Ag 7 was a continuation about plants this week. We talked about germination and set up a lab. Half of the class will be growing their corn seeds in the dark (we have placed them in a cabinet in the room) and the other half of the class has their seeds in the light next to the window. I had my students come up with hypothesis about what they think will happen to their seeds as they grow in the conditions that they were randomly assigned. We will be checking our seeds in 5 days (Tuesday!!) and then we will conclude our lab experiment in 10 days. I was not really happy with my teaching this week in my ag 7 class. I feel like I lectured too much and got away from being really hands on. I am not sure why this happened, but I know I need to fix this next week because I could my students were not really feeling it.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
This week I also picked up both CASE AFNR classes.We shared our Water Stories, which were really good, some a lot more interesting than others, but they were very creative. We are also starting the Ag Mechanics Unit and kicking things off with scale. I am happy that I am tapping into those skills that I learned in AEE 350 but teaching scale is really hard, especially when you are no math wiz yourself. So far my students seem to be handling it well but we did a few issues with remembering how to read rulers (apparently after 5th grade that skill is no longer relevant.) Needless to say we have been doing a lot of practicing and making sure we have the skills we need to move onto the next step which will be to design birdhouses. I am really excited to see what type of designs they come up with, from their water stories I can tell that some of them will create some very elaborate designs.
Finally in Ag 8 we have been transitioning from Conservation into Animal Sciences. We talked about invasive and native species here in New Jersey and also began talking about insects. I got my students really good this week too. I told them that I had insects for them to try at the end of class. They were on the edge of their seats the whole time wondering what "bugs" I was going to have them try. Unfortunately buying insects to eat is a challenge around here but they were just as excited to get gummy worms (this could be a great interest approach as well!)
I cannot believe that my student teaching experience is almost over. I have been having so much fun and learning so much from Dr.McLean and my students. I have enjoyed working with the FFA and the officers. Everyone has made me feel so welcome. I will be sad when the experience is over. I am super excited for the next two weeks because we will be practicing and competing in The Environmental and Natural Resources CDE event at Rutgers, and working on a lot of other FFA things as well. I have a lot of projects coming up with my students and I am really hoping to get them outside to our ecology center soon too! Hopefully the weather stays warm!
Quote of the Week:
Brittany, I liked how you recognized the fact that you maybe weren't as hands on as you have been and didn't like that you lectured so much. How do you see yourself approaching this next week's set of classes? How are you going to leave your mark on these students? What is it that you want these students to remember about Ms. Rigg? Just some things to keep in mind when reflecting and planning!
ReplyDelete