K. Janae's High Five - The Classroom Will Come to Order

If there is anything that the more then capable instructional team at Penn State may not be able to teach us and prepare us for before we move to the other side of the desk and that, my friends, is classroom management.

We role play different types of students during our contextual lab experiences and we have the opportunity to experience a real classroom, before our student teaching internship, during our micro-teaching experience. These experiences are purposefully placed to help prepare us for the time we will spend with our first very own students during student teaching; however, a lot of our "preparation" comes from readings and conversations with seasoned educators. Appropriately enough, here is a high five, classroom management edition.

1. Start Out Firm

• Lay down the law people! You cannot expect students to rise to higher standards after they have been able to get by with lower standards; standards that have become the norm. We talk about the first day of school and how unbelievably crucial that first day is for laying the way for your classroom expectations, procedures and consequences. I have to be incredibly confident in them and prepared to hold my students to them.

2. Routine at the beginning of class

• What are your students doing the minute they walk in the door? Do you have a routine that requires them to find their seats, acquire materials and perform an activity that gets their minds warmed up and ready to jump in with that days task? Or do you allow them to enter, socialize with their peers and create an unsafe environment? My classroom procedures require my students to enter the room, prepared to be engaged, active and productive participants and then to complete the bellwork I assign for them for that day.

3. Make generous use of praise

• We talk frequently about cultivating a growth mindset over a fixed mindset in our students (read more here). I believe that when my students are struggling with a fixed mindset the more apt they are to struggle with misbehaving or get frustrated in my class. If I am working to build my students up, continually calling them to keep striving to be the best version of them, my classroom culture and student behavior will surely be more positive.

4. Be consistent, yet not predictable

• Again, for the sake of not sounding too repetitive, starting out firm, holding true to the expectations and procedures that were set at the beginning of the class with provide students with the necessary structure for a positive learning environment. But in the same sense, it can be easy to get stuck in the routine. As a teacher, I need to watch for areas where my students are becoming "lax" with my classroom routine or are trying to work the system and continually remind my students that we are held at a higher standard. 

5. Never make threats, only promises

• Our schools create consequences for a reason. If I state that after one verbal warning, the student has to have a one-on-one meeting with me after class, then that is how it should go. I cannot, out of frustration or annoyance, threaten my student that immediately after another offense they will have to leave the room if that is not what I have outlined and set precedence for in my classroom consequences. I owe it to my students to be fair. 

Simply put, classroom management can certainly be more successful with more intentional creation of a classroom culture. I want my students to know that I may hold them to a high expectation, but that is because I know they are more then capable. 

Simply put, I believe in a classroom of second chances. Everybody gets a free pass for bad days! Each one of my students is a walking story that I may only know bits and pieces of. Off days happen, and that's okay. 

Here's a High Five from Me to You, K. Janae

The Teac{HERR} Way - Invest so they can be their best

The National FFA Organization publishes some pretty neat lessons related to personal growth, premier leadership, and career success, commonly referred to as "LifeKnowledge." For the last of our formal contextual lab experiences, we have an assignment to choose a LifeKnowledge lesson and teach it to one of the classes at our cooperating school.

I packed up my car and headed eastbound to Mustang Country to teach the 8th Grade Exploratory Agriculture class a lesson on defining personal growth. So like always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time).

Gems -

• Adaptability and Flexibility. I'd argue I'm getting fairly decent practice in this area recently. Proving also the value of knowing your plans for the day so that you are comfortable enough to go where ever the wind takes you. Timing and diverse learners required me to adjust a few things today, but as I shared before "keep calm and pretend its on the lesson plan."
• Ya' Follow. I have this strategy that I like to use, essentially asking for motions to show that you're done. So "thumbs up if you got me" or "I'll know you're finished when you put your hands on your head." I am not afraid of making myself and my students look kind of goofy with this strategy, but it's so much more fun with 8th graders! They get all squirmy and stuff because they don't want to look weird, I love it!
• Depth. This lesson was about personal growth, so I may have not stretched my students capability to reach new levels in scientific concepts or philosophy or mechanical engineering, but I had the opportunity to influence 20 8th grade students to become the best version of them they can be. Of course, I capitalized the opportunity to bring my friend, Kid President, along which naturally made for an even better Monday.

