It's FINALLY Here!!!! The first week of student teaching...

I cannot believe that I have FINALLY started my student teaching experience! It seems like just yesterday I was a shy (I know it is hard to believe that someone as talkative as me was shy) Freshman and student student teaching was just a way far off in the future thought. 4 years has definitely zoomed by, I am ready for this new experience and cannot wait to see what it has in store for me!

I am so lucky to be student teaching at Northern Burlington County Regional Middle School teaching 7th and 8th graders about the amazing world of Agriculture. I am also lucky to be under the guidance of Dr. McLean. I am looking forward to learning from her and having her guide me through this experience with her knowledge...and helping me out with all the technology (the Smart Board WILL be my friend by the end of student teaching!)

I would like to say that my first week went very smoothly and there were no hiccups but that would be a lie,  I am pretty sure I experienced every kind of schedule that our school has...

-Monday we had off due to Martin Luther King Day
-Tuesday we had a half day because of the huge blizzard that we were getting (my 20 minute drive home took me 2 hours...that was fun!)
-Wednesday we had a Snow Day
-Thursday we had an extended homeroom schedule
-Friday we FINALLY had a "regular day"

Aside from the crazy schedule we had I was able to experience some really cool activities in the classroom. On Wednesday 7th grade looked at their seed germination experiments. I was able to help answer questions that the students had and I learned not to wear white on days when "dirt" is involved. I learned a lot and found out that you can actually grow plants in K-Cups!

Observations of Seed Germination

I also got to observe and take notes on creating a DNA model. The students used model kits to create a double helix and also DNA replication. Once I watched Dr. McLean model it in the one class, I took the reins and facilitated the second class. I thought it went well and I had a lot of fun with the students.

A student models their DNA double helix! 

Today, Friday, was probably the coolest day so far. I got to witness DNA extraction from strawberries!!! I have never seen anything like this before and I thought it was really cool to see how the DNA clumps and see it physically be lifted out of the test tube! It was so wild! I was also able to teach two 8th grade sections about insects today. We started work on a small insect classification project, which I am very excited to continue and share out with the class on Monday...we are also going to be talking about edible insects (YUM!) 

Students following the procedures for DNA Extraction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liYlVC-5AS4&feature=youtu.be

Check out the DNA rising to the top of the test tube! 

The final results!

All in all it was a very cool week! I cannot wait to change the things I need to work on next week and improve my skills each day. The marking period ends on Tuesday, I am very excited to see the new group of 7th graders and semester 8th graders that we will be getting! I am sure they will be just as awesome as the students we have in class now! 

Quote of the week:

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” 
― William Arthur Ward

Wrap Up!

Having labs be a part of our AEE 412 curriculum was a really beneficial experience, not only were we able to work on our skills but we also received great feedback from our peers and Mrs. Rice. One of the hardest parts about lab for me was actually being recorded and teaching in front of my peers. I think that this was hard for me because I hate seeing myself on video because I always pick a part everything I do, and knowing that everyone will be able to see every mistake you made; that was terrifying for me. I also was nervous teaching in front of my peers, I think that besides yourself your friends are your toughest critics. Both components of this were not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I think that it did make a difference in some of the things I did in lab.

I learned a lot throughout the entire lab process. Clarity and variability are things that I personally thought I needed to work on throughout. Another thing that I learned that I needed to work on is to not spoon feed my students every little thing. I think I spend too much time on making sure they know what they are supposed to do instead of letting them figure out somethings for themselves. Through lab I have also learned that I need to continue to work on my time management and organization skills. This is something that I have been working on my whole entire college career, I have gotten a little bit better each year but now I really need to get these skills together because it is going to help me out with my student teaching experience. I also need to pay better attention to detail and read things a few times over to make sure I comprehend things.

I had a lot of ups and downs during lab and learned the value of double checking the safety of certain labs before you try to conduct them. I also learned what to do in case of an injury in your lab. Although they were not my finer points I have learned from them significantly. Walt Disney once said “Keep Moving Forward,” I use this quote because I would rather fail during lab as practice than in front of my students when I am actually teaching them. Although I may have not succeeded to the best of my ability with a lab I used what I did and the comments I received and really tried to change it for the next time.

Each experience I have had in lab has made me a better educator and I have learned from each experience as well. I learned that being the great teacher is something that takes a lot of time, patience, and practice. No one is going to be able to be perfect at it right off the bat. I am really thankful for the opportunity to have had this lab experience, my favorite one was definitely the creativity lab. I did not know how easy it was to go and get some really interesting things for class, something as simple as stickers can enhance your lesson. I really enjoyed getting my creative juices flowing and got some really awesome things to use with my students. I think that each lab really helped supplement what we learned in class and helped us bring everything together. It was nice to be able to see the information in practice, learn about, and then prepare, and practice teaching it. 

Creativity at its Finest

Our last lab has finally arrived for some of us I think this was the light at the end of the tunnel but there was a catch, we had no idea what we were going to do. The only information we were given was to bring a unit plan or some lesson plans from the same unit and that we were going to be driving somewhere. I immediately think that we are going to have to switch lessons with our fellow lab members and have to teach from it....whoa scary!!! Once we piled into the car and traveled to our destination we were presented with our challenge: spend $5.00 to get 5 items in the dollar store.

