each other (orally), 2. higher-order thinking, 3. controversy and clarified thoughts, 4. learning how to cooperate with different people! I think its interesting that the authors, Groseta and Myers, identify groups of 4 as ideal, but I suppose it makes sense. CDE teams are in groups of 4!
Constant monitoring is also important, not to mention keeping on topic and making sure groups are heterogeneous in terms of student levels. Here is how NOT to manage cooperative learning...

Finally... FIELD TRIPS! Who would have thought they had 3 parts?! Pre-trip, trip, and post-trip. Makes sense, especially with the concept of maximizing instructional time. I would have never thought that anxiety is such a concern on field trips? Maybe not ag field trips? It was an interesting claim but one that I will definitely consider as I attempt to plan some trips for practical student experience and out-of-classroom instructional time!

Lab 2 - Interest approaches!

The name has it right... this lab certainly was INTERESTING! Interest approaches are probably one of my favorite teaching tools and one of the most important to getting a lesson started strong and raising the bar for the students' learning experience for each day.
So for our interest approaches, which will not always be as elaborate or hands-on as the lab demos, we got to realize how they can spark interest and get us "set" for the lesson. For my interest approach, I kept to my wildlife unit and was continuing with the lesson for mammal identification. The interest approach was simple and can be very versatile - the students got to get their hands on some plaster molds of some common PA mammal tracks. They were asked to identify distinguishing characteristics of the track and then compare it to their neighbors' track. Then we tried to identify the mammals - a perfect way to lead into the objective of properly identifying 35 PA mammals using various distinctive traits.
Some of the difficulties with this lab were, again, classroom management - but I think I was able to get a handle on the students a little better by distracting Annette, sneakily taking Kate's phone, and addressing concerns with directions for the confused others. Also, to deal with sleepy students, we can get them super engaged in the interest approach by waking them up to a crazy/novel object or having them answer questions about it.
I definitely appreciated seeing some unique interest approaches and how my cohort-mates linked them to their lesson. I would have liked to see a bit more of the lesson content to see how it really could be tied in, but for time purposes, that would be difficult. However, I am excited to get into more lesson opportunities! I am just still struggling to believe that its already Thursday night and that we are coming to the 1/3 mark in the FINAL SEMESTER OF OUR COLLEGE CLASS EXPERIENCE! #crazy
Shout out to NATIONAL TEACH AG DAY!!! #taglive13 #hashtag

First teaching lab = First day of school

So in AEE 412 Lab on Wednesday, we had quite a variety of "first day of school" lessons. Personally, I really enjoyed seeing other people's introductory methods, classroom management expectations (and how they were shared), as well as how people handled classroom management issues.

For my intro lesson, we were entering (on our first day of school) the wildlife unit of a natural resources class. While this may not always happen on the first day of school, I was thankful for the chance to practice at least the interest approach of an ACTUAL unit I will be teaching in the spring!

So here's how it happened:
~everyone came in (shaking hands with the teacher) to the sound of some pump up music
~bell work (intro questions) was done individually
~students were asked to share their interest in the class
~we led into classroom management - expectations, procedures, and consequences
~given time, would have played our name game
~jumped into the "draw any wildlife" interest approach to the new unit

This was all wonderful practice for 1) teaching the unit in the spring, 2) planning out an engaging and memorable first (exciting) day of class, 3) learning how to manage student problems (i.e. Annette... see below).

I learned that, from the difficulties some of my "role playing" students gave me, I should always be prepared to address individual student needs/issues and I should know my students' backgrounds before getting in front of the class (I didn't look over the so wonderfully provided "role playing" chart, indicating the roles my "students" were playing). For example, Annette was asked to be the "likes to share" student and was very much open and talkative (something Todd later told me fits my personality well.. so you would think I would know how to handle it!) and somewhat distracting from the lesson. So, next time I will funnel her sharing energy to helping other students who may need it or being active in the lesson (i.e. my board writer) so she is more engaged and less able to distract the class.

Additionally, I was not that comfortable with my transitions, so I realized I should consider those a bit more when planning a lesson.

