National #TeachAgChat Career Prepartion in Agriculture

Wow that was insane!  So many tweets, retweets, and favorites going on in one hour.  We just completed the first ever #TeachAgChat hosted by 2016 pre-service ag. teachers!  Leading up to the chat it was a bit overwhelming at first.  There were so many platforms to promote our chat on and preparation to have a successful chat.  Now reflecting on it there was so much good leading up to our chat and the anxiety and fear of the unknown is over.  So here are a few things from our national #TeachAgChat I took away.

1.      Preparation is more than half the battle.  Doing this assignment with a group made completing tasks ten times easier.  Having a google doc. and meeting regularly to talk about logistics benefited greatly to the success of our chat.

2.      Promote heavily!  Promoting your chat will pay great dividends.  We actually used Hootsuite and it automatically pushed out tweets promoting our chat daily.  I noticed that this was a very successful means of enticing people to engage in our chat.

3.      Having multiple devices is beneficial.  If you can use a laptop and your phone while facilitating the chat it can make things easier.  Along with that use tweetdeck to follow what people are tweeting about and use twitter only to send out tweets.

4.      Make sure your questions are clear and fit the character requirement.  Twitter is a powerful tool with a character limit you can only share what you find truly fascinating about something.

5.      HAVE FUN WITH IT!  With our preparation the night of the chat was a piece of cake.  A little music, some snacks, and great company for a meaningful chat made for all the difference.

I hope you were able to take away something that was successful from my #TeachAgChat.  If you were unable to attend ours for the next couple of weeks every Thursday at 8pm EST there will be a new #TeachAgChat topic. 

Let's Acheive Our Goals!

Evaluating learning is much more than handing out an exam and expecting your students to answer 75 questions by the end of the class period.  We as educators have come to realize that all our students are different and that the one mold fits all approach does not work in a progressive, functional, 21^st century classroom.  Our students all come with strengths and weaknesses.  We must be able to observe and understand these to better adapt and provide for our students.  Here are five bits of information I picked up on that are crucial to fully grasp and incorportate when evaluating students.

1.      Accommodations vs. modification- These two terms have very different meanings.  Not every student will have an IEP, but they may need to be accommodated.  Accommodating a student does not mean you create a different assignment for them to complete.  It simply means you may provide a list of terms, definitions, or tangible handout for them to have.  Modification however, is altering the assignment or test.  In this case maybe the student only has two instead of four choices to choose from.  Or they will be given a time extension or not be expected to write a six page paper instead only four pages.

 

2.      Rubrics are a tool to help access student performance in an objective, reliable, and consistent manner.  Rubrics also make things 100% transparent and students can clearly see what is expected of them.

 

3.      Accountability & Reliability- Rubrics allow for teachers and students to be accountable.  What is expected of both is clearly specified.  Rubrics are also reliable.  Once you implement them into your class and use them regularly students know what is expected from you.  From an educator standpoint you show no favoritism.

 

4.      There are three types of learning criteria when evaluating students. 

·         Product criteria- addresses what students know and are able to do at a particular time

·         Process criteria- A student’s classroom behavior relating to effort, behavior, class participation, how well they follow directions and turn assignments in, and their work habits.

·         Progress criteria- how much students improve or gain from their learning experiences.

 

5.      Why do we use peer assessment in our classrooms?  It empowers students and teaches them how to manage their learning.  It enhancing student learning through the exchange of ideas with their classmates and motivates students to dig deeper into material.

 

In conclusion educators must be mindful in the way they educate their students.  Rubrics allow for transparency, student ownership, and reliability.  Accommodating and modifying assignments for students will lead to greater student success for those who need it.  Constantly accessing student knowledge through the three criterions previously mentioned will make things easier when it is time to do report cards.

So There is a Problem? Lets Solve It!

Today in our AEE 412 lab we did the problem solving approach with our peers.  I have to say thus far this was the most fun and exciting lab for me as a facilitator to do.  One of my classes in the spring is vet science 1.  A unit within that course is reproduction.  I thought what better way to introduce the reproduction unit than with a problem facing a fictional local farmer in the area to the students!  I enjoyed creating the fictional document and using my creative juices and passion for the dairy industry to create my problem solving approach.

At the beginning of lab I was a bit nervous though.  I knew what I had created was a problem, but would it work with my peers who had different levels of insight about reproduction in cattle.  Or would it be a complete flop!  Needless to say it wasn’t a fail, but there was good and bad take aways from my lab presentation.

