Reflection of my First Unit Plan!

Unit Information

Unit: Introduction to Shop Safety for Welding

Class Sessions: 15

Length of Sessions: 90 minutes

 

This past week I received my first unit plan back with peer reviewed feedback.  It felt so good to complete my first unit plan.  But there is no time for celebration because there are roughly eighteen more to go.  After reviewing my unit plan there were both areas where I excelled at and areas of improvement to make my unit plans a sound foundation for my lessons.  I have come to realize creating a good unit plan makes creating day to day lesson plans that much easier.    

First I will start with the positives of my unit plan.  The objectives I had stated were very clear and concise.  It is well understood what is planned to be taught each day and how it will be measured.  Setting my unit plan up into charts was very beneficial.  It makes my entire unit plan that much more accessible and organized when someone is looking for something specific.  Within my unit plan I also clearly had my unit goals stated.  Hoping that out of all the material I would be teaching on my introduction to shop safety for welding these are the things I desire my students retain. 

With every positive there is always a negative.  I myself had quite a few negatives for my first unit plan.  But that is okay it was my first unit plan!  I didn’t expect to create a perfect document.  It was very helpful having two of my peers’ review my unit plan and give me their feedback.  Anytime you can get multiple eyes to examine something the quality of the work to be submitted will be astronomically better.  Anyways things to take into consideration when I create more unit plans.

The first is to check over my grammar and spelling.  Proofreading and spell checking my work is important.  Sometimes what I envision my students doing in my head isn’t exactly what I have written down.  This can be eliminated with proofreading.  During assessments I need to set a timeline as to when they will be given.  Most of all I need to add objectives to some lessons.  I have to keep in mind that I have 90 minutes of instruction with my students.  Having too much material prepared is better than having too little.  I will have to go back through my unit plan and address concerns where I do not have enough objectives labeled for the lesson.

All in all the ball is rolling and those baby steps will have to be picked up into strides before the end of the semester.  The planning is on!

You're Gonna Go Far Kid!

It has been said before it doesn’t matter what you say, but how you say it.  When you say nothing at all you are doing no one a service.  Listening is just as important as speaking and vice versa.  Living in a world that is now so connected we interact with multiple people on a daily basis.  Having the ability to articulate thoughts and speak constructively with others is largely important for success.  However, along the way from disconnect to connect in the 21^st century world we have begun to ignore people who don’t think quite like us, dress differently, listen to music not of our liking, or come from a different cultural background.  The list goes on and on.  Adults are more prone to this than adolescents, but never do adults get reprimanded for the way they think or speak. 

I’ll get off of my soap box now and jump into what I took from the videos and readings for our AEE 412 reading reflection this week.  Angela Maiers talked about how YOU MATTER as an individual.  Students today do not get the positive reinforcement they so critically need.  This does not just relate to little Johnny in third grade who spelled a word right on his spelling bee exam, but to Sarah who is a high school junior who struggles with her biology assignments.  She always turns her work in and whether it is right or wrong she deserves the praise and positive reinforcement to keep her motivated.  So that she keeps trying and does not spiral into this whirl wind of failure and not caring. 

While listening to that video I kept thinking about past experiences I have had.  One thing that stuck out to me was the dairy farmer at home I work for.  I have admired the man ever since I started working for him several years ago.  My admiration towards him has built ever since.  My reasoning for that is he makes me feel like I am truly important and needed in the success of his operation.  While I know he can certainly get by without me he does truly mean it when he says “I couldn’t have done this without you, I’d still be in the barn doing chores if you hadn’t shown up, thank you.” Or in speaking to his wife right in front of me “Mason did a great job today filling silo.”  I have to tell you hearing praise like that makes you feel like YOU MATTER.  This is something I hope to incorporate into my classroom when I become an agricultural educator.  There have been days when the two of us have been up in the silo sweating to death leveling it off with pitch forks and the unloader just won’t set properly.  After an unanticipated time up there he will say “PERFECT!”  There is no sense in being a negative Nancy and our public school systems and students we will one day teach do not need another negative Nancy on their butts.  Students need recognition and positive reinforcement even if things do not go as planned. 

Also, coming up as an assignment in our AEE 412 class is a genius hour.  Before I read the assignment I thought it dealt with technology and how we will incorporate digital devices into our classroom.  Oh how I was wrong.  A genius hour is when I take the time to study and become more knowledgeable in anything I choose fit.  I gave it some thought this morning and what I would like to study is music.  Now that is a very generic statement so I am calling upon you my viewers to give me advice on where to take this.  I have a love for music.  I listen to all sorts of genres.  I listen to certain music when I am in a certain mood.  There’s specific music I listen to when I’m doing homework and other types when I want to just lose my mind.  Maybe I will set up some sort of graph and survey people with a list of questions you the audience and I come up with?  I’m excited to see where this goes.    

Fair Time in Lancaster County!

