It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN! Student Teaching ATHENS Style

WOW, it's the final countdown, this past week was my second to last week at Athens! With the issues regarding the teachers contracts and possible work stoppages due to a strike, every activity and lesson last week I wondered if it would be my last! It is certainly hard to contemplate the fact that I am almost entirely done with student teaching. I am going to be honest, I am not ready to leave Athens, I love it here! Regardless of my own personal countdown or my own feelings, we had a lot going on this week, so here is a short recap!

Special Guests!
Monday we had Mrs. Johnson, a masters student in Agriculture Education from New York state come visit us! It was very interesting to talk with her and contrast the differences between our education experiences for Ag Ed. She was very excited to visit our program and see all of the incredible happenings at Athens. Some items that she witnessed was my horticulture class playing a Kahoot review game (SO MUCH FUN! I actually also did it in my Intro class later in the week!) and students working on projects in Ag Mechanics.

It's certainly spring time! We are expecting more lawnmowers in the shop soon!

Learning IS fun with Kahoot, a review game that we played with laptops!
The competition was fierce, even Mr. Steinfelt played!!!!!

 

Tuesday we had another guest visit! Dr. Rice came to evaluate me for the second time, and I was so appreciative of the advice, comments, and tips that she provided with me throughout the day. The students were then all wondering, who would show up to class on Wednesday!

GREENHOUSE PREPARATION!

This week we spent a lot of time in the Greenhouse! After finishing up our unit on Pesticide Safety, we needed to dedicate some serious time to the Greenhouse in preparation for new arrivals (plants should be coming next week) AND planting tomatoes and peppers for Project Grow (as part of our Community Based Unit of Instruction.) It is certainly much nicer to be in the Greenhouse lately with the warmer weather, and we also had some of our others classes help in the Greenhouse as well!

 

Students are preparing media for the plants. Once we got started, we had a nice assembly line going! Some students got the soil ready, others placed containers in the trays, some shoveled soil into the trays, while other students planted seeds and watered new transplants. It was an impressive system.

With warmer days approaching, we put a shade cloth over the Greenhouse... Yeah, we definitely had some of the boys from Ag Mech II help us out with this project!

 

BANQUET PREPARATION!

Hard to believe but our FFA Banquet is April 22nd! So this week included a lot of work from the SAE/FFA class to ensure that everything is ready for the banquet. I divided the class into three committees: Logistics and Script, Food and Decorations, and Decorations and Powerpoint. This kept the students pretty busy this week.

 



Plaques, plaques for days!

 

 

Students working in class to ensure our banquet is a success! #Teamwork #Winning #FFABanquet

 

Field Trip!

Friday was not only incredibly beautiful outside, but it was particularly beautiful because we were outside to enjoy it! The Bradford County Dairy Judging Competition, planned by Mr. Steinfelt, was held in Shesequin, PA. We had around 45 students come and compete from Athens, Canton, and Troy. It was a great day to work with the students and learn a little bit more about dairy judging. Our hosts were so generous with their time and knowledge. I was blown away by their willingness to take extra time to talk over a class with our students. Additionally, it was exciting because the official judge was a 2012 graduate of Athens! Very cool!

Students competing in the Dairy Judging Competition, held in Sheshequin PA.

Students from Athens, Canton and Troy at the Bradford County Dairy Judging CDE

 This week was wonderful! The most challenging parts related to circumstances outside of my control, so my biggest goal for the week was to only worry about things that I can affect. This was really helpful! I also learned valuable lessons about community support and school board meetings. While the school board meeting that I attended earlier this year was a very positive experience (students sharing experiences in FFA with a powerpoint) the meeting this week was not as casual. With discussions of contracts and strikes in the air, it was interesting to be in a room with so many different groups. My biggest take-away from this somewhat stressful school board meeting was that taxpayers, teachers union, school board... no matter what, everyone want's what is best for the students.

Goals for next week, to maximize my last week at Athens. Whether or not the AEAA union goes on strike, I have events and projects that I can work on in Athens.

Wish us all luck!
Best
Sarabeth