Winter Term - Week 11

Final Week of Student Teaching and State Convention!

And that’s a wrap! Just like that, three months later, countless hours of no sleep, grading papers, ridiculous amounts of Starbucks and Redbull, writing lesson plans, tracking hours and traveling to various FFA events has come to an end. Well, for my student teaching at least. This past week was crazy to say the least, but did I learn A LOT! Wrapping up the end of a quarter before heading to state convention and spring break, taught me numerous lessons about lesson planning and organization.

Even though I may not have always been the most organized throughout my experience, I believe I have learned from this experience and other teachers how to better organize myself for next year when I am on my own. I don’t think anyone can fully prepare or be organized for an event, trip, contest etc. until they have gone through it at least once (or twice). Throughout my entire student teaching experience and especially this past week I have kept notes on how different lessons or trips went and how I can make changes for next year. I have also talked with many different Ag teachers from across the state and have kept notes from them as well. These are extremely valuable experiences and conversations that have helped me build relationships and contacts. 

State convention…wow! I started out the trip feeling pretty nervous and self-conscious about what the trip would hold for me. I was given the task of driving four students as we didn’t have enough seats on the bus. WHAT! YOU WANT ME TO DRIVE STUDENTS?! These were the thoughts running through my head as my cooperating teacher and principle asked me to take on this responsibility. Little did I know how much this task would impact my relationship with these students and my experience as a student teacher. I was able to build so much more rapport with them versus simply riding the bus with them. While at state convention I was excited to see my fellow cohort members as well as other teachers I have not seen in a while. I wish I could’ve spent more time talking with them but I also enjoyed being in session with my students. In the future, I want to work on finding this balance. I do not want to be the type of Ag teacher that doesn’t go to session with their students or simply turns them loose. I experienced this in high school and now being on the other side of the experience, I understand that state convention should not be spent following your advisor around or vice versa. I wish we would have had a trip similar to state convention earlier in the term as I got to know my students so much better and build greater rapport with them. I was honestly sad that I had to leave. Bittersweet would be the best way to describe the end of state convention and my student teaching experience.

I am looking forward to going back for their FFA banquet in May and graduation in June. I hope that I have had just as great of an impact on them as they have on me and my teaching. And looking back, I believe I did have an impact on them. Moving forward when specific songs play on the radio, I will remember various experiences with these students.

Thank you so much to my cooperating school, teacher and ALL of the students I had the awesome opportunity to meet, teach and engage with throughout the past few months. This was an incredible experience that has taught me so many important pieces of teaching.  

Winter Term - Week 10

This week we celebrated FFA week at my cooperating school. I helped oversee the planning and carry out of the week’s activities. Each day brought its own learning experiences and notes on what to adjust before doing the activity again in the future. Being able to manage FFA activities with different groups of students and community members is one major activity. However, adding two observations and a field trip to the craziness is another. Early in the week I was able to have my principle observe me teach and later in the week I had my last OSU observation. I felt that both of my observations went extremely well and my students were on task and engaged. The conversations I had after both observations were positive and encouraging while still giving me pieces to think about. We have been working in the greenhouse transplanting plugs and propagating cuttings which the students have enjoyed as they are out of the classroom and not taking notes! 

Even though not all activities might not have gone exactly as planned, this allowed for learning opportunities and planning for next year. I learned that it’s important to be flexible and have the ability to adjust in a moment’s notice. This is something I feel I struggle with at times but not always. Actually, throughout all of grad school thus far I have attempted to be as organized as I can and to be one step ahead on various assignments. This has caused extreme stress and new anxiety for me which I know is not healthy. I am the type of person that likes to have a plan, know what is going on, be organized, and have myself together. When any one piece of this equation is off balance, I become extremely anxious. Some days I find I am more flexible than others and I am able to decrease my anxiety. This is something I will need to continue to work on myself by testing different strategies as I know everything in life will not always go according to plan. 

Towards the end of the week, I wrapped up with one of my classes and was able to have them complete an evaluation survey of my teaching. This class I have taught since the beginning of winter term and have spent a ton of time getting to know each of them. While reading through the evaluations, I was quite entertained by some of the student’s comments and encouraged by others. The student’s least favorite part across the class was taking notes!

Our last FFA activity for the week was taking about 20 students to a hockey game. Having students decide not to go on the day of the event was unexpected. This is frustrating from a teacher and advisor’s perspective as tickets were already purchased as well as specific transportation was requested. Also, having two buses show up ready to take us when we only requested one was unexpected. These experiences all tie back to being flexible when chaos hits and knowing who to contact in different situations. All was well and the students had a great time at the game! This was also my very first hockey game experience. I believe this was a perfect experience to have before heading to state convention as I will be in charge of making sure students are where they need to be at specific times throughout the entire convention. We will have roughly the same amount of students that we will be taking to convention. During this trip, all students were in the same place for a short amount of time. 

Gearing up for my very last week of student teaching, I am making a check list to help organize what I need to accomplish before heading to convention. I want to ensure I make the best use of my time this week to be productive as well as enjoying my last few days with my students and cooperating teacher. 

Winter Term - Week 9

Finished up videoing for EdTPA on Monday which feels great! My cooperating teacher even noticed that I seemed more comfortable and smooth compared to the first couple days of filming.

(Advice for next year’s cohort: start filming yourself teaching for about a week BEFORE you teach your EdTPA lessons! Not with the purpose of using that material for EdTPA, but allowing yourself to become used to the camera!)

My cooperating teacher shared a few compliments from a sub that sat in on my classes while my cooperating teacher was in a meeting. This has been several weeks now since she sat in on my classes and she still has positive comments about my lesson! That was very much uplifting, motivating and just nice to hear. One of my downfalls is that I focus almost too much on what I could do better or differently and not enough on what I did well. 

The week rounded out with two AED 556 seminars and A LOT of proficiency judging! While I am thankful we as a cohort had the opportunity to learn and help judge proficiency applications, I do not want to see another application for at least a week! Ha! Even though EdTPA is overwhelming for me, I am glad we spent the majority of Friday’s seminar working on it. I felt that I walked away with my questions answered and a new strategy for getting it done!

EdTPA Strategy: 

- Complete ONE EdTPA task/piece each week until the due date of April  7th
            This will hopefully help minimize my EdTPA stress!

- Utilize page 43 as my checklist and outline of what I need to complete for EdTPA

This next week’s goal is to go through each of my videos again with the associated rubrics and choose potential video clips!