Curveball- Week 9
This past week has been a curveball. I started teaching a new class that is outside of the agricultural science department. I started to teach the Foods II class that is a part of the Family and Consumer Science department. I taught them about farm to fork. I am really enjoying my time with new students and another teacher within Cowanesque Valley High School.
Along with adding a class to my schedule on purpose, I added other agricultural classes this week not on purpose. The one teacher in the agricultural science department had a family emergency to tend to this week. Given the situation the sub plans stated "student teacher will take care of it." Hmm this statement is true for the fact I teach three out of the five agricultural classes for this teacher. However, for two of them I was unsure what I was going to do.
I started by gaining information from the students. Asking what they were learning, or what had they already learned? The one class I had to cover was Horticulture, which was easy to come up with a lesson since I teach a Horticulture class as well. I simply borrowed one of my lesson plans on pollination. However, it was not as easy to come up with a lesson for the animal science class. After discussing with the students I discovered that they had learned a little bit of everything. I finally decided to teach them about marketing.
I found a series on Netflix called Rotten that explores different food markets and the food system in the United States. They had one on the Dairy Industry and milk. This documentary fit into some of the things the students had learned about. But, most importantly it created a great discussion because three of the students work on dairy farms and I grew up on a dairy farm. Therefore, adding the classes I was unprepared for ended up being a positive!
To hit this curveball out of the park, this week the Cowanesque FFA had there annual banquet. I was surprised at the banquet by being awarded the Honorary Chapter FFA Degree. This award is given to an individual who has provided service to agriculture, agricultural education, or FFA. After receiving this award I was humbled and inspired to keep me going throughout the week.
"When life throws you a curveball, hit it out of the park!"
I started by gaining information from the students. Asking what they were learning, or what had they already learned? The one class I had to cover was Horticulture, which was easy to come up with a lesson since I teach a Horticulture class as well. I simply borrowed one of my lesson plans on pollination. However, it was not as easy to come up with a lesson for the animal science class. After discussing with the students I discovered that they had learned a little bit of everything. I finally decided to teach them about marketing.
I found a series on Netflix called Rotten that explores different food markets and the food system in the United States. They had one on the Dairy Industry and milk. This documentary fit into some of the things the students had learned about. But, most importantly it created a great discussion because three of the students work on dairy farms and I grew up on a dairy farm. Therefore, adding the classes I was unprepared for ended up being a positive!
To hit this curveball out of the park, this week the Cowanesque FFA had there annual banquet. I was surprised at the banquet by being awarded the Honorary Chapter FFA Degree. This award is given to an individual who has provided service to agriculture, agricultural education, or FFA. After receiving this award I was humbled and inspired to keep me going throughout the week.
"When life throws you a curveball, hit it out of the park!"
Heather, great job turning a situation that could have been a strike out into a successful home run! Teaching often throws us unexpected curveballs, sometimes our students will be the ones to teach us things, and sometimes we will learn and work together with them to find a positive solution to a problem. With all of the challenges you faced this week, what was the most valuable thing you learned as a result of them?
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