My Last Week :(

This week has marked the end to my student teaching. I would never have thought I would be wishing that this day was not happening. Today I have to say goodbye to my awesome students and of course my cooperating teacher. Even though I am leaving I plan to keep in touch a lot.

This week I finished up all my assignments and worked with my electrical wiring class as they finished their circuits. I also graded the AgriScience research posters and presentations. Like expected I got from all ends of the spectrum on how elaborate their reports were and how much time they put into their posters for their presentations.

On a plus side I got to help facilitate NOCTI on Thursday. As a student teacher I was mind blown by how many students did not know the basics. I was helping with the injection area and I had some who did not know how to open the syringe packet, did not know to put the needle on before sticking the syringe in the medicine bottle, and more. Are we failing as teachers, is it the students, or is it the test? Personally, if I was to teach and knew students had to take this exam I would hold morning or after school practices to go over items that they might not of had in class for various reasons.

Next week it is back to PSU and I am excited to get to talk to everyone. I am also excited to share some of my best and my action research project that went wrong but, does science always go right?

Administrator Interview

Doing the mock interview with an administrator was not alarming to me with doing the mock interviews at PSU. I did my interview with Mr. Fultz who is one of the assistant principals. He however, is one that looks over the Ag department.

The first question like most mock interviews was tell me about yourself. This question is by far one of the hardest for me because you do not want to say to little or on the flip side talk way too much. The other questions that were asked were, what experience do you have?, What techniques do you use for classroom management?, How do you handle situations where discipline is needed?, How do you use assessment?, and What parts do you put into a lesson plan?. I feel I was prepared for these questions since this is what we have been working for and practicing for through mock interviews. I feel my responses were good and to the point.

I asked Mr. Fultz about their SLO process, what for community support do they have, where they see the Ag program going, and what is one thing Manheim thrives in as a school. What impressed me the most was how Mr. Fultz is very down to each and our interview turned more into conversation because he wanted to me have any questions about the process answered.

For in the future I would need to research the school and do some digging. It helped that I have been at Manheim for four months now and know a good bit about the school and community support. Even though I asked these questions I kind of knew the answers.

Some of my overall thoughts about student teaching

To be honest I did not go into the AEE major to become a teacher. I took the major for communication skills and development. So going into student teaching I did not know what to think. Would I like it or would I hate my life. I mean I love working with kids and adults but was not sure how I felt about the classroom setting.

 

When it came time to student teach I could have been with a normal teacher but I was placed with Mrs. Anderson (This is what she tells me). From the beginning we have clicked from our passion for Ag, love of showing, and scrapbooking. We have been a pair to work together that's for sure. I taught three classes since Manheim Central is on block scheduling which were Intro to Ag, honors mechanics, and AgriEcology. This was out of my comfort zone but I am glad I got to teach these while I had the support from my cooperating teacher.

 

I did figure out that I do not HATE teaching but I do not know if it is what I want to do. It helped that most of my students were great and I connected with them so well. Which like most that is always a concern. This experience has been great and I have tried to take the most away from it plus take in every possible opportunity. Some of these included FFA trips, proctoring keystone exams, helping with the freshmen fundraiser, working with the chapter officers, attending the art show, helping facilitate NOCTI, getting pesticide certified, and more.

 

Working with the three teachers in the Ag department at Manheim has been a true blessing. They have all helped me in so many ways and I would work along side of anyone of them in the future. They all took into account what was in my best interest and what I needed to do. I have had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with numerous administrators and they are all so open and welcoming and their to help you.

 

Event though this all sounds so good it was not always that way. I did have days where I wanted to punch a wall and was frustrated beyond belief due to behavior issues or lack of class engagement, you name it. But one thing you learn it to let it go and do not hold a grudge which was a big lesson for me because I am very good at holding grudges.

Banquet Week

This week was banquet week so for those of you who have been through this either as an officer or a teacher you can probably understand all the feelings and emotions that you go through in just one week. Between getting the slide show done, decoration bought, the script done, and the awards together, dinner menu, and tallying RSVP'S lets just say it has been one crazy week on top of teaching.

