So, this week was actually a lab that I was really excited about. The task, I thought, was simple: present the students with a problem. They do not necessarily need to find the answer or a correct one, but we at least needed to get our problem out there.
I was really excited to continue in working on my Quality Assurance unit, so I decided to write my lesson plan with Immunizations. The task: give the students a scenario and have them solve for the correct amount of medication. Then they were able to actually administer the vaccine to their animal (and by animal, I mean fruit).
How Did it Go?
Very very poorly. My stress levels got to me, and I completely jumped around my plan. I started rushing through my directions and my scenarios. The worst part of it all, I questioned my ability to teach during my lesson.
Turns out that my lesson plan was not one to be taught in the Ag classroom. My approach was wrong, and I did not present the lesson well anyway. It felt as though I was kicked down and out for the count.
How Can I Improve?
Obviously, scratching out this lesson completely from my unit. It looks as though I will be rewriting this unit plan and figure out a new approach on everything I teach.
It was one of those labs that made me wonder if I am actually cut out to teach. I guess we shall see at the conclusion of these next two semesters.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Evaluating Learning
Throughout their time in school, obviously, students are taking in a bunch of information from their instructor. During that time, they are being evaluated on how well they are learning such information no matter what subject it to be.
Summative assessment includes thing such as tests and quizzes which are usually cumulative, and they include an end-of-unit grade.
We as future Agricultural Educators have the open door of many opportunities in evaluating our students. And the great part about it is that there is no "set" way to evaluate. I absolutely love having a variety of techniques (being that I am one of those people who get bored rather quickly) to use in each of my units.
What are the Types of Evaluation?
There are two main forms of evaluation. They are classified as either formative or summative assessment. Other forms include: direct and indirect assessment.
Summative assessment includes thing such as tests and quizzes which are usually cumulative, and they include an end-of-unit grade.
Formative assessment is different in the fact that the students are constantly being graded. They are evaluated not just at the end of the unit, but in fact throughout the course. Whether it be the teacher helping them on assignments or the student answering an in-class question, assessing our students formatively is continuous.
Direct assessment is based on a student's' ability to apply their knowledge into a real-world situation. Whereas, Indirect assessment is completed after the students have taken the course; this can be conducted in a survey format.
How Will I use These Methods?
I am super excited to implement many different methods of evaluation. Call me the evil teacher, but I enjoy giving tests; however, not all of my tests are written.
I already use formative and summative assessments with my 4-H kids, so using that in the classroom should not be too much of a hassle, In my electrical unit, for example, I will be giving an assignment to have the students layout the wiring for a house with using a maximum of a certain amount of watts. Throughout the unit I can constantly test their identification knowledge by asking them to grab certain tools.
In the case that I will be teaching students with IEPs, I plan on accommodating and modifying my assessments in the appropriate matter based on that individual students needs. I found this article that seems to have exactly what I agree with when evaluating students, which can also be changed up for exceptional learners.
Overall, I cannot wait to hand out my first assessment, whether it be to tear down and rebuild an engine or to list the function of the four stomachs in a ruminant. Here's to hoping it will all go well.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Working Towards the Future
Students will often wonder to themselves how they are going to use their schoolwork outside of the classroom later on in life. It is much easier to apply activities to the "real-world" in the Agricultural Education through activities ranging anywhere from greenhouse work to tearing apart a small gas engine.
Incorporating problem solving into our curriculum will help students in developing many needed skills that will benefit them after the bell rings. Problem solving can be used as a group or individual project, and our students can be as creative as they want.
According to one of the articles that we read, "Principles for Teaching Problem Solving" explained that there are many students who struggle and fail in literacy in their own school programs. Using problem solving techniques in the classroom will help benefit our students as it will affect them outside of school. The article stated that grown adults tend to struggle with basic skills such as determining the correct amount of change from an information menu.
It is sad that we have grown adults struggling in simple skills that they need to survive the"real-world". If they were only given the necessary tools, and proper teaching techniques through problem solving, they would have no problem counting the change out of a register.
So what did I get out of our readings? Use a variety of different problem solving techniques that requires the students to think through multiple ways of how these problems can be solved.
