The Chronicles of Becoming an Ag Educator

Student driven learning. Student's such as Kate Simonds are well aware of the lack of student voice in the education system. In her Ted Talk "I'm 17" shes states as students "we have no say in what we learn or how we learn it, yet we're expected to absorb it all, take it all in, and be able to run the world someday." Due to students having a lack in what they learn students feel no confidence or unwilling to answer question in the classroom. This is a BIG problem.  I look forward to teaching agriculture as it provides such a unique aspect to education where students are given a voice, and their ideas are utilized to ensure the content is being absorbed. Students in agricultural programs gain the confidence in deciding what they learn, which in-turn makes classroom engagement that much higher. Classroom engagement can look many different ways but one simple way to keep students engaged is through questions.  Cornell University, Center for Teaching ...

Hey Everyone! This week we worked to improve our presentation with interest approach. Take a look at my interest approach

From day one of my teaching journey, this semester, the importance of variability has been stressed over and over again. In order to keep students engaged in material, teaching techniques should continually be changed. This week we are taking a look at the importance of changing it up with group teaching  techniques. I would stretch to say that group teaching is the most common teaching method used in agriculture classrooms, therefore there are many different techniques to be used to better connect with each student. Check out some ideas that come to my mind when it comes to using group teaching in my future classroom. Technology:  Technology plays a vital role in today's classrooms, especially in a group teaching setting. During my student teaching experience I will be utilizing power-points that students are able to view on there 1-1 i-pads provided by the school. With students having access on their individual i-pad they will be able to create their own electronic notes ...

Check out some "gems and opps" I have after reviewing my first day of class lesson. 

Lets talk blue prints. Blue prints are created to show an outline for the foundation of a building. A blue print is vital to the success of a structure. Unit and Lesson plans are our teaching blue prints, used to help develop a successful plan for for instruction. As educators we are given dimensions in which we should teach, ensuring that all students gain knowledge in each content area. Developing a Plan: "Planning for instruction is key to becoming an effective teacher" (Newcomb. 1993). To ensure students are gaining useful knowledge as an educator we must be purposeful in developing our teaching plan. This means we must set clear goals for ourselves and our students. Drawing it out: As we develop unit and lesson plans we need to keep Blooms Taxonomy in mind. Each area of instruction must be based around one of Bloom's levels of learning . This means we need to understand where each student's learning level is, as well as start with the basics and work our way ...

I am extremely excited to be spending my fifteen week student teaching internship at Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Over the course of those fifteen weeks I will be teaching fourteen units of agricultural education in four different classes. These classes include Ag 1, Ag 2,  Ag 3, and animal science. Check out my video presentation of the facilities I will utalize to teach these classes and see a couple of the students from the program. Make sure to check back and see where else my #TeachAg journey takes me. Follow #PSUAGED18 on twitter to see what this years' teaching cohort is up to. Thanks for watching!