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.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Small Gas Engines
This week I there has so much going on and I have been learning all week. But one specific class I feel has progressed me the most. My small gasoline engines class.
To give a little bit of background, this class is a class of sophomore-senior boys and it takes place during the last period of the day. This class is focused primarily on teaching (you guessed it) small gas engine maintenance and repair. The first few weeks of this class have been focused on preparing the students to tear down their engines and rebuild them all while diagnosing and repairing anything that might be wrong with the engine.
This particular group of students is very talkative. During my time I have been trying to come up with ways to reduce how much they talk in the class so that I can be sure they are grasping the material.
Then I started listening to what they are talking about.
During every class, regardless of what we are discussing, I started to really listen to what they are talking about. After doing this, I began to realize that they aren't talking about anything they feel like. They are specifically talking about engines and what I am trying to teach in class.
After I began to realize this, I would listen much more closely to what they are saying and occasionally I will bring it up to the class and have them explain it to the class.
My major take away from this week: Not all talking is a bad thing, a perfectly silent class could very well be a sign that the students don't understand what we are trying to teach them. When the students are talking about the subject, it is easier to find out what they understand and what might need to be revisited.
I am looking forward to listening more closely to some of my other classes and using this to decide what and how I teach.
To give a little bit of background, this class is a class of sophomore-senior boys and it takes place during the last period of the day. This class is focused primarily on teaching (you guessed it) small gas engine maintenance and repair. The first few weeks of this class have been focused on preparing the students to tear down their engines and rebuild them all while diagnosing and repairing anything that might be wrong with the engine.
This particular group of students is very talkative. During my time I have been trying to come up with ways to reduce how much they talk in the class so that I can be sure they are grasping the material.
Then I started listening to what they are talking about.
During every class, regardless of what we are discussing, I started to really listen to what they are talking about. After doing this, I began to realize that they aren't talking about anything they feel like. They are specifically talking about engines and what I am trying to teach in class.
After I began to realize this, I would listen much more closely to what they are saying and occasionally I will bring it up to the class and have them explain it to the class.
My major take away from this week: Not all talking is a bad thing, a perfectly silent class could very well be a sign that the students don't understand what we are trying to teach them. When the students are talking about the subject, it is easier to find out what they understand and what might need to be revisited.
I am looking forward to listening more closely to some of my other classes and using this to decide what and how I teach.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm in the classroom is something I have never really been great at...
Typically whenever I teach lessons, I will wander around the room and not laugh or joke or anything just continue teaching until the bell. Last week I made my first noticeable improvement in my enthusiasm.
In my Small Gasoline Engines class, We had just finished going over the different tools we use and I was starting a lesson on the four strokes of an engine. It started off a little bit slow with the students not really wanting to answer my questions.
Then something clicked, I needed to do something differently. By the end of the lesson I was running around the room getting students up and out of their chairs extremely excited writing on the board. while I was explaining the movement of fuel and air in the combustion chamber. At one point when I got a question answered by the entire class all at once, I threw my arms into the air and shouted "YES! GREAT!" and continued explaining why the valves on an engine had to be closed during the compression and combustion stroke.
As I said, Enthusiasm has never been my strongest teaching characteristic, but ever since then I have noticed myself acting more like this in other classes also (most notably my 1st period small animal science class, they are always still asleep.)
Every day that I teach I notice myself improving little by little.
Typically whenever I teach lessons, I will wander around the room and not laugh or joke or anything just continue teaching until the bell. Last week I made my first noticeable improvement in my enthusiasm.
In my Small Gasoline Engines class, We had just finished going over the different tools we use and I was starting a lesson on the four strokes of an engine. It started off a little bit slow with the students not really wanting to answer my questions.
As I said, Enthusiasm has never been my strongest teaching characteristic, but ever since then I have noticed myself acting more like this in other classes also (most notably my 1st period small animal science class, they are always still asleep.)
