Lab went much better this week, which is good, means I am improving ever so slightly. Anyways, lab this week was all about interest approaches and I think mine went very well. I started off by having my students break into two teams, one team was the "farmer" the other were the "pest". The pest team was challenged to pick one of five pest that they wished to be. Their end goal was to invade the farm and collect as many crops as possible. The group I worked with played along extremely well and even did a caterpillar dance on their way to the farm. The farmers were challenged to plant their crops in a per-designed field. They had restrictions on what could go where, and how many plants could go into. Once time ran up the pest group had the opportunity to invade the farm, based on the pest they chose they had limitations as to what crops they could take as well as how they could move around the farm. After the pests got to ravish the farm everyone got some of the treats and we moved on with class.
Overall I think my interest approached worked well for me. Can you guess the topic we were learning about? Today's lesson was on introduction to Pesticide Education, I think I hit the nail on the head for this lesson. We got to talk about what made a pest a pest as well as some of the impacts a pest can make on a farm. I would hope this approach would keep students excited and eager to come to class the next day to see what else we may do. For this Landscaping class which my lesson was prepared for this would be the first class session I thought and I believe I am starting out strong.
Now things didn't go exactly as planned there were some bumps along the way. Thankfully this is only a learning experience. One major issue I am having is making my presence in the classroom strong. I know this will only come with time and practice so every chance I get I am gonna take it and go for it. I know this is a topic we all need to work on check out this great blog on how to make a presence in the classroom. Some tips include greeting students at the door and being careful how you use your tone of voice. Greeting students at the door is something I have done for both of my lessons and I want to continue doing. Now to work on my voice; I found a few resources that have tips on making a strong even toned voice, other ways I can improve my voice would be to practice speaking in a mirror. 
Another point of weakness is my classroom management. I had an incident where one student bullied another. I know I did not handle it very well and that is one MAJOR problem. Bullying in schools should not be tolerated by any means and I did not draw attention to the problem. There are countless websites and tips on how to solve the problem. Here is one particular site that I found helpful.
I know I have a lot of room to grow from these labs and I am embracing all the constructive criticism I am receiving because I know in the long run I am going to become a better Agricultural Educator!
I hope everyone had a wonderful National Teach AG! Day and in case you missed it check out the video the avengers made!
That sounds like so much fun! It is awesome to hear that your students got really into the interest approach and were engaged. Pesticide education is a tough topic to cover as it can be very elaborate but you sound like you have a great control on it! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteRachel, this lesson seems pretty interesting. I think role playing is a great way to get students engaged in the lesson. As far as making a presence in your classroom, I think that is tough for a lot of us. I think that if you continue to improve your lessons and prepare before each session, your confidence will grow and classroom management will improve!
ReplyDeleteRachel, it sounds like your interest approach worked out well for you and your learners. As for working on your voice, I will admit that the night before lab I run through the entire lab while standing in front of a mirror. This really helps me be more confident when standing in front of students the next day. By coin this I can see the gestures and hear the voice that they will experience. I have seen positive results from doing this, maybe it would help you as well. Overall it seems like you are showing growth from the first lab and have the passion and dedication to continue to stretch.
ReplyDeleteRachel I like to see that you feel that you are improving. That is what this lab is intended for. I feel as thought your interest approach worked very well for the topic you were teaching, so Great Job! I know each lab we have this role playing activity that we must participate in to recieve a grade. however I believe this role playing helps determine how engaged our students are in the subject matter. I have noticed it in my lab section because sometimes the students are engaged and will forget that they are suppose to be doing their role. However with the bullying you need to make sure your firm with the students and tell them that it will not be tolerated. If they continue to do it then I would follow your consequences. Just remember this is lab and you are going to continue to improve and gain those skills!!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great interest approach!! I would reflect on how you could have handled the bully problem better since this seemed to be one weakness you pulled out of your experience. Would you give the student a detention or send them to the office? Would you handle it yourself? I think this was a great interest approach for pest ed because it shows the farmer perspective and the pest! Thank you for sharing!
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