Week 14: So, What have I learned?

As I sit down to write this blog post, I can't help but think about everything I have worked through to get to this moment: the final day of my student teaching semester. Honestly, it is a little overwhelming, reminiscing on my first day of college and how nervous I was about things that I don't even break a sweat doing now. Thinking about my decision to pursue Agricultural Education, and all the experiences I sought out to help prepare me for this final semester, and the people that I have met and relationships that I have been lucky enough to create. And finally, thinking about the students that I have had the privilege to teach this semester and the wealth of knowledge I have gained working alongside two of the most outstanding mentors over this short 14 week internship. 

Some of my favorite memories from this past semester include visiting student SAE projects (especially the dairy beef entrepreneurship, which was my SAE back in the day), working with students for FFA activities which allows you to get to know them a little more, and teaching my Ag Mechanics class from day 1. I have learned so much right alongside these students, and I cannot thank them enough for their patience and desire to ask questions with me. 

This moment is very bittersweet. I am feeling so relieved because I have made it through the most challenging and formative semester of my college career, but also sad because this chapter of my journey and my time with these students is coming to an end. 

Over the last 14 weeks I seen myself truly grow as an educator, and so to summarize my final week and this semester as a whole I will ask myself a question that I have challenged my students with many times: "What have I learned?" 

• The "why' is essential! Instruction with an emphasis on why we are doing this, where we are going and where we have been leads to better student buy-in, motivation, and success. 

• Building a strong and positive rapport with students is an underrated strategy for success. Student motivation, classroom management, desire to learn and more can all be improved by establishing a solid rapport with your students. Every student deserves someone that truly cares about them and their success, both inside and outside of the classroom. Making sure that each student, regardless of background or ability level, knows that my classroom is a place that they can positively express themselves while learning something new is my ultimate goal. 

• The diversity of this job is insane. Each day we are learning something new, and most times I am learning right along side or just slightly ahead of my students. Its a challenge, but it allows me to push myself and model that behavior for my students. A win - win in my book! 

• Technology integration is important (even in a regular year)! Students that leave our program will be expected to effectively utilize technology. Showing them how to be responsible online, and use platforms and programs to advocate for Ag is essential.

• Hands-on/Experimental learning is such a powerful tool! When students can be fully emerged in the material and create projects based on knowledge of theory they are able to connect all the dots and truly learn. 

• Clarity of instruction makes all the difference. This has been one of my growth areas throughout this semester, and I can really see a difference in learning outcomes when I am intentional about how I present instructions and material. Chunking and repeating instructions makes sure that everyone is on the same page and students are better able to complete tasks and learn. 

On top of pedological lessons, I also picked up a TON of content knowledge from my CTs and students!! Can you name all the engine parts on the table? I can!

Those points were just a few of my take aways from this past semester. I can confidently tell you that I am not the same educator I was when I first walked through the doors at L-S, as I have been challenged and pushed to grow more in these last 14 weeks than my whole college career. However, of all of the lessons this experience has taught me, the most important is that this is a profession that I CAN and WANT to do. It is definitely not easy, but as my students said goodbye to me today and expressed their appreciation for everything I had done for them in just a few weeks, I saw why I and every other educator decides to wake up everyday and come into school: for these kids. Despite all the long and quite frankly overwhelming days, I always left with a smile on my face and was happy to go in again the next day. 

All in all, I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach at L-S for the past 14 weeks. This opportunity, and the lessons learned, will stay with me as I continue my educational journey and I cannot thank all those involved enough for helping to make it possible. 

To top it all off, one of the students decided to get me a bouquet of roses (my favorite) for our last day together. While it may have been a little bit of a joke, it still made my day! It's crazy how invested in these students' success you can become in just a few short weeks, but I wish nothing but the best for all of them! (Even the difficult ones haha) 

Now, onto graduation and my next chapter. Wish me luck!!

Questions: #psuaged21 What is one of the most important lessons that you have learned over the past 14 weeks? 

DIY Professional Development Recap

 This semester I was challenged to design my own professional development activity. Something that would best serve my student teaching internship and help me to become a stronger educator. Since I was tasked with teaching Ag Mechanics and Small Gas Engines this semester, two content area that I was not very confident in, I felt it would be a great idea to focus my PD on obtaining some certifications from Briggs and Stratton and spending time practicing my skills in plumbing, electrical wiring and welding. 

