Week 10: Student Teaching

Oh no!  We have hit week 10, that means that this is slowly coming to an end :(  I don't really want this to end.  I absolutely love my school and my students and really wish I didn't have to leave them.  I am surprised how connected and attached to these students I have become in such a short amount of time.  Most of my students have started to realize that it will soon be time for me to say my goodbyes and they ask all the time if I actually have to go; when we still have 6 weeks together.  I try to not think about it because  I know we each have to move on from this experience and find our place where we fit in the puzzle of ag ed, so I am going to make sure that we have a ball together in the last few weeks of it!

One of the last meetings I will get to be a part of :( 

Now that the I had to be all sad and sappy, I need to talk about how this week went.  This week was filled with lots of hands on learning.  The students in building construction have advanced from their wiring boxes to wiring walls.  The students thought that wiring was pretty complicated when they had to complete the circuits on their boxes but now that we have made out way to the walls, they are telling me that it is a lot easier.  They have been flying through wiring all of the duplexes and lamps together and all they have to do now is to connect it to the breaker box and test! 

Working on our walls!! 

We also had a guest speaker come into the class this week to talk about masonry.  I was able to step back for a block and let him teach them whatever he wanted about the careers and what you do as a mason, to my surprise he actually brought mortar and block for the students to actually try laying block.  They instantly thought "Oh that easy" as they watched him smear some on a block but as they started to do it themselves, realized that it is not easy at all.  This was great because some of the students realized that this is not easy but also that it was kind of fun.  It was a nice break from their electricity projects and still had a great hands on application for them.

Micro lesson on masonry.  

The Ag Foundations classes have been digging deep into the plant science unit and this week we learned about germination, pollination and propagation.  We did a really fun activity to learn about pollination where student snacked on cheese balls through out the class the only rule was that they COULD NOT wipe off or lick their fingers.  Later in the lesson I had groups of kids be each kind of pollination: wind, water, animals, insects.  So the wind group could only remove the pollen (cheese ball dust) from their anthers (fingers) by blowing on their finger tips like wind blows pollen around.  The water group dangled their fingers in cups of water, the animal group quickly brushed their fingers across a paper towel like a bird quickly brushing by a flower, and finally the insect group were rubbing their fingers on a fluffy bath towel just like a bee covered in hair rubs against the anthers.  The kids loved this activity 1. Because they got to eat and 2. it really helped them to visualize and understand how each type of pollination works.

Going on location for class today; to the greenhouse! 

The freshman also finally got to get out of the classroom this week as we went to the greenhouse for our propagation lesson.  They each were able to get their hands in the soil and cut up different plants like potatoes, petunias and garlic.  All of the students really liked this but there were a few that this really sparked their interest in plants.  They found it so cool and amazing that you can get a plant from cutting the parent plant up and sticking it in soil.  Being in a new environment however meant that I had to think through exactly what I needed to tell the students before we transitioned to the greenhouse.  I had to make sure they knew what we were going to do, what safety precautions to follow, and that we are going to respect the equipment and plants out there.  I never realized how many directions and other details I needed to include in the lesson just because we were moving locations.

Propagation lesson was a success!! 

This upcoming week is going to be packed full with SLLC at the beginning of the week, a visit from Miss Becker and a day of PSU Ag Ed work at the end of the week.

This is a terrible picture, but I ended my week by attending the 

spring band concert where 8 of my students blew my socks off

with their talents!!