What happened to week 6?!

My sixth week of student teaching was more "off" than "on" in reference to days in school. We had a great weekend at ACES and had an already planned Monday off. I experienced my first snow day Tuesday (even though I went in anyway!) and #psuaged16 reunited on Friday which meant I only had 2 days of teaching this week! Even in just 2 days, I was forced to reflect heavily on how I've been running a few of my classes.


Points of improvement:

I learned this week that I've been too nice to some of my classes. Almost all of their grades have been in-class assignments like guided notes or worksheets that they have been given full credit if they hand them in. Although these are not bad to have, there must be variety and I have been lacking with that. I realized that I'm not pushing them to really learn and grow in their academics. To fix this I will be focusing on varied assignments as well as grading some of their assignments on accuracy and not just completion like they mostly have. Being nice is great, but my main goal as a teacher is to maximize their learning and they are not giving me the effort that I want... Since I can not change their actions I must change mine! Putting more emphasis on the importance of hard work and learning (instead of just getting it done) I think I can encourage them to work hard and earn their grades.


Positives:

Picking up my Ag Leadership course has been the most excited I have been since starting student teaching. I find that this class has such a positive environment and students are willing to do their work. I have been getting them excited about Public Speaking with fun activities and bellower such as playing simon says and saying tongue twisters. The first assignment these students did were impromptu speeches where they only prepared for 15 seconds and spoke for a minute. Students were nervous, but everyone felt comfortable enough to do it and were laughing and engaging in their peers stories. I hope that I can continue the trend with this class because right now they have showed me that they can work hard, be productive, but have fun at the same time and this is exactly what I want their learning to be about!

Happy FFA week to everyone out there! Check in to hear about some awesome things @WellsboroAg is doing to celebrate!