Through Briggs and Stratton PowerPortal I was able to take two of their Master Service Technician exams (Theory & General Knowledge and Engine Systems). To prepare for these exams I studied the self paced material fro Briggs and Stratton including watching educational videos on their site and reading from their textbook. Additionally, while I was working through theses exams I was also developing engine system curriculum in the form of digital notebooks for my small engines class. All of this exposure to the material helped to obtain both of these certifications with flying colors. 

I am thankful for the "push" to seek out the Briggs and Stratton certification because they helped me greatly when it came to teaching the content. I had a better understanding on how all the parts worked and functioned together as a system, which helped me to answer student questions and make connections for them.

The second PD activity I took on was to spend some time after school with my CT to discuss different Ag mechanic theory. We practiced plumbing skills such as soldering, CPVC cementing and using PEX which is becoming very popular in the plumbing industry. 

As the semester went on we investigated residential electrical wiring and I brushed up on my skills. My biggest growth in this area was learning how to teach these skills to students. Walking through the 3 step demonstrations and how to best help students understand wiring code. I now feel very confident in my abilities to teach residential electrical wiring!

We wrapped up our after school PD with welding. This is the area where I felt the weakest, however after running through parts of a welding and doing my own research on welding theory I was ready to test my skills. After a few days of practice I felt much more confident my abilities, and this was my favorite unit to teach. 

I even took some time to investigate different welding variables and their affects on weld quality. I used these plates for my interest approach the next day! 

As educators, we have a responsibility to be life long learners and model the growth mindset to our students. While these small PD activities may not seem very substantial, I gained so much from the time and effort I put into improving myself. I choose this placement because I knew the Mechanics and Small Gas courses would challenge my abilities, and I wanted to have an opportunity to learn how to teach this type of course. Now, after 14 weeks working on myself and teaching students in these content areas I feel confident that I can be effective leading my own class one day. 

Week 13: We are ALL-In!!

 What a great week!! Regional LDEs, the ALL-In Conference, formal observations, and tons of student growth! As I sit down to write week 13's blog, it feels like Monday was so long ago. While weeks like this can often feel overwhelming, I am so thankful for the extra time to connect with my students and CTs. 

Let's recap some of the week's Highlights:

Regional LDEs:

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to gain some coaching experience working with L-S's Creed speakers. After weeks of practices, learning about body language, speech inflection and how to answer questions professionally one 9th grader placed 1st place during our Regional contest this past week and will be moving onto the State level competition. Through this experience I learned a lot about the kind of time commitment that is needed past your standard teaching contract in order to be effective as an FFA advisor/LDE coach, and the reward that can come from putting in the effort. I am so proud to have been a part of this student's journey and I know they will find much success in future speaking competitions! 

ALL-In Conference:

In a "normal" year FFA members would have the opportunity to travel to a wide array of leadership conferences throughout the year, however due to Covid restrictions these were all combined in one, virtual format: the ALL-In Conference! This conference has two tracks - a gold (targeted towards upperclassmen) and a blue (targeted toward underclassmen). Students each received their own zoom link and could participate remotely from anywhere, however we decided to invite them all back to school in order to enjoy the company of their peers (something I believe students have truly been missing this past year). 

Students participated in sessions that expanded their leadership and ag literacy knowledge, and also had an opportunity to connect with their peers at L-S and other members across the state! It was wonderful to students having fun and connecting outside of class. I look forward to being able to take students to in person conferences in the future! 

Observations and Student Growth: 

While this week was packed from start to finish with fantastic activities and learning opportunities for both my students and myself, my favorite part was my formal observations on Thursday. Yes, I know it probably sounds crazy that I actually enjoyed being observed, but I have come to love the opportunity to show off my student's work and receive valuable feedback for my own growth. 

During my first block (Ag Mechanics) I had both my university supervisor and an assistant principle from L-S sitting in. After a quick review of welding safety and welder parts, we transitioned over to the shop. Due to the hybrid schedule, it had been 5 days since these students had been in the shop so I made sure to throughly go over the steps to setting up a welder and showed them another demonstration on striking an arc and creating a tack weld. I explained the goals for the day: To complete the sticking an arc practicum and practice tack welding skills. After that it was student work time. 