A general concept I learned is that WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER and my fellow student teachers had great ideas that I will definitely use in my planning :) Some ideas were - Emily's fill in the blank classroom management policy sheet with a contract/signature at the bottom! Great accountability for the students!!

Thanks guys!! Let's keep the ball moving and the wood pile growing! Excited for next week's lab!!

Weekly Writing #2! Objectives

So this week we got to read about writing objectives - something I needed a refresher in.
I got some good background back in the day with Dr. Ewing in AEE 100 but needed a little more content, especially since we going to be writing many objectives coming up soon!!!
While I had the chance to discuss some interesting concepts about objective writing with Dr. Foster as we drove up to Massachusetts for the Big E (see video below), I was more interested in the paired/new vocab in ag ed for Bloom's taxonomy terms.

First, let's reflect on Bloom's taxonomy... for my own sake. (new terms - easier to understand* level 2)
Bloom's taxonomy reflects levels of cognitive domain processing in the learning process.
1 (lowest level) = remembering
2 = understanding
3 = applying
4 = analyzing
5 = evaluating
6 = creating

NOW, the simplified version of Bloom's, as identifeid by Newcomb and Trefz wtih David Krathwohl:
1. remembering
2. processing
3. creating
4. evaluating

I find these to be simpler to understand, but interesting in that, they now are flipped with the new Blooms taxonomy... bringing evaluation as a higher-order cognitive power than creation. Something I hope to discuss in class sometime, as I cannot find much literature online about it! However, I did find this cool article on agricultural writing...

Regardless of differences in cognitive levels, LETS NOT FORGET THE 3 COMPONENTS of an OBJECTIVE!
1. Condition
2. Performance
3. Criteria!

In addition to Whittington's article, there was a reading from "Methods of Teaching Agriculture" that outlined objectives simply:
~what you want students to know
~help make decisions about sequence of instruction (knowledge/skill)

So there you have it, an outline of how I work best to plan things. Let's hope it sticks and more things come into play as we all jump into real life objective planning...

AEE 412 - first reading post!

Sometimes reading isn't that exciting, but as we are diving into the one semester that MATTERS THE MOST (not that the previous ones didn't matter) before student teaching and real-life teaching, some of these readings can be quite intriguing and beneficial!

Although I do not have the exciting book of "Methods of Teaching Agriculture" yet, I was able to read through the first section of "Strategies for Great Teaching" by Reardon and Derner, as well as paper on "Understanding by Design," a (semi-ancient) Ag Ed article (Garton, Torres) about Teacher Behavior, and the Wong article on being an effective teacher.

So what did I learn from these readings and how do they apply to the content in 412? Well, to be good ag teachers, we have to first be GOOD TEACHERS, right? Well not just GOOD, but EFFECTIVE. Wong hits on effective teaching as including:
1) positive expectations of students
2) good classroom management
3) knowing how to make student mastery lesson plans
4) works cooperatively and individually with students

Additionally, Wong points out the concept of an "Induction program" for student teaching - something that I would find very interesting when applied to the Ag Ed profession. What could we do to prepare ANY given teacher for that first day/week/year? An apprenticeship program would definitely work, and collaboration with other teachers before being in the classroom, but in Ag, we kind of have a different situation, especailly considering there are usually only one or two ag teachers at a school. Something to think about... Ag Ed Instructor Apprenticeship - has a nice ring to it.

So being an effective teacher also includes the concept of making sure there is actually LEARNING and UNDERSTANDING going on in your classroom, right? I like how White points this out consistently with the Understanding by Design model, something that Wong pointed out with the statement "the purpose of school is learning" - therefore we cannot just teach, we need to invoke learning.

This brought me back to the basics, with Bloom's taxonomy of learning - knowledge, comprehension, application, knowledge, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. We need to understand understanding before teaching something... makes sense right?

The White model of Understanding by Design closes this concept out with a good model for Learning GOALS and Teacher ROLES (roles in parenthesis)
1. Acquire (direct instruction)
2. Construct meaning (facilitative teaching)
3. Transfer (coaching)

Ag teachers have a big and already identified role in "coaching" and even more opportunity to do so with the 3-circle model of ag ed. Shouldn't that give us a foot up in the game?

