Let's Make Connections

 A connection that I made from this weeks readings that will be very important for me to use during student teacher is how much more efficient your instruction can be when you have a solid lesson plan made. Having a lesson plan that is well planned out and practiced through can be the difference in a lesson going very well and not so well. Another connection that I made this week was teaching using problem solving as a way to prompt questions from students. Allowing students to work through a problem, in their own way, allows them to acquire a deeper understanding of the lesson. Probably the biggest connection however, is the application of learning. I think that as a future Ag Educator, using hands on methods to allow students to interact with their learning, is one of the most powerful things that we can do. I know that for myself, I am able to connect different concepts together when I have time to work on something with my hands. Having real life application to of your lesson is extremely important to allow for a better understanding of the material.

I think that the application of learning goes right along with the material that we are learning in 350 and 349 last semester. Being able to learn about concepts and then getting the time to apply them in class, is something that is really going to help everyone in my cohort go a long way, whether they end up teaching Ag Mechanics or not. Having the knowledge of how to apply classroom instruction to real world scenarios, is important no matter what type of education you are going into. Identifying questions to be answered, I think, can go along with the material that was covered in the workforce education classes as well. One of the things that was discussed was that you had to be very intentional about what you were teaching when working with students that have a disability. Trying to cover too much in a certain time period or covering material that is just busy work, makes for unneeded stress on the learner.

To make a connection between this weeks reading and a third point. I read a section from the Journal of Agricultural Education to learn a little more about what the original reasoning behind the Three Circle Model of Agriculture Education was. A connection I made from this source to the connection to student teaching and my other Teach Ag! classes was still the idea of applying what we teach in the classroom. One thing that stuck with me after reading that article, was the idea that students can learn basic skills in agriculture while simultaneously learning problem solving skills. Meaning that we do not have to power point our students to death before letting them pick up a wrench on an engine. Learning by Doing is something that I will always strive to keep at the forefront of my instruction.

Journal of Agricultural Education, Volume 34, Number 3, pg. 65.
https://www.jae-online.org/attachments/article/679/Hughes,%20M%20&%20Barrick,%20K.B_Vol34_3_59-67.pdf