A big take away from this semester is that all students work and move through material at different paces. So how do you adjust to make sure the more skilled students don't get bored but that you don't rush past the fundamentals for others? I've found that providing clear instructions for students to check in for feedback and further instructions throughout a lesson in the shop works best. As a student completed a new task they would get my attention and in 1 minute I could provide them with feedback and next steps. Some students moved faster and others continued practicing the fundamentals, but by the end of the lesson, my goals were accomplished and everyone was engaged and learning throughout the entire period.

At the end of this period, I asked my students to share something new (a pro tip or important piece of information) that they picked up during the lesson as part of our wrap up. I really like this quick discussion at the end of class because it allows all of my small pieces of feedback to individual students to circle back and benefit the entire group. One student spoke up and shared "...that you can do a lot better if you put in the effort"! Arc length, speed, angle, and amperage are all so important to creating a quality weld, but what does pounding that into students head's mean if they do not have a growth mindset and willingness to continue learning? I am so glad that even in the craziness of this lesson, and this whole semester, my students have picked up on the most important thing I could teach them. This is something I will carry with me as motivation in my future career. 

At the conclusion of this lesson, I debriefed with the assistant principle. We talked through each part of the lesson, and had a great conversation on the strong points and areas to continue to think about in order to grow. One thing that really stood out to me was that this was a real conversation! Both parties asking questions, discussing daily challenges of the hybrid model and thinking of creative ways to overcome those obstacles. As I search for a future teaching position, I will definitely be thinking about finding a school with a supportive administration that is willing to come down to the Ag shop and truly listen to our concerns. 

All in all this was a great week! Looking ahead, I am sad that this will be my final week at L-S. I have learned so much and created so many connections. 

Questions:

#psuaged21 

What is one thing you have observed during student teaching that will stick with you as you move forward in your career?

What are your feelings about going into our final week? 

What's Happening at Pequea???

 This week, among the busy schedule of teaching, planning, ALL in Conference, Regional LDE's and more I also squeezed in a virtual observation of my cohort member Michaela Smith. Ms. Smith has been student teaching at Pequea Valley (also in Lancaster county), and during our time here has been my roommate. Everyday we come home and share stories of our day, the highs and the lows of student teaching. I could have never imagined how beneficial it could be to have a daily debrief and someone to bounce ideas back and forth with regularly. 

With all I have been hearing about Ms. Smith's program, I found it only fitting that I drop in for a day and see what its all about. Wednesday's are half day's for the students at Pequea (another formality of covid restrictions) so it was interesting to see how the classes ran on a condensed schedule. I was impressed to see the efficiency of each class. Students came in and were ready to get started, understood shop procedures, and were consistently engaged with the content. I still struggle to get my students moving on occasion, even when we don't have short days! 

I think my biggest take away from the day was getting to see how a different program's shop and classrooms are set up. I had toured Pequea virtually last summer, long before this student teacher experience, and yet it felt like a whole new experience. I was consistently comparing the layout of the shop, the storage spaces, the way student desks were arranged, even the decorations on the wall to what I have in my program and what I have seen over the years in programs across the nation. I caught myself thinking "Wow, I love that they have normal lab desks in the shop! It must be so nice to be able to see both your classroom and shop at the same time" or " I will definitely be getting that kind of welding curtain one day, that works so much better".  Over the past 12 weeks, not only has my teaching ability grown stronger, but also my observation skills. 

Overall, Ms. Smith did a fantastic job at engaging her students and managing her classroom. I was very impressed by the students as well, as they demonstrated how to properly apply bandaging to some very cute puppies! 

Week 12: What is the Goal of Assessments?

 Another week down, and countless learning opportunities to reflect upon. This week consisted of unit wrap ups and summative assessments for each of my three courses. While I strive to gauge student learning during each lesson through formative assessments such as embedded questions and surveys in powerpoint lessons, checking student work throughout the period in lab, and ticket out the door activities, at the end of a unit there is a need to assess student learning through a summative assessment. While these assessments are generally more formal in nature, they can still take multiple different forms. Read on to see how I implemented assessments this week. 

Ag Mechanics: 

Over the past few weeks, Ag Mech 1 students have been working through their Residential Electrical Wiring unit. During their online (theory) day they dove into vocabulary, wiring code rules, electrical generation and Ohm's law. During their in person (Lab) days we practiced diagramming and wiring different circuits. In order to get a full view of their understanding from the unit I created a unit assessment that included matching vocabulary terms, solving Ohm's law problems, diagramming a circuit and a hands-on component where they had to wire a circuit to demonstrate their knowledge of wiring code. Check out my assessment here. Please let me know if you have any suggestions to improve! 

