National FFA Convention Blog

This week I got to spend time with my cooperating teachers and students at the National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis! This trip was chalk full of tours, workshops, sessions, and bonding times.

The first stop of our trip was the West Virginia University! This was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about a college that they typically wouldn't have visited before. It was a typical tour that showed students the dining hall, resident rooms, classrooms, and other recreational activities on campus. It worked well because it fit in our schedule and gave students an opportunity to think about their post-secondary plans.

Since none of the students were competing in CDEs, we had a lot of opportunities to go on tours. We drove down to Louisville Kentucky and visited Churchill Downs and Louisville Slugger Museum.  It was great for the students because it was their first time traveling to nationals and they were able to see multiple cities.



We went to a total of two sessions at the convention, the opening and the 7th general session! Two sessions with students are the perfect amount of sessions to see. Students were able to see awards that were given, two keynote speakers, and a national officer's retiring address. Any more, students may have got bored with the sessions. For future reference, I'd probably only have students go to two sessions maybe three if time allowed it.

One of the days we went on a couple of tours, one with CST Corteva and another with CST Lawson Cattle Facility. These were two completely different tours showing students opportunities in Ag. The students were really engaged and learned a lot. It helped that some of the tour guides were in FFA and shared how they ended up in their current position.



Overall it was a great trip! I am glad I was able to meet a couple of the students I'll be teaching with. Also, I spent a lot of time with Mr. Masser and Mrs. Vansant! I picked up a lot of tips with planning and learned about garden tools :) After this trip, it has me pumped for student teaching this fall!

Virtual Mentor Exploration 2 !!

Depending on where we are in the country we have students in our classrooms from varying backgrounds. Some places are more diverse than other, and the neat thing about diversity is that it's not limited to ethnicity. Today cultural diversity encompasses a plethora of uniqueness such as; gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity, and social status.  This month I asked my mentoring team to answer the following prompt: What strategies or resources do you use to help your class/program to be responsive to cultural diversity and English Language Learners?

Ms. Laura Metrick admitted that this question is a little difficult to answer because she teaches at a school that is 98% white and hasn't had a chance to work with English language learner. She wrote, "We have Olweus sessions once a month, and during this time we focus on several different topics including cultural diversity, English Language Learners, LGBTQ+ and many more. One of the main things that I stress to my students is that no matter what, if you have a different view, a different opinion, look different or talk different, you must respect each other." Even though she doesn't have students that are ethnically different she still is aware of the other cultural diversity that students may be part of and having students being respectful is HUGE in including all types of students.


Mr. Petrun, a teacher back in my home state of New Hampshire wrote, "When we do have some diversity, it is always good to sit down with the students first and speak with them to learn about their culture and its nuances. If you can understand a little bit more about them, then you can get a better idea of where they are coming from. This way connections can be made on that end to begin to open up the other students to other or new cultures". This is a massive benefit to the students and gives you as a teacher a baseline where to start. We can learn so much from just having a simple conversation with a student. 

Mr. Masser at Pequea Valley High School wrote,  "Open-door policy-It seems silly to put it in writing, but respect is the best strategy I can provide to help create diversity in our program. We always respect and embrace the differences our learnings bring to the classroom/program. Instead of trying to make the culture the same, we try to use these differences to enhance the program. Keeping your door open and verbally reminding students that you are there to support them makes a huge difference, and attracts students from all cultural background" A takeaway from Mr. Masser I found was not to try to make the student fit the culture but rather us theirs to enhance the program! By doing this, it shows that every student has something to contribute and that they are welcome.

My last mentor was Tiffany Turrentine from W.B. SAUL in Philidelphia. Mrs. uses several strategies/ resources to include cultural diversity and English Langauge Learners. One is an open discussion by taking "the time to allow the students to express themselves in an understanding and respectful way.  Providing an atmosphere where the students feel comfortable to express themselves in a respectful manner has allowed for others in the classroom to listen and be empathetic towards issues". Having students develop empathy can be difficult but having open discussions is a great way to do so.

