Technology Reading Reflection

Many thoughts are racing through my mind as I watch the videos in preparation of our #TeachAg Genius project.

As someone who is about to start student teaching in a few short months, I wonder to myself if I will ever have an impact on my students enough that they will remember beyond the classroom. I want my students to know that they have the power to achieve anything as far and as high they deem possible. Just because we do not have a horizontal driver's license does not mean that we do not understand what is going on around us.

I was truly inspired by Angela Maiers speaking on how two simple words can change lives. What are those two words, you might ask? You Matter. Maiers spoke on how many people throughout their lives feel as though they are unnoticed or that they do not matter to others. The power of noticing is so extreme and has such an impact on others. As a future educator, I hope to have some sort of an impact on my students to make sure that they all get noticed; to make sure that they make sure that they know "You Matter".

One thing I absolutely hated throughout school was being so bench pressed for time in mastering a skill. As soon as I learned that Pythagorean Theorem, I was not taught how it applied in real-life before we moved on to another formula . Dr. Tae spoke some very true words as,

All of us can share and teach. It is our responsibility to distribute and share what we know. We can all be great teachers; we can share our knowledge freely and really change our world. Knowledge should not be selfish. Teaching and learning are part of our cultural habits. They should not just be something we do in school.

How can we have our students wanting to come back every day? How can we create lessons that will make us lock our doors to keep others out? How can we make such an impact? How can we tweak our teaching to make it the best?

The Interest Approach- AEE 412 Lab

This week's lab was actually one that I was excited to write a lesson plan for. After a little bit of a debate with myself, I decided to select a unit I will be teaching in the spring that I have a little bit of knowledge about, Sheep & Goats. Surely I could think of an idea to get students to engage about learning a few of the breeds of sheep.

I decided to create a kinesthetic game to try and keep students engaged throughout the entirety of the interest approach. So I made a game. Not just any game though. I made a flyswatter game. This game I decided to add a little bit of a suspense to add a level of competition. On the whiteboard, I created a PowerPoint. On each slide, I had four pictures of different breeds of sheep. I would then list off either the breed name or a characteristic of a breed that appeared on that particular slide. The student were then able to "swat" the picture in which they believed was the correct answer. This took a few minutes, and I ended with having the students go back to their seats to move on to our Sheep Breeds PowerPoint in which they were given a chart to fill out for that lesson.

Although I felt that this interest approach was successful, there were a few things that I could have done to make it better.

1. Background music... I had a song uploaded and ready to go to add a bit more of a competitive suspense, but I forgot to hit the 'play' button. I feel that the flyswatter game would have been a bit more engaging with the theme song to The Amazing Race playing in the background.

2. Clarity in instruction. I did this in my previous lab, and I did it in this lab. I got lost in my words. I slurred a few words, mixed up some words, and even messed up the order of my directions in explaining the game. I asked if anyone had any questions, and I needed to repeat ALL of my instructions. Turns out that half of the students were lost as to what to do.

3. Don't rely on safety nets. Ok, I like to have something in my hand when I teach. It turns out that I didn't even realise that I was holding my lesson plan in my hand the ENTIRE TIME waving it around all over the place. I only looked at it twice, and even then I did not need my lesson plan glued to the palm of my hand the entire time. I had distracted students because of the waving paper in my hand.

Although I had a few little quirks during this lab, I feel that this was pretty successful. I had the students wanting to swat that sheep on the screen, and we were ready to move on to our lesson for the day. My goals for future labs include: leave the lesson plan out of area of distraction and focus on my own wording. Better luck next week.

Creating Objectives

Our readings for this week included a great article on creating objectives and using cooperative learning. Of course, there are many teacher out there who struggle with either (or even both) of these topics. Just take a look at my previous blog where I completely forgot to even mention my objectives during this week's lab.

I have spent a majority of my time figuring out how one forms a lesson plan and the components within them. Now that I have read Dr. Whittington's article, I have a much better understanding as to what I need to do to prepare myself when working on my objectives. 

