Week 10: Top 10

Finishing units, and starting
new experiments. The
students enjoy the new rats!

Here's 10 awesome/crazy things that happened during Week 10...

1. New Units
2. New Experiments
3. Finalization of Proficiency Applications
4. Growing Grading Piles
5. Improving Grades
6. Completed DIY Project
7. Triggered Fire Alarm
8. Two Job Interviews
9. One Program Preview
10. Quick Trip to New York

Surprisingly this all happened in one week, which definitely made Week 10 top the rest for eventfulness.  However, I will break it down more by sharing a HIGH (some of the best #UndeniablyDerry and other dynamite moments), a LOW (something I wish was better, but can’t change so I learn to grow from the experience), and a TIP (something that encouraged me to continue to grow my roots in agriculture education).

High:

I can now say I have successfully completed three units in two classes. Yikes! Time flies when you are having fun learning and exploring the realms of teaching agriculture. Since, these two classes are the ones that I have gotten to spend the most time with, they have each taught me SO much. Not only about social dynamics of high schoolers, but about diverse learners, differentiation strategies, importance of variability and much more.

Low: 

The end of the marking period has brought a crazy tall pile of work that needs graded. In the midst of teaching a full load of classes, navigating through meetings and a long list of other items I allowed for my grading pile to get way out of control. Every waking moment this week was surely spent evaluating students, and adding grades to the gradebook. Lesson learned -  I will not be letting the stack get that tall in the future.

Tip:

Here's my tip for #psuaged18 this week, as we near the last 30-some days of our student teaching internship and we prepare to continually wrap up units and classes to pass back to our cooperating teachers, enjoy the bittersweet-ness of the moment. Enjoy the fact that there are a few extra minutes to catch up on other assignments and tall grading piles. But also enjoy the moment to celebrate student success that was accomplished in the time that you "owned the class."

Unique Weekly Moments:

New Experiments – Through curriculum provided by Pennsylvania Biomedical Researcher Center, my Small Animal Science class was able to welcome four rats to our laboratory this week! It is so exciting to see the bonds the students are creating with rats through proper care and handling..

DIY Project - It was super exciting to witness the competition of my DIY Project. In the past, Derry FFA conducted after school courses for the community to participate in. However, this has not happened in over 10 years. Therefore, for my DIY I decided to bring back after school courses for the community to participate in. Given that the program is strong in Floriculture, I decided to offer a floral design course. Although, I had only 12 responses I felt it was a success. The smiles and laughter filled the room throughout the experience, and pride was across everyone's face as they left with a beautiful arrangement. 

Job Interviews – I survived my first job interview, or should I say two? At the beginning of this week I participated in phone interview for an agriculture industry position. Although I truly want to teach, it is nice to have options if I am unable to secure that opportunity. However, I also participated in my first teaching job interview via Skype at the end of the week. This was truly nerve raking, but it is great to have the experience under my belt, and hopefully I have the opportunity to participate in a second interview soon.

Road Trip – Keeping on the topic of future jobs, earlier in the week I applied for a position in New York and was contacted to participate in a program preview. I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to preview the program, and learn about past achievements and future goals.  I am hoping to be notified of an interview in the future!