This week I am only teaching mechanics due to what is left in others I would not get through half of what needed to be done. I still wont finish out the electrical unit with the mechanics class but they will only be finishing their lamp projects and Mrs. Anderson and I have been co-teaching it that way we were both on the same page.

Next week I will still be working with the mechanics class and finishing up all other projects to bring with me to PSU. I am also going to get the opportunity to help with NOCTI which will be a great experience to see since even as an Ag student in high school I never had to take the test.

With that said once again it is back to prepping for banquet which is tonight!!! I could not be more proud of the officer team I have had the privilege to work with this year and am sure that the newly selected officers will do just the same.

https://storify.com/MeganLego/the-breakdown-of-student-teachingnew-story-1

Does learning style correlate with student engaement.

Coming up with a plan let alone an idea for my action research project was tough. I had one plan and once I taught my AgriEcology class for a week a new idea came and I went with it. This class is made up of 23 students and there is a lot of character in this class.

I planned my populations unit all on visual and hands on activities thinking it would be fun and they would like it better than lecture and boring stuff (at least I think that). Within the first couple days I was in the "I just want to hit my head off a desk" frustration mode. In the middle of activities they would sit down, talk, or throw objects across the room. What was I doing wrong?

I decided after the unit exam for populations I was going to make them take a learning style inventory and from those results tailor the energy unit. From my results I got a top two of auditory and tactile. To change my unit up I added in more lecture and group discussion and than some hands on activities.

To test them for the unit exams I set up the exams exactly the same with 10 true or false, 17 multiple choice, and 3 essays pick two. The exams were worth 74 points. I recorded all their scores for my data tables. After comparing the test results to one another the populations graph suggests that maybe they were bored due to prior knowledge on the concepts which could be what cause the lack of engagement. The energy unit exam scores came out with a more normal distribution bell curve compared to the highly shifted left bell curve with the populations exam.

When I first looked at the results I was like I failed. But, than I remembered that not every thing you do is going to turn out how you expected. I got mixed results where some proved part of my hypothesis (I propose that tailoring lessons to meet individual’s learning style (or modality) will increase engagement, decrease behavior issues, and improve unit test scores) and where others didn't.

Agriscience SAE Visit

As part of my Introduction to Agricultural Sciences class I made it a mandatory project for all students to complete and agriscience research project. For this visit I worked with Kole Hollinger who is a freshman. This student is an active member of the FFA and is very involved with volleyball. He is a twin and is a very kind and caring young man.

We did the visit at Manheim Central High School where his project is being housed in Mrs. Anderson's classroom. We did the visit during homeroom period. Prior to the visit I just made sure that he was okay with myself writing a write up on it.

The students agriscience research project is raising guppies and collecting data on their weight gain. There are two tanks, with four guppies per tank. One tank is getting fed just plain guppy feed where the other is getting that plus shrimp that are also being grown in a separate tank. Once a week he weighs the guppies on a balance and in a clear plastic cup. For weigh purposes he weighs out the water first and than adds the guppies and from there figures out the weight of the four guppies together.

We did discuss that there was a wrench thrown at him during this project. About four days after we got the guppies and had them in their right tanks and weights taken we came back to school on a Monday and were looking at the tanks. Wouldn't you know it, we had babies in one tank. So we got another tank to separate the babies out and two days later the other tank had babies. More for your money I guess or maybe turtle feed.

The record book Kole is using is AET. So he does not have to log on every single day to put in that he fed his guppies I gave him a note books where he logs in what he does daily and later he can go in and add it all to his AET record book.

It has been interesting to see the projects that my students have chosen and how they are turning out. There is never a dull moment with this class.

Visiting another student teacher

On April 2, 2015 I observed Ms. Jenna Moser who is student teaching at Shippensburg High School with Mrs. Biers.  She is currently teaching a full class schedule which includes Ag Mechanics, large animal, leadership, and horticulture.

I will be honest knowing Jenna and how she is the way she handles her students kind of shocked me. I did not expect to see her being rough and tough. It was very nice to see though. This really showed with her Ag mechanics class and the students respected her. This class is a 9 week class which ends on Tuesday so they were finishing up projects that were either woodworking or welding.

