This week I got my first taste of snow days from a teacher's perspective. While I loved the extra planning (and relaxing) time, it was not quite as fun trying to reorganize all my lessons and plans. Even though the school week was a little shorter, I found that their were still plenty of positive learning opportunities for my students!
On Wednesday I changed my plans a bit and had both my online and in person groups set up their foundational SAE projects in AET. I think this experience was just as beneficial to me (maybe even more) as it was to my students. Navigating AET (Agricultural Experience Tracker), which is the main tool students use to track their time, finances, and accomplishments related to their Ag classes and SAE experiences, is something that I needed practice in as well. I can now say that I feel pretty confident in my own knowledge and ability to help my students as they grow.
On Thursday and Friday my in person students dove deeper into shop safety. In addition to going over some important notes, the students created a safety podcast episode focusing on different safety rules, potential hazards/violations and preventative measures. I ran into a few issues, mostly timing for the podcast activity, but by the end of the week I would say my safety lessons were a success. All of my in person students created a great podcast episode that they can put into their online portfolios and each student was able to complete our shop safety exam with a 100% and they are ready to step into the shop next week!
For the remainder of the week my online students continued to investigate their future career interests by taking the agexplorer.com career finder test. After taking the quiz students filled out a personal career plan that we will expand on later in the semester. Students also took time to complete a skill-up certification and work on their foundational SAEs.
Looking forward to next week I have a few personal goals to improve my instruction:
1. I want to have more clarity (an important characteristic of effective teaching according to Rosenshine & Furst) in my activity directions and time restraints. I plan to do this by asking students to repeat my instructions after I have given them to ensure understanding and by incorporating a countdown clock on the board while students work.
2. I want to start out my classes with more enthusiasm ( another important characteristic of effective teaching according to Rosenshine & Furst) and engagement. I think this will help students to get into the right mindset and improve student engagement throughout the lesson. I plan to do this by being more intentional in my transition from homeroom activities to class time.
3. I want to find a way to encourage and motivate students to complete online theory day assignments. I'm afraid this may be a continuous challenge throughout the semester, and since these days are asynchronous it is hard to get students to understand the importance since I am not right their with them to explain. I have emphasized the importance of these days to the students a few times already, and explained that they need to be completed before we can begin the "fun" shop activities, however it is still a struggle. I may try to incorporate some sort of "prize" for students that complete all their theory day activities in the future.
Questions:
What types of incentive do you use to motivate students to complete online work?
How do you increase student engagement in class? Any tips for getting students more excited about in class activities?
Hi Elise - I love your podcast activity! I also struggle to get my students to complete asynchronous assignments, but something I am trying is giving badges in Schoology. There is a feature where you can create your own and award them to students who go above and beyond!
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