Here is an article that I feel really explain what problem solving is, and how it works for the students and the teachers.
Incorporating problem solving into our curriculum will help students in developing many needed skills that will benefit them after the bell rings. Problem solving can be used as a group or individual project, and our students can be as creative as they want.
It is sad that we have grown adults struggling in simple skills that they need to survive the"real-world". If they were only given the necessary tools, and proper teaching techniques through problem solving, they would have no problem counting the change out of a register.
So what did I get out of our readings? Use a variety of different problem solving techniques that requires the students to think through multiple ways of how these problems can be solved.
Here is an article that I feel really explain what problem solving is, and how it works for the students and the teachers.
From the Emblem of Washington
On Monday, October 5th, Mr. Matthew Holt (#psuaged16), Mr. Matthew Snyder (#psuaged17), and
myself took on a group of 19 new FFA Chapter Treasurers to show them the ropes on becoming successful during their role as officer.
We arrived early on the sunny Monday morning at the Blair County Convention Center to prepare ourselves for the arrival of the FFA members. Now, I have never attended Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) before, but I did know the basics as to what the students were to get out of the workshop.
Now, prior to FLC, we spent quite a bit of time in working on our lesson plan, gathering materials, and mentally preparing ourselves for the big day. There were some things that went well and some thing that, of course, could be improved on.
What Happened?
Sure enough, we could have thought of a more engaging first activity besides a Do Now 'Bellringer' type question, but it was early in the morning and we wanted to get these kids thinking. After greeting them at the door, we posed the question, "Who is one person you consider to be a good leader, and why?" We gave them close to two minutes to answer and share amongst the other officers in the room.
We had activities from drawing their own leader, to identifying receipts vs. disbursements through a kinesthetic ball activity, to even giving a mock Treasurer's Report and learning how to write a check. Soon enough, we realized that we were flying right through our lesson plan, and that we were going to run out of activities well before it was time to release the students.
How Did We Handle This?
As Mr. Holt was conducting one of this last activities, I did a little brainstorming. I ended up adding two more interactive activities. The students ended up creating an acronym for the word, "Treasurer". They had to come up with words that, obviously, related to their roles as the Treasurer and to keep it appropriate. The second filler activity I came up with was to build a roadmap. The roadmap had a 'Start' point, a long twisting and turning 'road', and a 'Finish' line. The 'Start' point was labelled 'Accepting the Role as Treasurer' and the students needed to identify the many different steps in order to get to the 'Finish' line (which was marked on our road as 'Success').
Also, we were talking about being the best officer during our Reflection Sandwich activity, and the kids were not excited about it at all. So We told them that the officer team themselves all create a sandwich. If they work hard enough, they will Be the Bacon on that sandwich. They absolutely loved that! Being that it was so close to lunch, the students reflected on how they can be better than the cheese and the tomato. Nothing is better than bacon!
How Can We Improve?
If I were given a re-do on this entire conference, there is quite a bit that I would change. I would definitely work more on communication with our shadow teacher; despite the fact that he did a great job throughout the workshop, I would have liked to get to know his teaching style and his comfort level in front of a 'class' prior to the day of FLC.
I would also re-write our entire lesson plan. It crossed my mind just a few days before FLC that we may have been cutting it close with lack of enough activities. I would have felt much more comfortable in creating a lesson plan with too many activities on it rather than not enough.
Well, I guess that we all live and learn. This leadership conference was definitely an experience to learn from. Let us hope that the next one is better.
myself took on a group of 19 new FFA Chapter Treasurers to show them the ropes on becoming successful during their role as officer.
We arrived early on the sunny Monday morning at the Blair County Convention Center to prepare ourselves for the arrival of the FFA members. Now, I have never attended Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) before, but I did know the basics as to what the students were to get out of the workshop.Now, prior to FLC, we spent quite a bit of time in working on our lesson plan, gathering materials, and mentally preparing ourselves for the big day. There were some things that went well and some thing that, of course, could be improved on.
What Happened?
Sure enough, we could have thought of a more engaging first activity besides a Do Now 'Bellringer' type question, but it was early in the morning and we wanted to get these kids thinking. After greeting them at the door, we posed the question, "Who is one person you consider to be a good leader, and why?" We gave them close to two minutes to answer and share amongst the other officers in the room.
