The Rising Sun

As I reflect on my week I see progress. I am nowhere near a seasoned teacher but I am getting better. It's a slow, difficult, but rewarding process but I am becoming more familiar with my classes, students, and material. I was interviewed this week by a student who writes for the paper. She asked me the casual questions like my background, why I became involved in agriculture and my FFA experiences. While I was thinking back to past memories I became a bit nostalgic when I though back to my FFA years. My proudest moment was at my Junior year FFA banquet when I was named FFA President and was finally stationed under the rising sun.

I took my position seriously and spent many hours after school helping my Advisor and doing odds and ends. It reminds me a lot of now! I wasn't always the best student and I couldn't always stay after but more often than not I was the first one at an event and the last one to leave. I find that I do that now with student teaching. I always talk with the janitors and maintenance guys, I find them to be wonderful people. The maintenance guys always joke with me about how I am the first one here in the morning and the janitor just today was talking about how I'm always the last one to leave the parking lot. I really appreciate that people have noticed how much time I put in.

In FFA the rising sun symbolized a now era in agriculture and the progress that we make day to day. I know that the Owl is symbol of the advisor, but I can't help but recognize how I relate to the rising sun just I did when I was in high school. I am experimenting with new classroom technology and doing my best to stay current with agriculture. I strive everyday to make progress with all the kids in my classes and to make progress within myself.

I think I will stay a rising sun for a while because I'm not ready to shine my brightest. I still have a lot of trials and tribulations to go through but I look forward to them and how they will help me grow. Thanks for reading!

Are you ready for ACES?!?

How do you get a room full of high school students to sit in their seats, listen to you, and all comprehend the directions that you are giving? How do you ask deep, higher level order questions to your class? How do you teach students who are all different ages and have different capabilities in the same class?

These are all questions I am asking myself after about a month into student teaching. I have the bell schedule down pat, the student's names are getting easier, and I am getting better at planning lessons. However, I find myself having the most difficulty with asking good questions that go beyond the surface of facts and knowledge. Delving into the "why" of things is proving to be very difficult.

By adding specific questions when I plan lessons I am improving. Even still, I find it difficult to think of those questions when planning the lesson. I have a goal to extend my students and my own thinking beyond facts and basic knowledge. I want students to be creating, summarizing and adapting with what they know and learn.


Currently, some kiddos, my cooperating teacher, and I are at the ACES conference. I have loved ACES since I was in school myself. I think it's a great opportunity for students and it can really spark their interest in FFA. I notice that every year I go I become more familiar with everyone involved. I find more people to say hello and chat with each year. I love that my network is growing and I really feel comfortable around everyone.

Thank you for reading and if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Week 5

This week was normal in the sense of there wasn't a snow day, delay or early dismissal in sight! However, as a teacher candidate I continue to grow. I have begun to settle into a routine of when planning happens, how I manage the classroom and keeping up with the kiddos. What was different about this week was I had a visit from my university supervisor, my horse has had health issues, and I have been quite sick. This has created a set of challenges for me to complete day to day activities. I feel rather confident in saying that I have made it through the week and feel quite accomplished.

My big focus is on the visitation from my university supervisor. I had been fretting over this for quite some time. I realize that all teachers get visitations from their administration and that can be just as nerve racking. After spending a little extra time organizing and prepping my lessons I spent a while just thinking. I thought about where I was a year ago, or even where I was a month ago. I realized that the change has been incredible. I also think about how much more I have to accomplish. I know as a teacher, you must always challenge yourself to be a better teacher. Consistently strive to stay current in the world, in teaching practices, in technology and stay current with the students.

My lessons this week were good. They were informational, but something was missing. I need more 'why' in my lessons. I have how things work but I don't have the why they work part. After it being brought to my attention I can clearly see that my day to day lessons are lacking higher level thinking questions. Students are being challenged to learn general information, they are not being challenged to be critical thinkers. Being able to think critically is a trait that will follow them where every they go.

My challenge for the weeks to come is to create deeper questions, get students to apply their knowledge and to tie my lessons together in a more sequential manner. With these 3 key areas I hope to bring my teaching to the next level. Thanks for reading!

Week of Wonder

This week I called the week of wonder. As I've continued to teach at Juniata Valley High School I can't help but wonder what next like will be when I pick up two more periods a day. General things, such as remember names, learning the bell schedule, and daily routines are becoming easier. However, I still spend much of my time preparing lessons and grading. I predict that is how the next many years of my career will be. I hope to always be striving to make my lessons better and more engaging. I work everyday to incorporate time for the students to synthesize and review information while also incorporating some new information. I hope this will create scaffolding of information they know into what information they learn.

As far as personal relationships I find myself getting along with many of the students but I have a few who constantly challenge me. My goal is to stay fair, be level headed and continue to create the best lessons I can. I am also working on being a more prominent presence in the class. All of the students know me but some don't respect me. I am feeling more comfortable using different voice tones and volumes to get my point across for the curriculum and for discipline.

I was very excited to start a new came with my 7th and 8th grade agriculture students. Since these students have had me for several weeks they are now comfortable in the class and often time become very chatty when it is unnecessary. One day I started counting and they were all quiet. That day I thought about it and what happens when I get to 3? Well, I couldn't answer my own question so I decided to make a game. When students won't be quiet, instead of yelling over the entire class I begin counting down from 5. When I reach 1 if the entire class is quiet and stays that way, they get a point. If even 1 person is talking, I get a point. I have had great responses! The students hold each other accountable. I don't have to use this technique more than once on most days. It has been a great week here in Juniata Valley and can't help but wonder what new success and challenges will come next week!