Student Teaching Blog

Week 1 - In-service and State Fair
8/24/15 - 8/29/15

Monday 8/24/15
-  Today was my very first day at my student teaching site. It is the beginning of in-service week so we started the morning off by attending the district in-service meeting at a neighboring high school. This is something all of the schools in the district do each year to recognize years of service, introduce new teachers, as well as introduce any new changes to policy in the district. I had the opportunity to meet several teachers and other staff members. It was interesting to learn how many years some of these teachers had been teaching and most of them in the same school! One teacher (our librarian) has been at the school for 30+ years!

- After lunch we returned to school. My cooperating teacher rode back with me and was able to point out various farms, the bombing range, where fires had hit/where they normally hit each year as well as the best route for me to get to school each day. She gave me a quick tour of one end of the town and how to get to the elementary school. I would have liked to have seen the rest of the town and the other route to get to the high school. One of the routes is extremely dangerous in the winter time as it is a very steep hill. I enjoyed helping clean and organize the ag classroom for the rest of the afternoon. We had some great conversations about what the chapter does, what I did in my high school chapter and the various experiences I have had.

Tuesday 8/25/15
-  This morning we had a staff meeting where new policies and calendar changes were discussed. All of the teachers introduced themselves as well as I introduced myself to all of them and they made me feel very welcome. I was amazed at how strict schools have become since I graduated. There were many things brought up that students were not allowed to do and I found myself thinking "I definitely did that in high school". So that was a great learning experience for me. I feel its very important for me to know and understand what is expected of the students when they walk through those doors in the morning. I want to be sure I am watching and holding students to their expectations.

- After lunch I continued to help clean and organize the ag classroom. We discussed me organizing an ice breaker/team building activity with each of her classes on the first day of school. I instantly thought to myself SERIOUSLY? FIRST DAY? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING? A huge pit in my stomach began to form. Personally, I am not a fan of ice breaker activities because I tend to feel awkward in them, however I do understand their importance. She also wanted me to have some kind of control over the class from day 1 and introduce myself to the students.

Wednesday 8/26/15
-  Today I spent much time researching and organizing ice breaker/team building activities for the first day of school. My teacher shared many ideas with me and I shared ideas with her as well. Today was also cut short as she had to leave early for an appointment and I headed out for Corvallis. We both left with a plan in mind is something that always makes me feel more prepared for the next day. Even if I don't get everything on my list done that I wanted to, if I organize it and prioritize it for the next day, then I am okay with it.

Thursday 8/27/15
-  I was surprised by how short our orientation meeting was. Even though we covered a lot of information and expectations for this first month and year, I found afterwards that I still had many questions that needed clarifying. This is something I struggle with. I need to find a way to trigger those questions while I am in a meeting or receiving instructions. Most of the time it doesn't hit me until later.

- Since my school was not at state fair I was placed with another FFA chapter which has 2 advisers.

Friday 8/28/15
-  Started the day bright and early at state fair

- Completed sheep herdsmanship which took sooooo much longer than I thought it would. I did not realize everything a herdmanship judge has to take into consideration when they are judging. After the first day of judging, we found a way to be more efficient.

- While observing both teachers throughout the day I found it is sometimes easier to have more than one adviser at fair to help keep track of students and making sure they are getting ready when they are supposed to. However, the group of students that this chapter brought to state fair seemed to be very focused on what they needed to do each day and where/when they needed to be somewhere.

- One of the teachers was the goat superintendent so I assisted him in clerking a couple of the goat shows and helping get students lined up. I had actually never done this before (I was always showing) and I was surprised by how difficult it can be when you don't know the students or even all of the ag teachers.

Saturday 8/29/15
-  Started the day bright and early again at state fair

-  I had the opportunity to listen to students give practices oral reasons sets in preparation for Monday's contest. I always enjoy listening to reasons and always seem to find new terminology to use. Listening to reasons and watching classes I think is extremely important as it helps you keep up with the trends and keeps your mind thinking about those things. I have not given a set of reasons since judging at LBCC but after listening to those students it instantly started to bring back sets I had given and the progress I had made from the beginning of my first year to the end of my 2nd.

- Tonight was the market show and I assisted clerking that as well. I don't know how many times I walked around the FFA barn trying to track down students and their animal. I was very thankful for the students who were already fitting their animals and ready to go. It was a long night but a great experience. I was very thankful to these 2 advisers for letting me "tag along" with them for the couple days of fair and they said anything I need to just give them a call and they will help me any way that they can!

Week 2 - First week of classes WITH students
8/31/15 - 9/3/15

Monday 8/31/15
- Well today was the big day - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! That also means that it was my day to do an ice breaker and team building activity with each of the classes. There are 8 class periods in the day with first period being our prep period. Having your prep period first period can be nice but also challenging as first period gets interrupted the most. We did not have a prep period today because there was a quick welcome back assembly and then each of the classes (freshman-senior) met with their class and advisers to go over new policy changes and expectations for the year. My cooperating teacher along with another teacher are class advisers for the freshman class.
 