The GOOD

1.      My article was a hit!  My students dove right into the article and picked it apart

2.      I think I did a good job assigning stations to my students allowing them to get there and then giving them directions on what was expected of them while at that station.

3.      During their time at their post it note station I think I did a good job circulating around the room interacting with my students and making sure they stayed on track during the duration of the activity.

4.      During our time going over the post it note “what I want to learn” I think I did a decent job giving student ownership to the terms they were unfamiliar with. First giving them time, context clues, and the ability to stem off of what their peers thought before I assisted with the word or moved on and stated we would cover it more during the unit.

5.      Teacher Voice.  Say it loud.  Say it proud!

Areas of Improvement

1.      Clarity.  I struggled at the beginning of my lesson stating what I expected my students to be doing. 

2.      When I gave them the article about Farmer Fred I should have left it at that.  After they read it fully I should have then asked “so what do you think?

3.      Let my freak flag fly!  Leading up to this lab I was super stoked to present this lesson.  After watching my video I didn’t really show my deep underlying passion for the dairy industry. 

In conclusion I have definitely seen improvement in myself in just the few short weeks so far.  Wednesdays are a bit nerve wracking but also fun!  The problem solving approach is a bit challenging to implement into a lesson, but doing it correctly I can certainly see the engagement and purposefulness of it.

Problem Solving with a Purpose

The demand for students that can successfully problem solve is a skill that the workforce is looking for in prospective employees.  Many teachers are revising their curricula to encourage higher orders of thinking on their students.  When problem solving students go through three cognitive activities to find a solution to the problem. 

1.      Represent Problem- Students find appropriate context knowledge, and seek the end goal and starting conditions of the problem.

2.      Solution Search- During this stage students refine the goal they are seeking and develop a plan of action to reach their end goal

3.      Implement Solution- Students execute their plan of action and then evaluate the results.

When implementing problem solving through the use of projects there are eight important steps to consider making the assignment purposeful and meaningful for your students.

1.      Identify the significant content you want your students to fully understand.  Outline the basis of the important knowledge you would like students to become familiar with.  This should reflect what you as an educator believes are essential for their learning process on the topic.  In turn students will find material and terms they believe are significant in their own lives.

2.      Grab students attention from the get go!  Provide an “entry event” that gets the students interested and engaged.  Some examples are video clips, group discussion, guest speaker, and a field trip.  Sparking students’ interest rather than passing out a handout and telling them they need to know this because it is on the test is a poor way to get students to fully use their problem solving skills. 

3.      Be sure to have a driving question.  A clear driving question provides a sense of reasoning for the assignment and also a challenge presented to them.

4.      Allow for student input.  Provide multiple outlets for completing the project.  Allow for a written paper, oral presentation, and media technology.  Students articulate and solve problems in many ways don’t constrict your students learning and thought process.

5.      Create a project replicated to the workforce.  Allow for collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the use of technology.  Incorporating these facets into your assignment create purpose and allow for reflection.

6.      Dig deeper.  Have students ask questions and stem off of topics already being examined.  Students find more meaning in work when they can relate it to real life issues.

7.      Feedback & Revision.  In doing this students realize the importance of creating high quality products and that their first attempt at something is usually not their last.  It explicitly relates to the workforce and that revisions are an integral part of creating high quality products.

8.      Present your product!  Show off your work.  Present how you arrived to your final solution.

In conclusion when creating an assignment centered on problem solving make it meaningful!  Do not create it just for the sake of completing the assigned material and moving on to take the test.  Upon completion of the project have students present their findings or creation to an audience.  Students care more about the quality of their research and problem solving strategies when they know they have to present it.  Doing this students acquire a taste of what professionals in the workforce are looking for, after all isn’t that what we as educators are preparing our students for?  Real world experiences in an atmosphere where they can succeed and fail without any repercussions.

Check out this short interesting read about problem solving.

 

 

Fall Leadership Conference facilitator reflection

The anticipation and anxiety could finally be put to rest.  The numerous hours of teacher preparation, planning an engaging content filled lesson could be put to the test.  The countless dry runs were no more.  Today was game day!  As student teacher candidates each October Penn State TeachAG is asked to facilitate FFA officer workshops at the Fall Leadership Conference held in Altoona.  FFA chapters from all across the state attend this workshop to better prepare their chapter officers to take on a new year and the challenges they may encounter with the correct tools in their toolbox to make their officer candidacy the best it can be. 

Two others and I facilitated the president’s workshop.  To begin with I can’t say how fortunate I am to have worked with such talented individuals.  The experience we provided to the students was second to none and we each brought a different personality and viewpoint to the workshop.  In the beginning we were all still getting a feel for how this whole facilitating thing was going to go.  I mean it was our first time teaching to a group of 27 students for an hour and a half. 

