Week One at Penn Manor!

And just like that, week one of student teaching is coming to a close. This week was the last week of the fall semester for Penn Manor and after enjoying the upcoming long weekend, the students will start their spring semester classes and I will start teaching my first class. While much of this week has consisted of wrapping up fall semester classes and taking finals, I have learned a lot and really enjoyed my time at Penn Manor this week! Here are some key takeaways:

Assessments should be more than just regurgitating facts.

With all of the finals going on this week, I got to experience how the four ag teachers here at Penn Manor administer final exams. While all the exams were unique in their own way depending on the class, all of the exams required students to do more than just memorize everything they learned and spit it back up on paper. For example, in the Intro to AFNR class, students researched world hunger and then wrote a report on how what they learned in class could be used to reduce/stop world hunger. In the Construction class, one part of the exam required students to lay a corner of concrete blocks correctly. Students in Animal Science picked a species and wrote an entire management plan for that animal. I liked that all of the finals for the ag classes really allowed students to demonstrate their knowledge as well as required them to take what they learned and make connections/apply it in a situation. This goes back to how important it is to begin with the end in mind, and then make objectives based on how you will evaluate them.

Students taking their Engines I final exam.

Sharing office space and classrooms has its perks.

At Penn Manor, the four ag teachers share an office and then take turns using the classrooms depending on everyone's schedule. While this requires a little more organization and moving around throughout the day, I think it has some valuable benefits. First, sharing an office makes it much easier to communicate throughout the day. If everyone had their own classroom, you might not see each other as much. With the shared office set up, however, you can easily discuss events coming up, how you will encourage a student to try a new CDE, etc. For me as a student teacher, its nice because the mornings and afternoons are a great time to ask questions and discuss things with everyone.

Goals for Next Week:

1. Learn all of my student's names ASAP in the Intro to AFNR class that I'll be teaching! #RapportIsKey
2. Accomplish my planned objectives. Time management is something I've been working on all last semester, so hopefully getting to know the class and establishing a routine will help me continue to get better!
3. Keep asking questions and for feedback. I feel like I've been doing pretty good at this, but I need to keep telling my self to ask questions because sometimes I have a hard time admitting to myself that I need help with something. 
4. Be bold and try something new. I just want to make sure I'm making the most of this student teaching journey. It could be as simple as trying a new learning activity next week. The awesome (and sometimes scary) thing about student teaching is that I'm very much an amateur. So this is a good time to experiment and see what works and what doesn't! The whole point of this experience is to grow, and to grow I need push myself outside of my comfort zone.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what next week holds! Thanks for following me on my journey, I'd love to hear your thoughts!