Second block the students presented their projects on sheep and goats. I actually, also presented to this class and talked to them about what I do and the goat world. These presentations ranged from both end of the spectrum. It was surprising that this large animal class, most of them have little to none experience with large animals. I spoke to them about my goat business and asking simple questions they had no idea.

It was interesting to see a leadership class that is for basically the officer team to work on FFA items. Today they were planning their lessons to teach to younger students and spent the rest of the period on banquet planning.

The last class of the day was horticulture, where they focused on flower arranging for this day. This is where Jenna really stood out. She became so full of life and excited, this was her element. She took so much pride in getting the flowers for the students and having them create an arrangement before they left for Easter break.

This observation was really neat to see how Jenna student teaching was going and how hers was different from mine. It was also interesting to compare Shippensburg Ag department and classrooms compared to Manheim Central. 

A Short but Productive Week

This week was a very short week with only three days of school due to Easter vacation. It is starting to really set in that my time at Manheim Central is almost over. It is even harder to believe the connections I have made with students in this short amount of time.

This was my last week with AgriEcology which was a blessing in disguise to say. This class gave me a run for my money no doubt. I tried lecturing, discussion, activities, and more and just nothing I did they seemed to get into. I based my action research off of this class. I did it on learning styles, so after the first unit I recorded their scores and had them do a learning style quiz. From there I recorded where the strong points were and it more or less fit how I taught the last unit. I based the energy unit off of this information and after their exam on Tuesday that will be set of exactly the same as the populations one. After all this is done I can put my action research poster together.

As for next week, I will teach my last week of Intro to Ag before Mrs. Anderson takes it over again. Mrs. Anderson and I are going to co-teach the electric unit because she got some awesome new technology through a grant and has never used any of it herself so we are going to go at this together and see what we can do.

I also have to keep trucking on banquet planning. I got the proficiency awards picked out, need the certificates made and then that part is done. I have to get the slide show presentation done where this year I am adding in senior fair wells. I have been helping the officer in charge of decorations plan what we want and how we are going to do it. 

New and Beginning Teacher Meeting

I attended a new and beginning teacher meeting at Shady Maple, the best food place ever, on March 25, 2015. Going to it the only thing I knew was to bring an activity to share and there would be awesome food.

I was not sure how the activity thing would work. I must say though that having every teacher and student teacher bring an activity to share was an excellent idea. Not every activity might have pertained to you but it was neat hearing what everyone brought.

This activity was a great way to share resources and bring new ideas to your classroom. It also sparked ideas like I could do this activity but change this to fit what I am teaching.

Another neat thing about the meeting was answering the four questions and hearing some of the answers especially about that do you wish you would have know at first and little things like that. However, I feel that the activity/lesson sharing should be happening more often because that is always a great resource and connection for Ag teachers.

When the path ahead turns the wrong way

Classes this week went great from working on labs and finishing projects.

This week I took my AgriEcology class out fish stocking for the field experience for my community based unit of instruction on populations. Out of 24 students only 7 went because of either bad grades or just did not want to go.

Being none of us have ever helped with stocking before it was unsure what to expect. Were we the only ones helping? How would this whole day pan out? When we arrived there were about twenty to thirty others there to help. They ranged from older gentlemen who were probably retired and this is something they looked forward to, to dads bringing their young children.

We learned first thing that they do not tell you where the next stop is and well we got lost when we got stopped at a red light and lost sight of those in front of us. We finally made it back with the group. However, sometimes things do not go as planned and the unbelievable happens. You scratch the school van with students in it.

I never thought of how this process would go, even though it is not one my cooperating teacher or I wanted me to see it happened. (I was not the driver fyi) The school had to be called, cops called, administration had to come, every adult plus student had to give them their information, once we got back to the school every student in the van plus us had to get checked out by the school nurse, than you have to meet with the principle and all those and wait to see what the next step is.

The one awesome thing out of the day was meeting Mindy Fee who is one of their representatives while fish stocking.

Where has the time gone?

This week it really hit me that my student teaching is just about over. This time has gone by way to quick and I can honestly say I am going to miss my cooperating school, the teachers, and of course my students.

