Surreal, But Nice.

As I sit here in the classroom for the final time during my student teaching experience I find the fact that I am here at this point in my life very surreal.  I know this is cliche, but I really remember throwing my bag down on my dorm room bed for the first time in Willow. Now in the blink of an eye here I am one day from being done with all my undergrad coursework and out in the real world. 

I have changed and developed into someone that if you would have asked em four years ago I would say I would never be.  I have had my ups and downs throughout this experience, but as I sit here even the ones that gave me the most trouble are tugging at my heartstrings on this last day.

Where will I be four years from now?  Only god knows that.  I hope that I can exceed my expectations for the next four as I have my previous four.

So I will conclude with this, this moment right now is surreal, but nice.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

Hello World,

So this blog is a few days late, but it serves as my second blog of the month of March, just catching up after my weekend! So the longer I teach the more reflective I become.  I put a large amount of time thinking about why I teach the lessons I do and what the general outcome is supposed to be. 

Last Friday I had my midterm student teacher meeting in Ames, yes I know it was a little late, but we had to reschedule due to weather concerns.  We started the session with a go around about our experience thus far.  One question was "what was the first class you took over?"  Many of the student teachers described the curriculum they have covered so far in this class and many had similar answers to the following.

"My first class I took over was Ag. I, so far this semester we have coverd ag. mechanics, small animals, aquaculture, and electricity."  Wait WHAT?  This was my first thought when I heard this.  How do those topics connect in a continuous string of learning?  Working with CASE has shown me the importnace of building knowledge in a curriculum.  We need to cover simplier topics, before we move on to more advanced ones. We need to teach with direction rather than teach to fill our time.  Are all the concepts important to teach at some point in the curriculum?  Yes, I am not saying they aren't, I am sure most of us that took ag. classes covered these concepts at one point or another, but as my cooperating teacher says "This ain't your daddy's ag. class."  We need to challenge students with more rigorous curriculum, teach scientific concepts that serve our students futures.  I finished teaching a rations unit today in my advanced animal science class and afterwards I looked at my coop. teacher and said.... "Why did we do that?"  How many of my students are going to formulate rations for animals?  None, most likely they will order a complete ration from the co-op if they need one.  Is it more important to teach the general characteristics of a good ration intead of how to make formulate one?  I believe so.  General concepts that can be used as foundations for future learning and knowledge building are where we should focus our efforts.  Each of the students in my class did not need to know how to figure the percent crude protein in a beef cattle ration. In the future if I teach an animal science course again I will modify that unit to better fit the different needs of my students.

I will step off my soap box now and bid you adieu.  If you are a fellow educator, please take some time to think about why you are teaching what you are and if it is with a purpose or to just fill up time and is a "neat" activity.

Keep Calm and Carry On,

Mr. Werner

Back to the Start

Hello World,

Long time no see friends, it has been a few weeks since my last blog so I thought it was in my best interest to share some of my experiences over the last few weeks.  Where to begin?

 I am now officially teaching the three sections of Agriscience and the one section of Animal Science.  Monday I take over the Advanced Animal Science and in a few weeks I will start teaching my section of Biology.  For those of you that dont know I decided that I wanted to observe and teach a section of Biology during my time at Southeast Polk in order to gain valuable experience and insight into this area (since i'll probably end up teaching it).  I am starting to understand why teachers consider paperwork the enemy.  Student papers litter my desk daily and I have to work diligently to keep the mountain from teetering over (this is one of my daily battles).

One thing that has kept me up the past two weeks is the concept of grading and late work.  I have discussed the topic with several different teachers in varying departments and have come to one conclusion.  NO ONE has the same grading policy.  So how does a new teacher and a student teacher for that matter develop their own working philosophy on grading? Trial and error my friends, trial and error.  I have tried two late assignent policies now and am on my way to a third.  What does this do to my students?  Well confuses them, they have been used to grading and late work one way and here I come saying this is the way it is.  I am trying my best to smooth the transition by ensuring that students have all their late work in prior to my implementation of my new policy.  This will leave no questions as to how I am going to grade an assignment from that point on. The final goal would be a fair, working representation of a late work/ grading policy that is not only beneficial to the students, but to my administrative work as well.

