As I enter the weekend I am focusing on finding an organizational system that will work best for me as I begin teaching my first two classes next week, Horticulture & FFA/SAE. I am super excited to dive into Greenhouse Safety and Prepare Public Speaking with my students and I cannot wait to see where these units take us. I hope they have just as much fun as my cohort did communicating with Legos during the lab and taking their jobs seriously when investigating our safety crime scene in the greenhouse.
This week also served as a huge reminder to me as to why I chose to be an educator. Athens High School tragically lost a student in a car accident, I was humbled as I watched the entire building grieve the loss of their friend and student. I witnessed students rush to their peers’ side in a time of need and played a part in the sea of blue on Friday as the building honored their peer by wearing blue to school. I have a newfound appreciation for seeing my student’s faces everyday. I am focusing on making sure that I can make the most of every moment I have with them impactful as we never know when it could be our last. Athens High School is humble and kind. I am grateful and excited to see where the next weeks in my student teaching experience take me.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I am so excited to see your progression while student teaching! I also have some students that are learning online and some that are in person and have been struggling to create equal opportunities for both. I am not sure how your online/in-person classes are set up, but I have some different assignments/activities for my online learners. I've been trying to give similar content, but sometimes you need to change things a little for the online learners to challenge them or give them the same exciting experience! Maybe you can have them grow a virtual garden or work on a plant that they have at home. You could try creating videos in the greenhouse with your in-person students to share with the online learners. I'll keep thinking about these questions as I will also be in the greenhouse with the same situation is a few weeks!
Michaela! I love the idea of a virtual garden, I will definitely have to look into that and give it a try!
DeleteMegan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your perspective from the week, and excellent questions.
Honestly, continually be asking yourself question one. As agriculture educators, it is IMPERATIVE that we stay relevant. If students aren't grasping the "why" for an activity or assignment try to share an analogy or anecdote that relates to what you are teaching. Perhaps find a video or real life scenario that relates to what you are doing. Often if you also ask the student, "Well, why do YOU think we are doing this..." you can see what is going through their mind. The usual "because we have to" will indeed come out of their mouths, but generally after that students will share what they are really thinking. This can be insightful.
Keep up the great work!
Megan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your perspective from the week, and excellent questions.
Honestly, continually be asking yourself question one. As agriculture educators, it is IMPERATIVE that we stay relevant. If students aren't grasping the "why" for an activity or assignment try to share an analogy or anecdote that relates to what you are teaching. Perhaps find a video or real life scenario that relates to what you are doing. Often if you also ask the student, "Well, why do YOU think we are doing this..." you can see what is going through their mind. The usual "because we have to" will indeed come out of their mouths, but generally after that students will share what they are really thinking. This can be insightful.
Keep up the great work! (Mrs. Alderfer)
Thank you Mrs. Alderfer! I will keep this in mind as we dig further into Speeches this week!
DeleteMegan,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that you are finding your way at Athens! It sounds like you are doing a great job at forming relationships with your students which is very important as you move forward. My advice for your first question is to just be sure that you start every new topic by taking time to show the students the 'why'. I think a great way to do this would be through an interest approach that ties the new material to real world situations. This should help the students to see the relevance to what you are teaching. Also, Mrs. Alderfer made a great suggestion to ask the students why they think we are doing this, and work off of what they are already thinking. For your second question, maybe you could have online students pair up with in person students (like we did during our teaching labs in the fall) to work through problems and activities. This will hopefully make them feel more engaged with the learning.
I'm looking forward to hearing how your first two classes go next week. Good luck!!! :)
Thank you Elise, yes as we get further into our units I will be sure to reinforce my why!
DeleteMegan - What a week!! From a glass-half-full perspective, this experience will make you more prepared to handle a similar situation in the future. I also think this is a great reminder of one reason why robots can't replace teachers - the human factor. I would love to hear more about how you placed empathy and compassion over content to give your students what they needed in that moment (I always struggle with this). On a brighter note, what happened at your meeting with the middle school ag teacher? I have always been interested in middle school programs and how they can serve as a recruitment tool for high school ag programs.
ReplyDeleteNicole, yes I most definitely have learned a lot from the situation as well as what type of teacher I want to be. The middle school meeting was another opportunity for me engage and learn more about agriculture. The shared how interested students have been about participating in the program as they go to high school and what they will do with the funds they have raised from fundraising! For middle schoolers the teacher share that they were wise beyond their years when it came to making financial decisions.
DeleteHello Megan,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Lauren McHenry and I'm currently a junior majoring in AEE at Penn State, with the goal of student teaching next spring. I loved reading about your first week at Athens High School and it is clear you already made great connections with you students and fellow educators. I also thought it was awesome how you used legos for a demonstration, that sounds so fun! I wish you luck with the rest of your student teaching and you future career as an agricultural educator.
Thank you Lauren! I have had so much fun and yes the Lego activity was a great success as you enter into your student teaching year, if you are teaching public speaking or teambuilding it is a great communication activity that I would be happy to share with you! Good Luck!
DeleteMegan, This was so fascinating to read. As a member of the 2022 AEE graduating cohort, it is really good to hear/read accounts of the previous cohort as reference/preparation for our future student teaching experience. I was amazed at how many experiences you have had in the first week at the school. I really like all of the pictures that you include in the blog. They really give a good feel for the welcoming and friendly feel of the school. To answer your first question, my brother has a very small amount of interest in certain topics because he doesn't see the point in doing them. One thing that has motivated him to do his homework at home, is to try and connect things he is interested in to the topic/activity he is doing. So I suppose that getting to know students interests more can help with connecting topics and activities to their specific interests.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your advice, I will keep that in mind as I continue with my safety unit focus on building connections from the content to my students interest. Good Luck as you prepare to student teach!
DeleteHi Megan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences about your first week! Engaging with students who struggle to see the value in what you are asking them do do is challenging. My advice is to always keep it real and emphasize the "why" of why you are doing what you're doing. Finding ways to connect what is being done in class to the real world and students' everyday lives can be challenging, but the more that you can make "real bananas" out of what you are doing with them, the more it will become relatable and engaging.
Oh my gosh, Dr. Morey! It's so exciting calling you that! :) Thank you for your advice I appreciate it and I will keep the "real bananas" in mind as I continue throughout my experience!
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