As for this week I was only in the classroom two days due to praxis exams and CDE judging. The CDE judging day was a great experience for me because I got to help judge the small gas engines CDE with Jasmine and other teachers. I am thankful for this opportunity because this is one CDE I never participated in and had no clue what happened in the contest. It was a lot of fun and I learned even more.

As for next week we should make a good head way on the power tools project which they are liking 100% more than the hand tools. Go figure. I will be implementing my action research into my AgriEcology class that revolves around learning styles.  My intro to ag class will be diving into labs dealing with soils.

Bringing Creativity to the Classroom

Being able to bring creativity and life to a classroom is always a challenge. I am always thinking well if I do it this way will the students be like oh this is cool or this is boring. By bringing creativity to the classroom you are able to make the learning environment fun and intriguing.

In my AgriEcology class this week I taught the idea of estimating populations, factors that contribute to populations, and how they react to changes in the habitat. One way I taught this was through Tragedy of the Commons lesson where the students went fishing to understand the effects that humans and limits have on populations.

In Honors Ag Mechanics they worked on finishing their birdhouses. People have always made fun or talked by obsession with the home make over shows. However, my cooperating teacher saw the beginning of the week where they torched a counter top to add patterns and texture instead of staining. So what did we do? Showed the students this idea and about half the class was like this is cool and did it. With this technique each birdhouse is different in its own way and they look awesome.

The Week That Was

I talked in my first few blogs about flexibility and this week flexibility has been the name of the game. Our five day school week turned into three short days. This week was a lot of changing and adapting and cutting certain lessons short and deciding what is the most important to cover that day and what is not.

I am officially at a full course load as of this week and to be honest its tough. It not tough in the aspect of preparation but tough in the area of my fourth block is a struggle because they are a class that has no desire to be there. So no matter what activities you do or how you teach it they could care less if your teaching and doing things with them. I was told it is not you it is them, but it is still frustrating because you feel like your failing each and every day with them.

I have spent the past two snow days getting moodles done so I can officially say I have one left!!!! I have gotten a bunch of little things done and out of the way that I have been pushing off. However at the same time it upsetting because I was hoping for a long weekend at home next weekend but I will still make the best of few hours at home of course being spent with the goats.

Placement SAE visit

Being in the FFA my SAE project was always based around livestock breeding and finishing. Being a student teacher at Manheim Central I am being exposed to the different types of SAE projects. Over the summer I did a dairy beef project visit and visited with a student who was restoring an old combine.

For my first SAE visit this semester I went to visit Diana High, who has a placement SAE project. The visit occurred at her place of work which is the G & G agway in Manehim. In order to set up this visit we had to get her work schedule and make sure it was okay for us to come. Diana uses AET for her record keeping. There were no recommendations when it came to her work from her boss but we talked about her responsibilities at G & G and where she could pick up more responsibility. For this to happen though it will not start till the summer when Diana is working more days and longer shifts. Overall there was nothing but good things said about her and her work ethic.

This student is a hard worker and you can see that just from her attitude and what others have to say about her. She recently had an accident that resulted in a concussion. Her place of employment has worked with her through the whole thing and yet she has not slowed down. The only thing she has slowed down is her time in the classroom but has still stuck that out as much as possible.

The student who does not try to learn

This week I had my first I would say discipline problem/issue with a student. I am into the handtool project in the wood working unit and I was teaching bird house layouts and the basics to a blueprint. The first day did not go well because the way in which I taught the students just were not grasping the concept. So that night I figured up a new plan and retaught the lesson the next day. I sat down and drew a birdhouse from start to finish showing every step and explaining why I did what I did. After doing all of this, this student did not even try to listen. He was playing with the vice than touching all of my papers so when it came time to do his own he had no idea where to start. I spent the entire class period answering questions for him that he had previously asked before and just was not grasping any of it. When I would go over to him he would have someone else's ruler in his hand or something.

I personally was not showing any patience towards this student. I talked to Mrs. Anderson about it and what I ended up doing was getting this student at the end of the day out of his homeroom. I brought him down to the shop and we worked through his layout one on one. He started understanding the concept and he went much better than class did. The next day he still had a few questions but was able to do the work and go so much done compared to the previous day. He also did not mess with other students stuff like the previous day. From this I did learn to take a step back and breath and think before I act. Not that I said or did something wrong but if I had not I probably would have.

