snow Snow SNOW

Hi all! Here is my review of week one, it is coming a little early as this week I wrap up a little early do to the infamies Praxis testing. 

The week started out with an in service day on Monday. I got here at the regular start time, but as I found out in service days run like two hour delays, except the additional time is tacked on at the end of the day not the year, ops. Good thing is I now have met the high school office secretarial staff and got my ID and parking pass. So, it actually turned into a positive.  The rest of the day I assisted with looking at ATE recorded books that where being finished grading, some were really great and others well were far from it to say the least, which was truly disappointing because a few of the students really have the ability but lack the gumption to have a great recorded book (I hope to change that for some of them). I went to a school district wide meeting with Mr.Campbell on Professionalism and I have to say after two semesters, one full week, and this meeting I believe I have grasped the concept and made the appropriate changes. After this we headed back to the Ag/Hort complexes whit the majority of the high school instructors to take part in the Ag open house. 

The FFA officers had decided to host this event to let the other teachers many of which had never been to the building see the STEAM is incorporated in their curriculum. I went into the different rooms to listen and see what the students where presenting to the teachers, they did a great job of showing the workings of the three circle model. One example they g lave the teachers was in the large animal science they received instruction on the workings of the digestive system and how to meet its nutritional needs, then dissected a pigs digestive system (showing some of the preserved parts in jars), explaining how they related it to their market or breeding production SAE s nutrition and were inspired for the topic of their CDE prepared speech.   The reaction of some of the teachers to the lambs and guineas was priceless.  At the end of the tour they introduced all the teachers to their new breed gilt and had a door prize raffle :1 dozen eggs,  hydroponics lettuce, and liquorish plants but to this disappointment of one teacher no lambs were given as prizes. The next day was to be an introduction day for me of my expectations, procedures, and consequences; along with being the regional PAAE meeting in the evening (rescheduled for Tuesday the 28th). But the storm of the century hit again.

My first snow day experience in my new role was boooorrrriiiinnnngggg. I did, however, accomplish getting my 4-H leaders Safe Penn State Test completed and my ANSC 100 homework for the week. The next day was a two hour delay, skipping first and second periods and starting with third and fourth. 

Wednesday of the week turned into my introductory and a little bit of a debriefing day as well as being the last day of the semester trying to finish putting grades in. In the food science course books were being collected and most students did everything they could to find a book to try and turn in so they wouldn’t have to pay for their lost book, one student even tried to pass off an old old old edition but it didn’t play out for him. This week has been the start of 2014-15 student courses scheduling so we have been preparing for 8^th grade recruitment day on Thursday. 

 Today has been filled with excitement the FFA officers and a handful of students have all been excused from their classes today to give tours and run short labs for the 8^th grade science classes that are coming up today to see what the Ag program has to offer. Labs consist of: cuttings (greenhouse), fruit rollups (food science), measurements ( Ag mechanics), and animals ( large/small ANSC).  I spent the day supervising the classes not helping with the 8^th graders and keeping them on task while Mr. Campbell helped with the recruitment.  During lunch we went over what would be my first lessons and what classes I would start teaching the upcoming week. I’m glade to announce I will be starting with Large Animal Science –Sheep & Goats starting Monday! The rest of the day went for the most part the same as the morning. This evening I was introduced to the rest of the high school teachers and administrators at this evenings Faculty meeting, followed by a tour of the high school and setting up a meeting on Monday morning with the IEP department. 

Over all if I had to do this week over I would have liked to have been more involved in the open house and recruitment but know that I will soon be submerged in FFA week preparation.  This week went pretty slow as it was just observation but I did give me insight into the students’ behavior and classroom management.

On to the next week and another adventure!!