Hands on learning of sorts

Hi all,  well this week had hands on learning seemed to be the them, maybe more so on my part than the students.

This week we were trying to finalize every thing for SLLC including proficiency award applications, which are a lot more complicated than what they need to be explaining why most students just don't bother with them. I had decided earlier in the week that Friday would be set aside for the Large Animal Science class to clean their side of the barn. It was appositely repulsing!  The standing agreement is that all group leaders are to arrange for their group to get together at least once a month to clean out their assigned pens, however, none of the pens have been cleaned sense Thanksgiving. A Yorkshire Gilt, Dairy heifer calf, two Dorset X ewes, and a Nubian doe ; that should be more than enough to explain the smell. Needless to say the barn manager and I had a long discussion on the health issues, human and animal, that were bound to ensue.

I wish it hadn't  but by Thursday my words had come true, the goat had had her kid and developed mastitis. Not completely but in a larger part to her unsanitary living conditions, in addition to this the calf was about to be taken from the programs care. Students just seem to have to learn the hard way. Manual labor my be one of the best teaching tools, as all the student quickly learned why the barn needs to be cleaned because, it makes the pens even harder to clean and the smell is horrendous. Additionally it allowed me to work on my classroom management, keeping all the students productive in the cleaning process. We didn't get completely done in the 45 minuet period but some of the students volunteered to come back up during their study halls and finish up.

The fallowing two periods were even more interesting having a fire drill, that the teachers didn't know about, and some of the students that were working on the farrowing crate in the shop promised they didn't cause. It was funny how quick they came out of the shop saying  "we didn't do it, the fire was last period". When we saw the main school evaluating to we knew they relay hadn't set the alarm off. Finally, we got to go back in to the school for 8th period.                      

Having two students needing to finish their proficiency award applications, we decided to have the remaining students up date their AET. while we worked on figuring out were the errors were coming from.At this time the office had sent up machinates because the new welders were on their way and work still need to be done to  the shop so Mr.Campbell had to go assist them, leaving me to work out the bugs. Relay, it would have went a lot smother with two of us looking not just the one who had never seen or filled the form out before.  I was looking at the one and talking at loud and one student did what I was saying and fixed theirs in what seemed like no time. Helpful hint pay more attention in Ag business class. The bell had rang at some point and I still couldn't fix the same errors on the application I was looking at because cells wouldn't allow us to change them. We finally, had the students leave so they didn't miss their rides. Staying after to figure out what to do but with both Mr.Campbell and I having appointments after school it was deiced that Mr.Campbell would take it home and look at it again and if need to call another teacher to see if they could give us a hand.

Lesson for the week their is no substitute for hands on learning for the teacher and the students.          

Cattle Call

Hi all,
Do to a death in the family last week I am still a little behind but will be posting about National FFA week  in a later post to catch you all up.

So this week (6) I have to say a lot developed but Friday my have been or at least was pretty close to being "that moment". That certain people want me to have to change my mind about extension and take the school based rout, I'm slowly wearing down but not there yet. If you can remember back to week two (week one of actually teaching) the student that I have had class room management difficulties with ,ok the majority of the time may be more factual to explain the management struggle,had his light bulb light!

The first day of Large Animal Science's Reproduction Unit was an inquiry based lesson in titled "Cattle Call", I picked up the idea from the NAAE Preserves Teachers Program, the lesson is designed to have students explore the working of Mendel's Theory of Genetics by looking at different developing countries and developing the "Perfect" breed of cattle for the environment and people. This student came into class like always , I figured here we go again, but instead of the complaints I thought I would hear I hared  excitement real excitement. "Oh yea we got Vietnam!" I was shocked almost as much as his group members were, I wanted to ask "Who are and nice to meet you" but I re-framed. I had them read their articles ( 8 groups of three each with a different country)highlighting any thing they thought might help them to answer the proposed question "What factors go into developing a new breed?". Oh, also for this lesson I handed out question cards that limited each group to three questions, including "can I use the restroom, sharpen my pencil,& get a drink?". I think a firing squad would have been more friendly than my students were when I explained the cards and started collecting them.

One think to keep in mind for any one wanting to use them have any other teachers leave the room or collect cards to, the students will try  asking them their questions to try and avoid losing a card. This student had a question and I probably shouldn't have but I didn't take his card for asking, I was still to shocked, "Can I get the laptop or us my phone to look up something (tempter) I can't find in our article?"  "Yes, of cores you can use your phone or a laptop to look up more!!" I figured the sky was going to fall on us all but at the same time it was what happen for it to finally click for this kid and please don't go away. I told you I didn't take a card from their group and he reminded me that I had forgotten to take his card, I told him it was OK they could keep it because it was for the good of the whole class. A little while later he had another question about something he had found ( if the temp is in C than what is it in F) but before he asked he asked his group if it was alright to use on of their cards to ask. They both said Yes and said what I had been thinking the whole time, "Who are and nice to meet you!", he didn't respond just asked his question and gave me a card. You could have knocked me over with one finger.

When it came time to discuss Vietnam was the first in line, with full thoughts and comments on why they did what they did and why the pick the two breeds of cattle and how effective their breedings were. All the students enjoyed the lesson some were frustrated more than others but they all could explain the concepts that they had to explore on their own. At the end of class this student told my test was one of the first he had studied for and passed without using notes and it really help his grade and that's why he decided I didn't need a hard time any more, that and because I had made further than what he had bet I would. Go back to before the bet  and say what?!?! I did what ?  Thank you was all I could say to him and if you need any help just ask was what I finally said once he asked me if I was OK, I was speechless for only the second time in my life and must have looked sick or shell shocked and boy I was.

 This week have learned quite a bit about myself, having patients, keeping band-aids close by, and the power of even if you think you aren't getting through don't give up on any student they will all ways surprise you!!!    

Til next time!