Wait... What are we doing? (Week 5)

So week 5 has come and gone. You know that thing called the "honeymoon phase"? Yea, its over. This was by far my hardest week yet. I picked up my 4th class about a week ago. I was an electrical class. I though to myself, how hard can it really be? This week I learned that patients is a virtue.


As the week went on, the students started to show their true colors. They had their phones out constantly, never paid attention, and I had the same question asked to me at least 4 times during the lesson.

"So what do we have to do?"

Demonstration team doing what they do best

I knew my lecture and directions were pretty clear, because the one half of the room started to work right away. The other half didn't pay attention at all! I got the same question from the same students each day. I was constantly repeating myself. As I sit back and think about those days, I wonder if things could have gone better if I had a listening signal or have just said it once. This article is from Edutopia has some cool ideas to get students to listen. Instead of repeating myself to produce "Lazy Listeners," I am going to try hand signals to gain attention. This is all part of trying to create a classroom environment that suites the students. Every class is different. 

This week also had some amazing points. I got the opportunity to attend the Rotary meeting with Mr. Wallace and the 1st place Demonstration team. The students displayed their skills with a run through of their winning speech. On Friday, I got to join the Ag and Tech departments on a professional development field trip. We visited the Western Pennsylvania Laborer's Training Center. We were able to get an insight on their facilities and how their training works. We also got the opportunity to learn about Lindy Paving and a virtual training program that will allow for students to get an idea on highway construction work. Both of these working areas are in need of young people to join their crews. With this insight, we are able to present to the students these opportunities waiting for them outside of school. 

Until next week,

Ms. Yoest

Ag Teachers Do What?! (Week 4)

All my nights during the end of week 3 and week 4 were spent for students! It is crazy how much effort teachers put in after school hours. Over the past two weeks, I have been trying to plan for the embryology project in the ag business management course. This is how the activities went down.

Preparing for incubation!

Lows: I ordered 2 dozen eggs through a website and set for them to be delivered the week of the 18th (in January). I patiently waited for those eggs to arrive. The following week, I had still not received any information on where my eggs were at. After numerous phone calls and trips to the post office, the eggs had arrived the following Wednesday. It took me two days to figure out which post office the eggs had arrived to. 

Highs: When we began the incubation process, the students were ecstatic! They couldn't wait to see the life cycle these chickens will go through. I have had so many volunteers want to take the eggs home already. Those students had the look of joy on their face. I don't even have to pull teeth to get volunteers to turn the eggs each day. 

All in the course of two weeks, I have caught a glimpse of what ag teachers do for their students. And this was just one class out of the 5 I will be teaching! Students don't see that effort that teachers put in after school, but it is all worth it to see that look on their faces.

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Flip of the Switch (Week 3)

Students practicing ignition troubleshooting

This week had its ups and downs. It became more hectic than the previous week. I began teaching 3 classes now, while preparing for 4 for the next week. So let’s start with the lows.

Lows: I noticed throughout the week that students weren’t really paying attention during my ag business course, so I decided to schedule a quiz for Friday. I gave the students multiple opportunities to ask me question, learn the information, and even went over the answers to the quiz the day before! As I was grading the quizzes, I was not happy with the overall scores of the class. I had some students only get two right, with a word bank! It really hurt me to see how students didn’t pay any attention or study.

Students in building class are learning how to cut angles

Build class constructing the stage for school musical 

Highs: Something amazing happened on Friday. I finally had that teacher moment. The switch flipped from student to teacher for me. I remembered why I love teaching. I remembered why I chose this major. It happened during the welding class. The one class I thought I was going to have troubles with turns out to be the most fun to teach! Every time I would turn around there would be a student calling my name. That is when it clicked. This is why I want to be an Agricultural teacher. I look forward to teaching this class the rest of the year.

This week definitely had its highs and lows, but that is what teaching is all about. I can’t wait to pick up the electrical class next week.

Until next time,

Ms. Yoest

Take 2!

Week 2 has came and gone quicker than I had imagined! I picked up the Ag Business Management course. It has been a learning week for me. I had high points and I had low points throughout the week.