Well then we get into E-moments. The in-class, bring-it-all-together activities that invoke understanding and create a positive learning environment. I am excited to learn more about these "engaging moments" and how we can specifically apply them in the ag classroom!!

Good readings, let's keep at it - reading develops competency and growth... not to mention UNDERSTANDING of how to help our students UNDERSTAND!!

El fin... the end.

So it may be the end of my international experience, but there will never be an end to the relationships, memories, and growth that I have experienced this summer at EARTH University in Costa Rica.

Here I am, home again, after arriving at 1:30 AM yesterday morning (mom picked me up at the Dulles airport since my State College flight was canceled) and relaxing yesterday (during my 22nd birthday!).

And today? The FIRST DAY of my LAST SEMESTER at UNIVERSITY PARK. Crazy. But before I start to discuss the complex thought processes of this aspect of my life, let's reflect on my amazing summer.

If you've been following along, you may have noticed that my summer has involved a beautiful array of opportunities, people, and blessings, as I was studying abroad at EARTH University. 4 months and 4,000 miles away from home, I've learned to be challenged, grow, and seek God in new ways.

Reflecting on my travel journal, I identified several goals early on in the summer:
1) Increase fluency in Spanish with an emphasis on agriculture topics
2) Make friends from around the world and keep in touch with them
3) Be challenged/pushed outside my comfort zone with things I do not know or have complete control over
4) To enjoy the opportunity to be in CR again, to see my families here, and see more of the country
5) Develop an understanding of what I desire to do, career-wise
6) Continue to build global competency

Now to reflect on the major aspects of this experience, which I believe reflect meeting the goals above:

• Spanish - coming in from sort of "proficient" to leaving with almost "perfect" (according to native speaking sources). 
• Academic challenge - courses were not as intensive academically, but I was given enough challenges with Spanish use and practical applications. 
• Career interests - narrowing in, emphasized in international/cultural immersion with agricultural development
• Practical experiences - machete + planting/managing 36 M2 forage plot. Enough said.
• Travel - from the gorgeous Pacific coast (north and southern side of the country) to the Panama border - with the opportunity to drive in another country! 
• Family - from visiting my Turrialba families 3 times to spending almost every day with my international EARTH Christ community family, I would say this was the most successful aspect of my experience. 

Me and my forages plot! It isn't that pretty, but I was still proud.

So how can I conclude this incredible, life-changing experience? Well I don’t think I can ever conclude the friendships made, but I will leave you with some interesting numbers to ponder:

• 17 weeks away from home (or 4 months)
• 29 hours a week of classes and work experience
• 36 square meters of forages to plant and maintain
• 14 cockroaches killed in my dorm room
• 10 hand blisters
• 1 parrot bite, 1 unknown rash, 1 bamboo splinter rash, 1 case of cold/bronchitis
• 3 weekend trips to my Turrialba home
• 2 weekend trips to the other side of the country (Guanacaste)
• 1 semi-complicated trip to the Panama border
• 2 overnight camping trips
• 10 visits to our rural agricultural community (El Triunfo)
• 900 photos on my PHONE... 
• 3,900 camera photos :)
• Countless mosquito bites and never-heard-of-before tropical fruits
• Numerous friendships
• A lifetime of memories

If I were to select one thing that has benefited me the most, it would definitely have to be the realization of how God can bless us with community wherever we are - we just need to find His love in it and invest in relationships. That may just be my "extrovert" talking, but I know that these friendships have made my time the most memorable ever - and have made me realize that we are to experience God's love and blessings in PEOPLE wherever we are. The meaning of this life is to bring Him glory by loving PEOPLE with His love - it's not about the grades we get or the job we have or the places we've been or the languages we learn. It's about using all of those things to relate to God's children - love them, fellowship with them, learn from them, praise with them.

Some of my beautiful friends; Thiago, Timothy, Gaby, and Uziel to wish me off at the airport!

