The Rollercoaster Ride of Student Teaching

Throughout the entire 16 weeks of student teaching it has been a rollercoaster ride. I have had the best time of my entire four years of college in my internship. Starting out in January, I had no idea things would drastically change near the end of my internship. As we get ourselves strapped into our coaster car, think about this question. How do you stay mentally strong in a time of uncertainty?

Now that we are all strapped in on our coaster car, let us head up the first hill. Beginning of student teaching there was a lot of anxiousness in everything that I did. I was so nervous taking on classes that I knew relatively little about compared to my cooperating teacher. I prepared lessons and research as much as I could to be prepared enough to teach the content. Once I started to take over classes, I found my anxiousness start to disappear and I became more comfortable in teaching my students. After this first hill, I felt a sense of confidence in my teaching abilities. I am not the best teacher, but I could at least start to be more natural in the classroom and mechanics lab.

Uh oh! Now we have a loop-de-loop. Moving into taking on a full load of classes, I started to think, "How am I going to get all of my assignments, lesson planning, and content created?" Having six classes and five preps made it difficult to balance my work/personal life. Strategically planning out my week became a norm so I could still enjoy some personal time throughout the week. Coming out of the loop-de-loop, I realized my fears weren't as bad as I thought.

Ohh no!! Corkscrew! This challenge was by far the worst. Navigating remote online learning. Coming to the end of my internship, I had to figure out how in the world to teach skill-based mechanics courses through remote/online ways. I researched multiple discussion groups, NAAE CoP, and finding resources on my own to deliver good instruction.

After all the corkscrew of student teaching, I had some time to look back upon my entire internship and thought, "The entire ride of student teaching may look intimidating, but getting on the ride, taking each challenge one at a time you will have the thrill ride of your life." I enjoyed my internship, students, and colleagues. I will always look back on this experience as the oddest way to start my teaching career.

Regional PAAE Meeting: The Importance of Professional Organizations

I had attended the virtual Eastern Region PAAE meeting held on April 16th to participate in the recent updates within the PAAE organization. It is necessary to be present at these meetings so that you know what is happening in the professional organization you are a member of. 

Professional organizations are essential for teachers. As we move through our careers these organizations can assist us in fulfilling our needs as well as allowing us to give back to the younger generations stepping into the profession. Starting out my career, I see value in holding membership within the PAAE. They provide professional development opportunities for their members among other things to guide new teachers in the right direction.

As I wish I could have participated in this meeting in person, but due to the circumstances, I understand why we couldn't. Getting the chance to see the teachers that I will be working with throughout my career virtually was at least a positive aspect. Hearing the ideas/concerns that the eastern region ag teachers have, puts me in the perspective and mindset that I will need to have in the fall as I start my career at Solanco High School.

• Why do you participate in professional organizations?

Getting Creative

"Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea" Jim Rohn. Sitting in a living room pondering about life, an idea had come to my mind. What do most living rooms have in them? A coffee table! 

In the course of a week, I have built, recorded, and edited videos for my students and future students to watch on how to build a coffee table. This project turned out to be a 5 part video series in which I wen through the entire process. The idea behind this project was to create something that is more personal for my students to watch and learn from rather than random YouTube videos. 

In this series, I touched on safety, common woodworking practices, and ideas to spark student interest. Moving forward from this idea that was quickly pulled together since my internship is nearly over, I plan to create better instructional videos for my students. These would include the following but not limited to; how to properly use specific tools, proper safety, poor safety, and actual project builds. 

It is amazing how one idea can cascade into bigger and better ideas to be used in the future. I am excited to see where my innovation leads me.

• What innovative things have you been doing for your students?
• How have those ideas helped your students?

Professional Development: How to be a Better Educator

Over the course of this week, I not only have prepared educational lessons/resources for my student but I also started to dive into studying for my Master Service Technician certification. The more that I have been studying, the more I have realized how individual professional development is important for educators.

As I work through Briggs and Stratton's Master Service Technician course, I have noticed how much I really did not know about small engines. Even though it is challenging, I believe that working through this course will serve my students better in the fall as I will be teaching a Power Machinery Technology course. 

An educator should have a wealth of knowledge on the subject material he/she is teaching their students. I believe having a specific professional development plan is imperative to serve your students the best as possible. Having a basic understanding of the material is good, but to move into a master teacher one must have a wealth content knowledge in their respective subject area. 

Beginning my teaching career as an Agricultural Mechanics teacher, I have realized that there is just as much science content knowledge in mechanics as there is in the Agricultural General and Ecological courses. I think the stereotypical view on Agricultural Mechanics being just wrench turning, arc striking, and woodcutting needs to change to reflect the science theories/ideals behind the physical laboratory work.

Moving into the 2020-2021 school year at Solanco High School, I plan to break the stereotypical view of Agricultural Mechanics. I want to show my students the science behind engine theory, metalworking, and woodworking. 

Understanding Remote Learning

"The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill. During this time of remote learning, there is an obvious difficulty in structuring remote learning for high school students. In navigating this concept this week I have been finding good resources for my students. 

Structuring Ag Mechanics

Since the majority of my classes, this semester has been agricultural mechanics, skill-based courses. Finding ways to teach hands-on courses is very difficult, but there are theory-based lessons that are useful. One resource that I found to be helpful is Miller Open Book. This resource provides online modules for welding students to gain content knowledge on SMAW, GMAW, Oxy-Fuel, and Metallurgy. Good welders should know the theory behind the practice/skill of welding to understand why it works and how it is effective. 

Ag Mechanics Science

For some people, it may be surprising to learn that there is a substantial amount of science behind agricultural mechanics. As I am preparing to teach new content to my welding students, I had realized I never taught them the science principles behind the process of melting two or more pieces of metal together. We will be doing a deep dive into the science applications of welding in order to identify the reasons welding certain metals together may be more than just striking an arc or squeezing the trigger on the GMAW welding gun. 

Questions

• How is each of your districts handling remote learning?
• What are your strategies for teaching hands-on courses remotely?