Over the weekend of September 25, I traveled to Lancaster County to visit the Lampeter Strasburg Fair.  It was a very small grass roots fair centered on the importance of agriculture in the community.  Lancaster County hosts many fairs.  Unlike in Bradford County my hometown fair where we have one county fair.  It was interesting observing the differences.  Lampeter had very few vendors whereas Bradford County does.  Bradford County has a midway and Lampeter does not.  However, the one thing they do have in common is the amount of livestock each fair exhibits.  Lampeter is largely livestock production based.  Many 4Hers and FFA members raise pigs or sheep.  In Bradford County being heavily dairy based many 4Hers and FFA members have dairy cattle they exhibit.

When traveling around the fair with Holly Oberholtzer my cooperating teacher.  She would make sure to check in with her students asking how their animals did in the show ring if she missed them while working in the FFA food booth.  She would also interact with them and ask what was the most memorable moment with your livestock project and what would you do differently to raise a better quality livestock animal. 

It was a lot of fun to go to one more fair before the season is over until next year.  Lancaster County is a beautiful area and the community strongly supports its young entrepreneurs through their sale that occurs Friday night the last night of the fair.  I look forward to doing my student teaching at Lampeter Strasburg High School in the spring. 

Why be boring? Lets get creative! How interesting can you be?

The moment your students walk in the door it is all upon you how the time in class together is going to go.  This has certainly been proven these last two weeks in our AEE 412 lab.  This week in lab it was all about the interest approach and how we as facilitators are going to get our students hooked from the beginning to be engaged throughout the entirety of our lesson.  Planning and preparation is crucial to a successful hook!  I have to admit I spent much of the afternoon trying to figure out what in the heck I was going to do for my interest approach.  My lesson was on what does a safe vs. unsafe agricultural shop look like?  After much thinking I decided to go with using multiple props to turn my classroom into an “unsafe agricultural shop.” 

I felt that my preparation and planning was exceptional and I came ready with multiple props to deliberately drive home my message of what an unsafe shop looks like.  After watching my video I actually felt that it went better than I thought it did!  In the beginning I stuttered a little bit and used umm excessively, but after I got the students up and moving around taking notes I felt like I found my groove.  I also think that from last week to this week I spoke much slower.  This is something I have to keep working on to make sure my clarity of directions is fully understood by my students.  I struggled a little bit as well with keeping one of my students on task who sometimes was goofing off and not allowing others to learn.  Although by the end I think I did a better job and had this student engaged reading objectives for me and allowing for that person to feel like they had a role in my class.  I want for all my students in my classroom to feel like they have a place because they do and that everyone is just as important as the next. 

Overall I am proud of my performance.  I struggled with creating an interest approach, but I think that I did a good job describing what a safe vs. unsafe agricultural shop looks like.  Anytime when students are up an moving I believe they are more observant and on task.  Starting my lesson out with this approach hooks them for the rest of my lesson and gets them wanting to learn more. 

So You Want to be an Agricultural Educator?

For our second weekly reading within The Agricultural Education Magazine there was an article that strongly related to me.  Looking back and drawing on personal experiences I now see the benefit of effective planning, having strong organizational skills, managing a program, and incorporating community involvement into a program. 

Planning and Preparation > Planning on the go

When planning and preparation is put into constructing an effective lesson plan student understanding and knowledge of the material being presented to them is exponential!  Looking back on my own experiences throughout high school in my agriculture program my instructor always had clear objectives stated on the board that he planned to get through before our time together was up.  He also took the time to figure out what was the best way to convey theories and information.  When we were learning about electricity he would use the white board and multiple colored markers to show us different types of circuits.  Plumbing for instance he would bring in the actual pieces commonly used and have them taped to the board with their name while we were going over a worksheet on how to properly set up a drain or water line.  Bottom line it is crucial to put the time in ahead of the teaching lesson so the time spent on that lesson is most effective.

Whenever in doubt organize it out!

One skill in the teaching profession that will make your life much easier is having strong organizational skills.  If you have all your materials and a focus with a clear end objective in mind your already well on your way to succeeding and providing the best learning experience to your students.  I noticed this too in my agricultural educator.  He always had links uploaded prior to class.  His lesson plans were laid out on his desk to glance at or if there was a sub for a particular day.  Most of all it was noticeable in the shop.  For the most part it was clutter free.  We all know no agricultural mechanics shop is 100% clear of clutter.  Having tools and materials in their designated area made working in the shop that much easier.

Oh you have a managerial position?  But you’re a teacher.

Being an ag. teacher doesn’t just mean you teach the reproductive system of a cow or how small gas engines function.  You wear many hats and one of them is being a program manager.  There are many functions and activities outside of the ag. classroom.  Being well organized and managing these things properly makes your job more fun and allows your students to get the most out of being in your class or the FFA.  When I think about this and relating it back to my high school experiences.  I vividly remember my ag. instructor always having a list of important dates on the whiteboard.  Around banquet time we the members coordinated it for the most part, but our advisor was there to keep us on track.  In the shop I remember working on hay wagons and while we all couldn’t be welding on the sides he would have some of us cutting metal out, others welding the sides on, and a few cutting the boards out for the floor.

