Banquet

This week we had the annual FFA banquet here at West Perry High School. After months of planning and a week of preparation, the banquet was set to go off at 6:30. This was the first year the West Perry had a banquet on a Friday, usually they are on Thursday.

The planning process for banquet took much longer than I ever expected. After going through the script dozens of times, Mrs. Miller and the students were finally happy and had everything worked out down to the last detail. Another area that took longer was the slideshow, between getting it prepared, checking it over, and re-checking it. it was finally finished.

Friday night was the big night, everything went off without any issues (other than the ice cream being too frozen to scoop). we started in the cafeteria for supper, then everyone moved to the auditorium for the actual ceremonies. at one point, my students surprised me by calling me up on stage to receive the Honorary Chapter Degree, I couldn't have been happier.

This entire process that we have gone through to make banquet the best that it could have possibly been has taught me so much. Planning is going to be key when it comes to events like this one. If the students and teachers had not been working since February, there is no way that the banquet could have turned out as well as it did.

One thing about this banquet does make me a little bit sad though, this will be my last major event that I plan and participate in with West Perry's Agriculture department. next Friday is my last day with them. these last four months have flown by and I have learned so much from them.

Bull Reproduction Dissection

This week for my Large Animal Science class, in order to review the parts of a bull reproductive system, we dissected a bull reproductive system.

After several weeks, dozens of phone calls to local butchers, a few rounds of phone tag, and a request to a student later, I finally got my hands on an intact bull reproductive system. The purpose of the demonstration was to show the students what a real reproductive system looks like, as well as review the different parts and their functions.

To start, I had the system spread out on the table to kept it covered so the students had no idea what we were doing for class. The bellwork of the day was: What are "Rocky Mountain Oysters"? The majority of the class had no idea, but to try and get the students thinking a little bit, I asked who knew and said not to shout out the answer. Once I found out who knew, I had the students who didn't know take a few guesses. I got answers like "Oysters that live in the mountains" and others that were similar. Finally, after several students couldn't stop themselves from laughing, I let them answer the question: Friend bull testicles".

Once I got that answer I picked up my enthusiasm and got excited and asked the students, " Why on earth would I be asking you about food in a reproduction unit!" which some of the students knew right away, that we were going to be dissecting them.

The class went over extremely well, with the dissection (after some serious confusion) we finally identified all of the parts we could find, and began to dissect the testicle.

The students really enjoyed this demonstration overall. I ended the class by having the students trace the path of the sperm cells starting from where they are produced in the testicles to the complete end of the system.


This demonstration showed me a few things, first no matter what happens, if there is something I feel is important for the students to know and get experience with, I need to keep trying. In this case it was getting my hands on a bull reproductive system. the second thing it has taught me is just because I taught my students the theory behind bull reproduction, does NOT mean that they will be able to identify the real thing when the time comes. It took  a lot of prodding and guiding to help the students understand what exactly they were looking at.

Timing

This past week has been another great week on my path to becoming an agriculture teacher! But like every week there is always something that I need to work to improve.

This week, I have found an area where I really need to improve on to maximize the lessons I teach each day, my timing for ending a lesson.

This week there have been several points where my timing for the end of the class has not been even close to being correct. I have been trying to teach new material right up to the bell. I know this is a problem because I have not given my students the chance to review for the day and when I am working in the shop there is no time to clean up. This has been causing a little bit of stress for my students as well as me.

The students have to rush to get their materials and safety glasses put away then run to their next class, while I end up having to clean up.

This week my goal is going to be to take the last 5 minutes of class to review what we did for the day and the objective in each one of my classes. (I did much better towards the beginning of the semester, this issue is one that has just recently started to arise).

In order to do this though, I need to get into the habit of checking the time and deciding on a good place to stop each lesson. I have found this list of 40 ways to end a lesson to give me ideas to help end my daily lessons so that I am not just asking questions about each objective all of the time.

A good lesson does not just teach new material, It also ends with review to ensure the students are understanding the lesson.