Dr. Whittington has a great analogy of the class as a road trip. In order for the students to reach their "final destination", whether it be for the lesson that day or for the whole unit, they need a good map of the roads that will be taken from the very beginning. Just earlier today, I took a trip across three different counties in Pennsylvania, and I was very grateful to have my map (although it was a GPS) to guide me along the way. I relied on it heavily, and I could only imagine how lost I would be without it. This can only be compared to providing students with quality objectives from the start of their 'engines'. Without objectives, how can they reach their final destination?

This would have been very beneficial knowledge to have of creating lesson plans throughout my junior year as an undergraduate as I feel that my lesson plans I am creating today would be so much stronger in the objectives portion specifically. And hey, practice makes [near] perfect, right? 

The article has a great section on the usage of verbs, and that will stick with me from her on out. Using verbs such as "Students will be able to describe..." is so powerful compared to sticking with "Students will be able to understand..." The verbs are even divided up into the cognitive levels of Remembering, Processing, Creating, and Evaluating which were basically simplified from the Cognitive Domain of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Overall, writing objectives is just a new skill for myself and for many others in my cohort. Being able to create them in order to challenge students to think is the ultimate goal and my current task at hand.

(Student + Teacher)^Classroom Engagement x Multiple Intelligences = Student Learning

The First Day of School- AEE 412 Lab

Welcome to Intro. to Agriculture!

Today, I played the role of the Agriscience instructor on the very first day of school. I rewatched my RTL lab, revisited my Learner Satisfaction Forms from the previous lab, thought about the different teaching techniques and E-moments we have learned in these last few weeks, and I decided on what I wanted to do for my "First Day of School". Overall, I wanted to keep the lesson flowing. I did not want a lot of "awkward" pauses. 


As a left-brained introvert, I can tell you that I struggle with words and keeping the conversation going. It took me a while to get comfortable in a 4-H meeting to try and keep things going, so I struggled with building up my confidence levels to relax enough in the classroom; however, I put on my big girl pants and thought to myself  'Go ahead and be that teacher who swims on the classroom floor. The only ones who with judge you are the students.' I thought back to our summer reading,Teach Like a Pirate, for inspiration on the first day of school.


After reviewing my recording, and watching a few of my peers videos, I realised that I did not do a perfect job. There are many areas that I could definitely improve such as:

1. My Objectives. Although I feel that my objectives were adequate, they were written on the corner of the board (was not very smart as some students probably struggled to view them). I also completely forgot to read my objectives! Surely, it did cross my mind afterwards that I didn't verbally say my objectives (perhaps it was my nerves where they skipped over that part). I do give myself credit for not forgetting to post them on the board though!

2. Organization. At the very beginning of this semester, I vowed to myself to maintain organization with my classes. Looks like I need to take a bit more time to actually think out where I am going to place the different activities into my lesson. The introduction activity probably should have been placed at the beginning of the class period, and my interest approach could have definitely ran a bit smoother.

3. Clarity. Ok, my introduction activity was a bit confusing. Rewording my instructions would have probably saved me some time. Also, as someone who struggles in typical daily communication I need to make sure I have clear and concise statements. 

Well, with that being said, I did not have a horrible lesson. All of my feedback stated that I had great enthusiasm and a passion for the subject. It makes me so glad that my passion for agriculture actually came through to others during my lesson. Apparently, my presence was one of the positives too. Makes me glad that I have the potential to actually become one of those Agricultural Teachers one day.

For my next lab, I know that I need to take more time in mentally preparing myself, I must not forget to mention any of the important details (such as objectives), start practicing more of my communication skills outside of the classroom that way I am better prepared inside the classroom, and be confident in my teaching ability!

Engaging By Design

"A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil to learn 
is hammering on a cold iron."
-Horace Mann

As a 4-H leader, I often think about what I want my members to learn and how I can make it fun and engaging. Surely, learning about rabbit color genetics with Punnetts Square does not sound too interesting in the mind of an 8 year old 4-Her, but it certainly can be with the right instruction!

What do you want your students to learn? What material are we going to be able to cover today? How about a week from now? What is the end goal for this unit and/or lesson? It all starts with proper planning. I know that it will not take me an hour to design my very first unit, but I can at least begin to outline my ultimate goals.