Every day that I teach I notice myself improving little by little.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Agricultural Science and Technology- Welding
This was my first week of teaching classes at West Perry High School. As nervous as I was a really shouldn't have been. I spent all this time, almost a year preparing for this moment and the next 4 months. The students walked into the classroom, and... everything went amazing.
My first week of teaching ended up being Way better than I every thought it would have been. I learned the names of most of my students in less than a week. I was well prepared for my lessons, and ended up having a much better delivery than I ever have in my "practice" lessons. Once those students sat down and understood that I was their teacher, all of my nervousness disappeared.
On the second day, I decided I wanted to try a lesson all of my own; not one that I observed from Mrs. Miller or that I took from any of the archives that I have access to. No, a lesson of my own. Specifically, a lesson to help the students understand welding electrodes.
I started the lesson off with a grand total of TWO PowerPoint slides on electrodes. From this point I demonstrated to the students how to use an electrode and finally I broke the students up into groups of 4 and passed out 4 different types of electrodes to each group. The students had the opportunity to get their hands on the electrodes and see how they were made, get a feel for what they were supposed to do. Then, once they had a chance to observe the differences in the electrodes, the students were given a worksheet. They needed to look at the numbers on the electrodes and write down what these numbers meant (all this information was discussed in the 2 slides).
As the students were working, I walked around to each group seeing what they were writing and how they were doing. The students were enjoying being able to actually get to have their hands on the electrodes and practice what they had been learning. At one point. I heard several students saying that this was a great way to start the welding unit off.
Overall, I my first week for all 3 classes went very similar. The students seemed to really enjoy the activities I did with them and learned a lot in the process. I cannot wait to see how next week goes!
My first week of teaching ended up being Way better than I every thought it would have been. I learned the names of most of my students in less than a week. I was well prepared for my lessons, and ended up having a much better delivery than I ever have in my "practice" lessons. Once those students sat down and understood that I was their teacher, all of my nervousness disappeared.
On the second day, I decided I wanted to try a lesson all of my own; not one that I observed from Mrs. Miller or that I took from any of the archives that I have access to. No, a lesson of my own. Specifically, a lesson to help the students understand welding electrodes.
I started the lesson off with a grand total of TWO PowerPoint slides on electrodes. From this point I demonstrated to the students how to use an electrode and finally I broke the students up into groups of 4 and passed out 4 different types of electrodes to each group. The students had the opportunity to get their hands on the electrodes and see how they were made, get a feel for what they were supposed to do. Then, once they had a chance to observe the differences in the electrodes, the students were given a worksheet. They needed to look at the numbers on the electrodes and write down what these numbers meant (all this information was discussed in the 2 slides).
As the students were working, I walked around to each group seeing what they were writing and how they were doing. The students were enjoying being able to actually get to have their hands on the electrodes and practice what they had been learning. At one point. I heard several students saying that this was a great way to start the welding unit off.
Overall, I my first week for all 3 classes went very similar. The students seemed to really enjoy the activities I did with them and learned a lot in the process. I cannot wait to see how next week goes!
Sunday, January 17, 2016
First Week
This week was a very slow week for me here at West Perry, I spent the majority of my time in the classroom observing or in the office getting everything ready for next week.
While I was in the classroom I was observing all of the classes that I will have over the next few weeks. I was also trying to learn names of more of the students that I will have. A few different times I got to help out with a lesson or a class, but most of the time I was just observing.
This week made everything real for me though. I got my own set of keys, and a "Faculty and Staff Frequent Buyers card" from the cafeteria. This made everything real to me finally.
Over the next few weeks I will be gaining my first experience as "Mr. Holt, Agriculture teacher" I will have the opportunity to develop and find my identity as a teacher.
It kind of makes me nervous, but also excited to see what the future has in store for me.
While I was in the classroom I was observing all of the classes that I will have over the next few weeks. I was also trying to learn names of more of the students that I will have. A few different times I got to help out with a lesson or a class, but most of the time I was just observing.
Over the next few weeks I will be gaining my first experience as "Mr. Holt, Agriculture teacher" I will have the opportunity to develop and find my identity as a teacher.
