Remaining Flexible: Week 3 Student Teaching ATHENS Style

Here is a short... NOPE Scratch that... detailed...re-cap of my week up here in the Northern Tier!

Monday:
Students were still pretty fired up from our power-outage on Friday, and then we had a two hour lockdown in the morning! While students in general are easily distracted and find it hard to focus, I will say that Monday was an especially difficult day. Students were confused, tense, and concerned about the lockdown that we had earlier, and many of the remaining lessons started with a conversation about the importance of safety, and how Athens has their best interest in mind. At one point, as Mr. Steinfelt reviewed the lockdown procedure with the students, that we are all to remain in the corner of the room with the doors locked, I had a very vivid "This is REAL moment...". During that lockdown (which, I was technically teaching during) I was in charge of the 18 students in the classroom. If anything were to happen to them, I would be in charge of them... that was a very real moment. I was happy to take advantage of the extra time with this class, which is particularly quiet, and get to know more of their names. We remained flexible during the lockdown and I was able to gain a more vivid appreciation of the fact that I have 18 students, who are some peoples children, grandchildren, sisters, brothers, best friends etc. That was a very important lesson for me!

Monday evening we had an Alumni Meeting, and I was able to meet some of the sweetest, hardest working people in our community who are all determined and passionate about helping the FFA and Agriculture Program. I was truly humbled by this meeting, and enjoyed getting to meet the variety of people. From alumni of the program to supportive parents, to individuals who never had ag ed, but see it's importance, the Athens Alumni is a dynamic and impressive group.

Athens FFA Alumni Meeting

Tuesday:
This became a day of bringing back the normal routine, trying to get students back on track! I was finally able to start teaching more about Plant Propagation for Horticulture and work more with students on their projects, etc. My FFA/SAE leadership class fell behind in the planning for National FFA week, so I was able to rearrange my schedule and help them through the process. Mr. Steinfelt and I also found out that our plants will be coming two weeks early for the Horticulture class! Let the unit and lesson shuffling begin : )

"Upper Greenhouse" at Athens.

Wednesday:
The Intro to Ag class was able to finish their unit via an exam (which was shuffled due to the chaotic Monday!) I was very excited, and eager to pick up these classes on Thursday. We also had a CDE team, two students working on scholarships, one taking a quiz, and another making up an exam during tutorial! I was certainly glad to be there to help Mr. Steinfelt juggle the mass amount of people, and remained flexible in helping the Dairy Judging team determine their next move! WOHOOO cows!

Thursday:
Today I was able to work with the Officer team during Tutorial, and I officially picked up the Introduction to Agriculture Classes! Very excited to be teaching these exuberant and excited 9th graders. After school, while Mr. Steinfelt and I had planned on reviewing some lesson plans, we ended up completing some necessary budgetary papers, and helping a student finish her National FFA Scholarship Application.... and I concluded there is simply NOT enough time in the day!

We made some final touches on a National FFA Scholarship Application after school!

Friday:
Friday consisted of an FFA meeting, preparations in the Greenhouse for plants coming next week, wrapping up some welding projects, and entering detailed descriptions into AET. I was really excited to get to stop and sit down with Mr. Steinfelt to discuss how the week went and talk about goals for this upcoming week. We were also able to finalize some items for the Strawberry sale which will be starting soon!

Students done with their welding projects helped the Horticulture
class reinforce some of the potting tables

LONG STORY SHORT:

We can make plans, but they will change, and that's ok! Part of being an agriculture educator is being flexible, rolling with the punches, and being resilient. I did not plan on a lockdown, some events within the community that would leave many teachers and students devastated and not on their top game, our plants coming in two weeks early, or having classes run behind... but that's ok! This is life!

I am really appreciative of my hectic, plan ruining week because it's about time that I realized how plans are JUST PLANS. They aren't written in pen. The "Planning Police" aren't going to reprimand me because a plan I had didn't work. Nope, plans are meant to be written in pencil. A few erasor marks, some arrows, some items crossed out and others added, and that's life.

So... I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of my plans are changed for student teaching!

Week 2: Student Teaching ATHENS Style

 

Wow! Hard to believe it is already the end of week two! The week started off with Monday off of school, so I will admit it was nice being able to sit down and plan a bit for the upcoming week! I had to change some of my units considerably, so this was very helpful.

 

Tuesday started off with a bang and Mr. Steinfelt and I were able to go to a meeting after school in Troy with other Agriculture Educators from Bradford County! I really enjoyed the ride to Troy with Mr. Steinfelt and heard more about the school district and about the area. Here is a piece or our view... beautiful isn't it!

Got to hear more about the Beautiful Bradford County on the way to a meeting this week! THANKS Mr. Steinfelt!

