What Happens in Winter Thankfully Stays in Winter

What Does a Bell Schedule Look Like?

How long does it take to learn a bell schedule?  Maybe a week?  If you add an extra bell schedule just for Tuesdays and Thursdays, how much longer does it take to memorize all your classes?  Maybe an extra couple of days.

Well, it's already been three weeks of school and I'm still checking the time the class is over every day.  With all the cancellations, two hour delays, early dismissals, Keystone exams etc, I'm just downright confused.  I'm pretty sure out of the three weeks I have been teaching, only four or five days have been a regular schedule.  Yikes!!

http://f.tqn.com/y/contests/1/L/N/7/-/-/Daily-getty-Simon-Battensby-88203236.jpg

                                                           

It certainly has been interesting being in the midst of wintry weather and school.  I've had to reschedule my time at the computer labs four times already!! Yes, four times!!  My Introduction to Agriculture class, which I have 2nd and 8th period, are never at the same spot in the coursework.  Aye, aye, aye, the challenges of being a teacher.

This week has been pretty exciting nonetheless. I can see relationships with my students finally beginning to form in a positive manner.  Previously, I have been known to be "Mr. Hughes's scary student teacher".  Yes, me.  Knowing me, that's funny and unbelievable.  Yet, in my Animal & Veterinary Science class, some of the kids are starting to warm up a little bit, it's pretty exciting!  

As you can probably imagine, my lesson plans did not go the way they were intended to go at all.  For my Animal & Veterinary Science class, we've managed to finish dissecting the cow udder on Monday, talk about the historical development of ice-cream (serves as a great history lesson too), making of ice cream, and a short introduction to butter.

                                              

In my Introduction to Agriculture class, we continued learning about the various types of agricultural regions of the world. Students are researching a chosen region for further details and developing a bulletin board.  I think they're going to be pretty cool!!

Power systems and power technologies have continued there projects, I simply am coaching them through them.  Interestingly, I have had a wonderful opportunity to practice co-teaching. I teach the students the skills they need while Mr. Reppick, an assistant in the agricultural department, inspects and grades the projects.  It works really well!  

Reflection

As always, there is room to improve with the lessons.  I know one particular lesson I would try to improve for next time.  If I can get a hold of topographical maps of the world, I could easily turn my agricultural regions of the world into an inquiry lesson.  Now that I have a better sense of what inquiry is and I'm in the midst of teaching, I'm seeing so many opportunities I could incorporate it.  Unfortunately I'm a little late in recognizing these opportunities.

Anyways, it would be really neat to have the students look at the topography of the world and determine their own regions.  Then once they have split the world up into regions, think through what the agriculture would look like in each region.  This would require the students to recall on geographical information taught in other classes.  Now, the only problem is, did my freshman students actually have geography yet?  Depending on the school they may have had more or less.  My students currently, have had none.  So it's much more of a geography lesson for them.  

Besides that, I felt really good about my historical development of ice-cream lesson.  It was timed perfectly, it was engaging, and I only had one behavioral issue with a student the whole time.  I incorporated the $10,000 pyramid e-moment which worked splendidly!!  I had students rotate turns creating a time-line on the board as we went through it.  My history goo-roos had a chance to show how much they know.  It just felt really good.

Next week

First, I will have a full load of teaching by next week.  It'll certainly be interesting.  

Introduction to Agriculture:

~ Finish Bulletin Boards & Present

~Issues in Global Agriculture

Animal & Veterinary Science:

~ Making Butter

~ How Cheese is made

~Cheese Tasting

~Possibly attempt to make some cheese.

~Yogurt

Power Technologies

~Continue working through packet to rebuild the engine

Power Systems

~Continue working through electrical systems

Plant & Soil Science

~Pesticide Formulations

~Pesticide Toxicity and Health