Opps- 

• Timing. I am confident that some day I will be able figure out this timing thing. Right? Thankfully I was sure enough in my lesson content that I was able to adapt and change due to the minutes that were flying by. I look forward to more practice that will help me gauge how long students need to perform activities and assignments.
• Diverse Learners. I am fairly certain that this lesson was the first time I taught in a classroom with such a wide range of diverse learners; learners who struggled to communicate verbally, learners who needed the assistance of an classroom aide, learners who socially could not accept norms. I would argue there could never be enough training for this, but today was a very eye-opening experience
• Communicating With Every Student. This kind of ties in with this whole diverse learners situation. I want to create a classroom culture where everyone feels that their voice can and should be heard. I don't want to "avoid" students because they fall under a category of diverse learners. This certainly will be easier to do when I am in a more consistent classroom and have an opportunity to really invest into my students.

Targets - 

• Classroom Management. A lofty goal, it seems, but the more confident I become with my abilities to deliver content, the more I know I need to continue to read up, observe and develop better classroom management skills so that I can better serve the needs of my students and create a productive learning environment for all.
• Teach to the Modalities. I was pleased with my ability to incorporate variability into my lessons on a regular basis, this lesson included but even still I want to make sure my various learning activities in my lesson are reaching the needs of my audio, visual AND kinesthetic learners.

Simply put, I'll leave you with the same power message I let my students, said by my man Kid President... "a poem: two roads diverged in the woods and I took the one less traveled. It hurt man! Really bad! Rocks! Thorns! Glass! Not cool Robert Frost!" When we're working to make ourselves better, sometimes it means taking the road less traveled, don't be afraid of it - it's worth it!

Simply put, these were good kids and Midd-West is a great school. I am so fortunate to get to spend 15 weeks investing in those students and learning from Mr. Bittner and Mr. Erb. Bring it on!

Until Next Time, K. Janae

Adventures of a NAAE Student Memb{HERR} - "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" {"Let the good times roll!"}

You know, there are some days where I’m not so sure if I can do this job - this whole “ag teacher thing.” It requires long days and extra hours and crazy high school kids. Teaching is surely not for the faint of heart.

But then I think to myself, “really K. Janae?!" 

I know that I WANT to teach agriculture at the secondary level. I know that I NEED to teach agriculture at the secondary level.

But some days it is hard and its overwhelming and stressful and surely doesn’t seem attainable. And then I end up in New Orleans.

See now you’re thinking, right so Mardi Gras and good seafood cure the doubts? Nope, but they surely do help! It’s the group of people that I just spent my week with that wipe away that fear of incapability. I am so thankful that school-based agriculture education provides for me a network of people, with passions just like my own, on a state, regional and national level. I am so thankful that I attend a university that has instilled in me the value of joining, participating in and attending the meetings and conventions of state and national agriculture educators associations.

I had the sincere honor of attending the 2015 National Association of Agriculture Educators (NAAE) Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana this past week. My fellow cohort member, Katie and I, were two of eight pre-service agriculture teachers attending this national conference, proudly representing Penn State. Here, in the middle of "creole country" we networked, learned, collaborated, developed, explored and refueled.

Here it is, some more adventures and reflections from an almost teac{HERR}, summed up in four little letters...

N - Network. I shook hands with a lot of people this week. Some that fall under my list of “unofficially celebrities,” like Dr. Larry Case and Dr. Dwight Armstrong, both of the National FFA Organization, but I’m kind of a nerd like that. I was introduced to state and national staff members, teachers and teacher educators from across the national this week, all who took the time to thank me for choosing agriculture education and mostly likely, in doing so, telling me that they have jobs! I mean, no pressure. Katie and I also had the unique opportunity to participate in the Region VI reflections during our regional meeting, representing the future of agriculture education. I am honored to have gotten the chance to share my heart a little bit with a great group of teachers from the northeast part of the nation.

