Week 9 & a Visit to CV!

    Once again, this was a crazy week filled with many learning experiences for myself and for my students. I learned the importance of making substitute plans and how to handle classroom management issues. I was challenged this week by a few of my students who got too comfortable in their learning environment. I also had the awesome opportunity to visit one of my cohort members teaching at her cooperating center.  Keep reading for more details on my student teaching internship at Oley as we finish up week 9 already! 

    I have been teaching the 8th grade Exploratory Agriculture class an introductory unit on plant science and it has been a good experience for me to learn how to teach younger students. I really like middle school, however I think I enjoy teaching the older students in the high school more. Student teaching is the perfect time to discover this and I am very grateful I was given the opportunity to gain the experience teaching younger students. They learned about the various uses and importance plants play in our everyday lives. On Thursday, we did a soil texture in a jar lab where they put soil in a mason jar and added water to see the 3 textures separate. It takes sometime for the textures to become distinguishable, so the students will analyze their mason jars next week with Mrs. Rice. They had a lot of fun with their first lab and I got to know the students better as it was a more informal class environment. We did have an accident where a students dropped his mason jar because it was slippery on the outside from adding water. I now know the importance of stressing safety prior to doing labs, especially one where accidents can happen. It was a fun week in the middle school though, and I am excited to teach them more when I come back from the mid-internship seminar at Penn State. 

A few of my 8th graders projects on the benefits of plants.

    In my agricultural business class, my students have really been getting into Parli Pro and it has definitely been one of the most fun classes/topic to teach so far. Parli Pro is completely new to me but it was been interesting to learn and teach about. We have been doing mock business meetings and making/passing various motions during class. I discovered that my students get more engaged and into their various roles if they get to make motions or debate topics that relate to their personal lives, rather than just giving them a script. This upcoming week while I am absent, I have students working on writing their own script for a business meeting of their choosing. A few of the required items they have to include are 2 main motions and characters/roles within the script that they have to come up. I am really excited to see what they design, as this is a creative and fun group of students. 

    Week 9 also included the conclusion to my animal science class, where I taught them a unit on male and female animal reproduction. This class was definitely my most challenging one disciplinary and content wise. I believe since I struggled with the content that I was not as confident in my lessons or my classroom management skills. I think a few of my students picked up on this and they weren't scared to push my buttons or to try and challenge me as their teacher. This was a good opportunity for me to learn how to manage a small groups of students who were difficult to control behavior wise. I learned that for some students they constantly need work or an activity to complete, otherwise they will be engaged in unproductive or disruptive behavior. This all stems off of having well planned-out lesson plans and making sure the students are engaged in the activity or content from bell to bell. 

    On Friday, I was able to go to Cumberland Valley to watch Ms. Taylor Halbleib teach her students in all different subject areas. Her lessons were shortened to only 20 minutes because the school was holding a Mini-THON pep rally at their gym in celebration for their dance marathon happening that evening. Although it wasn't a fully structured day, I got to watch Ms. Halbleib be very flexible in her planning as she adapted her lesson plans for only 20 minutes of instruction. She definitely employs task-oriented behavior in her teaching methods as students in every class had a bell-work to complete and she was constantly reminding them of how much time they had for each activity. Ms. Halbleib used a foldable activity in her animal science class to teach students about Pearson Square feed rations. In her plant science class, students are completing a cool lab on measuring the growth of various plant species in their hydroponics system. They are testing out which plant will have the most growth at the completion of 15 days. I definitely witnessed a lot of inquiry-based learning and students really enjoyed Ms. Halbleib's classes. I didn't realize how large of a school district Cumberland Valley is until I drove into the parking lot and felt as if I was on a college campus. All of the high school students gathered into their sports dome to watch the Mini-THON pep rally which was so fun to see! Although I didn't observe Ms. Halbleib teach during a regular school day, I still got to see her be an awesome teacher and advisor for her students in the Ag department at Cumberland Valley. 

Mini-THON Pep Rally at Cumberland Valley.

    Thank you for taking the time to read my week 9 reflective blog post as I am very grateful for my time at Oley Valley so far. Please feel free to leave any comments or words of advice down below! 

- Lauren