So now what? Well, after surviving this coming semester of intensive student teacher preparations, I plan to continue with my passion for traveling and seeing people, as I will be going back to Costa Rica in the spring for part of my student teaching experience in a technical agriculture high school there! So I get to see my EARTH family again, God-willing!! And after that? Seeking more opportunities for travel, being immersed in agriculture, pursing work in education or agricultural development, and God knows what!

I have a beautiful and blessed community here, but God has proven faithfulness in whatever situation we are moved in, as long as we are willing to love in those situations. I am glad to be home, but excited for the next time God calls me to an incredible international experience. After all, who says you cannot have roots and wings? "Let us be rooted in the love of Christ where we are yet willing to fly with Him where He desires to take us." 

Mi familia - friend profiles

There are many things that I will remember from this experience, but one of the most important is definitely the people. I am an extrovert, meaning I like being in groups of people, but more importantly, I just enjoy experiencing other lives (no matter how few or many).
One of my favorite parts about EARTH is the diversity (33 countries represented in the student body from Africa and all the Americas) - diversity not only of nationalities, but interests, personalities, and languages.

What better way to show diversity than to introduce you to a few of my close friends. I wish I could present you to all of them (friends, do not be offended that I am not including all of you) but the post would be too long and I would probably bore you with my love for them.

North American representative - Gaby
What a beautiful woman of Christ this friend has been - I met her first in the christian group that I attend here (JOCREER - I will refer to it often, as all of these friends are involved) and then was randomly (AKA divinely) paired with her for our community experience class. From our first long hike through the campus forest reserve to our talks about Jesus and boys, I have come to appreciate our friendship and will cherish it, no matter over how many countries it spans.

What a lovely lady. 

Where from: Mexico, Mexico
Year/age: 2nd year student, 20 years
Favorite hobbies: Badminton, hang out with friends
Why are you here/why did you want to come to EARTH: I initially wanted to study food processing, then realized that studying agriculture/agronomy would be beneficial to understand the entire food processing chain. I started at my state university in agronomy, but then heard about EARTH and applied.
What is your favorite part about EARTH: I love that, in such a small place, we can learn so much about so many cultures and people.
Best experience thus far: Coming to know Christ while I have been here.

Central American rep - Vanesa
Vanesa is a different case than the rest, but one that I nonetheless need to share. She is the only other student here this summer (semester) studying abroad. She is from Guatemala (but her parents are from China), and her home university is UBC (University of British Columbia). Her undergrad program is Global Resource Systems with a focus on Sustainable Agriculture. For the program, she must select a region of the world to study abroad at for 2 semesters... and considering she is FROM central America, she felt called to focus on the Latin America region and decided to come to EARTH. She is now finishing her second semester here (she was here last fall as well) and will be heading back to Canada soon to finish her last year. Vanesa has taught me a lot about dedication - she is dedicated to all that she does: friends, school work, being a light to others... She has also helped me realize the importance of education (see earlier blog post). I am glad we have become friends while she has been here. She is certainly a light to those around her and a motivational sister in Christ.

From a walk we went on early in the summer - we found a swing set :)

Where from: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Year/age: 3rd year @ UBC, 22 years
Favorite hobbies: Soccer, hanging out with friends
Why are you here/why did you want to come to EARTH: I really love the vision of EARTH - the systems of hands-on learning. I also wanted to be part of what EARTH students are known for as"agents of change" - it pairs well with my personal life vision. Latin America, of course, is another reason, because of the people. Its very similar in the countries and I love the people.
What is your favorite part about EARTH: Knowing people here, their stories and lives, is wonderful. I have really appreciated the relationships and friendships I have made here. All of the people are just fantastic.
Best experience thus far: We were working on a project until 1 or 2 AM on my birthday and some of these amazing people came and surprised me... then we danced to a hilarious Brazilian song. Then, when I thought the day was over (the following evening), I was caked in the face... which was then followed by a cake fight. I love these people and the experiences they've brought.

