Student Teaching Week 13!

This past week I finished up my 13th week of student teaching. It was a busy week! The prior week was the end of the marking period, so I spent a good portion of this week making sure all of the grades were up to date and working with students who needed to complete make-up work. Thursday was the county FFA volleyball tournament, and a good time was had by all! Here are some more highlights from this week:

1. Grades matter, but student learning is most important.

The end of the marking period caused me to take some time and reflect on my philosophy of grading and how to ensure students are continually improving. I have a few students who are absent from school the majority of the time, and their grades show it. I try to get them to come down for homeroom so I can help them catch up, but if they're not in school they also aren't available to come down for homeroom. These next two weeks I'm hopeful that I can work with these students on the current material we're learning to make sure they don't get behind in the 4th marking period. I think it would be good to have a talk with these students about growth mindsets and how grades don't define you as a person, but instead just show that there's always room for improvement. Another resource I plan to utilize better are the students' IEP resource persons by having them help me modify assessments and help students complete make-up work.

2. Try new learning activities with your students because even if they don't go absolutely perfect, they will still learn. 

This week in Biotech our regular soybean and GMO soybean plants were ready for our experiment. Students followed a procedure to extract DNA from both plants, use PCR to amplify the DNA segment, and run a gel electrophoresis to compare the DNA. It was a learning experience for all of us! It didn't go perfectly, but students gained valuable lab skills (for example, I didn't learn how to use a micropipette until college, so I think it's awesome these students already know how!!) and the importance of reading the procedure when completing a project/task. Students also learned about DNA, and how biotechnology is used in agriculture. I'm looking forward to next week when students will be using procedures they created to make biofuels (methane, biodiesel, and ethanol to name a few)!!

Preparing their soybean DNA for the PCR machine!

Thanks for following me along on my #TeachAg journey! I'd love to hear your thoughts.