I brought with me my 1st unit for my 7th grade class. This unit touched on agriculture history, FFA, and jobs within the agriculture industry. As I wandered up and down the aisles of the store I was not sure what to get. First I picked up some playdogh, this was going to work well for my Are You Smarter than an Ag Teacher game, I was going to mesh it with pictionary and have them complete different tasks with it. Next I picked up a puzzle, this was going to be used for my "Putting all the pieces together" lesson where we recap everything we learned about FFA. The students would design a puzzle piece that reflects what they learned about FFA. We would put the whole puzzle together and display it in the classroom. Next I found some really awesome burst cutouts, perfect to represent time on my time walk of ag history. Paper plates were next and are going to act as the model for designing a healthy plate.

Finding the last object was the hardest part. There were so many things that I could have chose and done but I wanted something that would really give my students added value. I finally settled on some cookies, I know how are cookies added value? Well I decided that this would make for a great activity. I would have my students read the labels of different products and then trace the ingredients and see where the products came from.

I really enjoyed this lab because it showed me that I could make all of my lessons fun just by adding in something that cost a dollar. It was a lot of fun to see what some of my other lab mates found as well and what their creative ideas for use were. I cannot wait to use the props in my lessons and I know my students will really enjoy them too!

One of Life's Many Lessons!

We’re back in the classroom for Round #2 of teaching. I have had a lot of time to reflect on my previous micro teaching experience and I walked into my Life Knowledge lesson with a different perspective and attitude. This time I was ready to take on the classroom management and facilitate this class to help them become successful with positive relationships. I taught two 8^th grade periods, according to Dr. McLean both have been having problems communicating positively with each other and being kind to each other.

The first period of classes had only 8 students in it, a small audience which made getting into groups easy, but a difficult crowd to get to participate. Dr. McLean did have to speak to the students once but as soon as she did I told the students that they were to pretend that she was not here, I am the teacher today and not her. This really helped the students become more aware of their actions, they showed me the same respect that they show Dr. McLean. I found that I had to really ask students to elaborate on their answers and keep asking questions to get them to give me answers. I am not sure if this was because the class was so small or because they were not used to me teaching, as the class continued on they began to loosen up more, which was good. I made sure that I kept track of time as I was teaching, I used a stop watch app to help me keep track of how long I gave them to do activities. I also planned an extra flex activity just in case I finished early…finishing early did not happen this time, this time I almost ran out of time because it took us longer to do some of the activities. All the students did well on the assessment and learned a lot about being positive to one another, towards the end of the class I noticed that they started to respect each other a little better.

Once the first class left I had about 3 minutes to reflect on what just happened. I quickly discussed with Dr. McLean that for the sake of time I was getting rid of the Picasso E-Moment because it took time away from the assessment activity. I also decided that it was not really necessary because we were doing the Bob the Weatherman E-Moment and the student in the previous seemed to enjoy that activity better than the Picasso Moment. Now that I made some changes I quickly decided to change the approach of some of my questioning/phrasing of questioning. With that the students began coming into the class and I was ready to roll again.

When this class came into the room their demeanor was different than the first class, they seemed to be more relaxed and easy going but they were “meaner” to each other with joking and poking fun at one another. This time I established that I was the teacher today right off the bat and the students did not even seem to realize Dr. McLean was sitting in the corner, I made sure I dealt with any issues that arose, especially the student that tried to fall asleep in class. This class was more open to giving me answers and elaborating on those answers. The second class was more creative with their Weatherman E-Moment weather reports but both classes did fantastic with it. **Side Note: next time I do the Weatherman E-Moment I think it would probably be beneficial for a weatherman video clip example would be helpful or give students a script to demonstrate what is to be done. I gave a demonstration but there was still some questions about it, I think these ideas might help with the questions.** As we progressed with the lesson and got towards the end of the period I distributed the assessment and the students filled it out. We then went over the answers in class, next time I go over quiz/test answers in a class I am going to read each question and the answers and not just the answers, unfortunately for sake of time I had to only read the answers.

One of my favorite parts of the lesson was learning what each student viewed as an example of a positive relationship on their lives. There were some really great examples and stories and I could not help but smile as both classes were eager to share their experiences. It was really neat to see how the students were a little nicer to each other at the end of the day too. When I went back the next day, all the students were actually kinder to one another. I thought it was really awesome to see how one small lesson could make a big difference; that was so inspiring to me.

I know that there are still somethings that I need to work on, but that is why we have these experiences, to progress and learn. I can see the change in myself from the past two experiences and I am really excited to see that changes from the beginning to the end of student teaching. 

My First Solo Act

Micro Teaching was an interesting experience for me; my first time flying solo and actually teaching high school students by myself. I have taught students before, but when you are teaching Pre-Kindergarten it tends to be a little easier because you get to play games and do arts and crafts all day…and let’s not forget about nap time! I was pretty nervous walking into the class for the first time and was not sure what I was getting into when I saw the student who came into the classroom crawling on all fours barking like a dog! (I am not even lying that really happened!!)