South American rep - Thiago
"Oh Thiago" is usually how people address this crazy kid. Although I didn't know him well before he left in the 1st week of classes for his 7-week term at La Flor, I got to know him real well the weekend I went to Guanacaste (see earlier blog post) and of course now that he is back here and a regular in our group of friends. Thiago is like the younger brother I never had to pick on. We share the "bularse" (teasing/bothering) and often result to semi-physical manners of communication (he messes with my hair, I bit his hand, etc.). He may be forgetful with things, but isn't forgetful in loving his friends. I am thankful for his patient heart, as we constantly tease him, and his willingness to approach someone if they look like they are having a bad day and do something stupid or crazy to make them laugh. This Brazilian will certainly be one I will miss (to pick on).

With his medal - his team won the campus indoor soccer championship! 2 years in a row :)

Where from: Ceará, Brazil
Year/age: 3rd year, 23 years
Favorite hobbies: Soccer (Thiago is said to be the best goalie on campus), hang out with friends
Why are you here/why did you want to come to EARTH: I have always had an interest in agronomy and agriculture. I assisted a technical agriculture high school and then worked at a banana plantation for a year and a half before applying to EARTH.
What is your favorite part about EARTH: I love that I have learned a lot about culture, language, and people... and that I will have these friends for my entire life.
Best experience thus far: Just being involved with the christian group (JOCREER) and meetings has been one of the best things - when we leave our meetings and just hang out in the student commons area, fellow-shipping and talking, I really enjoy it.

African rep - Timothy
Timothy is one of those people that simply exudes the love of Christ for those around him. As Gaby once said, when he smiles, it's like he is smiling with his whole face, and you can't help but catch whatever joy is on his heart. His genuine friendship is felt by many many people on this campus and I know God has a plan for him and his spiritual leadership here. I find his strength to be inspiring as well - for him and almost all of the 50-something African students here at EARTH - as they do not get to go home to be with their families for the entire 4 years here. Furthermore, due to some visa problems, Timothy was not able to come to CR a few months earlier (as the African students usually do) to learn Spanish before starting classes in their first year, so he arrived 1 day before classes started, not knowing any of the language. It is definitely by his persistence and passion for being here that he got through to be a wonderful communicator in Spanish today (not to mention in English, his native tongue, and another Nigerian common language). Timothy gets to do his "pasantia" internship this fall in Florida, working with the University of Florida, so he will get to come and experience the U.S. (and all its diverse, unhealthy food) soon enough!

Taking a few professional shots at the Panama border - note bridge in background :)

Where from: Oyo, Nigeria
Year/age: 3rd year, 26 years
Favorite hobbies: Soccer, listen to music and sing, hang out with friends
Why are you here/why did you want to come to EARTH: I have a strong interest in agriculture and I feel that God's calling in my life includes agriculture, so I want to learn as much as I can to be prepared to fulfill that calling. I had previously studied in a technical agricultural high school and was studying agronomy for a year at a local university before applying.
What is your favorite part about EARTH: I love the multi-cultural aspect of EARTH, that we are like a mini-globe with many people and cultures. I also really appreciate the hands-on approach to the university's academic model.
Best experience thus far: Being a part of the christian community here (JOCREER) has been extremely beneficial to my spiritual growth - I do not know where I would be today in my faith without it.


I hope you enjoyed meeting some of the many wonderful friends I have made here. I will say it over and over - God has been outstandingly faithful in blessing me with a community here... one that I feel I belong to and one that I believe won't end when I leave in 9 days.

I love these people! Learn to love those who are around you and you will have the best time of your life. 

No puede ser...

No puede ser = it cannot be.
AKA - WHAT?! I leave the country in 18 days?! That doesn't make sense. It seems too short. There seems to be too much to do, too many people to see and bond with, too many memories to have to leave behind.
Okay, let's not get started on the sentimental stage just yet, I think I can hold it together for a bit longer. But praise the Lord for what He has blessed me with this summer and what He has been doing here on this campus. I especially sing His praises for this past weekend of fellowship and for the peace He has given me right now as the end of semester projects and assignments come - I am not worried at all!

"Nevertheless I am continually with You, You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards You will receive me into glory." Psalm 73:23-24

So other than God being amazing and faithful, I have been doing pretty well. 2 weeks ago I had to take a trip to Panama to renew my temporary visa/passport stamp. So, along with some friends and another Thrifty rental car, we headed to the border. We did not really anticipate the complicated and slightly convoluted system that I had to go through to get "stamped" into and out of Panama in order to be "restamped" in Costa Rica, but with much patience from my friends and a few hours over the border, I became legal again in Costa Rica (I wasn't previously, but my visa would have expired the following day). 

