Life Knowledge Lesson

This morning, I made the travel to Derry, PA to teach an FFA Life Knowledge lesson to the students. Being that I was to teach two classes of freshmen students, I decided to not go into the advanced Life Knowledge choices; however, I stuck with some introducing knowledge. The lesson I chose to teach today was titled "Defining Leadership" and I felt it was most appropriate to teach to two classes of Introduction to Agriculture/Horticulture freshmen.

I was nervous when I stood in front of the class that seated the 12 students in 1st period at 7:50 in the morning. It was a crisp morning and an early-dismissal day for students to start their Thanksgiving break, so you can say that their minds were thinking of mashed potatoes, turkey, and other festivities. 

After morning announcements, the students went to the barn to care for their chickens for the first ten minutes of class. I could already tell that this class would be like pulling teeth. Mr. Campbell ended his class announcements with "...and now, Ms. Sessamen is going to teach you about life." I smiled when the students sighed at the thoughts of some random student coming into their class for the day to teach them about life. Well, I directed them to the board where I had the Bellwork written for them to complete on scratch paper. What was the Bellwork?

List 2 opportunities you recently had to influence someone in a positive manner.

They were given three minutes to complete it.

After the three minutes ran out, I explained that I did not know anyone there, so we are each going to share our names and one of our influences we captured on our sheet to the Bellwork. I introduced myself and gave an example, then I let them go around the room with introduction. Grant it, I am no good at memorizing names, but I had about 3-4 of 1st period down in my head.

We went on about the class by separating into 4 groups, and each group was now stranded on an island. Each group was given a list of terms that are typically used to describe leaders and they had to select five terms that they believe will help them in being a successful leader. They had to select a representative from each group and present their case/argument to the Ultimate Leader. The Ultimate Leader (me) then decides if their case is strong enough to let them off the island and back to civilization. Now, 1st period acted as though they never got their morning coffee, so it was hard having them getting started with the activity. But once I made my way around the different groups, they started to get the hang of things.

After the groups made it back to civilization, we defined leadership. I told the class that leadership comes in many shapes and sizes and forms and it does not have to be someone famous. I had a few volunteers share who their ideas of good leaders were and their answers were:

• Parents
• Teachers
• Siblings
• Family
• Presidents

Exactly! Leadership is an influence-- the ability to gain followers. Their examples were right on the money!

The view right across from Derry Area High School

Being that class was coming to a close, we ended with a worksheet listing examples of leadership challenges. The students needed to list 5 different events where someone has influenced them, how they were influenced, and what the results of the influence were. This was the students "Ticket Out" and they ended getting full credit for their worksheets.

Now, 2nd period was a group of 18 students and they were a much more lively group. Certainly, this group tested my classroom management skills, but they certainly were fun to teach! They took a bit longer on the activities, but that is because they kept asking questions. I loved how they kept coming up with questions where we ended up collaborating as a class.

I actually ended up enjoying this Life Knowledge Lesson to two classes of Introduction to Ag/Hort. Talking with Mr. Campbell after the classes, we came to the conclusion that I handled the classes we. I had a presence in front of the classroom and seemed to enjoy just being there, and my clarity of instruction has certainly improved.

Classroom Management

Oh joy. Something that certainly most (if not all) teachers and student teacher worry about, classroom management. Now, there are many techniques used in the classroom for teachers to achieve smooth sailing throughout the school year.

I found this article of 21 Tips and Tricks in Classroom Management that I feel everyone who is planning on teaching should know. It helps with defining the techniques to use when a student gets their assignments done early to modeling desired behavior.

Whenever I started my 4-H club, I wanted my members to view me as the instructor and someone they feel comfortable enough to talk to with their projects. I constantly strive to build up confidence and engagement in my members at each and every meeting. Certainly, it can be tough whenever the kids are a little rowdy and wound up on snacks and sugar, but I manage to pull them back together.

Overall, we need to learn that we will get the hang of the classroom with time. It will not happen right away, but it will certainly happen.

Microteaching with the Pirates

I was excited to be able to teach the Introduction to Ag/Horticulture class from Tuesday thru Thursday. While observing them on Monday, I realised that this class was not the rowdiest bunch of the day; however, it was the LAST class of the day. Keeping their attention instead of having them thinking about the countdown to go home would certainly be one of my main struggles. Another struggle I was going to have was having the students call me "Ms. Sessamen". I did not know that I was going to be teaching students who I used to be in 4-H with, and they obviously knew me by my first name.

This past week, I had the opportunity to observe and microteach at the home of the Pirates, aka Williamsburg Area High School. I spent Monday observing classes with Ms. Royer and Mrs. Gouger to see what we were getting ourselves into over the course of the next three days.

On my first day (Tuesday), we went over the parts of the emblem. We discussed the five symbols of the FFA Emblem and researched their meanings. I ended up having a mishap with the copier earlier that morning, so I was unable to get copies of the worksheet I wanted my students to fill out with each emblem symbol and their meanings. Instead, I had them take a blank sheet of paper and create the worksheet themselves. I think that having them create their own worksheet ended up working out for the better as they demonstrated their ability to follow directions, which they ended up doing pretty well. At the end of the class, I decided to have a little bit of fun and have each student design their own FFA Emblem. How did they do that? With COOKIES of course! We had vanilla wafers, icing, sprinkles, food coloring, and an assortment of items for them to be as creative as they wish. The best part was being able to eat their emblem as the bell rang.