Engaging the students is something that takes a lot of my time when I plan for 4-H meetings, but I know the kids enjoy it whenever they talk to me outside of the meetings wanting more information to expand their knowledge even further. That is one of the most rewarding parts of my position. I like how Dave Burgess said in his book Teach Like a Pirate, "Obviously, you can't serve people raw steak on a plate. However, that's exactly what some educators serve their students every day. Teachers like this walk into class with their raw, unseasoned content, plop it down in front of their kids and say, 'Eat it!' They don't bother to provide a side dish, and dessert is way too much trouble," (page 77).

This is where incorporating Burgess' Three Circle Model of Presentation, Content, and Technique/Method really comes into play. It is very important to think about those three areas when preparing to teach. 

Perhaps thinking outside the box and maybe incorporating some technology in the classroom will help engage students.Here is an article I have found that talks about technology and how it might actually be a way to engage your students. As an educator, we need to work on how we want to achieve our goals. If we did not need to put any effort into our lessons, even in an Ag Mechanics class, I know that I would get bored very easily.

Derry Presentation Video

Check out this video I made about the Derry Area High School Agricultural Education Program where I will be completing my student teaching experience this January 2016!

The First Weekly Writing

Efficient: Doing things right

Effective: Doing the right thing

An Effective teacher Affects lives. ~Wong

One of my biggest fears is the first day in the classroom. I have no idea how to begin. Sure, there is the typical introduction of yourself and the classroom, but how does one simply portray the authoritative role effectively? I am certain that this semester will help build my foundation of who I am as a teacher in order to give me the confidence of walking in on the first day. After reading a few articles, I have come to the conclusion that being the effective teacher takes time. You cannot simply walk in and expect everything to work out for the better.

The three P's that I have stood out from me from all of the articles are "Passion", "Practice", and "Performance". 

A true teacher is passionate about what they do. They wake up in the morning wanting to be preparing our future leaders. They have the drive to research for hours outside of school on ways to improve their skills and lessons. When one of those teachers are in the classroom, their 'performance' is inspiring. Some of these teachers are born with the ability to inspire, but others, like myself, need to work harder for that tite. The article by Vaugh really helped as it pushed through just a few ways of being an effective teacher.

As someone who loved to get into the blue corduroy and was driven by the art of music throughout high school, I understand the passion that a majority of true teachers feel whenever they get into the classroom. Here is an article that I found that truly speaks for the passion of teachers.

Earlier this summer, I attended an online webinar for our summer reading "Teach Like A Pirate" and captured
this image from the slideshow. I found this image really powerful and hope to one day have this hanging up in my own classroom. Until that moment when I get my own classroom, this image will remain on the desktop of my computer as a constant reminder of what I strive to be.

I look forward to going into my second week of fall semester. Putting these newly learned skills to good use are a must.

The First AEE 413 Lab Session- RTL

On Monday, each of us in the cohort drew packets anonymously to get assigned topics to teach in a fifteen minute time slot. Today was performance day on that lesson!

I drew the "Chess" lesson, and my objectives were to have the students be able to recognize the pieces that are used in chess, have students be able to correctly layout the chess pieces on the game board, and have students be able to identify the value of each piece. After some planning time, I decided on what I would like to do for my interest approach and let the rest of the lesson flow from that.

I decided to set up my interest approach as a form of "Tool Identification", and I had the students get out of their seats and come to the front of the room to see if they were able to identify any of the pieces (chessboard, pawn, rook, etc.). After a minute, the students were asked to go back to their seats and share their observations. They were then asked if they ever played the game of chess; surprisingly only one-third of the class has ever played chess. I then proceeded on with my lesson of the point values per chess piece, and how they were each set out on the board. After I was given my 'five minute warning' I passed out the quizzes and gave them some time to complete it, and we went over it together as a group; however, I was given my 60 second warning, so I rushed to finish going over our last few questions.

After reviewing the video of my teaching performance and going over the learner satisfaction forms, I feel that my teaching ability is not ready yet! There are definitely parts that could have gone better. I really need to work on my presence in front of the classroom. My confidence level just needs a boost (perhaps it just needs caffeine) and I need to be aware of the fact that I actually can use the space provided known as the classroom. 