Another thing that haunts my dreams at night is the concept of a inquiry based classroom and ensuring the involvment of each and every student.  My supervising teacher passed along a great article via twitter a few days ago and it has got me thinking and changing some of my strategies.  Management of classroom behaviors during projects or activities has been an interesting struggle that I spend much of my time dwelling over.  Curbing unwanted behavior without destroying one the teacher-student relationship and  two without changing the working environment for other students.  I find that when I give students a problem with instructions to complete a project to investigate that problem there is always a set of students that grasp the "challenge"  and run with it and there are also almost always another set of students that show little to no interest.  This division in interest and activity is the hardest problem I have faced so far during my student teaching and probably in my life.  I want to invlove each and every student.  I want to inspire them to learn not because I told them to, but because they want to.  Some of you reading this may think "O look at this young idealist, wait until you get a few years down the road, your thoughts will change."  Why should they?  This should be the challenge every teacher battles.  For those of you teaching.  Look around your classroom the next time you give students an assignment or project to work on, why are they doing it?  Because you gave them the assignment and you will give them a bad grade if they dont do it?  Or are they working on it because they are truely interested in the content?

I said today to my supervising teacher that I wish I could go back to the start of my student teaching experience and approach a few matters in a different manner.  My grading, classroom management, organization, etc..  have all changed over the past few months due to my experiences.  This change is hard not only on me, but also my students.  I've got a long two months left where I am sure I will learn much more about this profession, my students, and myself.  Will I make mistakes, "ummm yea", but I plan on learning from those and moving forward.  Do I wish I could go back to the start, sometimes yes, but if I went back and did everything correct how would I learn?

Thanks for listening.

The Nature of The Beast

Hello World,

So here I am almost done with my first week of teaching four classes, one section of Animal Science and three sections of Agriscience and I can already see my methods adapting to what I have learned from the past few weeks.  For those of you that know me you know that I am a very "let's stick to the plan" or "we have to stay with the timeline" type of individual.  I have already found that in teaching that is not going to work. I have found that if I think an activity or project will take two days it will most likely take three.  This delay in completion does not come from lack of time management or higher degree of difficulty in the project; I believe that for students to do a project correctly and to absorb the information properly they cannot be rushed through a project or an activity.  Let’s take the project I am having my Agriscience  class do this week, they are to explore the water cycle by creating a "storyboard" of the various steps in the water cycle, then write a fictional story of how a water droplet travels through the cycle.  Fairly easy, right?  Well what I have discovered is that if you do an activity to get them involved with the information, in this case a step-by-step storyboard, it will take longer for them to process the information than you originally thought.  If you rush forward and several of them do not understand the process or the material, they will not gain the understanding or mastery of the topic you have set as a classroom goal.  This mastery/understanding "should" ultimately be your classroom goal and if you are not adapting to the students in your classroom so they can learn the material, then there is something wrong there.  I have been working on this adapting to student learning and process time this week and I think overall my students understand the content fairly well.

Ok, enough about the classroom methods for a moment and let’s talk about something most schools have frequent discussions about, budgets!!! What I have learned this week about budgets is, always order your materials early in the year and order heavy!!!  This is a part of teaching I had never even thought of and have been exposed to during this process and have seen in action.  The reason as an educator you order early and you order heavy is to make sure you use your budget when you have it.  Towards the end of the year school budgets start getting tight and they may pull the remaining funds from department budgets to cover expenses or deficits.  If you use it early when there is plenty of money around you have the supplies you need all year round.

I am learning and developing my strategies every day and so far I think it’s gone well.  Have I made mistakes?  O YEAH! Have I learned from them?  Yes I have. That’s what this experience is all about trying new methods and strategies so when you take over your own classroom you do not fall flat on your face.  The more I learn the more I feel I don't know and the more roadblocks that surface in my path.  And that my friends is the nature of this beast we call education.  So I leave you with this, continue to develop your methods and strategies as a teacher and spend your budgets early.

"A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it."- George MacDonald

Becoming a Mr.

Greetings My Faithful Few Readers,

Yet another week has begun here at Southeast Polk High School and already there have been new developments.  Today we had our first student teacher meeting with the associate principal, where we discussed logistics and how student teaching at this high school usually goes.  I greatly enjoyed meeting the other student teachers and getting to spend some time communicating with the principal.

One thing that came out of the meeting was a reminder that if I wished to teach a class that I have an endorsement in to make sure I voiced that desire to my supervising teacher and the principal.  I will have my endorsements in biology and general science, so I think it will be beneficial for me to get this experience in a non-agriculture classroom.  Am I nervous about the experience?  Yes I am, I haven’t had much, actually correction, ANY experience in any classrooms that were not agriculture related.  It is time to get out of my comfort zone and continue developing.  As it is said in education I will have to practice the time honored art of "staying one day ahead of the students."