A - Advice. When you introduce yourself as a preservice teacher, you basically ask for everyone to pour out their years of wisdom on you. To that I say, yes! Let my cup overflow! I want to hear all that these seasoned, zealous individuals have to share! The good, the bad and the ugly, I’m on a mission to continually make myself better and I am so thankful to spend the past few days with people who desire to be a part of that process. One of my favorite words of wisdom I was given this week came from a young teacher in South Dakota. He very simply said, “best of luck during your student teaching next semester, remember to thrive. #psuaged16, I hope you’re reading. We’re 51 days away from this student teaching internship, my wish for you all is that you don’t simply survive through that experience, that you take this given advice and you thrive.

Thank you NAAE for recognizing pre-service teachers!

A - Active. Yes, the past few days have been crazy running from one workshop to session to meet up with another crew for a meal. But this week brought into perspective a different level of activity. I have had decent exposure to the workings of the PAAE, our state association of agriculture educators, so by default, could assume some of the opportunities for involvement at the national level. I am thankful for this incredibly unique experience that allowed me to see, first hand, the extensive list of involvement opportunities that await me as a future agriculture educator. I look forward to participating as a national committee member and applying for professional development experiences like the National Agriscience Ambassador programs.

E - Educator. I am an agriculture educator by choice, not by chance. I know that I am not only needed to meet a national shortage of agriculture educators, I know that I want to be an agriculture educator. I know that I want the hard and overwhelming and the crazy because at the end of the day, I have an incredible sphere of influence. A keynote speaker this week shared that as educators, next to their families, we see students the most in a week. For the time that they are in my class, I will deliver content and I will change lives. I am thankful for a week surrounded by people who are devoting their lives to the same mantra to refresh and refuel.

Authentic beignets from the real
Cafe De Monde

You should also know that I tried alligator and infamous car-broiled oysters  and beignets this week, soaked up some southern drawl, travelled down Bourbon Street and talked “ag teacher” all week. It was kind of dynamite.

Simply put, a huge thank you is due to the Penn State Teach Ag! Society, the Pennsylvania Association of Agriculture Educators, the Penn State Center for Professional Personnel Development and the AEE Instructional Team for providing the resources for me to experience this network of educators on a national scale, in the great city of New Orleans. 

Simply put, some days I’m pretty sure that I’m not cut out for this teacher life. Then I stand among theses passionate people, take a deep breath and continue on towards the finish line. 

Until the next time I’m 37,000 feet up, K. Janae

The Teac{HERR} Way - Real Deal, Real Life, Real Close

I share with you almost every week about my experiences in my contextual teaching lab. These lab assignments are fairly low-stakes, I teach to four of my peers and one of my professors. As our lab assignments progress, things get a little more intense. We teach for longer periods of time, we implement role-playing to practice classroom management skills and performance expectations get higher. Our "capstone" lab, if you will, is our micro-teaching experience.

Micro-teaching is a three-day lab assignment, where I am placed at a local high school and teach a class period a day to their agriculture students. I had the pleasure to work alongside two of my peers at the Central Pennsylvania Institute (CPI), which is a career and technical center, who's agriculture program is focused on Horticulture and Landscape Management. I taught three lessons on asexual plant reproduction and plant propagation.

And yes, you are correct. I got to teach some real-life kiddos this week. And yes, you are still correct. I still am so very excited to have my own agriculture classroom.

That hype aside, like always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time).

