Week 12, though it was only 4 days, was packed with many opportunities to showcase learning! I also wrapped up my time in two courses as we transition to the end of my student teaching experience and finalized grades for a marking period. It's slowly becoming real that in 2 short weeks I will be completing my student teaching experience.
This week as I wrapped up two courses we worked to prepare ourselves for life beyond high school, creating cover letters and resumes! Students had the opportunity to reflect on many of the skills, experiences, and certifications they have acquired during their time in high school. After determining these skills we highlighted the aspects that best demonstrated how qualified each student was for the position they were "applying" for. Seeing the diversity of career interests, experiences, and skills was amazing and a very proud moment. I cannot wait to see what amazing things these students accomplish beyond high school hopefully with some great resume and cover letters in hand!
As students worked to "apply" for jobs in FFA/SAE, my students in Ag Mech finally faced the Sharks! They all have taken time to complete their projects, create pitches, and this week they final had the chance to ask for investments! It was amazing to see all of their hard work come together right before our very eyes, as well as hear the enthusiasm in their voices when discussing their products. They all selected a product that had meaning to them with the intent of making someone else's life a little bit easier. I am super proud of all of them and how this unit turned out as it was one I created completely from scratch. They offered great feedback not only for me to use in the future but helped their peers determine whether or not various "offers" from their sharks were worth taking!
As my time is dwindling down at Athens, I am still working on improving the rigor of my question sets and finding ways to not only push myself but also my students to further our learning together. One quote from my week that really resonated was when one of my students said there were only 2 girls in the class and I said "Well what about me?" and they said "you're not learning, you're teaching!" Mr. Steinfelt and I both respond "Well, no she kind of is taking the class because I'm learning by teaching". It was a really cool moment where you could see my students realize that they were helping me learn just as much as I have helped them. I am excited to see what the next two weeks have in store!
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love your shark tank project for second level Ag Mech!! It is the perfect way to bring all their skills together, while also providing the students with a real world entrepreneurial scenario. This is a project I will definitely be stealing. You also said that you have been working on improving your questioning techniques, which is something I have also been working on. What type of reflective questions did you ask you Ag Mech students to wrap up this project??
Hi Megan - I love your Shark Tank unit - maybe because I had a very similar experience in college and I can understand just how many transferable skills your students learned through this process. I think it is funny to hear students' perspectives and thought about student teaching, this week I got, "What do you mean you don't just stay here". 2 more weeks to keep learning (at least in this particular situation, haha)!!!
ReplyDelete