Time Flies When You're Working With Great Kids

I'm not going to lie, I am getting ready for the end of this semester.

But at the same time I'm not. It's not because I'm tired of this teacher life. It's just that I'm ready for graduation and more job seeking and "big kid" world. You see, I LOVE what I do. I love the sphere of influence I have in this job. I love the daily challenge of this job. I love these kids. Quite simply, I'm ready for my own classroom. I'm ready to continue on this passionate pursuit of a brighter future for agriculture's tomorrow through today's youth.

Each day of this journey reminds me of how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to serve these students as their teacher for a period of time. I am incredibly thankful for all that they have taught me, the laughs that we've shared, the challenges we've overcome and the growth I've gotten to witness.

Chalk talk in Agriculture Biology - tell me the difference
between DNA and RNA

Week 14 was off to a storming start. I had the opportunity to join Mr. Bittner in Harrisburg representing PAAE at the Pennsylvania State Council of Farm Organizations "Cornucopia" Event. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit with other passionate agricultural commodity and special interest groups on behalf of PAAE. We busily worked outside, soaking up all the sunshine we could this week. The greenhouse, raised beds and school farm are in full swing production and ma
ny other fun projects, this week has been a good one.

As I have for the last 13 weeks, 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).

High: I got to attend an IEP meeting this week for one of my students. I've mentioned this student before in my blog. This student a pleasure to have in class, he has a smile on his face always, is a hard worker and participates to the best of his ability, all things that I appreciate about him. Mr. Bittner sits on this students IEP committee as his regular education teacher. Mr. Bittner asked our student to present a set of oral reasons he wrote for our Equine Science class for the IEP committee. Our student was quite proud of himself as were his parents and it was an awesome way for the other members of the IEP committee to see what he is doing in his agriculture classes and how successful he can and has been there. Three cheers for student success!

Low: I don't really justify this as a "low," simply as a really awesome growing experience. I have had the opportunity to teach an Agriculture Biology course while at Midd-West. It's definitely been a challenge. I've discovered a different art of planning through this Biology class. A type of planning that doesn't let me plan a week in advance like I can with other classes, a type of planning that requires intentional incorporation of Keystone vocabulary words. I've learned through this class to master effective planning and master the art of learning my content before I teach it to my students and mastering the art of gauging my students ability and comprehension of content knowledge. Now, I use mastering lightly, because it will take time till I'm truly a master at these concepts; however, much practice this semester has helped me gain much confidence in these areas.

Tip: Quite simply, finish strong. Somehow, somewhere we got ourselves to our last week of student teaching. It doesn't quite seem possible. I have regular conversations with students about leaving next week, sad conversations to have but a good rem
inder of how blessed I am to be here.

Simply put, I'm thankful that there's still challenges even in these last few days. Challenges that keep me fresh and relevant has I (hopefully) make my way into some job interviews in the next few months. 

Simply put, how am I possibly in the last week of student teaching?! Here's to finishing strong in this last few days and savoring each moment with these awesome kiddos.

Until the last week, K. Janae