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!

The Never Ending Winter!

Well as this week comes to a close, today was by far the most challenging day.  I was responsible for all of the classes today. That's 9 periods worth of students coming in and out every 42 minutes, with the additional students who come in the room instead of their study hall, students who want to buy beef sticks or tea, and students who want to paint projects. With a constant flow of chaos it really is a wonder how my cooperating teacher can manage it all and have time to plan anything! Of course there has to be curve balls like the internet not working and 2 hour delays.

As I found myself facing these challenges and others I became very frustrated but did my best to "keep my cool." I don't want my students to know that I am secretly freaking out. I found that teaching my normal classes were especially hard when I was responsible for all of the students, every period. There was a wonderful substitute teacher who helped me a lot with technology problems and keeping the kids in line.

So this week, my big take away is definitely juggling and flexibility. I am working on juggling the multiple tasks that come with teaching and being responsible for a classroom. Juggling tasks of teaching, preparations, and setting up saws and incubators. No two days are ever the same! Thank you for reading!

Week Two Tid-bits

Week two has definitely had some ups and downs but I'm ending on a strong note! This was the first week that I was responsible for teaching the 7th/8th grade rotational class and the animal science class.

My first class was the 8th grade class. I felt pretty good until I got in front of the classroom. I was very nervous because this was a brand new class, I didn't know any of the students names and I began tripping over my words. When I'm nervous I talk very fast, unfortunately I didn't quite plan enough for my fast talking nerves. I had 15 minutes left in the period when I was on the final activity! Luckily, my seasoned cooperating teacher was able to give me an idea to finish off the period. The last activity was to judge how well the students knew different breeds. I put up 7 different names of breeds and had students write what animal the breed was. This activity showed me that many of the students don't know different breeds very well.


I teach the same class each day for the rotational periods. I had the opportunity to teach this lesson again! After reflecting and realizing that I was talking way too fast, I worked on some questions and things I could bring up when we did the activities. I also felt more comfortable the second time around because I had already facilitated this lesson. I really like having the two periods with the same lesson.

My animal science class is a whole different kind of beast. All except for one student are seniors and the class provides students with a science credit. The students listen attentively, but the information is rather dry and I was finding it difficult to get the class involved in questioning. I added a go-get-it emoment to get the students up and moving and this seemed to help. I also found that when they were more comfortable with me towards the end of the week they were more apt to answer questions.

For next week I will be trying a new way of quizzing called kahoot. I found that the animal science students who are learning prefixes, suffixes and roots were really disliking the way of quizzing I gave. I also have started making them create flashcards to quiz each other. This is a tip I was given by my cooperating teacher.

One of the largest challenges that I am facing for the next week will be to get my 7th and 8th grade classes back on track. We had an early dismissal this week which meant that I didn't have my 7th grade class. This means that my classes are on two different topics.

I'm enjoying my time at Juniata Valley very much and can't wait to see what next week brings! Thanks for reading!

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!

Science Teacher Observation

I had the opportunity to watch a ecology/biology class today, January 14, while they prepared for their test that is tomorrow. The teacher had many years of experience under her belt and this gave her a strong classroom presence and display of clarity.

Before the review began the class went over the activity they had completed yesterday. This activity began to sound very familiar as I heard the teacher prompt the students with questions as to what had happened the day before.

The students were looking into how a parasite spread from animal to animal. I don't know exactly how they conducted the activity, but the idea was that one student had the parasite and after contact two students had it, then four, and so on. I did the same experiment to show how easily disease can spread through a herd. I used water and white vinegar (which changes the pH), then a pH indicator to show who had caught the disease. The teacher called on students to read the question and give their answer. She would then call on another student for an answer or she elaborated and talked about the answer further. This was a great way for the students to show their answers and talk about them instead of the teacher giving the answers right away.

The rest of the period was spend reviewing for the exam that was tomorrow. The students began by writing their own definition of the word. This is a great way for students to review the terms. They have to internalize the definition in order to write their own.

Final Blog for Fall 2014

I distinctly remember looking at the lab packet the first week of school and being very overwhelmed. Looking through that 44 page book was quite daunting but what I didn’t expect was how much fun it was going to be. I found lab to be difficult to prepare for but it was fun to “play” teacher with my classmates. I also learned a lot about myself and teaching.

              The first lab I had to teach was on juggling. I had 10-15 minutes to teach all of my classmates how to juggle, and the worst part was, I can’t juggle! I had an instruction sheet that walked me through the steps and gave hints. When the day came to give the lesson it was a flop. Trying to teach “students” a motor skill when I couldn’t do it myself taught me an important lesson, demonstrations are important and directions need to be clear, clear, clear!

              There’s a difference in instructing a class and talking to someone one on one and explaining exactly what you want to tell them. I didn’t realize this until after lab. Sure, it seems like common sense but learning how to use variability and methods to teach high school kids is no easy task.

              This lab has forced me to reflect on lessons that I would have loved to walk out of the room and forget as quickly as possible. However, when we are required to write a blog for each lesson you are forced to think about how the lesson went, what you would change, what you liked and what you didn’t like. It was really great to bring to light my bad days and pull out specifically what needed work.

              This lab has without a doubt better prepared me for my teaching career. It showed me the areas that I truly need to be better prepared on, for example clarity in instructions. It has grown my confidence in talking in front of a group and it has brought me closer with my cohort. We had some great laughs and learning experiences in the AEE 412 Lab Course.