The first time teaching in front of my peers, being video recorded, and being evaluated sure put the pressure on me, and I know that I did not perform as best of my ability. We can only shoot for better results in the future. It is only onward from here!

The First Two SAE Visits

August 20, 2015

Today was a very fun filled day at Derry FFA!

It started off with discussing classes and class units that I will need to prepare myself for this coming January 

 

2016. After working on that for about two hours (got into quite the discussion about lesson ideas), observing the students who came in to help for the day was a must! Officers Mia and Jessica came by to work on their floral arrangements for the Westmoreland Fair. As a student coming from no plant science in my background, I learned a lot about what oasis is and how to use it in floral design.

We then got a shipment of poinsettias in, so we took advantage of the time and planted all of the bulbs. It took approximately thirty minutes to get all of the flowers bedded with five people manning the greenhouse. Let me tell you, it was a LOT of bulbs! Although, it was nice actually getting dirt under my nails and learning the ropes of what goes on in the greenhouse.

Once those were complete, we called a few students up to see who was available for an SAE project visit. Found out that students do not like to answer their phone, and Mr. Campbell received a text message from two girls saying that they were going to be around for us to be able to visit.

The first girl we went to visit is an upcoming sophomore named Katie. She has a garden that she tends to for a friend of her mother's, and she cans the vegetables from them. She brought a whole box full of canned pickles, tomatoes and peppers along for us to view and explained to us that she has been canning with her mother for a few years now.

Katie actually purchased her peppers from the Derry Flower Shop, and she was amazed that they grew so well.  She has everything from watermelon to squash to peppers to asparagus to tomatoes and more, and they seemed to be free of weeds and diseases.

As soon as we stepped foot in the garden, mother nature decided to let the rain come on pounding down, but no worries, a little liquid sunshine never stopped an ag teacher from doing an SAE visit.


Along with her garden, Katie also has a horse. Blue is a registered American Quarter Horse that she purchased a little over two years ago.

Katie explained that Blue suffered from a stifle injury just before she got him and he has had some trouble with it

since. She has been restricted to minimal riding work with Blue because of his injury, but you can tell that the horse is well cared for. The barn was very well tended and the gelding was in very good health condition.

Katie is actually a tuition student at Derry High School, so it was an interesting experience going about a half hour away from the school to find a students house. 

It was nice being able to see the variety in Katie's projects and getting to know one of the students who I will be teaching the the Large Animal Science class this coming spring. 

The second SAE visit was to a girls house name Emiley. Emiley is an upcoming sophomore at Derry and she has an Exploratory Equine Science project.

Emiley recently rescued an OTTB (Off the Track Thoroughbred) and has been working hard on improving his health and body condition while keeping him fit. She also has a dark bay mare who used to be used in the show jumping circuit, but has recently injured herself so she has been working on getting the mare sound to ride her again. 

Emiley competes extensively in the hunt seat ring, and she even competed for Oak Run Stable. We even discussed her competing in the Horse Judging CDE at State Days next June, and that seemed to spark a bit of an interest from her.

She was unable to catch her horses in the field, but we were able to see them from the distance (so no photos of those bay beauties); however we were able to see her ribbon collection from summer competitions, and how her new barn was set up

Overall, I had a great experience with completing my first two SAE visits. I cannot wait to go on them someday for my own students as the Ag Educator. 

Derry Officer Retreat

The cabin at Pine Ridge Park

Secretary Phillip making corn on the cob over a fire.

After a long day at work, a much needed drive to Blairsville was needed. The newly elected officer team for Derry FFA spent the day building a relationship as a team in order to crank out a lot of work prior to the beginning of the school year. A long gravel road to Pine Ridge Park lead to a cabin in the woods which was filled with leadership activities.

The day started off with picking the Derry FFA Chapter's theme for the year. After some time for discussion, it was voted to have a very fitting them of "New Beginnings".

The officers then went off to practice their parts, and came back to share their parts together in their own opening ceremony. After that, Mr. Campbell thought of a topic for each officer, and they had to write a speech on that topic and perform that speech in front of their peers.