Ag Mech students also jumped into the Welding unit this week! I started off the unit with a short video and some needed safety and theory notes. Check out the links below for some resources I created! 

Lab Days 

Intro to Welding (Theory Days) 

I was so proud when each student in my first group eagerly and confidently walked into their booths. I was expecting to have at least one student show more reservations about striking an arc. Check back next week to see how group 2 does!!

Before students could practice on their own, I demonstrated how to set up their welder and strike an arc. Students had to then show me how to correctly set up their own welder before turning it on and explain how they would begin striking an arc. As always, I believe the best way to learn is to jump right in and try, so the rest of the period was practice time!!!

Small Gas Engines: 

This week was my final week teaching Small Gas. Over the past few weeks, this class has become one of my favorites. I have learned so much right alongside my students, and now I feel much more confident in my abilities to teach this course in my own program one day!! As we wrapped up the Systems Theory/ Engine Overhaul unit, I created a google form assessment for the students to take during their online days. For review, I created two Kahoot games that the students could play as many times as they wanted. 

Ignition and Compression Review

Cooling, Lubrication, and Carburetors

With in person time so limited due to the hybrid schedule, I had to adjust and give this assessment online. In order to try to avoid cheating and get a real snapshot of student learning from the past unit, I was able to lock the browser tab when students open the google form. They had to be on their school issued and managed chrome books in order to do this. All of their theory notes where done through online, digital notebooks, so hopefully by locking their tab while taking the exam was able to stop them from looking through their notes while taking it. Either way, if they were able to look up the answers in order to cheat I hope they learned something new along the way! 

Ag Business and Management: 

As I said before, sometimes summative assessments do not look like your formal exams. Over the past week, I had my Ag Business and Management class create a Marketing Plan which forced them to work through and apply their marking unit knowledge to a real world scenario. This week, they presented their project! I utilized a slightly revised version of the Marketing CDE rubric to grade their work. So far, I am very happy with group 1's work and I think they actually learned something!! 

Market Project Assignment

Marketing Project Rubric

At times, assessments can be difficult to create. We have to remember to align them with the level of understanding we outlined in our unit objectives and the level at which we actual instructed our students throughout the lesson. And as always, we need to be thinking about variability and clarity. Overall, it is important to remember that the purpose of assessments is to gather information about our student's learning and progress so that we can identify and the address the possible gaps in understanding that have occurred. One area in this process that I need to work on is taking this information about student progress and actually apply it to fill those gaps. Moving forward, I want to take the time to review commonly missed questions with students and be sure that we have reached the level of understanding I wanted before moving to the next unit. 

#psuaged21 What are some examples of assessments that you have utilized during student teaching???

Week 11: Wrap it up!

 This past week flew by, and as we wrapped up our 3rd marking period I learned a lot about planning and time management. I thought midterms and finalizing assignments was difficult for college classes, however the stress continues as I try to track down students to submit work, email parents, and submit grades and comments on time.

While I believe this year has been especially difficult for students to stay on-top of assignments when they are only face to face with me for 2 days a week, I have learned that more frequent check ins with students to address the urgency to submit late work is needed. Additionally, finding a good system to send home positive feedback to parents throughout the semester would be very beneficial, as I am not a big fan of only communicating with some to inform them that their students is behind on work and close to failing my class. However, after sending emails, I received very positive feedback and some commitments to helping students complete the needed work. I learned that our job as educators becomes a lot easier when parents are also involved in the learning process. 

Another challenge I faced over the past week was finding time to finalize grades while also staying on top of all my other work. While I worked hard to grade student work throughout the marking period, as late assignments started coming in and final projects were wrapping up it started to feel a little overwhelming. I decided to plan out specific time everyday to grade a certain class and verify everything in PowerSchool. This strategy really paid off! 

Another important lesson that I learned from my CT, was the value in including a comment with the final grades to be seen on the student's report card. This is one way that we can send positive feedback home to parents. It took some time, but I included 1-3 short comments on EACH students grade. They were simple statements like "a pleasure to have in class", "exhibits leadership skills in class", "constantly submits high quality work", or "shows strong content knowledge and skills" but these simple comments can go a long way for both the student's confidence and our relationships with parents. 