From these responses, I learned a lot about including all types of students and some strategies to ensure that all are involved in the learning. Thank you to my mentoring team for all the help!

Surprised Substitute

This weeks lab was different from our previous labs. Not only did we have to prepare a lesson meeting an AFNR Standards randomly selected, but we also had to switch lessons plans with someone else. At first, I was pretty nervous! I was totally prepared to teach my own lesson not someone else's! Luckily we were given ten minutes to ask questions to prepare ourselves for teaching. I ended up taking Rachel's lesson on photosynthesis. Her lesson was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. I have taken a couple of biology classes, so I was familiar with the content. I think I was more so nervous following her lesson exactly and not on the material. During the lesson, I chose not to follow the lesson plan exactly, and that worked out a lot better for me. It was easier for me to make it my own instead of the following word by word on what she had written. The fifteen minutes allotted had gone by wicked fast!

Some gems for this lab was staying on task and making sure that students were too. Also, making the lesson plan my own and making sure students were getting the content. Some opportunity for improvement I noticed was in my own lesson plan. I wrote the lesson plan for me to understand and could have had a lot more details so that anyone could pick it up. I had the "substitute" cover new information with the students. I learned that this was a mistake and that substitute lesson plans should be a review on previous knowledge. Sometimes subs aren't familiar with the content, and this will help avoid any confusions that may occur. Overall I really enjoyed this weeks lab and learned a lot!

Week 9 Weekly Investment!

This week weekly investment was centered around differentiated learning.  Differentiated learning can be broken up into three parts:

1. Readiness is the starting point for learning.
2. Interest is connecting the new information to students by making it relevant to their own experiences.
3. Learning preferences- are the ways that students can learn and they can increase learning by connecting existing knowledge in they like.

It's important to use these parts of differentiated learning so we can increase the likelihood of learning in our students. If we lack one these parts, then we aren't maximizing our student's capability of learning.

We can utilize individualized teaching techniques in numerous ways. From the readings,  I learned that students have different levels of learning. What works for one student may not work for another. When using individualized teaching techniques, teachers can match the needs of students with techniques that best meet those needs.

A thought I had was "how is it possible to meet all of the students' needs if you are the only teacher." As I read, I found out that individualized teaching techniques also promote independence for the students. By practicing the techniques students realize that they can't always wait for the teacher. Students should be able to pull information from other resources available to help them when a teacher isn't around.

Problem Solving Approach!

This weeks lab was centered around problem-solving approach!  This has been one of my favorite labs so far! My lesson plan was on the Scientific method and included an activity to show how it can be used. Students would pass around a box that would ring every so often. Students would have to use the scientific method by coming up with a hypothesis, make predictions, and experiments to figure out why the box is ringing.

I had a few gems this week that include the activity I used and timing. People in the lab really enjoyed my activity! They had fun learning the scientific method by figuring out why the bell was ringing. Another gem was I able to complete everything I wanted in the time allowed.


My opp for this week is I need to explain and be clear with my directions. Sometimes I rush through them and miss a detail, so they become unclear. Then I have to take the time to re-explain when students don't understand.

Assessments

This week's readings were on assessing student performance. Before the readings, I was confused about what the differences were between formative and summative assessments.

Formative Assessment happens you are providing any sort of feedback to help improve their performances. Ways that we can do formative assessments is through face-to-face interactions, comments on assignments, and through rubrics. At Pequea Valley, they are a one-to-one school with laptops so a lot of my feedback will be provided online through google drive and schoology. Formative assessment can be used daily to assess student performances. 

Summative Assessment occurs through a test, quizzes, and other graded course activities that used to measure student performances.  These are cumulative of knowledge learned and help identify what students have learned throughout the course at the end of a unit. All my units plan will have a summative assessment one being my plumbing unit where students have to complete a copper square project. The project is worth 40% of their grade and is done throughout the semester and calculated in their final grade.

I learned a lot about assessments this week, and I am looking forward to unpacking my thoughts in class!