Egg Dissection in 4th period class

• High Points: I got one student to volunteer in the classroom. All week I had tried to get students to volunteer answering questions. They sat there like bumps on a log! Eventually I told them ill start pulling names out of a hat to answer questions and that's when I got my first volunteer! Another high point I had was getting to know the students and the special education teacher. When you get some of the students on your side, they bring the whole class around. Knowing the special education teacher will create a connection to work together and not against each other. They gave me tips on how to interact with a student in my class. I learned they are on your side and willing to help. 

• Low Points: I didn't get my point across the second lesson in. I left students in more confusion than learning. I asked a few of the students after class how they liked it. They like the egg dissection, but they would have liked to have a worksheet with pictures instead of descriptions. For the future lessons, it is important to understand the parts of an egg. I will be going over, this time with a picture, the parts of an egg. 

Overall, this week was a great learning week for me. I got to experience a 2 hour delay schedule, FFA meeting, and beginning to put together a parliamentary procedure team. Week two has came to a close and now for week 3 to begin with 2 more classes to teach. 

Until next week, 

Ms. Yoest

Evolving High School Education

Education is evolving through the use of technology. Today I had the opportunity to sit in on Mr. Castor's Biology 10 class and see the technology being used. He used a variety of techniques throughout the lesson as well. The main item I picked up on was the use of Google Classroom.  Here is what I picked up from him.

• Google classroom should be used and not abused. Some teachers use it to teach the class. Instead, Mr. Castor uses it for testing students, in class questions or warm up, and giving direct feedback to student grades. This tool is changing the future of education. Seeing it being used within the classroom gets me thinking of what I can do in Ag Business Management. 
• Address bad student behavior with those students directly. One thing I noticed was he waited until the end of class to address certain students about their behavior in class. This way, the other students were not disrupted. 
• Facilitate learning, don't just give away information. I watched how he took his time to make sure the students were grasping the content. He asked effective questions to review the stages of mitosis. He made students learn without them even knowing it. 

This was a great classroom to observe. I learned how to utilize google classroom, addressing student behavior, and ways to facilitate learning instead of spoon feeding students. I hope to try google classroom during my student teaching experience. 

Week #1

This week went by fast! I only had one and a half days in the classroom observing Mr. Wallace and Mr. Schirmer. While observing, I picked up on a lot of tricks to use in the classroom. Here are a few of them.

•   Individual student help goes a long way in the classroom. Both instructors walk around during welding and electrical to help students who looked like they were struggling or just to watch and see how they are doing.
•   Review, Review, review! The first few minutes of class it is always important to review from the day before. It gets the students thinking and prepared for the day in the classroom.
•   Notice student behavior whether it is good or bad. Having a substitute teacher for three days is a long time for students. They begin to feel like they can do anything in class and not finish their work. It is important to read those sub reports on how the students were. When they are bad they need to have some sort of punishment for their actions. When they are good it is worthwhile to reward them for their behavior.
•  Lastly, show importance of knowing the information. Mostly, students don’t know the importance of knowing the information. Showing them that the information in the real world brings it all around for them. I noticed that both instructors choose assignments that pertain to real life situations.

With all this in mind, I feel like I can conquer the classroom. Students react to reviewing, individual help, and knowing the real life importance of what they learn in the class. Seeing how well the students react to the teachers gives me hope of a successful student teaching experience. 

Pennsylvania Farm Show

So the day has finally come for me to be out in the field as Ms. Yoest. I began my student teaching experience at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Monday. I stayed with Mohawk until Wednesday. The 3 days were filled with contests, award recognition, and fun moments.

Mohawk FFA Square Dance Team

I gained many thoughts while on this trip, but my lightbulb moment was during the competitions. The square dance team and the demonstration team spent hours upon hours practicing to become  a uniform team. I watched how they bonded together each day of the trip. Their practices were filled with passion and fun. I watched how the students got nervous and began talking fast, but Mr. Wallace just fixed his ball cap and cracked a joke to relieve some stress.

In all seriousness, you don't need to stress the students out over a competition. Make sure they practice, have a fun time, and don't be afraid to crack a joke here and there.

Mohawk FFA Demonstration Team