The officers made lunch and immediately went into building their Program of Activities (POA) for the 2015-16 activity year.

By the time I arrived, the officer team was in the middle of practicing their parliamentary procedure in a mock meeting. Each student was assigned an action (2nd a motion, Adjourn the meeting, etc.). 

Once that was over, the students went all out and cooked an amazing dinner. Phil went to making the corn on the cob, Jessica took to making burgers that was actually beef from a steer she raised, and everyone else pitched in to prep the table and make the rest of the food.

This was a first experience for myself as we never had anything like this in my high school FFA chapter for the officers. I highly recommend every chapter to do an event like this, and you will definitely see this future teacher do something similar to this as an Ag Teacher.

President Jessica preparing the burgers for dinner.

The Intro...

So this is how it begins in nearly every blog...

My name is Samantha Sessamen and I am completing my senior year at Penn State University where I will be finishing my degree in Agricultural & Extension Education. In these next few paragraphs, you will learn a bit about my history and how I got to where I am today.
As a little girl, I never imagined that my life would be where it is today. Being born in New York City, I can t,ell you that I was far from a country girl. Halfway through elementary school, I moved to the rural town of Tyrone, Pennsylvania.

Shortly after arriving to central PA, I was introduced to the 4-H program. My father introduced me to showing lambs and goats in 4-H, and that is where I found my passion. I loved working with animals and even shadowed a veterinarian throughout middle school and high school. I even joined a 4-H horse club where I competed in various events from production to hunt seat riding.

Once I reached high school, I joined the Tyrone Area FFA Chapter. I was immediately involved in CDE's such as Public Speaking, Ag Mechanics, and Soil Judging. I had no less than two SAE projects at one time and had as many as four at once; they included: market lamb, market goat, sheep production, off-farm employment, rabbit production, and market rabbit. I was intrigued by the FFA Organization and worked my up from Treasurer to Vice-President to President. I enjoyed every minute of my membership; even received my Keystone (state) Degree and American Degree along the way. 

Throughout high school, I really was passionate about animal science and was able to pursue some of my projects. I purchased my very first pair of registered Tunis Ewes from a retiring breeder in Bedford County. I then went out and bought a registered Tunis Ram from Maple Hollow Farm a few months later. I loved my little Tunis herd and eventually grew it by adding a few more ewes and throwing in some Suffolk ewes to breed for my market lamb projects. Sadly, as soon as I started going to college, I was struggling to dedicate myself enough to my flock, so I was forced to sell my sheep.


However, I was able to attend a few local rabbit shows in my area, and I decided to become a registered member through the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA). I have had rabbits for years, but it was not until 2012 when I decided to get serious in showing and breeding. I had a herd of New Zealand and Californian rabbits, and decided to play around with which breeds I actually liked. The New Zealand rabbit was my first love as they are the classic meat rabbit; they are great mothers and I love the look of a slick looking commercial rabbit. I sold my Californians and played around with many other breeds (however I kept my New Zealands along the way) from Holland Lops to Mini Rex to English Lops to Belgian Hares and Checkered Giants. I have been blessed to be able to exhibit and show my rabbits anywhere from Pennsylvania to New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and even Texas from the local to the National Convention.


Now that I am coming upon my student teaching, I am selling my rabbits (except for one) to lessen the load on my family at home who helps me care for them while I am at school. Although I am very sad to sell my rabbits, I know that there is only a short time left between myself and graduation, so I can get back with my lagomorphs!

Today, I have started my own 4-H club  where I am the head project leader for the Blair County Bounding Bunnies 4-H Club. My goal is to be involved with 4-H and Extension for the rest of my life; it is my passion. My ultimate goal is to educate the leaders of tomorrow in agriculture. With the foundation that Penn State and those involved in Agricultural & Extension Education, I believe that I am well on my way to being prepared to take on anything placed in front of me.

I am excited to be preparing myself in student teaching at Derry Area High School under the instruction of Roy Campbell during spring of 2016. I hope you continue to join me with this blog throughout this journey