We had activities from drawing their own leader, to identifying receipts vs. disbursements through a kinesthetic ball activity, to even giving a mock Treasurer's Report and learning how to write a check. Soon enough, we realized that we were flying right through our lesson plan, and that we were going to run out of activities well before it was time to release the students.
How Did We Handle This?
As Mr. Holt was conducting one of this last activities, I did a little brainstorming. I ended up adding two more interactive activities. The students ended up creating an acronym for the word, "Treasurer". They had to come up with words that, obviously, related to their roles as the Treasurer and to keep it appropriate. The second filler activity I came up with was to build a roadmap. The roadmap had a 'Start' point, a long twisting and turning 'road', and a 'Finish' line. The 'Start' point was labelled 'Accepting the Role as Treasurer' and the students needed to identify the many different steps in order to get to the 'Finish' line (which was marked on our road as 'Success').
How Can We Improve?
If I were given a re-do on this entire conference, there is quite a bit that I would change. I would definitely work more on communication with our shadow teacher; despite the fact that he did a great job throughout the workshop, I would have liked to get to know his teaching style and his comfort level in front of a 'class' prior to the day of FLC.
I would also re-write our entire lesson plan. It crossed my mind just a few days before FLC that we may have been cutting it close with lack of enough activities. I would have felt much more comfortable in creating a lesson plan with too many activities on it rather than not enough.
Well, I guess that we all live and learn. This leadership conference was definitely an experience to learn from. Let us hope that the next one is better.
Friday, October 2, 2015
The First (of Many) Unit Plans
For my very first unit, I thought to myself "Should I design my very first unit on a certain area that I am knowledgeable or where I need more practice?" I then decided to make my first unit with content that I am familiar with, so that I will be able to fill in the plan easily while still learning what actually goes into the unit plan.
So which unit did I choose?
I was very excited when Mr. Campbell (Ag Teacher at Derry High School) told me that he wanted me to teach this in four (out of the eight) classes that I will be teaching.
As a 4-H leader, I have to give Good Production Practice (GPP) training to all of my club members every year prior to the county round-up. GPP used to be known as Quality Assurance training, but has since been renamed since around 2013. I have also taken 8 years of Quality Assurance training myself as I was a 4-H member for just that long.
Being that I am only given 10 days to teach this unit to nearly 80 students, I wanted the content to be precise and able to get the message of Quality Assurance known to the students. I am a strong believer in good ethics and sportsmanship, and there is no better way to spread that through Quality Assurance.
The most challenging part in creating this unit was being able to cut enough information down to where it fits in just 10 days of instruction. From understanding how to give different types of injections, to proper housing, to disease awareness, there is simply a lot of information to cover in this subject area.
I plan on creating my next unit on one of the subjects I am not as familiar with, swine. I am kind of excited but a wee bit nervous in creating it. Any suggestions for activities during a three week swine unit will surely be welcome!
So which unit did I choose?
Quality Assurance
I was very excited when Mr. Campbell (Ag Teacher at Derry High School) told me that he wanted me to teach this in four (out of the eight) classes that I will be teaching.
As a 4-H leader, I have to give Good Production Practice (GPP) training to all of my club members every year prior to the county round-up. GPP used to be known as Quality Assurance training, but has since been renamed since around 2013. I have also taken 8 years of Quality Assurance training myself as I was a 4-H member for just that long.
Being that I am only given 10 days to teach this unit to nearly 80 students, I wanted the content to be precise and able to get the message of Quality Assurance known to the students. I am a strong believer in good ethics and sportsmanship, and there is no better way to spread that through Quality Assurance.
The most challenging part in creating this unit was being able to cut enough information down to where it fits in just 10 days of instruction. From understanding how to give different types of injections, to proper housing, to disease awareness, there is simply a lot of information to cover in this subject area.
I plan on creating my next unit on one of the subjects I am not as familiar with, swine. I am kind of excited but a wee bit nervous in creating it. Any suggestions for activities during a three week swine unit will surely be welcome!
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