Week 3 at Bermudian Springs
Who would of thought that I would learn and be
exposed to so much! I am so blessed to be here and experiencing all sorts of
things. Another class was added, new
connections with new students while still continuing with the old. I love my
internship more and more with each passing week. I do not however love the
continued cancellations or two-hour delays we continue to have. Flexibility in teaching is something that I
believe I am mastering in. You never know what the school day is going to
bring.
Having this new class is both interesting and
difficult at the same time. There are 25 seniors in the class, which is the
biggest class I have had yet! Since
they are learning about Global Agriculture, I decided to start them off with a
project. Each group was assigned a topic that dealt with Global Ag. Some of the
topics were: The Green Revolution- Norman Borlaug, NAFTA, FAO, World Trade
Organization, Free Trade Agreements, and World Food Programs. They will be
creating a project and “teaching” the class about what they have learned. Also
they are creating a ten-question quiz, which will help them in comprehending
they information that their peers are presenting to them. So this week and some
of next students will be going to the writing center to work on their
presentations. However some of them are definitely catching senioritis in not
wanting to do the work, but by threatening them with a failing grade they got
back to work.
My Ag Environmental Awareness is still identifying
trees for the week and the creed. This week paragraphs 1-4 were due. I am
having trouble with some of my students not wanting to recite the creed. I
cannot express enough how important it is for their grade to just get up and
recite it, but they continue to not say it. So I am up to suggestions on how to
fix this problem and move forward. This coming week paragraphs 1-5 are due and
I keep reminding and stressing the fact that this is a huge chunk of their
grade. We will see how it goes!
Before I even started my internship I said that it
was going to make it point to get to know these students. I am still a little
shaky on names but I recognize and make sure to go out of my way to say hello
and speak with them one on one. I love my kids! They listen very well and are
attentive in class.
Overall I had a great week with the kids, even with
the delays and two cancellations we seemed to cover as much as we could. I have
really been flexible with my teaching because of these cancellations or delays
and prior scheduled assignments. I cannot wait to see what they next week
brings. Hopefully a good week with lots of learning occurring!
Rea, I would love to see some pictures in your blog!
ReplyDeleteFor your Global Ag Class, consider investigating having them complete essays for the World Food Prize Youth Institute: http://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/youth_programs/global_youth_institute/
Remember, Dr. Melanie Foster (mjm727@psu.edu) is available to assist from the Center as the Global Learning Specialist
Good blog Rea. YES, pictures would be nice. Seniors are always an interesting group to work with. Mine always had senioritis well before this point. So you do what you can with them. Is there a way that each group can incorporate a food into their report? I found that nay type of food was a way to get seniors to work. FFA Creed, once the kids knew I was serious about the points they usually learned it. Once I had a terrible time so we spent some class time with kids helping their peers to learn the creed. That worked, but was a desperation move.
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