Get the community involved!

Community involvement and support makes just a good ag. program a great ag. program.  I could go on and on about why an ag. program needs community involvement, but it’s quite simple it helps you as an educator get supplies and resources for your program and offer opportunities for your students to get hands on experiences.  This topic relates the most to me and is what made my experiences in the ag. program leave a lasting impression on me.  I joined the dairy judging team my ninth grade year.  My teammates and I decided to take it serious so local farmers who had invested time and money into the program graciously decided to coach us.  Looking back on it now my ag. teacher making those relationships and finding the people who could enhance our skill set really means a lot to me.  My tenth grade year of school I wanted to show a market steer so my ag. instructor hooked me up with a local farmer who raised beef cattle.  It turned out to be one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I showed market steers all through high school and still work on their dairy/beef cattle operation.

So being an ag educator means so much more than discussing the differences between conventional tillage and no-till.  We have a lot resting on our shoulders to make our students and program successful.  With careful preparation, organization, good management, and community involvement our path to success can be a whole lot easier.

First Day of School Lab

The second week of our AEE 412 lab was today and the topic presented to us that we had to teach to our peers was the first day of school.  This lesson included classroom expectations, procedures, and consequences.  It was exciting and a bit nerve wracking to get up and conduct a lesson about the first day of school.  After watching my video I noticed some places I excelled at and others where there is still work for improvement. 

I felt that I engaged with my students’ quite well.  I tried to include and communicate with each of them today.  I purposely set my lesson up so they all would have the ability to speak in front of the class giving them a feeling of meaning and place in my class.  I view this to be very important.  If I am the only one talking I give the persona off that I am the only one who is important.  I think the most important people are my students and allowing them to talk anytime I can get them to, gives them a feeling of meaning.  I think my enthusiasm was up to snuff throughout the entirety of the lesson.  Enthusiasm is crucial for student engagement.  I also, strived to make it a point to verbally go over my objectives.  While having them posted on the board is one thing.  I think that stating them aloud to my students sends the message home exponentially letting them know this is what I plan to get through today during classroom instruction. 

With strengths there always comes weaknesses and we can never settle for what we have.  I noticed today some things I must take forward with me to work on and grow from to become the best educator that I can be.  I think the first that was most noticeable was my bell work.  That did not go as planned.  My clarity for my bell work was very poor.  What I thought was clear and understandable was not to my students.  This just goes to show never assume anything!  At the same time I also thought I adapted well when I realized my students had done something different than I had planned.  While my students were doing their interest approach I noticed I did not interact with them much at all.  I need to interact more with my students and talk with them to see what they are thinking.  This also will keep my students on task.  Finally, the use of filler words was a little excessive today.  Removing these words will just make what I have to say go with much better flow. 

In conclusion it was a blast to get up in front my peers and present my first day of school lesson.  I learned just as much from myself watching my video ass I did from observing my peers and viewing their videos.

How to make your class hall talk

Creating a learning environment that students want to come back to is a challenge that educators face.  It is not so much that the content being taught is boring and not worthwhile, but the way it is being conveyed to students is not intriguing to them.  Like the worm a fisherman puts on his/her hook to catch a fish.  A teacher must find that type of worm or bait to lure students into the information and end up learning something from it.  Teachers must always be accessing what is working for them and what is not.  After our second weekly reading here are some key points I picked up from it…

To start things off with there are three domains of learning Cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.

·         Cognitive behavior deals with facts, knowledge, and concepts.

 

·         Psychomotor behavior deals with using your mind and motor skills ex. Hands on experiences.  However, this cannot be accomplished without cognitive understanding.

 

·         Affective behavior relates to attitudes, values, and aesthetic.

 

How do you have that awesome class?

 

·         Instructional objectives have to be sound, clear, and concise.  Like concrete for a building or sidewalk.  Much planning and preparation must go into it before anyone can think about using the building as a working space or walking on that sidewalk.

 

 

·         Setting objectives help define and limit the scope of the problem area.  It greatly assists teachers in what is needed to know and what would just be nice to know.

 

·         Objectives help lay the sequence out in which the way content will be taught.  By choosing to do this, students can build off of skills previously comprehended.

 

·         Teachers must know where they are going and how they plan on getting there.  Kind of like a trip across nation.

·         The major focus of writing instructional objectives includes specifying observable (measurable) behaviors.

·         By using action verbs this can successfully be done.

·         Having an interest approach is vital!

·         This creates a desire for students to want to learn more about the specified topic.

·         Use interest approaches that relate to students you have in your classes.

·         Engaging lessons make for an enjoyable teaching and learning experience.

·         To actually be engaging it requires planning, preparation, and presentation.

 

You must bring enthusiasm to every lesson you teach!

Dave Burgess says “It doesn’t matter how much material you teach, it only matters how much is received.”  I strongly agree with this statement.

Transitions are highly important when conveying content and ideas some examples are…

Having the projector already on

Video clips already uploaded

Finally, Success relies on your attitude!