Week 4: Now it's Getting Serious

It’s hard to believe that this is already the fourth week of student teaching! This week I continued with my Ag. 2 and Ag 3/4 class and I picked up Ag. 1 which is three different classes of freshmen! I was excited to work with this large group of younger students but was pretty nervous to take on all three classes at once!

In the Ag. 1 classes we began by getting to know each other and talking a little bit about my expectations for the next few months. We then began talking about the history of the FFA and have continued to work on memorizing the creed! In the Ag 2 class we continued discussing plants and soil and our peppers in the greenhouse finally came up! In Ag 3/4 we continued talking about genetics and even made some sweet DNA molecules out of licorice and marshmallows.

My favorite part of the week was having a guest speaker on Wednesday to talk to all of the classes. My dad, Ken Metrick, came to Conneaut and spent the day covering a variety of topics. He discussed his personal experiences with FFA in the freshmen classes, and talked about animal and vegetable production in the older classes. He even had the chance to talk to Ms. Aurand’s Ag-Science classes about business and food safety.

I have been able to work on a few things I have been struggling with especially wrapping up at the end of the lessons. I have been trying to go back and look at our objectives for the day and discuss how we accomplished each one. Also, if there is any time at the end of the class I have been able to move ahead to the next day's lesson or give students time to work on class related projects such as keeping their AET records up to date.

Everyday is a new experience and everyday I learn something valuable! As my schedule fills up more and more each week I am beginning to realize how important organization and planning is and just how crazy being an Ag. teacher can be! Next week I take on the Ag-Science classes which means I will have a full day of teaching! I'm sure I will have my struggles and things will get crazy, but I can't wait!

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."