Gems- 

• Check for Understanding. I've been working to be very intentional in this area. Whether it is distinctively pausing the learning to see where we've been and where we're going or if it's using it as a tool to help rein the students back in or to call them to a higher level of thinking, I've found this to be a very powerful tool, that I pride myself in working hard to master.
• Effective Questioning. Again, this is another area that I want to excel in. I want my students to confidently answer questions, but in the same vein, not be afraid to ask them and actively seek responses. 
• Preparation. I was super thankful that I spent some extra hours to prepare all my needed materials for all three days of teaching the day before I started. Interestingly enough, crazy things happened and I ended up not needing a lot of them; however, because of that preparation, I was able to be much more adaptable and flexible when the need arose.

Opps- 

• Technology. It will fail. Time and time again. I know now the importance of test runs on my technology. I wanted to use this week formative assessment tool called ExitTicket to evaluate my students learning throughout the three days I was there. Well, slow internet, different versions of phones and a pile of other things, made this technology usage quite challenging. 
• Timing. The nature of my micro-teaching placement made designing "class periods" a little difficult for my peers and I. I struggled to plan well for the 50 minutes I was allotted. On the bright side, I had plenty of content that I still could have covered, which is surely better then being short, I need to continue to work at judging the amount of content I have, the abilities of my students and the minutes I have in a class so that I can better serve my students. 
• Higher Order. Though I felt good about my ability to ask effective questions during this three day early field experience, I was challenged to keep seeking out questions that call my students to a higher level of thinking. This too, will come with practice. But it will also come with more familiarity with the content that I am teaching. 

Targets- 

• Adapt and Overcome. This should probably be the anthem of my micro-teaching experience.
  Flexibility my friends! It's a teachers key to success! (That and lots of coffee) There was a serious of somewhat-but-really-not-that unfortunate events that came to my peers and I during these past few days. Power outages, technology failures and mandatory assemblies just to name a few. But sometimes, all you can do is roll with the punches - adapt and overcome.
• Teach to the Modalities. I was pleased with my ability to incorporate variability into my lessons this week, but even still I want to make sure my various learning activities in my lesson are reaching the needs of my audio, visual AND kinesthetic learners.
• Lifetime of Learning. Here's the thing, I will never know it all. My knowledge of agricultural topics may only always be an inch deep and a mile wide. But the important part is that I devote myself to a lifetime of learning. I need to constantly be seeking professional development, current events, emerging technology and the list goes on and on. I want to stay relevant so that my students can stay relevant.

Simply put, I am super thankful for a program that makes this early field experience part of our course work. I learned some really valuable lessons, but even more so, I left refueled, ready to knock out these last 30 days (holy cow!) until the big final presentations.

Simply put, I just really like high school agriculture students. They really are the coolest. 

Until next time, K. Janae

The Teac{HERR} Way - Explore, Create, Discover

You may have been keeping up with K. Janae's High Fives lately, and if not, don't stress! Here's the latest. In that blog post, I stressed the importance of this desire I have to create a culture of curiosity in my classroom. I want my students to feel like they have the ability to create, discover and own their learning. 

Our contextual lab for this week helped me develop the skills to do just that. We dove into Inquiry-Based Instruction this week, and as always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time). My targets for this lab were to Teach for the Modalities and Direction Follow-Ups. I'm sensing growth in some areas, but am fully aware that I've still got plenty of work to do.

 Gems - 

• Discovery Sheets. In efforts to help ease the process and be sure that each step of the inquiry process (question, evidence, explanation, connection, communication) was completed. I gave them pieces of what would then become their "discovery packets" as we continued throughout the class. This help guide and organize thoughts, and though we didn't get to the last step of communication in the lab, this packet will play a pivotal role in helping students share their findings.
• Literacy Connection. I didn't even plan this part! I paused the learning process at one point to talk through and review some key points and connect vocabulary to what we were doing that day. This led to continual opportunities for check-points, where I paused the learning and created 'marbling' as our word of the day. I also used effective questioning to help establish this cross-curricular connections. 
• Student-Led. I felt fairly good about my ability to allow my students to create their own question for the day. I was able to give them complete power to explore as the "experimenters" that day. Quite honestly, I had the fun part, I got to sit-back and watch and listen as they made observations and discovered differences in fat content in meat.