Overall, the end of the marking period was a little stressful, but I walked away with some very valuable knowledge that I can take with me in the future, and now we get to start the next marking period with a clean slate. I have grown a lot in my teaching and organizational skills since day 1 of student teaching, and I believe that both myself and the students will be better prepared to succeed in the coming weeks. 

#psuaged21 What lessons have you learned from the end of the marking period? How do you communicate with parents throughout the semester? Any tips? 

Week 10: Where has the time gone???

 The past two weeks have been a whirlwind, and it feels like last Monday is already so far in the past. Week 9 brought with it some unexpected news from home, which made focusing on my student teaching very difficult. I am glad to have such a great support system from both Penn State and here at L-S, which allowed me to make it through week 9 and jump back into the normal swing of things for week 10. A few things that I learned through that process is the importance of having emergency sub plans (if I was sole teacher these would have been very important), and just how hard it is to reset after a few days out of the classroom. 

Week 10 was full of great teaching and advising learning opportunities! With all the excitement, I am just now realizing I didn't snap too many photos this week. I am currently teaching 3 courses (a full load at L-S) including Ag Mechanics, Small Gas Engines and now Ag Business and Management. 

Ag Mechanics is in the electrical wiring unit, and one major change that I made from the previous plumbing unit is a more organized note packet. Both Theory (at home) and Lab (in person) day's notes/wiring diagrams are all together in a single packet that I printed out for each student. So far, I am finding this to work a lot better for my students. I am seeing less late/missing assignments, plus the students that work a little faster in lab are easily able to move on to the next circuit since it is right there in the packet. This is something I will try to utilize more moving forward. 

Here is the link to my Electrical Wiring Notebook! 

As the student's begin their electrical wiring unit, we first have to review the "Rules of Wiring". Students create a key in their packets to help them correctly diagram every circuit before beginning the wiring process. 

Small Gas Engines is still working through there school engines. Most students have completed disassembled, cleaned, honed, lapped and tap/died their engines and are about ready to reassemble. With many students at different parts, lab can sometimes feel like organized chaos, however every student is fully engaged for the 82 minutes and I am definitely seeing progress in their knowledge of the different parts of the engine. One thing I want to work on moving forward is bringing together their engine system theory knowledge from the online days and what they are seeing each day in lab as they work on their engines. Two ways I have been doing this is by asking intentional questions about what we are learning on theory days as I check off their prep and reassembly scripts, and having some short Kahoot reviews before we jump into the work for the day. Any suggestions on how to better integrate/review the systems theory into lab days?? 

For my other pre-service teachers, below are the links to my Engine Theory Notebooks. If you have any suggestions on how to make them better, please let me know! 

Ignition

Compression

Cooling and Lubrication

Fuel and Carburetors

Ag Business has jumped head first into the Marketing Unit. After a day of intro and notes, I assigned them a project that pulls from the FFA Marketing CDE. Students have to work in small groups to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a product of their choice. They will then have to present their plan to the class (stakeholders). If I'm being honest, marketing notes can be quite boring, so I felt the best way for students to learn about the 4 P's and SWOT analysis was to jump right in and start applying them to a real world example. So far the students seem to be loving it. Stay tuned to see how the presentations turn out! 

For the Marketing Plan Assignment, I provided students with the necessary notes for the unit, but then sent them on their way to dive right in. I placed some examples and additional resources on the front table for the groups to take if they wanted as well. 

This past week also brought with it the County LDE contests. I have not had a lot of LDE/CDE experience in the past so this was a great opportunity to to learn how these contests are run and what to expect (even though they looked a little different online this year). I helped to manage the Jr. Prepared contest, and assisted as our Parli Pro team competed. As and FFA advisor we are also coaches for our LDE/CDE teams, and my first experience with this role was coaching the two creed speakers for this year. We met once or twice a week to practice body language, inflection on our words, and how to answer questions. As my students logged in for their time slots, my heart was probably beating faster then theirs, and I am proud to say both of my students have moved onto regionals! 

It's hard to believe that I am 2/3 of the way through my student teaching internship. As I look back I am amazed by how much I have learned so far from both my CTs and these students. As I walk into next week, I will be learning how to wrap up a marking period and all that comes with that. Check back for an update and wish me luck as I try to get my students to submit their missing assignments!