This week was also National FFA week. The officer team planned out a themed week:
Monday= Camo
Tuesday= Boot Scootin' Tuesday
Wednesday= Where's it at Wednesday
Thursday= Trivia Thursday
Friday= Flannel Friday

We also went o Hoss's night to eat dinner with a state officer and had an ice cream social Thursday after school for the faculty.

Week... I have lost count already!

Preparing for student teaching you think it will take forever but as of Friday I hit the one third of the way trough mark can you believe it? This week we spent a lot of time preparing for the blood drive and gearing up for National FFA Week.

I must say my intro to Ag class is pretty spectacular. They worked very hard getting everything ready for the blood drive which consisted of advertising, signing people up, being receptionists, setting up and tearing down, and arrive super early the morning of to cook breakfast for those donating. #proud

This week I was able to see the officer team come together and get everything done for FFA week. We bought pens for the teachers and made super cute tags, planning an ice cream social for the teachers, themed days for the students, hoss's night with state officers, and more.

As for teaching this week I had some up's and down's. I tried a new idea for a lesson and I had to change a few things up to make it relate to the class I was teaching but still had some confusion on the faces of the students. I used making a pb&j lab to teach calculating a bill of materials. One thing I learned from this  lesson was dealing with food allergies. We checked if my class had any food allergies and there were none but we never thought about the class that comes in next and the roomed smelled like peanut butter and there was a student with a peanut allergy. So we scrubbed every table down and ventilated the room the best we could.

As for next week in my intro to Ag class we will be finishing up our unit on speech/presentation and team building. I am excited to do the team building lesson and I hope they like it as much as I do. For mechanics we will be starting to layout their woodworking projects and let the building process begin. If the weather works with us and we stay to the schedule I will be picking up the AgriEcology class.

ACES weekend!!!

ACES is a conference that the FFA holds every year for three straight weekends in February. As a school you choose one weekend to go. I never went as a student but experienced it for the first time two years ago when we took the Korean students who were over here visiting at Penn State.

This past weekend I was able to experience it again but as a student teacher. This is an event just like National Convention where you are able to connect with your students on a different level compared to the classroom setting that they are used to. Being on this trip I also got to connect with FFA members that I do not have in class which was a great opportunity.

A side from being a student and attending the workshops I got to attend the teacher workshops which were very well run. The most enjoyable one was the inquiry based workshop on tragedy of the commons which is actually a lesson I already had on my list to bring in during my populations unit. However by attending this workshop I got the real materials needed compared to my make shift ones I have come up with.

This was a short conference/trip compared to National Convention but taking all but 20 more students made it more interesting. This involved doing the curfew night checks for more than just one room and trying to reserve enough tables for meals that way the whole group was able to  sit together was an eye opener for me because even when I was in FFA and went to conferences like this with being a small school we never had more than eight people go.

The WOW Moment!

This week has been a great week for those and mind blowing moments that make you know that you have a purpose. This week in mechanics we have been focusing on constructing tool guages and than sharpening drill bits. My favorite moment was my interest approach to the unit. I took all their writing utensils away, gave them all a new pencil. However, some were sharpened and some were brand new and have never seen a pencil sharpener. I told them they had five minutes to write an essay on why tool were important. I had my cooperating teacher stand in front of the pencil sharpener and block it. Let's just say some were not happy with me especially after I told them this essay was graded.

However, once they got over that we dove right into drawing out tool gauges. This was a learning experience for my self that I had to learn ahead of time but it was all worth it. The best moment was today while sharpening I had a student yell, "Miss Keller I did it, high five!" That moment gave me a sense of purpose. This student sharpened a drill bit enough that it went through steel.

Now I will admit not everything this week went as planned. I had a little rough path with my into class because trying to teach about AET and getting profiles  set up did not go like it did when I went through it with the mechanics class. This class was in two speeds. Those who got it right away and those who not so much. So the students that got done had down time which cause minor class distraction. Also with my mechanics class I gave them their SAE unit quiz and the one question I expected them to all get almost everyone missed. Which was kind of upsetting but also showed that we needed to revisit.