Opps -

• Student Frustration. This instructional method is so student-led, I become simply a facilitator. I need to be cautious not to rush my students in the process, but to help by asking guiding questions. I don't want my students to become frustrated or unmotivated in the process, I want them to be empowered to feel as though their learning is their own!
• Scientific Content. Inquiry-Based Instruction is built upon the scientific method. Though I had my students create a hypothesis and record data, I didn't follow through in my content with some "scientific" connections. If I was doing this particular lesson again, I'd want to utilize some of those check-points to talk about chemical changes that are occurring or the structure of lipids/fats.
• Felt Need. I want to be continually asking myself if I am truly being purposeful with my activities in my lessons. Looking back, I should have spent more time revisiting the responses the students shared on the board before we dove into creating a hypothesis and helping them understand the power they have as "experimenters" and connecting what was learned earlier in the unit to this discovery day.

Targets - 

• Learning Check-Points. As I practice Problem-Based or Inquiry-Based Instruction, the more I realize that there can be some power in freezing the process to connect where we've been, where we are and where we're going. It's a tool that I hope to continually implement in my classroom. 
• Higher-Level Thinking. Inquiry-Based Instruction takes patient conditioning of my students to be comfortable and aware of the process. However, I think that this method is a great way to enhance and develop critical thinking and creativity in my students and push them to make cross-curricular connections and think a higher level.
• With Purpose.This has been a target a few times for me in this contextual lab experience, but it's something that I want to continually work at. Am I being purposeful in my planning? My students absolutely deserve it!

Simply put, this lab was different then others, a little trickier too. But I am confident in my desire to create a classroom environment where my students are conditioned to discover and explore. 

Simply put, I am excited to play a role in the uncovering of student's passions through teaching methods like Inquiry-Based Instruction. 

Until next time, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Cultivating a Culture of Curiosity

I long for my classroom to be a place of discovery. 

Discovering career opportunities, passions, relationships, abilities, leadership, potential. 

As teachers, we ideally want to be engaging. We want our students to want to be in our class - what if our class is the only reason that our students even come to school?! A fantastic way to add variability to the classroom is through inquiry-based instruction.

One of my favorite definitions of inquiry-based instruction is this one... 

Three cheers for student-centered learning environments!

There are five steps to the inquiry process. Hence, this week's High Five: Learning Through Inquiry.

1. Question
1. This is like the signal word of a direction set. This is the question that gets the gears grinding, that triggers the thoughts and explodes into exploration. So for example, students walk into the room and see two soybean plant samples. Why does sample A seem to be growing faster then sample B?
2. Investigate
1. Now we put our detective hats on. We get out the magnifying glasses, the yellow steno notebooks and trench coats. Using some previous knowledge, students run tests, monitor field and growth conditions and keep track of results.  
3. Use Evidence to Describe, Explain & Predict
1. Now, a few days later, like true researchers students will dig deeper and evaluate the data they have collected. They will rule out collected information that does not lead them closer to a solution and use other information to predict other causes
4. PLOT TWIST! 
1. In a really successful inquiry-based learning environment, steps 2 and 3 would keep happening until students reach a more solidified solution.
5. Connect Evidence to Knowledge
1. And this is where all the magic comes together! It's the ah-ha moment, where students discovery and curiosity leads them to a solution as to why plant sample A was growing faster then sample B.
6. Share Findings
1. This has been a learning process. It's important to share and celebrate what your students have discovered, uncovered and created. It's also crucial to reflect on the learning process. Do your students understand why they explored the difference in growth in the soybean plants? What new skills and knowledge did they gain from this experience?

**NOTE: The teacher did nothing throughout those five steps. The process happens because students are performing each of those steps. The teacher prepares the initial question, and follows students throughout the process asking guiding questions like "how do you know that?" "can you tell me more?" or "but WHY do you think that?"

Here's another cool resource that I thought tied nicely into the inquiry process!

