Real Life. Real Students. Real Teaching.

Week 3 of my internship seems to have flown by, but probably because it was the first week of my actual teaching experience. It's hard to believe that I will be flying to Costa Rica in just 4 weeks to mark the halfway point of my last semester at PSU!!! I knew it would go fast, but I guess when you really are enjoying it, it disappears before you know it!

Wellsboro has been treating me well, I have been inducted with my first snow day this week due to a 12 inch dumping of snow in less than 12 hours... But I guess we should start from that first day.

Monday was, teaching-wise, a great day. As I took over all classes this week (new marking period), I am now teaching: Animal Science 1, Animal Science 2, Natural Resource Management, Intro to Ag Sciences, and FFA/Leadership (an every other day class).

Monday brought some difficulties as well... I found out that one of my students (in the small An Sc 2 class of just 6 students) was in a serious accident over the weekend. She was life-flighted and is still in an induced coma due to brain swelling, but seems to be doing better, thanks to prayers and support. Her story was published by various news stations, so I thought I would share this awesome fundraising site one of her friends made for her medical expenses. I have learned a lot, just within my first day of teaching, about what it means to be a TEACHER - someone who KNOWS their students - rather than just someone who teaches. My cooperating teacher was revealing the ability to work with other students who were struggling with the situation - a level of sensitivity not usually seen in a classroom. I was humbled and pushed to think deeply about the experience and how wide our responsibilities stretch as agricultural educators.

Other than great life lessons, my actual teaching lessons seemed to have been going as planned, but I am still adjusting to proper timing for activities in these frustratingly short 42 minute periods... sometimes I go too long, then I overestimate time because I went too long and finish a minute or two early. But I am growing each day, so we should be pretty timely within a week or so!

This week included a spectrum of activities for my classes - from lectures about the nutrient groups (carbs, lipids, proteins, etc.) in An Sc 1 to a calorie lab where they burned food to measure its energy and from a CASE lab on testing soil pH to PA mammal ID stations for the NRM class (see photos), we had a little bit of everything this week.

Tracks and Wildlife Notes for the student-centered mammal ID lesson

The coyote station was pretty decked out

I love these vintage wildlife ID posters from PGC - they've been around for years but aren't being distributed anymore :(

I definitely learned that, along with the story above, knowing your students is key to a successful experience (let alone effective classroom management). When you know that a student, for example, is proficient in chemistry, you can call on them to answer a question you ask to the whole class about a chemical reaction. When you know a student is unashamed to share their knowledge, it helps keep the class moving. I also can see that rapport truly does improve student motivation... thus knowing them allows them to do better!

Another major learning opportunity this week was to reflect on my philosophy of homework and out of class assignments. While my cooperating teacher does give homework occasionally, the students aren't really used to it. I have designed a bit of homework within my units (not too much, but a bit more than they are used to). While several upper-level students are used to this load, the diverse array of learners in an ag classroom poses a true challenge of homework and assignment expectations. I am still pondering how to overcome this struggle and, with the help of some of the other science teachers in the school, am gaining perspective on different homework philosophies.

It has been a great week! I learned that preparation is always necessary, especially when we did that calorie lab that I had not performed prior to having them do it (thus I planned for an inappropriate time allotment) - so DO LABS YOURSELF before you have the students do it!

I am excited for more struggles and growth opportunities, and, even more, I am excited to continue to get to know my students over the next 4 weeks! It will go fast, I can definitely tell...  

So, to close out this blog of first week of teaching (for real), I will include some images from my first snow day (Wednesday). I was able to shovel the driveway, catch up on some work, make some carrot cake cupcakes, and finish my photography website!!!

Fred in a foot of snow... 

Happy Fred after an hour of shoveling :)

I never thought of carrot cake batter as appealing...

But they sure tasted yummy :)

May you have a blessed week and remember to enjoy every moment you have and live for every opportunity you're given.

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God; which is why we call it the present." ~Bill Keane