I do want to mention how great of students I have. This kids are willing to try anything I put in front of them and if all goes well these agriscience research projects will show in time what I am talking about.

As for next week, in into to ag I will be introducing the agriscience projects guidelines, giving a unit one exam, and heading into unit two which is listen to me where we talk about all forms of communication. For the mechanics class we will be starting out woodworking unit. So this coming week we will be learning about wood selection, fasteners, calculating a bill of materials, and laying out projects and introducing their wood project.

High School Is Like A Circus

As I walk from the lunch room to back to the class I look around smile, laugh, smirk, or whatever face I might make. I think back to when I was in school and realize I acted the same way, dressed similar, and has a personality that caught peoples attention, good or bad.

This week I have really come to see how we shape students lives and are able to mold them into the young leaders they can be. I have a student who makes you bet against all odds but than in the smallest moment surprises you and I think , wow, this kid has a chance.

This week has been crazy with different bell schedules and gearing up for the blood drive.  In the AFNR class as part of the community service they are running the FFA blood drive that will be held on February 20, 2015. They have had to make committees, come up with ideas, and the one group even taped a commercial. I started teaching the honors mechanics class this week, which to be honest I was nervous and scared all at the same time. Being a girl and teaching a class of 22 guys was a little intimidating but after the first day with them those nerves have gone away.

As for next week I will be diving into careers and SAE with the AFNR class. With these SAE projects they will be doing the agri science research projects as a required assignment. For the mechanics class we will be finishing SAE and starting the tool gauge and drill bit sharpening. I learned out to draw the tool gauge and need to learn how to sharpen a bit but I am getting there.

When It All Became Real

This was the week that I would finally be front and center in the classroom teaching students. Starting out teaching the Case AFNR Introduction to Agricultural Science I was a nice transition to say. Even though it is a set curricuum does not mean you have to follow every little word or detail and that you cannot add your own ideas or activities.

To start the class off I did a bubble gum lab that made them come up with a hypothesis and procedure so each group was a little different. This lab took less time than expected but instead of having homework they were able to do it in class and get it done.

For the first week I have stayed for the most part with the lessons adding a little extension or activity change here and there. That was all true till Friday hit. I thought to myself why do these skimpy lessons on FFA if every student in here is a member. Being this class is a prerequisite for the other ag classes I felt they needed know more about the FFA than the lessons were calling for.

With that said I completely through out the first lesson and made up an FFA history lesson that includes a short video, research, timeline making, gallery walk, and a story along with a homework assignment. The only thing against me was time. Due to GrAde testing my block was switched with third and shortened to 58 minutes.

As for next week I will be finsihing up FFA, doing a CDE contest day, blood drive, and start talking about ag careers with the intro class. Tentatively if all works out I will be picking up the honors mechanics class as of Wednesday with SAE which will cover navigating AET and getting them all set up on their for their SAE project for the semester.

Flexibility of Teaching

What does it mean to be flexible? Can I reach my toes? Can I do a split? The answer to both of those is a huge No but one thing I have to learn to be flexible at is teaching. You learn that everyday is not the same and why would you want it to be. 

Since I have started at Manheim Central I have yet to have a "normal" bell schedule so I could not even tell you what that looks like. Between Keystone testing, 2-hour delays, early dismissal, field trips, and final exams the days have been far from normal. The day that really made you be flexible was the early dismissal because of being a final exam day first there testing time had to be cut short which than for us made us have to be on the ball grading since we were grading projects.

This week I worked on getting everything ready for my first class Monday with Case AFNR Agricultural Science I. This involved making a thousand copies, planning my week out, creating hopefully an awesome lab that came from the minds of two individuals, and of course decorating my room. My one wall in my room is a bulletin board so I have decided to do word walls with every unit to help visual the key terms they are expected to know. My main color of course is lime green. 

As for next week I will be teaching my first class. I have all lessons ready except the Friday one with FFA History which is in the works now. I really want to work on my reflection towards the Case curriculum which will be assisted with a reflection paper of questions that I have downloaded. I will also be preparing for my first week of mechanics that will start with SAE/Record Keeping. 

