Snow doubt about it! Week 2 was a wild one!

I'm sure of it. Absolutely sure of it. Snowstorms just throw weeks way out of whack.

Week two was a crazy one. But a good kind of crazy.

Excited to work with these passionate judgers!

It was a wild combination of a snow fall prediction somewhere between 12 and 60 inches (for real weatherman?!), an In-Service Day, an intense Science Department Meeting, picking up three new classes, a cat wandering through the classroom, an advisory board meeting, bright beginnings for the greenhouse crop, reasons sets with some livestock evaluators and 20-some rather talkative boys in a last period Small Gas Engines class.

Want to know something? I made it through. Looking back on week two, I'll be sharing a high (some of the top notch, #thebestofmiddwest and other dynamite moments), a low (the not so glorious, wish it couldn't been better or those "you'll have that" kind of moments) and a tip (something of the Teac{HERR} Way that I learned or heard that should be shared with #psuaged16 and friends).

Getting ready to plant the first round of the
greenhouse crop

High: I had a lot of unique and influential experiences this week. But surely one of my favorites was the opportunity to join in on my first Midd-West FFA meeting. I loved the opportunity to get to watch my kids in action. My "job" lets me interact with my students on many different levels. Not only do I get to watch them succeed in the classroom, I get to watch them develop exciting ideas to serve their community and peers. More on that soon!

Low: I made the decision part way through last semester to digitally evidence and archive my lesson plans and accompanying materials. I had chosen Google Drive as my desired platform which has worked so great as a method to collaborate with my cooperating teachers and connect with my students who are one-to-one with technology. All is well with this plan until the tech department kicks your "rogue computer" off the internet server conveniently in the middle of your lesson. I mean they're just looking out for the well-being of their server, but I am up the creek without a paddle without my teaching resources. Adapt and over come, my friends.

Tip: Own it. It's week two, meaning it did not take me long to figure out that, believe it or not, you're going to bomb lessons from time to time. And here's the thing, that's okay. You've just got own it and tomorrow, you re-do it. I'll own it, that was me! Some tech fails lead to some teacher fails and I owed it to my kids to try again.

Ms. Herr's class bulletin board!

Simply put, I was giving access to the guest wifi, so we're back in action. But lesson learned, none the less. 

Simply put, this week was kind of hard. It was way long, with lots of meetings and some challenging classes. But I left each night with a smile on my face. It's encouraging to know that these challenging weeks will still reap rewards. 

Until Next Week, K. Janae