Show Halters to Chalk Boards: Dylan's Ag Ed Journey

With week three of my student teaching coming to a close, one thing that I have set a goal for bettering myself next week is keeping the attention of the class as a whole. Many of my lessons have breakout sessions where students are collaborating in pairs or small groups. I think that this is bringing a great deal of excitement into my classroom. The only fault that I am having is bringing the class back. When they get into their groups and I am walking around the room and come upon a teachable moment, I have a harder time than what I would have expected getting the whole class back. Even at the end of the time that I have set for the activity, I am working hard to break off the side conversations that have started towards the end of the activity while waiting on other groups to finish off.  One strategy that I am going to try for next week, is putting myself in the middle of the room when I bring the class back, instead of staying towards the front or side of the room. This should...

 After my first week of instruction at Wilmington Area School District, I have one main goal to focus on for the next week. Clarity. I believe that my lessons that I taught this week were received well by my students. As I am starting my welding unit in my Building and Trades class, I think that my excitement in teaching a shop class is showing in my lessons. My students are really not used to some of the activities that I am doing with them but they are still being perceived well and they are starting to adjust to them. For example, today, I had my students play a game of telephone with the definition of welding. At first, they just kind of looked at me wondering if I was serious or not, but eventually they got it and actually had some fun with it.  One of the things that I am trying to do is incorporate ideas and activities into the lessons that are not typical for high school classes. I hope that this creates some excitement among the students to come to my classes ready fo...

Officially, week one is done! I must say that moral is high. I thoroughly enjoyed my first week at Wilmington Area School with Mrs. Joanna McKelvey and her students. I got to be apart of their 3 day long mid-winter convention trip. Being on this trip gave me a lot of time to get to know her students in a more informal setting. It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to see me in a fun environment as well.  During this trip, I got to experience for the first time a trampoline park. Needless to say, I definitely felt older the next day after jumping and climbing around for 2 hours.   I was then ready to get into the classroom and see how the students operate on a day to day basis. One thing that I know will be a difference to them is my use of bellwork. When the students come in now, they just sit and talk until attendance is done being taken. I believe that the use of bellwork will be a shock to them at first, but once it is operationalized, they will take to it pr...