A Whirlwind of a Second Week!

            Whew! Week 2 was a short week but it was jam packed with the beginning of a new semester, meetings, and my first week of teaching! Monday was a day off of school to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However, I attended the Manheim Young Farmers’ meeting at Manheim Central High School with my cooperating teacher Mr. Anderson as well as two fellow student teachers. The meeting featured a presentation from Penn State Pest. Ed. While the meeting was geared towards private and/or publicly certified pesticide applicators, I still gained a wealth of knowledge regarding pesticide application safety techniques. The presentation was different than the one I experienced during the AEE 313 conference earlier in the month.

            Tuesday was the day that I have been waiting for…my first day actually teaching! I taught my first lesson in my aquatic resources class during third block. In order to change things up from the typical first day of class introduction, I had my students complete the oreo cookie inquiry lab to determine if double stuffed oreos are truly double stuffed. My students seemed to enjoy the lab overall. I tried not to let my students notice how nervous I was and didn’t want it to affect my first day of teaching. Once I began teaching, I calmed down and felt more comfortable. Later that evening, I attended my first Elizabethtown FFA member meeting. The officer team gave me a surprise welcome and introduction which was much appreciated! I am so excited to work with such a great officer team over the course of the semester!

            Wednesday was a short day: Elizabethtown got out at 11:30 due to inclement weather! I was not able to teach my aquatic resources class and had to put off the introductory activity and lesson until Thursday. On Thursday, I wasn’t as nervous as I started my lesson. I made it through the introductory activity, my classroom procedures, expectations, consequences, and the syllabus…with a decent amount of time left in the block. I then started my first introductory lesson about the basics of water. I took students over into the aquatics lab and we fed the fish. I wasn’t thrilled about my performance; I knew I moved way too fast through the material in the beginning of class. As the class went on, I felt more comfortable and slowed things down. I had a good reflection with Mr. Anderson when the day was over and he provided me with some awesome suggestions to get me on the right track. Thursday ended with a county ag teacher’s meeting at Lancaster Mennonite High School.

      

      My day went much better on Friday! I was very productive during my prep period, opened up more to my students, and did a much better job teaching my lesson than yesterday! Obviously there is still much room for improvement; this was only my second day actually teaching a lesson. I still have a lot to work on as far as the delivery side but I feel confident in terms of preparing my lessons and accompanying materials. As I look ahead to next week, it will be my first full week of teaching and I have some good activities planned! My students will be learning about watersheds, completing a watershed project, and ending the water resources unit with an in class debate on Friday. I will continue to get to know my students and talk to them more as we become more familiar with each other. Here’s to hoping the predicted snowstorm for early next week doesn’t change my plans but as I know all too well, the key to teaching agriculture is flexibility!