A few photos of the verrrryy sketchy bridge to cross the border

Bienvenidos = "welcome." I wouldn't say we were 100% welcomed by migration, but all went well

Stopped at Cauhita beach/park for a little break on the way back from the border

So after that fun time in Panama, I have been catching up on projects and assignments, as well as preparing to come back to Penn State this fall and dive into PSU Ag Ed student teaching preparation!! 

This past week, we had two days off class, on account of the Ecoromeria that the University participates in. The Romeria is the national event in Costa Rica where Ticos make a pilgrimage (on foot) to the city of Cartago, where the Basilica of our Lady of the Angels is located. There is a story of how God used the appearance of a small stone figure of the Virgin Mary to declare this location as sacred, so Ticos are faithful to the Virgin and travel from all parts of the country to come to the Basilica on August 2nd. EARTH has started participating in this event by placing recycling sorters all along the major routes so that those carrying waste can easily sort and recycle rather than just throw away bottles/trash/etc. Students are obligated to participate in a turn of the "Ecoromeria" which is from 4-6 hours. While I was not obligated to participate, I did visit San Jose during the crazy event and helped at the central office as students were coming and going. 

I also was found at this central office late Thursday night to pick up some friends and take them to Guanacaste for a relaxing weekend. We got lost a few times in San Jose on Thursday night, finding our way to the house of an employee in the international relations office at EARTH and then lost a bit on Friday morning as we left for the Pacific coast, but didn't have problems asking people to guide us out of the city. Ticos are very friendly :) 

From left to right: Me, Gaby, Uziel, Timothy, Fernanda, Thiago.
What a team... and no, there are not 6 people in the 5 seated car. 

Ready to go in our Thrifty car (I am a regular with them)

A view of the La Flor entrance drive - pretty different from the campus drive here

Friday we arrived in Liberia (the town I visited last month) to pick up a friend who is doing his time at La Flor campus. We visited the campus again, had a dip in the pool (see photos), and headed to the beaches of Guanacaste (said to be the most beautiful in the country). 

The best capture of the weekend... planned ahead of time, executed perfectly.
Everyone enjoyed it, even though Thiago was a bit angry at first ;) 

While I didn't take many photos this weekend, it was a trip to remember. We arrived at the beaches Friday evening and, with the generosity of another friend in the area, left our stuff in a nearby house and camped on the sands of Cuenca beach. We even had a lovely campfire on the beach - my first time camping on the beach may have been a little uncomfortable sleeping wise, but the morning view was priceless. There were a few whales out in the bay!!! Then on Saturday we went to another beach for the afternoon, got rained on, I cut my foot and hand on some coral reef (arrecife in Spanish) but got to swim with fishes and enjoy the gorgeous aqua colors of the pacific. 

Saturday night brought some home-cooked food at the house we were at. I am proud to say that I prepared most of the meal while the others were napping - marinated the beef and fish for the grill (Uziel and Fernanda grilled), made a fresh vegetable salad complete with homemade lemon/oil dressing, and cut the cheese and bread. Okay so maybe there wasn't that much to do, but it was still fun to have some time preparing food and enjoying it family-style.

Sunday morning we got up early and, thank goodness, did not get lost in San Jose passing back through. With a stop for some Pizza Hut pizza and to pick up a birthday cake, we headed back to campus. Yesterday was Isahi's birthday, so we surprised him at midnight (Sunday/Monday) with this lovely cake. Again, I am reminded how much I am going to miss this EARTH family... what good memories they have brought. I feel so blessed!! Okay friends, keep in touch. We will talk soon. And if you are back in the states, patiently waiting my return, we will see each other soon (or, in Spanish, nos vemos pronto)!!! Con amor, Allison.

What love we have for him...

I started it... I think I put it on Thiago's face.. then he took revenge on everyone within reach.

The icing dye was a bit strong...