- I chose an introduction activity for students where they had to get a partner and find out 3 pieces of information about their partner then they would introduce their partner to the rest of the class. I really liked this activity as it didn't put students directly on the spot on the first day of school and it can also be used when introducing a new unit or topic. My cooperating teacher said it is similar to Think-Pair-Share activity.

- After introductions each of the classes attempted to perform the Human Knot team building activity. There were some students who had done this activity previous to today but there were many students who had never done it. At the beginning there were several "this is impossible", "this is too hard", "I can't do it" etc. etc. but eventually the students got the knot undone. Each of the class sizes varied throughout the day which either made the activity easier or more challenging. All of the classes were successful in untangling their knot except for one class. After reflecting on that specific class I think there was a difference in the maturity level of the students as well as the confidence level. My cooperating teacher and I had a good conversation at the end of the day which was encouraging for me and we also discussed the first class I would be teaching and the material that needed to be covered.

Tuesday 9/1/15
-  Today I spent much of my observing my cooperating teacher's teaching style and how it varied among classes. I noticed with younger classes there was very concise and detailed instruction given compared to older classes, the atmosphere seemed somewhat more laid back. Not that that class didn't accomplish what they needed to, things were just done and talked about in a different way. Upperclassman and FFA officers already knew what was expected of them in the classroom and had an idea of what the class would entail.  Dynamics and curriculum for each class plays a part in this as well.

- One thing she would say during class or while giving instructions to a class is "I'm going to SUGGEST THAT you don't/do....." It was a different way of telling students things they should or shouldn't be doing during class or how to accomplish a task. This is something I am definitely going to use...I noticed she talks to her class a lot like this. It's difficult for me to describe but she uses words like 'suggest' or  'what questions do you have' instead of 'do you have questions'.

-  There is a lot of overlap of students between classes and there are similar activities for each class causing many students to complete the same or very similar tasks multiple times throughout the day...have to find a way to switch it up just enough so that overlap students are doing the same thing every class period....for me on the first day it was challenging to switch up the ice breaker activities and a few students participated in the same activity a few times but surprisingly kept a good positive attitude about it.


-  My cooperating teacher bought composition notebooks for students to purchase from her if they did not already have a specific notebook for each class...this is a really great idea as some students are limited on school supplies or time but most of them can afford $1...I have a feeling as a teacher I will be paying for many things out of pocket and might not always get reimbursed for it...I will have to work hard to find a way to avoid this if at all possible.

- I also learned more about what it means to be a Proficiency School. All students have the opportunity to retake quizzes and tests to increase their grade. As a teacher you have to prepare several different types of tests and quizzes so students are able to do this.

Wednesday 9/2/15
- One of the highlights from my day today was the experiment the 7th graders worked on in 7th period..it was a bubblegum experiement where one student chewed the gum for a certain length of time and the other students in the group weighed the gum and recorded the information. I found it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to have very clear and detailed instructions for 7th graders and to make sure they do not SWALLOW or SPIT OUT the experiment ;) This was one example of always having complications with a lesson that you simply cannot plan for!

- Another piece of advice my teacher has shared with me is that many students will ask for your attention in the most unique/bazaar/non-traditional/challenging ways...I am starting to pick up on some of these students and know I need to make sure that I keep a positive attitude and do my best to keep the student engaged and excited about something...

Thursday 9/3/15
- It is the end of the first week of classes and I am incredibly exhausted! I have an hour drive to and from school each day, which I don't mind, however it means I have to get up that much earlier and get home that much later each day. I have found that I am much more productive and focused in the mornings than afternoons so I need to use this to my advantage. I want to get to the point where all I have to do in the mornings is double check I have all materials for my lessons that day, check emails/do any house keeping tasks and just be sure I am prepared for that specific day. I would like to have a plan for each day done in advance (say by Sunday afternoons for example) to make each day easier throughout the week. I also have found that I am much more productive at school then when I get home in the evenings. So to use this to my advantage and staying on top of things I am going to attempt to get all of my work done at school where I have internet access and plenty of space to spread out my materials so that when I get home I can relax and unwind. I understand this will not always happen but if I plan ahead I know I can make it happen most of the time.

- There was a FFA officer meeting at lunch today which I found to be a very efficient use of everyone's time since many of the students are involved in extracurricular activities after school. However, this does cut into your lunch break as a teacher and your break to re-group and make sure you are prepared for the afternoon's classes.

- Tonight I was invited to attend the OWA (Oregon Women for Agriculture) meeting in Lexington. This chapter has been recently put together and my cooperating teacher is the president. I had the opportunity to meet a few other ag teachers in the area as well as other community members. Many of whom I knew from OSU!

***No school on Fridays (except when we don't have school on Mondays due to a holiday, school is made up on that following Friday)! There will be many Fridays that will be in-service days, half work days or grading days, otherwise I will have 3 day weekends!