Our first activity we had for the students was either going to be successfully executed or blow up in our faces.  We had seven students come up to the front of the room and assume officer rolls within a chapter.  The other students were the “members” of the chapter.  They were to conduct new business on their upcoming banquet and sooner rather than later they were to come to the conclusion there was no president.  They realized this quite fast, but luckily they played along with our interest approach and made things get a little wild with no chairman.  At that point I as able to scope out students in the class who I knew did not have a problem speaking in front of a group which would come in handy at a later activity.

As the workshop progressed our students became more engaged and they began to give into our silly ques to inform us that they were done with an activity we assigned to them.  As we approached an hour into our workshop we realized time was going to be an issue.  Thankfully, we had more than enough content to teach them rather than the other way around.  As facilitators we decided to continue teaching at the rate we had been and not rush through things just for the sake of getting them done.  We carried some very good discussion in our parliamentary procedure activity and the students really walked away with a better knowledge about the importance of Robert’s Rules and its use in chapter meetings.  For that reason we wanted to keep beneficial discussion throughout our workshop and not freight train through things. 

My favorite part of the lesson was when we did our public speaking activity.  The students really enjoyed this activity and the laughter filled the room as students came in and recited a paragraph of the FFA creed using good and/or bad public speaking characteristics.  After each speaker the students in the audience were split into two groups to focus in on either the good or bad traits of that speaker and write their observations down on a big post it note.  I greatly enjoyed facilitating this part of the workshop. While it seemed like what we were doing was silly many students were able to relate to past experiences or observations.   And hone in on what makes a good public speaker and relate to why it is important as a leader like the president to possess these skills. 

An area for improvement on my part would be transitions.  At times it seemed like one activity did not transition well into the next.  Making that connection and segueing better into our next activity is a point of improvement for me.  I spoke briefly about our time crunch earlier.  While it would have been nice to have presented all portions of our lesson I think that cutting one activity out rather than rushing was the right call.  With experience and becoming more accustomed to how long activities are going to take will fix this kink. 

Overall I greatly enjoyed my day facilitating with twenty seven awesome FFA presidents and working alongside great cohort members.  I am glad that our preparation paid off and I got to see the end result of our FLC lesson plan succeed.   

How Are You Asking Your Questions?

There is no wrong question, but as an educator you can wrongly ask a question.  This week’s weekly writing focused on effective questioning.  Questioning is a crucial part of the learning process.  After material has been taught questions are asked to make sure what was conveyed by the teacher has been absorbed by the students.  As well as to interest and motivate students and create higher orders of thinking and reasoning. 

The realization of differentiated instruction in the classroom helps ease the burden of how to ask questions.  However, before you can ask questions you as an educator must understand what differentiated instruction is and how to implement it into your classroom. 

First, students must feel comfortable in your classroom for any of this to work.  Once students feel comfortable in your classroom the fear of asking a dumb question will subside.  Next no matter how off the wall a question may be at times you as an instructor must be prepared to answer it.  This may require rephrasing the question in a way that makes more sense so the whole class understands. 

Secondly, as an educator you must recognize that your students learn a multiple realm of modalities.  To reach all your students learning styles, you as an educator must have variability in your day to day lessons to connect to everyone. 

Looking ahead towards my student teaching experience there are a few things I want to hone in on and become proficient in by the end of my experience.

1.      Thoroughly articulate my questions.  After teaching material I want my students to give clear meaning to me the connection they made from today’s lesson with yesterdays and what the importance is of what we learned today for what is in store for the day ahead.

2.      Don’t jump the gun!  Allow for enough wait time for students to formulate a response.

3.      Reach for the sky!   Throughout the day to day lessons that I will be teaching I want to make sure my lessons have meaning and challenge my students just a little bit more than anticipated.  If I can do that.  My students will stay engaged and therefore ask deeper thinking questions when they arise.

4.      Create debate.  I loved it when we got to debate in high school.  Being assigned a topic and a stance or taking a side made me think outside the box and not just skim the surface.  At the same time I got to listen to other students’ perspectives and thought about why what they were saying made sense or why I took a different side.  I think debate can be a great way to further questioning.  To make it successful like stated earlier students must feel safe in the environment you provide to them.

 

Questioning is almost like the keystone of ones learning process.  As an educator you must lay the blocks so students can sufficiently question and grow their learning mindset.  And students must understand the importance of questioning and ask out when they do not understand or want to learn more.