It kind of makes me nervous, but also excited to see what the future has in store for me.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Science Classroom Visit
Today I had the opportunity to visit another science classroom at West Perry High school, before I begin my student teaching. The classroom I visited was a 4th period Biology class.
This visit was a little bit different than other visits I made. This classroom was chosen specifically because this teacher works with the students who need extra help to understand the material they are being taught. Although I did not get the opportunity to visit one of her classes where she has 100% IEP students, I could clearly see that the students she was working with needed extra help.
The objective of the lesson today was to focus on introducing the students to the process of mitosis. During the class, the students were very interested in learning to me it didn't seem like the teacher was even pushing the students to be interested,
The way this teacher was working with the students was that she started with a "Q&A" which is basically a longer version of a bell work to get the students to focus on learning. This worked very well with this particular group of students. At no point during this class was the teacher "giving" the students answers to the questions she asked though, she would push the students to find the right answers on their own.
There was a few comments I wrote down, this is the teachers first year back in a high school, since she moved to the middle school 10 years ago. One comment I specifically heard from a student was that she "hates school" but "loves this class" I thought that really showed the character of the teacher, her students enjoy her class so much that it is the reason they even come to school.
This teacher really relied on floating around the room to keep the students on track, but she really managed to keep their interest most of the time. she would keep going back to information that they already learned and connect it for the students so that they would keep interest. In order to make sure the students knew what she was expecting, she would ask questions throughout the presentation.
Overall I thought this was a really good class for me to visit, getting experience with students from a "low level" classroom was really the best use of my time here, as the majority of my experience is with the "high achieving" students in other science classes.
This visit was a little bit different than other visits I made. This classroom was chosen specifically because this teacher works with the students who need extra help to understand the material they are being taught. Although I did not get the opportunity to visit one of her classes where she has 100% IEP students, I could clearly see that the students she was working with needed extra help.
The objective of the lesson today was to focus on introducing the students to the process of mitosis. During the class, the students were very interested in learning to me it didn't seem like the teacher was even pushing the students to be interested,
The way this teacher was working with the students was that she started with a "Q&A" which is basically a longer version of a bell work to get the students to focus on learning. This worked very well with this particular group of students. At no point during this class was the teacher "giving" the students answers to the questions she asked though, she would push the students to find the right answers on their own.
There was a few comments I wrote down, this is the teachers first year back in a high school, since she moved to the middle school 10 years ago. One comment I specifically heard from a student was that she "hates school" but "loves this class" I thought that really showed the character of the teacher, her students enjoy her class so much that it is the reason they even come to school.
This teacher really relied on floating around the room to keep the students on track, but she really managed to keep their interest most of the time. she would keep going back to information that they already learned and connect it for the students so that they would keep interest. In order to make sure the students knew what she was expecting, she would ask questions throughout the presentation.
Overall I thought this was a really good class for me to visit, getting experience with students from a "low level" classroom was really the best use of my time here, as the majority of my experience is with the "high achieving" students in other science classes.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Mid-Winter Convention
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Mid-Winter Convention:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel with West Perry High School to the Pennsylvania Mid-Winter convention at the Farm show complex. We brought 51 students along with us on the day trip. Several students were competing in the Ag Issues Career Development Event where they placed second out of 6 teams.
As this was only my third time at the farm show in my life, naturally I was still in awe of all the vendors in the complex. Let alone I was also trying to fill the role of a teacher for the first time.
This trip was my second real experience as a teacher at West Perry. The first being National Convention in Louisville. This was my first experience working to manage a large group of 50 students all at one time.
What did I take from this trip? Sometimes organized chaos is the best option. Once we got to the complex, the students had to be in groups of at least 3, but other than that they were free to roam the complex as they wanted. The only exception was that we all had to meet at the large arena to group back up and watch the convention.
Overall this was a great trip and a great way to get me used to have the responsibilities and disposition of an Ag teacher. The biggest challenge was getting the students back on the bus after the convention was over.
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