Wednesday consisted of learning about FFA officers and their responsibilities. This was a rather informational lesson with a PowerPoint of each officer position and learning the officer parts. I ended up having a PowerPoint worksheet to ensure that the students were able to follow along during the lecture, and we ended up going over it at the end of class.

On my final day, we had another informational lesson with going over FFA Official Dress and reviewing everything that we went over while I was microteaching with them. We did not have a sample of the entire official dress, but we did have an assortment of ties and a sample of the official jacket. We discussed the "Dos and Don'ts" of FFA Official Dress and had the students select the appropriate attire when it came to ties/scarves (since that is what we had available). We ended my microteaching journey with a review game of everything that we went over that week while I was there. I divided the class into two groups and we had each team show their knowledge in our review game.

Overall, the students were great. I had an exciting group of 8th-10th grade students who seemed to enjoy being in class. I wish, however, that this microteaching experience was offered earlier in the semester (or even in a previous semester) so we can actually understand what it is that we student teachers are getting ourselves into.

Inquiry Based Instruction- AEE 412 Lab

During the National FFA Convention this year, I had the opportunity to sit in on a teacher workshop called "The Livestock Dating Game." That workshop is where I was introduced the Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI), and once it was completed, I had many different ideas soaring through my mind as to how I can facilitate my own IBI lesson in a few of the units that need preparation.

What Did I Do?

Well, I took some time to brainstorm as to how I can incorporate IBI into the Ag Construction course where I was given two units from the Derry Ag Instructor, Mr. Campbell, to go all out an have fun with. The two units that I had the choices of were Electrical Wiring and Plumbing. Hmm... I needed to get my creative juices flowing.

I got it! I could do an activity based out of the Electrical Wiring Unit by using magnetism as the topic. Then it was time to come up with an activity. After using a few resources, I decided to have an activity where the students create a compass.

How Did it Work?

The students were given a scenario where they were lost in the woods with no cell phone and no map. They knew that their camp was in the southeastern corner of the woods and they needed to get back before sunset. Using the items in their travel pack, they needed to create something that would help them in finding their way back to camp.

Eventually, time ran out and the students had to clean up their desks as the bell was about to ring for the next period. They got super close in figuring out how to locate the poles on their magnetized paperclips, but they did not quite get there.

What are my Thoughts?

At the very end of the lesson, I had three main thoughts racing through my mind. They were as follows:

1. Come on, Samantha, you need to be more clear in your instruction. 
• Clarity is key! Yes, I know I have mentioned that before. Although I feel that this lesson was so much better than my other labs, I still need to be more clear. I had students as for the directions over again, and it was frustrating for myself to stop and slow down.
2. Seriously Samantha? How can you facilitate more effectively without pacing around in circles and it seem like you're hovering over the students?
• Even when I was rewatching my lab in the video, I got sick of watching myself pace back and forth and back and forth throughout the room. Surely, it was difficult to keep entertained as I had 1 group of students to facilitate (if I had 4-5 groups, I would not be pacing as much).
3. Know the material! 
• Now, Electrical Wiring is certainly not a critical part of my knowledge base. When it came to the students asking me questions about the material, I did not know how to answer them. They came up with some interesting questions, and I ended up researching the answers afterwards.

Overall

The most rewarding thing about this lesson was after it was concluded and the camera was shut off. One of the 'students' said, "I really enjoyed this, and would love for you to share this with me. I really want to do this when I student teach." Who knew? Maybe I can actually do something right every once in a while.

Inquiry-based Learning

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the National FFA Convention (which you will be hearing more about in an upcoming post, I promise) where it was recommended to attend a teacher workshop if we were able. I was lucky enough to attend one of those workshops with my cooperating teacher, Mr. Campbell,  and we learned a lot.

The topic: The Livestock Dating Game

This was an inquiry-based lesson demonstrated by three Ag teachers from across the United States, and it taught me what Inquiry-based lessons and learning really was.

Let me tell you how it went...

The instructors asked for three male volunteers and one female volunteer to head to the front of the room. The interest approach was basically a bachelorette heifer looking for her soulmate in one of the three bulls. Each of the bulls read their descriptions and the entire class had the chance to vote for their pick of the herd.

Once that was completed, the presenters handed out some geography books and some laminated cards. We proceeded on with our activity by basically choosing which two breeds of cattle to cross that would fit the needs of a country in which each of our pairs were assigned.

We researched our country and choose a cross between a Florida Cracker and a Brahman, and the presenters went around the room to pass out results cards. These cards were random, so the results varied among each of the pairs. When that was completed, we discussed our results and were able to develop further questions from the activity.

So, what is Inquiry-based learning?

It is basically a learning process where the students are in control. The manage what they investigate, what questions to form, etc. The teacher ends up playing the role as the facilitator as they spend less time in lecture form and more time in the actually learning activity,

According to our reading, Inquiry-based learning is very beneficial for students and helps improve student success. It is obvious to see as they are actually applying their knowledge and digging deeper into the content.

In an additional article that I found (click here for article), it explains that there are definitely benefits for Inquiry-based learning. It helps in improving their science, research, and literacy skills, but there was not a significant difference between Inquiry-based and traditional curricula.

What are my Thoughts?

I really enjoyed that Inquiry-based workshop at the National FFA Convention, so I highly recommend using this tool in the classroom. Students have the ability to apply the knowledge learned from the activities to outside of the classroom, and they feel in control of their activity. Teachers can definitely take this and mold it into any shape they want and run with it!