Dancing Ag Teacher

 This week was a pretty big week for me. Not only was I observed by Penn State this week, I was also observed by the University of Florida. Both observations were very different but both went pretty well.  This week I was still only teaching second period animal science where we started our Reproduction Unit.  My first observation of the week was with Penn State. I was observed by Dr. Curry through zoom. It was one of the first times the kids saw the Swivil so I did get a few funny comments.  The lesson I taught was called "How does the male reproductive tract work?".   The day before I introduced the parts of the male reproductive tract and for my observation I taught what each part does. So for bellwork I had the students write down one part of the male reproductive tract and had a student point to it on their diagram at the beginning of class.  We started off class with a kahoot to review the parts of the male reproductive tract. Unfortunately, we h...

 This week was jammed packed and was all about cows. It was also my first week of actual teaching.  We started off the week by making name tags in second period and learning all about why we study animal reproduction. After school on Monday, we loaded the cows into the trailer and moved them to the school pasture to be with the other cows.    Then on Tuesday, we took second period outside to weigh, deworm and tag the cows that we brought over the day before. After we finished that, we moved the cows down to the pasture to be with the bull.    On Wednesday, we were back in the classroom to learn about the terms we use to describe anatomical positioning. We started off with a worksheet and some videos.    Then on Thursday, they completed something called the "gummy bear lab". This an activity that I remember doing in high school and was one that we really enjoyed. So, I thought it would be a really great hands on activity to do my first week teachin...

  1) Who did you visit? The President of the J.F St. Martin FFA Chapter (Durant's junior FFA Chapter).  2) Where did the visit occur?  Out on the land lab.  3) What preparation did you make prior to the visit? Brainstorm some possible questions I could ask. 4)What recommendations were made for improvement? Work the hair more. 5) What record books were being used?  Strawberry Festival record book and the account at the feed store. 6) What is name of your steer? Zeus  7) When was your steer born? December, 16th, 2019 8) How much does your steer weigh and what is your target weight? He weighs 1205 pounds and my target weight is 1300 pounds.  9) What is his current average daily gain? 2.76 pounds 10) Any health problems? No 

  This week was all about adjustments. Adjusting to a new routine, a new area and new things everyday.  To start off my student teaching my cooperating teacher and I decided it was best that I observe the first week. So this week was all about learning how everything works.  Not only did I learn more about agricultural topics that I was unfamiliar with but I also learned some things I didn't know about the world of teaching high school in general.  I met most of the administers here at Durant High School along with some of the unique things that come with teaching during a pandemic. The phrase of the week was definitely "Can you please pull up your mask for me?"  Some of my favorite moments this week occurred not only in the classroom but also outside. This week we got to take a large round bale of hay down to the herd of cattle. Later in the day, one of the other teachers in the program delivered the bull down to join the herd. I'm excited to see how the bull d...

 As the semester draws to a close, our last teaching lab occurred over zoom! This was a great opportunity to test out teaching over zoom in a low risk and safe environment.  Another challenge we faced during our last teaching lab was using a lesson plan written by National FFA Life Knowledge as opposed to coming up with our own lesson. I found this surprisingly challenging. The lessons were meant to be taught over 100 mins and we were tasked with rewriting it for a 25 minute class session without changing the activities too much.    I learned pretty quick that rewriting someone else's lesson plan is in some ways harder than writing your own lesson plan. I decided that the easiest way to do this was to follow the lesson plan as much as I could and fit as much as I could in 25 mins instead of trying to modify the whole 100 min lesson into 25 mins. I then ended the lesson with a ticket out the door question that would continue into the next class session.   My...

 In this weeks lab, we were challenged to build a lesson using Inquiry Based Learning. The biggest challenge I think we all faced was building a lesson that could be presented to our classmates in 30 mins and still revolved around inquiry based learning.  Many of the ideas I had were meant to be done over many class periods and required materials that I simply didn't have.  From early on in my brainstorming process, I knew I wanted to do something revolving seed germination but I wasn't sure how to attack it. I remember at the Florida State Fair they did an activity with germination where you place a wet cotton ball and a seed in a small baggy attached to a string. Then you seal the bag and wear it around your neck. The heat of your body causes the seed to germinate. That was my initial inspiration but I knew I needed something a little more advanced for high school students.  My next thought was to have students change the environment in which the seed lived in and ...