Week 9 - I Was Not Expecting This Curve Ball

Wow! This is definitely a unique situation and was not at all planned. If you would have told me in January that all schools in the state would close for a 2-week period, I would have laughed at you. I still can't believe what is happening and to quickly reflect on this, I am kind of frustrated. If you ask me, it would have made a lot more sense for the schools to have stayed open until Monday for kids to grab any materials from school and for the teachers to give out work to do. But unfortunately, that did not happen. I could have come up with projects for every class to do while they are on this break but that did not happen. Now, my students are not responsible for anything over the next two weeks. This is definitely frustrating looking at the long term plan and goal of student teaching and lesson planning. Trying to look ahead and start planning is so hard because we don't know when we will be allowed back. The goal is March 30th and I sure hope that can happen.

With student teaching, we need at least 12 weeks of in-classroom instruction. As you can see, we are just finished with week 9. This creates a huge problem with the Pennsylvania Department of Education. I have no idea what is going to happen. All I know is, I hope we are not done. I still have cool activities to try, things to learn, and connections to be made with my students. This experience has been amazing and I have learned so much. But I also still have so much to learn. This experience has made me want to become a teacher, but I am by no means a professional. Every day, I learn something new or come up with something I should try to change. I just hope that I have some more opportunities to improve.

Let's get out of talking about that and look at some of the cool things we did this week! It is hard to keep students focused with all of the distractions in the world but we are still doing cool things in school. My Ag 3/4 class is building their own miniature greenhouses. These greenhouses can be made of any material but must represent a certain style of greenhouse. We are going to test these greenhouses to the elements of nature and see which one can best withstand rain, snow, ice, and wind. This STEM activity is also making students draw and design blueprints that match their greenhouse, floor plans and growing calendars for every plant that they would grow in their greenhouse. This project is turning out so well, I will definitely do it again.

The Ag 1 Class has officially started the iCEV Ducks Unlimited Wildlife Class where students who complete the unite will receive a certificate in Ecology Conservation and Management. The first week of the unit was great. Now with the closing of schools, I will not be able to finish the course but I hope to get through as much of it as I can. Check out the certificate by clicking here Ducks Unlimited iCEV