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| Working in the Greenhouse at the CSA |
Can we just take a second and
realize that it is the end of week 13? Like holy guacamole, this is real. My
student teaching experience has two weeks left and I don’t know if I am ready
to let go just yet!
Moving on from my pity party, let’s
talk about this past week. Per usual we are going to break down the week with
the pros and the cons from what I did in my Animal Science and my Environmental
Science classes.
Pros
Animal Science: This
week I really challenged my students and brought them around Philadelphia and around
Saul’s campus. What was going on you may ask? TONS of fun stuff! At Saul, our
lamb herd was ready to start having their lambs which occurred ALL week and is
still going on (Check out Saul’s EWEtube here). I was able to tie in what we
were learning in class with some of the Animal Science students to look at
different situations that could happen with these young lambs. On Thursday, the
USDA was hosting a career day that my students were able to attend for half the
day. They were able to explore different industries in the USDA and potentially
see themselves working with this organization. Last but not least, my students
still had their original chores that they all completed and we even had room to
start discussing our next project which is an animal welfare debate... more to
come!
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| Tuesday Night Lambs! |
Environmental Science: The
week got even more extreme for theses seniors in my class! From our class
visitor from Morris Arboretum, working at our local CSA, and then mixing their
love of basketball with environmental education, my students were all over the
place! After my visit with the famous Dr. Foster, it really stuck out to me
that I need to start pushing my students and myself in doing different lesson
plans that get me out of my comfort zone. What better than having this week to
practice my teaching and my lesson plans?! So that is exactly what I did. Of
course it was a lot of fun and games, there was still work that needed to be
done. My students had to transplant over 2,100 plants of lettuce at the CSA and
were responsible for different parts of the area from broad-forking our
greenhouse to planting rows of peas, my students were busy!
Cons: For this week, as much as
I don’t like to admit it I was pushed a lot out of my comfort zone. There were
classroom management issues, my school went into crisis mode, and I was pushed
from lack of sleep from volunteering to check on the lambs every night at 11pm
and 2 am. I was getting into the swing of things and it really caught up with
me.
Overall thought: I am
lucky to be at a school that has challenged me as a teacher and a person.
Although there were the stresses from the field trip, the animal lab being
broken into, a school in crisis mode, and work that still needed to be completed
at the CSA, it made me realize that THIS is what agriculture teachers do. They
bounce back and adjust their auto-pilots because there is still a job to do and
that is to TEACH. We are responsible for these students and we have a job to be
the best agriculture teacher that these kids have.
Bring on Week 4 and the lambs
that are not born yet! I am ready for you!
Thanks for reading Ag Ed Fam!
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