September is here, and I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this school year. I feel more blessed than I have before. Now, let me clarify. It's not so much that I haven't been blessed before, I think I've had a change in the attitude of my heart and am seeing more things as blessings as opposed to tribulations. With that said, I have a couple of stories to share from the past couple of weeks - hopefully they'll bring a smile to your lips!
What day is it?
Last week I distributed permission slips to all my students. To ease the burden of turning around 20 sets of permission slips in a year, we have students complete one that applies to all FFA events all year. Clever, huh? (Thank you Mr. Fite at Safford!) My freshmen students had to turn their permission slips in to register for a conference, and their permission slip was their place holder. I only had 18 spots, and 35+ freshmen competing for those spots. The next morning I had a steady stream of students stop by to drop their forms off before school started. While this is happening, I had one student talking to his mom on the phone trying to complete the information. He is almost finished and one of the last things he has to do is print the day's date. Simple, right? He asks her, "What is today? The 32nd?" What? Huh? I turn to look at him and he totally wrote that it was August 32! I guess there are worse things than knowing that 32 comes after 31, except when it pertains to days of the month.
A slippery slope
Yesterday was my first day of SAE visits where I essentially visit the project location of each student of mine. This is probably one of the most favorite parts of my job, if not THE most favorite. A senior student of mine built his own greenhouse, yep that's right, built it. Not from a kit mind you. From his own ingenuity. He's a pretty smart kid....probably smarter than me and I don't mind admitting that. Anyway, as I'm pulling up to his house he calls me to tell me that the greenhouse flooded. I reply telling him that it is okay, and I'll still check things out. His mom was nice enough to bring me a pair of rubber boots - after wading through the soggy mess and checking out the plethora of plants he has propagated, I exit the greenhouse. My exit wasn't that graceful though because there was a sink hole that I happened to find with my left foot! I slipped and and definitely had water up to my mid thigh. It was pretty funny, especially considering that his dad and older brother were there to observe my grace. I was just thankful I didn't drop my camera!
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Today's Folly
I definitely released my first hour class 25 minutes early today. That's right, 25. It wasn't on purpose either. For some reason, I thought class got out at 9:35....and we had finished a few minutes early. Thankfully there was one honest kid in the bunch. As they are all walking out the door, he says "I think we get out at 9:55."
Awesome. Combine that mistake with my whiny sophomore class and it makes for a grand morning!
Blessings to you!
Awesome. Combine that mistake with my whiny sophomore class and it makes for a grand morning!
Blessings to you!
Monday, June 28, 2010
An Agent of Change
I am in Des Moines, Iowa for the National Agriscience Integration Institute through Thursday. That's a big fancy name that basically means I, along with two other individuals involved in Ag Ed from Arizona, are here to develop a plan to integrate more Agriscience in our state. You may ask, how did I stumble upon this involvement? I will tell you...even though you probably weren't really wondering that.
Three years ago I applied to be a part of the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy; it was a phenomenal experience that literally changed the face of my approach to teaching. The entire focus of the original conference was to learn how to integrate more Agriscience instruction into agriculture classrooms through the use of Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI). The "Ambassador" part of the title came along with the expectation that we would return to our home states as reformed teachers, prepared to persuade our colleagues about this new and much better philosophy as an additional tool for our toolbox. That's all well and good until the rubber met the road.
Though I thought I understood my role three years ago, actually rolling out the plan became a bit more tricky. How do I, as one teacher, start a cascade effect among my colleagues about the importance of incorporating this method of teaching (inquiry)? To make it an even more dynamic problem, how do I affect change on the university level so that new Ag teachers have also been instructed about how to use this method?
And Wa-La, we have the creation of the current conference that I am attending this week. Operationally defined, each team of three from 11 different states, including the Great State of Arizona, will work as a team to develop a plan to integrate Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) in their respective home states. For those of you not involved in agricultural education or education at all, there's a lot of gobblety-gook vocabulary that I am throwing around. To boil it down though we are trying to provide teachers of all experience levels with a new method of teaching. We aren't asking them to throw out everything they have and start over; we are asking them to incorporate this method slowly. Methodically. Purposefully.
Inquiry based instruction can literally TRANSFORM the learning in a classroom. Students are forced to take ownership of their learning, and suddenly their learning becomes much more meaningful. In inquiry based instruction, there is a continuum of both student self-direction and direction from a teacher. The teacher simply must provide appropriate amounts of information and context to place students at an appropriate place on the continuum that allows them to inquire or investigate from there. Teachers change hats and become facilitators for awhile, then change hats again and provide additional context for what they students have discovered. It's a really interesting approach to learning that I hopefully will continue to utilize more in my own classroom.
With that said I want to elaborate a bit on the title of this post; I did not know exactly what to expect coming into "part two" of this conference series. I fully understood that inquiry based instruction was at the heart of both, but I did not know that we would be developing strategic action plans to incorporate this method into our home states. I was able to participate in and observe some brilliant conversations today that revolved around how individuals become agents of change and the difficulties they may encounter. As Arizona's only "official" (I use that term loosely) Agriscience Ambassador, I have been given a huge opportunity to influence the introduction of this methodology on a state-wide approach. I am really excited to see what unfolds through the work of our team over this next week.