The First Week

You know you were in school and it was always the first day of school, well that is kind of how I felt Monday walking into my cooperating school. However, that difference between student and teacher hit me when walking through the front doors to the office and I hear hi Miss. Keller. It was a feeling that first off a student remembered me form interacting with them previously and made me feel like I had more authority.

Mid-Winter convention was a mess. Due to the two hour delay the principal cancelled the trip for the students but never cancelled the substitute teacher so Mrs. Anderson and I went to support the three students receiving their Keystone Degrees and one student who received State Star in Ag Placement. However, since the trip was cancelled for Monday we were able to reschedule it for Thursday so I still got the opportunity to see and help with the procedures of taking students on a trip.

I was able to get almost everything laid out for the student teaching and get started on assignments. I observed teachers and helped proctor keystone exams so this week has been a little chaotic. As for next week it is review and final exams and an in-service day with Monday and Friday off. I plan to keep chugging away on assignments and start preparing for my first day teaching Case AFNR. I will also be attending the young farmers meeting Monday and the FFA meeting Tuesday evening. SAE evaluation is part of the final for a class so I will be helping evaluate those.

Aside from teaching i have been given the obstacle of my car officially dying with blown pistons and valves and too much to fix. I had to clean out my car for the last time and say goodbye. So that has been an issue figuring out what car I will use to get back and forth but thankfully I have a great family support system here and I have had a vehicle to drive everyday and will until I get a car to get through till May.

Science Observation

Yesterday I observed a science teacher, Mrs. Hunt, who teaches ninth grade physical science to level one and level two students. She was teaching an acid and base lab that dealt with seeing the reactions between these. Some of these lab stations dealt with ph, red cabbage, electricity, and much more.

At Manheim Central their objectives are in the form of essential questions so for this day there objectives were: 1. What properties define an acid and a base?, 2. Why is water a polar molecule?, 3. How does the polarity of water lead to its unique properties?, and 4. How is a solution formed and what factors affect the rate of formation.

In my opinion the students were interested and yet not at the same time. It depended on the student. The students who went through and did the hands on lab were very interested and you could tell because you could hear the "ooooo" factor and see the expression on their faces. However, with every lab there is an alternative assignment called a wed book quest which is where they have to research everything they should have figured out doing the lab.

The teaching method that Mrs. Hunt started with was demonstrations to make sure the students knew the proper way to go through the stations. The next teaching method was group work because they worked in groups at each station and went through the steps that were laid out on paper in front of them. They had to record all their findings in their lab packets.

The teacher was facilitating the learning. When students had questions she would answer with questions to help them answer it themselves. The only time she gave away the learning was when she went over the red cabbage station because the class before contaminated one of the chemicals so the results would not come out how they should.

The teacher was very enthusiastic. You could tell she loves her job and loves working with students. You could see this through the way she presented materials and especially important concepts cause she would get excited and her voice would change. She was very clear and direct about safety and procedures and you saw this because she kept repeating it the whole way through class.

Mrs. Hunt did a great job working with her students and to the point that I wished I had her for a teacher in high school because I was interested and that is hard to do. She had the respect from her students and they were comfortable with answering and asking questions.

Pennsylvania Farm Show

In all the years I have attended the Pennsylvania Farm Show I have had multiple animals of different species tagging along. This year was my year being their as a student teacher. Although the trip did not go as planned due to a two hour delay there was a lot of good from it.

With the two hour delay the trip was cancelled but yet no substitute teachers were cancelled so my cooperating teacher and I headed up to the Farm Show still to support the three keystone degree recipients and wait to see who won Star in Ag Placement.

Since the students were still in school Mrs. Anderson made sure to go over with me what would have happened with the students with us and how the day would have played out compared to how it did. We talked about phone policies while attending mid winter convention and checking in with students.

While watching mid winter convention one thing that struck me that I never thought of before was why do they award people for having large families? With the honorary keystone degree the parents have to have three children who have received the award. Why is this? Why do they not award families with 100% of their children receiving this outstanding degree.

Overall the experience was great and put me into a mind set of a teacher compared to a showman like I have been for the past ten years. It was also a great feeling seeing Manheim Central take first in the state with Ag Placement.