This week was exciting, to say the least! Monday morning started off strong! I was able to finish my lessons on time and had no issue what so ever! Then Tuesday came around with bone-chilling weather and snow! Pequea decided to send everyone home by 11'oclock to try to avoid the storm, so my lesson was cut short. On Wednesday we had a two-hour delay so again had to shorten lessons. Then Thursday we had a snow day! This week was a weather trifecta of early releases, two-hour delays, and snow days!
One thing I learned from this is you can't control the weather, but one thing you can control is your response to mother nature. At first, I was little flustered and panicking about covering content; not knowing what keep or to cut out. I was worried that my students would think that I am unprepared and not knowing what I am doing. As my students were entering the room. I realized that my students have no idea of what my instructional outline looks like. It was a friendly reminder, even at week three, that I am in control of what I cover. This is comforting and also terrifying!
Snow will not slow you down! Thursday I spent the night with Lancaster Ag teachers on grading student's SAE record books! Every year they hold a record-keeping contest for Lancaster students SAE projects. It's a great way for students to get feedback and make adjustments for state convention! This was such a cool experience because I was able to see another side of Ag Ed; behind the scenes of student achievements. The more I traveled down this path of agricultural education I realized that student achievement is like an iceberg. Student success may be the cap of the iceberg above the water, but there's whole lotta ice below the surface supporting the cap, this contest serving as a chunk of ice. I am excited to dive deeper into ag ed to see how I can get my future students to achieve that iceberg cap.
My final thought for this week is a question for my virtual mentoring team. How do you make sure you don't get caught up in cancelations and delays?
Manny, schedule disruptions can throw a monkey wrench in even the best laid plans, but it is great that you are rolling with it and showing your ability to adapt! You are the one who controls how you handle and approach changes in routine and scheduling, and being flexible makes things much easier.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteGreat question. We have to be flexible, but we also have to be productive - how can we continue student learning progress.
I find strong routines and procedures can help with this. Routines like Warm Up, Cognitive Connect, and Ticket Out allow students to have a better grasp of where we have been, what we need to get done today and where we are going.