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!