I realize that pedagogy and teaching philosophy probably don't rock your world as much as they do mine. I am glad I can share my excitement through this blog though, and am even more excited to see my own passion for teaching grow. I entered this career three years ago with some huge strings attached about how long I would teach and why I was teaching. God has been so faithful though; in three years I have become increasingly thankful for this profession, my colleagues and especially my students. My interest in the science and art of teaching continually grows as well, and I aspire to better myself as a professional. And now, as I prepare to enter year four I am excited to see how God continues to use me as an Agent of Change in more ways than one.
Three years ago I applied to be a part of the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy; it was a phenomenal experience that literally changed the face of my approach to teaching. The entire focus of the original conference was to learn how to integrate more Agriscience instruction into agriculture classrooms through the use of Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI). The "Ambassador" part of the title came along with the expectation that we would return to our home states as reformed teachers, prepared to persuade our colleagues about this new and much better philosophy as an additional tool for our toolbox. That's all well and good until the rubber met the road.
Though I thought I understood my role three years ago, actually rolling out the plan became a bit more tricky. How do I, as one teacher, start a cascade effect among my colleagues about the importance of incorporating this method of teaching (inquiry)? To make it an even more dynamic problem, how do I affect change on the university level so that new Ag teachers have also been instructed about how to use this method?
And Wa-La, we have the creation of the current conference that I am attending this week. Operationally defined, each team of three from 11 different states, including the Great State of Arizona, will work as a team to develop a plan to integrate Inquiry Based Instruction (IBI) in their respective home states. For those of you not involved in agricultural education or education at all, there's a lot of gobblety-gook vocabulary that I am throwing around. To boil it down though we are trying to provide teachers of all experience levels with a new method of teaching. We aren't asking them to throw out everything they have and start over; we are asking them to incorporate this method slowly. Methodically. Purposefully.
Inquiry based instruction can literally TRANSFORM the learning in a classroom. Students are forced to take ownership of their learning, and suddenly their learning becomes much more meaningful. In inquiry based instruction, there is a continuum of both student self-direction and direction from a teacher. The teacher simply must provide appropriate amounts of information and context to place students at an appropriate place on the continuum that allows them to inquire or investigate from there. Teachers change hats and become facilitators for awhile, then change hats again and provide additional context for what they students have discovered. It's a really interesting approach to learning that I hopefully will continue to utilize more in my own classroom.
With that said I want to elaborate a bit on the title of this post; I did not know exactly what to expect coming into "part two" of this conference series. I fully understood that inquiry based instruction was at the heart of both, but I did not know that we would be developing strategic action plans to incorporate this method into our home states. I was able to participate in and observe some brilliant conversations today that revolved around how individuals become agents of change and the difficulties they may encounter. As Arizona's only "official" (I use that term loosely) Agriscience Ambassador, I have been given a huge opportunity to influence the introduction of this methodology on a state-wide approach. I am really excited to see what unfolds through the work of our team over this next week.
I realize that pedagogy and teaching philosophy probably don't rock your world as much as they do mine. I am glad I can share my excitement through this blog though, and am even more excited to see my own passion for teaching grow. I entered this career three years ago with some huge strings attached about how long I would teach and why I was teaching. God has been so faithful though; in three years I have become increasingly thankful for this profession, my colleagues and especially my students. My interest in the science and art of teaching continually grows as well, and I aspire to better myself as a professional. And now, as I prepare to enter year four I am excited to see how God continues to use me as an Agent of Change in more ways than one.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Why I do what I do
So. I was grumpy and tired today. I am in dire need of spring break. Code Blue. Stat. NOW!!! I don't know how else to convey the sheer necessity of a break at this moment in time. The third quarter (January - March) is super busy and can be super stressful for me. I started praying about the preparation of my heart, mind and physical strength long before I started school in January, but 10 weeks can be a marathon. And I am at my point of breaking.
I know this to be true when my fuse is short and kids drive me nuts all day. Typically I am one of the most patient people I know. However, today, there wasn't much that didn't make me want to scream. There's only so many times I can repeat the same thing for 130+ students in one day.
Anyway, I was reminded this evening of "why I do what I do." 28 of my students are presenting in 10 elementary classrooms tomorrow morning; they will be teaching them how seeds turn into plants. An essential element of farming plants so that we can harvest food, right? I'm so excited for them to do this, however like all activities it requires planning and preparation. After a day like today, teaching for an additional hour after school to prepare students for another presentation can be taxing.
But as I waited for round two of preparation I was encouraged. (Isn't God good?) Even on the longest of long days, even on the shortest of short fuses, God is still in control and can lift me up using the same students that drove me crazy earlier in the same day. Mariah and Adrian were reading the Dr. Suess book they are going to use tomorrow; they rotated reading the pages. They laughed quietly exclaiming that this book taught them more about this process than they had ever learned before. And they were excited. Excited about teaching first and second graders about a process inherent to the success of agricultural crops.
What a day. God reminded me that I love my job. And sometimes I just need a gentle reminder.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
My Little "Helper"
I took advantage of my time over fall break to do quite a few things, one of them being change a few things in my classroom. And I had to bring Johnnie Reb of course...when I'm not teaching she's my little sidekick. I just throw her in the truck (okay, she actually jumps in herself) and off we go. She does really well in my classroom. You can see just how helpful she was below:-) When she wasn't wrestling and chewing on butcher paper for my bulletin boards she was trying to eat gum off the bottom of the tables. No joke. Dis-gus-ting. I still think she's cute as heck though, even though she eats ABC gum (already been chewed).
And here you can see my (ahem) our finished products.
And here you can see my (ahem) our finished products.
PS-Thanks Emily for letting me use your borders!! I love shopping at "Emily's Educational Store."
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