Simply put, my students will be the ones that solve world hunger, cure cancer, preserve natural resources. I have to cultivate a culture of curiosity in my classroom. 

Simply put, I want my students to be life-long learners. I mean they have to be if their going to save up natural resources, produce a cure for cancer and feed the world! I want to use inquiry-based instruction so I can teach my students to learn to learn - a skill that will last them a lifetime!

Here's a High Five from Me to You, K. Janae

Adventures of an almost Advis{HERR}

You know, I’ve set foot in Louisville, Kentucky a lot of times. 

Left to Right: LIFE Conference '10, NAILE with PA 4-H State Champion Livestock Judging Team '11, American Degree '13, Collegiate Assistant with National FFA '14

But this time was different then any other. This year I got a new button. This year I had new responsibilities, new purposes, a new name. 

National Convention '12

I’m still wrapping my head around this whole idea, the different experiences I had this week. It was a little bit surreal. It’s a little bit crazy to truck around the National FFA Convention & Expo with your “teacher backpack” on and this line of kiddos in some pretty slick blue corduroy jackets following behind you like ducklings follow their mom. For those of you know know me, the blue and gold has been, is and will continue to be a huge part of my life. When I was a high schooler attending National FFA Convention I dreamed about the day I would get to wear the advisor pin. I dreamed about being the not-so-hot driver of a classy school van. I dreamed about getting to watch my students look wide eyed across the crowd during their very first general session. This past week those dreams came a little bit true. 

I piled in that classy school van on a rainy Wednesday morning with six students who pretty much had no idea who I was and I did that “ag teacher thing” with the Midd-West FFA. Aside from a few different days of observations, this was the first time I’ve gotten to spend some quality (and by quality, I mean lots of hours piled in our classy school van, galavanting throughout Louisville) with a few of my future students I have the privilege of teaching during my student teaching internship in January.

I experienced some pretty unique things this week. Things like...

A new pin! So surreal, quite honestly.

- When I walked up to an exhibitors booth, that red pin magically got me some cool things to add to my teacher box.  

- It takes a few days to get used to that whole "Ms. Herr" thing. I still kind of giggle when I hear that... 

- Ag Teachers serve as a second set of parents. This week I filled in as the take-your-medicine-reminder, the life-decisions-coach, the how-about-we-find-the-positive-side-of-this-speaker, the here’s-a-lame-travel-game-for-us-to-play-creater and everything in between. I chose a professional that gives me the chance to live in a sphere of influence that is quite incredible. I don’t want to take that for granted. 

- Your kids will get tired and grouchy and have a hard time making the best of the experience some days. And that can be a little frustrating. But I have to remember  that I was a kid one time too. But I also want to call my students to higher standards, so that amongst the tired and grouchy they remember that convention may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so soak up every minute! What did they tell us in opening session? Something about amplify? Yea, amplify the moment! 

You're welcome for this.

- I forgot that high school drama is a real thing. I am super thankful for this week and the chance I had to be reminded of what life was like for me way back in good old 2009. Three cheers for braces! No but really, I was reminded of the value of listening to my students, regardless of how silly their problem may seem in the moment.

- Teaching is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard. It’s busy and tiring and overwhelming (duh). But I’m ready for the challenge. I’m ready to move and shake the lives of my students, I’m ready to push them and dive into that sphere of influence. 

I so appreciate the six rockstar Midd-West FFA members that I got to adventure with this past week. 

I appreciate their authenticity, their willingness to try, to get to know me, to let me get to know them, their ability to see the world in mature eyes.

I appreciate my cooperating teachers willingness to include me as an advisor this week; to give me a real-life experience - no sugar coating.

Simply put, what a week. A week full of dreams come true, good conversation, establishing relationships, preparing for what’s ahead and amplifying my passion for this field. (see what i did there?!) 

Simply put, here’s to the adventures of Ms. Herr and the journey of student teaching at Midd-West High School and then whatever doors God opens for me next.   

Until the next time I ride in a classy school van, K. Janae