Week One Fun!

This was my first week at Juniata Valley Jr./Sr. High School and it has been fantastic. Monday was supposed to be a field trip to the Pennsylvania Farm Show, but ended up becoming a snow day because of the weather. I was really looking forward to seeing our 6 Keystone and 6 Jacket recipients, for Blue Juniata FFA, walk across the stage. 5 of the Keystone recipients still attended with their family to get their award. I officially started my Juniata journey Tuesday.

My Tuesday started with a new desk to match my cooperating teachers, and my very own Blue Juniata FFA shirt. I spent the day helping in the shop, observing, and talking to the students. Starting Tuesday and continuing throughout the week, I made a connection with 4 students who were practicing welding after they finished their assigned wood project. I began giving them a few pointers on how they can make their welds better and it is amazing to see their progress from just 4 days! It makes me so excited to see them improving.

On Wednesday I spent more time in the shop with the students and their projects. I also had the opportunity to sit in on a science teacher's class. She began the class by going over an activity the students had completed the day before. Essentially, one student started with a "parasite" and then all of the students interacted with each other. After the interaction they were able to see how the "parasite" spread. I was so surprised to see this activity because I have a lesson with the same experiment! It was great to see the correlation between agriculture and the science class.

As my week closes I reflect on what happened and I look forward to next week. I am so excited to start the 7th/8th grade rotational class and the animal science class. I have finished my morning by meeting with the Principal of this fine school. He provided me with some wonderful insight on what he looks for in teachers when hiring and how he works with the teachers on a daily basis. Two things really stuck with me from meeting him. The first being his concept of "we". He expects his teachers to do their job to the best of their ability, but if their is a problem it is fixed together. If anything goes wrong he doesn't point the blame, he works with that teacher to fix the problem. The other big take away was how he thinks of his faculty. He has a background of coaching football and baseball. Therefore, he gave me the analogy of his teachers being the assistant coaches and his students being the players. If something goes wrong, he works with his assistant coaches, not against them.

To say that I have had a great week, would be an understatement. I already love the time that I get to spend here and can tell that April will come way too soon! Thanks for reading!