The first day went well, I could tell that all the students knew I was nervous but towards the end of the class things started to go great. The further I got through my lecture of forestry the more comfortable I became. The first day I learned that when I develop note handouts that I should not put as much information on there, this will make the students pay attention more and they will have to listen to find out the information to write down. I reversed that concept and thought that the more I gave them the more they would pay attention because it was less work for them. Lesson learned!

The next day I walked back in and found out that we had a shortened period. We were going to be making paper, I had to figure out how to adapt quickly. This was a great real life teaching experience because teachers are thrown curve balls all the time.  I think that if I stuck to my original plan things would have went a lot smoother. Since we were going to be making paper out of paper and I thought it was going to take too long, I found myself making the lesson too adapted so there was not much for the students to do, there were a lot of students that were just not engaged. I also learned after hearing my feedback that I should incorporate a worksheet of some kind for the students to do, while they are working in lab stations this will help keep everyone engaged and the flow of the groups running easy.

The last day was our assessment day. I decided to give a quick quiz and had them fill out teacher feedback. After they completed both of those sheets, we had a discussion about careers in forestry and Penn State. I really enjoyed reading the feedback from all the students, they had great suggestions and said that they really learned a lot from me. I was happy with what they said but I knew myself that I have a lot to work on before student teaching. I really need to work on my time management for lessons, I finished one day early….not good! I also need to work on some of my questioning skills and direction giving needs to be clearer. Finally, and I think that this is the biggest, I need to be assertive and show the students that I am in charge when I walk into the classroom, regardless if it is not my class that I am teaching.

All in all I think it was a good eye opening experience for me, I know I have a lot to work on between now and student teaching. I will make sure I revamp some of my strategies and skills for when I conduct my Life Knowledge lesson with my students at Northern Burlington next week. 

To Inquire or Not to Inquire?

Inquiry based instruction was seriously the hardest type of lesson to prepare because there are so many different ways that you can approach it and directions that you could take it. I think that although I was short on time this week was on of the best labs that I have done so far, however there were a few speed bumps along the way.

As soon as I started teaching I was confident, this was going to be the lab that really worked for me...since we all know that I have not had the best track records. Everything started off well until I starting passing out my articles to read. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I was printing but I did not print off enough and started to panic, okay what am I going to do to make this work? Put them in groups yes okay! I put everyone in groups and made it work, although it was challenging and I think it would have been more effective had I actually been able to count correctly! (That is what we in Jersey call a "Brittany Moment," they do not happen often but when they do...look out!) Once I had that figured out I ran into a problem with my pacing. When I practiced lab with my roommates everything went according to plan and it took me enough time to finish everything. As I was teaching I realized I was going too fast and even though I was using my lesson plan I would still forget little parts here and there that needed to be said or done.

So what exactly would I change when I do this lesson with my students come the spring you ask? The answer is A LOT!

My original plan was to have this be almost a 3 day lesson but I think I will tweek it and make it a two day lesson. Instead of having them just write procedures the first day I will have my students write procedures and conduct their experiment to see what happens. This was my downfall in lab, I second guessed myself on time and thought that I would not have time to complete this part but in reality I did. On the second day of this lesson I would give them the recipe to make the ice cream and have them compare both experiments.

There are a few MAJOR things that I know I need to work on...
-timing: this is a key thing I have 51 minute periods
-pacing: I think that this will help with my timing issue I just have to figure out what the right pace will be for each lesson and my class
-trying not to talk to myself: I talk to myself during my lesson sometimes when I am trying to think something through all the way...yes it makes me look crazy and I cannot tell you why I do it but I think that it is something that I need to try and get away from

All in all I thought it was a decent lesson. Was it my best, by far no! Was it my worst, ha well we all remember what happened during the demo lesson! I am really looking forward to trying the micro teaching and seeing what happens, I have a feeling it may go better because I will not be teaching in front of my peers who are fairly educated on the topics that I have chosen! Fingers crossed!!! :)

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.  ~Jacques Barzun

Kentucky Bound and Down!

The last time I was in Louisville, Kentucky I was a freshman in college and competing in the 4-H Eastern National Round-Up Hippology contest. I was representing my AMAZING home state of New Jersey! I honestly thought that I would never get a chance to go back down to that amazing state but I am super excited to say that I will be heading there bright and early on Tuesday morning!!! This time I am not going to the Round-Up (although I wish I was!) and I am not going as a contestant but rather an Exhibitor at the National FFA Convention! I know I have made it to the big league now, I will be heading down with my fellow student teachers and get to work the AWESOME Penn State Booth! Since I have never been to the National FFA Convention I am super excited to walk around, take it all in, and get some really cool resources!!!

Although it is hard for me to contain my excitement I have TONS of things to do between now and then! Have no fear, I will get them all done and I will posting some blog posts about my experiences at convention so please stay tuned!

**Thank you all for reading my blog and leaving your comments! I LOVE reading them and sharing my journey with you all!! **