 

At the meeting, we heard from Pee Jay's fruit and discussed our upcoming strawberry sale. It was really nice to meet the three other Ag Teachers in Bradford County, and to just be able to sit and talk with them a bit. After our fruit meeting (and sampling some DELICIOUS oranges) we got to work with Carole Fay (our SAE specialist) on AET Record books. I have gotten more familiar with AET just in my short time at Athens, but it was incredible to see the best of the best record book-wise for Bradford County. We have very talented, hardworking students completing incredible SAEs from gardening and trapping to owning a lawn care business and milking cows. It honestly was such a great experience to hear from Mrs. Fay and look over the record books.

 



 

I learned SO much about record books and AET from the dedicated and incredibly
 talented Ag Teachers in Bradford County and Mrs. Fay, our SAE specialist.



On Wednesday I was able to pick up the SAE / FFA Leadership class, and have enjoyed working with these students. We are just starting the Public Speaking unit and are gearing up for our county competition on March 22nd... Literally two months away!... and the count-down begins...

 

I also enjoyed visiting a science classroom at Athens to see how Mrs. Welch operated her classroom. We had some truly valuable conversations and I am so happy that I can go to her with questions or for advice etc. The teachers at Athens are incredibly open and willing to help!



Students participating in the chemical reaction lab in Mrs. Welch's Chemistry class!

 



On Friday I picked up the Horticulture class (we were just running a tad behind) and I am very excited to be teaching the plant propagation unit! Next week I will be picking up the two sections of Introduction to Agriculture and am looking forward to working with the freshmen!

 

We also had an interesting power outage at school... but that couldn't stop us from completing out AET records! #Laptops #Thankful #Flexibility

My desk at school is finally starting to feel... well... more like my desk!
Can we say BINDERS for DAYS! And the sad thing is... I still have more binders at home!



 

REFLECTION FOR THE WEEK!

 

What a fantastic week! I am feeling very blessed to have been paired with such a patient and hardworking individual. Mr. Steinfelt continues to amaze me with his diligence, his patience, and how much he cares about his students. I was very humbly reminded of the importance to seek for new opportunities as we both got an email for the possibility to get vouchers for the OSHA CareerSafe Training. I read the email and thought to myself, wow what a neat opportunity. Mr. Steinfelt saw it and said, I want this for the Ag Mech II Class!

 

Mr. Steinfelt, along with other teachers at Athens, have been consistently reminding me through their ACTIONS that we are advocates for our students. It is our job to not only teach them, but to also push them, to care for them, to ask questions, to offer advice, to listen! I am amazed by how short of a time I have been at this school and how many conversations that I have had with students. About future career decisions, about problems at home, about how to pay for an FFA jacket. As teachers we have the opportunity to truly impact students.

 

 I am looking forward to even more lessons that I will be learning from this experience, and I don't mean the lessons about facilitating a welding unit or teaching hydroponics. I mean the lessons that separate teachers from those who teach and those who INSPIRE!

 

Best

Sarabeth 

Science Classroom Observation

On Thursday January 21st, 2016 I visited Mrs. Welch’s 2nd and 3rd Period Chemistry classes at Athens Area High School. Mrs. Welch has been teaching for many years and has taught physics, mathematics, chemistry, and physical science in the past. The lesson I observed was on chemical reactions. The students reviewed their homework, and then completed a short lab experiment on precipitate reactions. The homework certainly took me back to Chem 110 at PSU! [Aluminum iodide + mercury (II) chloride à aluminum chloride + mercury (II) iodide … and then also writing out and balancing the chemical formulas.] Boy oh boy! Here are some of my observations from my time with Mrs. Welch and her students:

Students completing a lab on chemical reactions.

Observations:

- Very personable
- Does work WITH students versus just showing correct answer
- Clear expectations: describes what will or will not be on future exams or homework
- Asks many questions and has great wait time! Students are given many opportunities to ask questions
- Marks or initials student’s labs before allowing them to proceed to the next portion
- Very calm and understanding of spill! Explains procedure for washing off and assures student they are fine
- Reminder of Lab Safety:
o Chemical Goggles
o Chemical contamination if drop liquids too close to end of dropper
o How to properly wash plate and hands after lab


Mrs. Welch has a great classroom environment! I was really impressed that her students all felt very comfortable with her and with completing labs etc. She told me that she has many students with IEP's or that might be re-taking the course, and it w as evident that the students felt they could ask questions or for help!

Effective Classroom Management, Mrs. Welch had all the lab stations prepped for the students!

The students completed a pretty neat lab where they combined two chemicals and wrote down in their observations whether or not the resulting liquid was cloudy (indicating their was a precipitate.) Mrs. Welch told me that the next period the students would be learning about solubility and discussing precipitate reactions. Therefore, when delving through the theoretical reactions on paper etc., students can think back to their lab and recall when reactions produced a precipitate!

Below are my observations from our conversations before, in between, and after the periods that I observed.