Now to get to the title of this blog, "Becoming a Mr.” It is a funny feeling finally becoming a Mr. after 22 years as just Brandon.  This last week has served as a break in period where as students begin to accept me as a mainstay in these classrooms, they ask me more questions and thus use my name more.  I have now begun to respond to Mr.  Werner and now I do not cringe at the sound as I did in the beginning.  This is all part of this experience and will serve me well when placed in front of my future classes.  This is all part of developing and growing up, but I know I have put some time into finally becoming a Mr. and several of my fellow student teachers have as well so I thought I would document these thoughts.

In my previous blog I talked about curving negative student behavior in a respectful non-confrontational manner.  My quote this week has to do with growing up and treating students with respect.

“Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well I won't do that.” _Walt Disney

One of the most important things about growing up and "becoming a Mr." is that I never forget that that the students teach me almost as much as I teach them and that I am not here to spoon-feed them questions and answers. I am here to guide them as they take responsibility for their education and their learning and along the way learn a lot myself.

The Long Haul

Hello everyone,

I hope that Mother Nature’s little fit this week has not got your spirits down and that this blog finds you well.  I started teaching the animal science course this week and so far I think it is going well.  Starting out with one class is providing me the opportunity to test the waters or "get my feet wet" if you read my previous blog.  I am able to teach a lesson then ask my supervising teacher what I did well and what suggestions he has for me.  This immediate feedback is what makes the student teaching process so valuable.  I have had a few conversations with a couple first year teachers and the general consensus is that the hardest part of your first year on your own is you no longer have the access to feedback that you did during student teaching.  So I am going to use this resource as much as possible while I have it!

A few things I have already learned from a few periods of teaching:

  1- Always have something for the students to do.  No I am not talking about sending the kids out to clean the shop because you can’t think of anything for them to do.  I am talking about productive items that you can have them do if they complete the assignment early.  This could be reading ahead in their workbook to get a jumpstart on the assignment tomorrow, working on their record books (AET), or ongoing projects that they have a long time to complete.  If a student is occupied by an activity that has meaning they are more likely to remain a positive influence in your classroom rather than a distraction.

 2- Watch your crutch words.  I mentioned before that I am no great orator, but I despise when speakers I listen to continually use crutch words. "So class, today we are going to work on... ummm... activity 2.1 in your workbooks.  Ummm when you finish that you can continue on to ... ummm... section 2.2."  I can thank my lucky stars that I do not use the word "umm," but every once in a while I will use the word "ok" more often than I should.  This is something I plan to work on and I believe I did a much better job during today’s lesson.

 3- Finally, pick your battles.  Do not pull out the heavy artillery to attack a small problem.  Most students will respond more to reprimands that come in a respectful and positive manner and not from a teacher that unleashes a wave of furry upon them.  When students talk during lecture, remain quiet and explain your expectations.  If the problem persists then you can use different tactics.

This just scratches the surface of what I have learned throughout my last few days.  I am enjoying this opportunity and it has taught me that I chose the right profession.  I love working with kids and all of their antics and I basically love everything about the job (except the never-ending pile of paperwork I have witnessed).  I believe that with time I will begin to develop a better understanding of why certain methods work and why some don’t. I am on my way and as always I am living to serve.

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Mohandas Gandhi

Getting My Feet Wet, More Like Complete Submersion

I am sure many of you have heard the old saying I am just going to get my feet wet. For those of you that do not know what it means it is just trying something out a little in order to get the feel for it. Well for a student teacher the first week maybe even two is supposed to be an organized "get your feet wet" experience. Well today I found myself responsible for EVERY CLASS. This does not constitute as a "getting your feet wet" moment. As my supervising instructor put it "it is more like complete submersion.

It is interesting the things you pick up from only a few hours of teaching on your own. I already have thought of several different methods I plan on using for classroom management, when I begin developing and teaching my own lessons. This experience while being slightly stressful has shown me that I can survive this experience that is student teaching, which has been a nagging question in the back of my head.

Throughout my life remembering names has been a habitual problem. After a day of taking attendance and asking kids to be quiet using their first name I am no linger worried about learning everyone’s name. It will come with time as will everything else.

I am going to try to include a quote in all my blogs that helps me explain the circumstances I encounter. Today is from George Washington Carver:

"Start where you are, with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied."

Today was not the start I wanted or expected when I began this journey called student teaching, but here I am and these are the cards I have been dealt. I am going to make the best of it and continue to work hard and better myself.