General Conversation:

- 40 min labs can be hard, has some two or three day labs
- Reflecting on problems and labs is VERY important:
o Activity/ Lab might inherently be interesting, but do students know or understand WHY we did it?
- Difficult to adjust to some students working faster than others
- Need to be observant in lab settings
-  Struggle sometimes to ensure have goggles and chemical apron on during class time

It was interesting that we have some of the same problems, like some students getting done before others or troubles with students keeping the safety goggles on. It was really nice for me to interact with Mrs. Welch on a professional level and be able to talk to her about classroom management and lab management etc. I am very excited that I could go to her in the future with additional questions.

Best

Sarabeth

PS! Highlight of observation was seeing one of the students that I struggle with the most in our Ag Mech II class working as a lab partner with a student with special needs in Mrs. Welch's chemistry class. She told me later that they have been lab partners all year and that he diligently and patiently works with him through labs... I was floored and so happy to be able to see this different side of this particular student!

Students complete the precipitate lab... Chemistry at it's finest in the lab setting.

Week 1: Student Teaching ATHENS Style!

Here is a short recap of my week!

Day 1: FIELD TRIP! That's right, we took 52 students to the 100th Pennsylvania Farm Show and it was incredible. Five very hardworking and talented seniors received their keystone degrees and 22 excited freshman zipped up their FFA jackets for the very first time (thank you PA FFA Alumni Association!)

Day 2-4: OBSERVATION! It has been fantastic this week to get into the classroom and really see how the Athens Area HS agriculture education classes really work! While I have observed at Athens before, I have never been in the classroom for two or more days in a row, so it's nice to see the consistency and get to know the students better. I also experienced a faculty meeting, a Science Teachers meeting, and testing at the high school. Definitely interesting and fun to observe Mr. Steinfelt in his element!

Day 5: IN-SERVIC DAY! Wow, this week I am seeing it all.
On Friday we had an in-service day about effective assessments! This was very interesting to not only engage in professional development, but to also compare the Learning Focusing Strategies system (that Athens Area HS has introduced) to what I have learned so far at Penn State. We had some lengthy discussions about how our objectives should be rigorous and also match the level of our assessments. It was nice to sit with Mr. Steinfelt and Dr. Banic (who teaches Animal Science and Vet Science at Athens) during the in-service presentation.

Additionally, I was able to grade some AET records with Mr. Steinfelt after our professional development, so I was excited to learn more about the "Teacher View" of AET. We have very dedicated and hard-working students here at Athens, and I am looking forward to helping students polish their AET records and SAEs for ... possibly... should I say it... Proficiency Awards!?!?!?!?

IN REFLECTING ON THIS WEEK:

I have two observations:
1) Consistency is key! Students are creatures of habit... if you change their routine they will be upset. The troops will get confused, upset, nervous, and/or angry. Being consistent and maintaining a set routine is a goal of mine for this semester. While I want to have variety and change the lessons etc. I want my students to feel comfortable and not be anxious in my class. Therefore, consistency is a must (also with classroom management, consistency = VERY important!)

2) Continuing education... not everyone is excited about it but it is certainly important. By experiencing my first In-Service day in my first week of student teaching, I have a fresh look at education. It was very valuable to sit around teachers with many years of experience to see how they have adapted and changed over the years. The assessment strategies that we learned were aimed to better assess student learning, and to ensure that objectives were matching standards and assessments. I found a lot of value also in talking to other educators outside of science and agricultural science. From physical education to mathematics, there are many different ways to assess student learning.


Thanks for reading!
Best
-Ms. Royer

2016 Pennsylvania Farm Show: ATHENS Style

Monday, January 11th, 2016 was the Pennsylvania State FFA Association Midwinter Convention. Held at the Farm Show Building  in Harrisburg, we were able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Pennsylvania Farm Show with the 52 students that attended from Athens! I was very excited to meet so many students, and we had 22 receive jackets and 5 receive their Keystone Degree! WOHOOOOO way to go Athens!

Students from Athens Area HS entering the 100th PA Farm Show!

This golden anniversary for the PA Farmshow was displayed through many exhibits showing the history and evolution of the show. For instance, I read that the first milkshakes were sold for 25 cents! A far cry from the $4.00 that we pay now... but oh they are so worth it!

My personal favorite treat from the Farm Show... a CLASSIC Black and White milkshake!



The students were able to walk around and enjoy the many sights of the Farm Show while Mr. Steinfelt (my cooperating teacher) and I also perused through the displays, animals, showcases, machinery, and food court! Good times had by all. Then, we rounded out the day at the 87th Pennsylvania FFA Midwinter Convention held in the New Holland Arena of the Farm Show Complex. It was incredible to see over 380 students receive their Keystone Degrees and over 500 students put on their jackets for the very first time. We were certainly very proud of the students representing Athens who did an outstanding job. From zipping up the new Blue and Gold Jacket, to earning the highest degree for the state of Pennsylvania to representing Athens as the Northern Region Star, Athens did very well on Monday.

Our view of the 87th Pennsylvania FFA Midwinter Convention

I can't wait to continue with my student teaching experience, and am looking forward to actually learning all 52 of the student's names! I can confidently say that I know about... 12! Wohoo, here is to new beginnings!

Best,
Ms. Royer