The weekly writing's readings this week had a consistent theme of the connection between teachers and students to achieve successful learning. Tactics, ideas, and theories were shared in a variety of situations to provide understanding to best practices and strategies to achieve success in an agricultural program.
Below I am going to share out a few of my thought bubbles that formed during the readings.
1. "Intimidation is not just how you earn respect and control... so its not just being tough?"
- Through my athletic experiences intimidation stemmed from respect of another team's or individual player's ability to perform. Instilling confidence within students, of your ability as an agriculture educator ,will gain respect and trust which I predict will help with class management.
2. "I am going to be making a lot of friends... good thing I like to talk"
- In the Methods of Teaching Agriculture, Part 1 there are approximately 15 pages on with whom, you as the agricultural teacher, should engage with. Students, parents, administrators, other teachers, industry personnel, Advisory Council, Alumni of the program, and the list goes on. It sounds overwhelming and sometimes not possible with only 24 hours in a day, but knowing that I teach students and each of these people listed are vital to their individual success and my programs' success, forming relationships is a key goal to set within my first year teaching.
3. "Learning really is a lifelong process"
- After reading the four stages of teaching it is enticing to want to obtain impact NOW! Remembering that through continual learning I can climb my way up the leader to achieve this.
4. "There is no way the first year of teaching can be a happy experience... has this person actually taught before?"
- You know what, why reinvent the wheel? This was my thought after the reading the "key to teaching success is beg, borrow, and steal". There are an infinite number of resources available that will save time which can be spent doing something else... maybe forming relationships? Happiness is a choice and starting this semester I am going to utilize the resources at my disposal.
5. "How do you do it all?!"
- Reading the effective teacher qualities was important to understand the student's perspective of what they want and need from me to be successful learners. I feel confident to check off some of my innate characteristics such as humor, enthusiasm, variability, and task-oriented/business behavior, but what is exciting is that I now have goals for each lab. I want to focus on effective questioning, structuring comments, avoiding criticism, and clarity.
All of these readings reminded me that agriculture educators have a lot on their plates. To be effective agriculture educator I need to remember who we are teaching and why we are teaching them. Wong says, "The effective teacher affects lives" and is that not what we are striving for, impact of students lives? To this point my mindset has largely revolved around "what content am I presenting" and "how am I presenting it?" Looking forward I want to think "how am I being an effective teacher?" "What am I intentionally doing and saying to benefit my learners?"
Checking out edutopia.org through high recommendations, here is an article titled "5 Highly Effective Teaching Strategies" that drives home what our weekly readings discussed but also includes "metacognition strategies" as an effective teaching strategy which was a new concept supports ownership in student learning.
1. "Intimidation is not just how you earn respect and control... so its not just being tough?"
- Through my athletic experiences intimidation stemmed from respect of another team's or individual player's ability to perform. Instilling confidence within students, of your ability as an agriculture educator ,will gain respect and trust which I predict will help with class management.
2. "I am going to be making a lot of friends... good thing I like to talk"
- In the Methods of Teaching Agriculture, Part 1 there are approximately 15 pages on with whom, you as the agricultural teacher, should engage with. Students, parents, administrators, other teachers, industry personnel, Advisory Council, Alumni of the program, and the list goes on. It sounds overwhelming and sometimes not possible with only 24 hours in a day, but knowing that I teach students and each of these people listed are vital to their individual success and my programs' success, forming relationships is a key goal to set within my first year teaching.
3. "Learning really is a lifelong process"
- After reading the four stages of teaching it is enticing to want to obtain impact NOW! Remembering that through continual learning I can climb my way up the leader to achieve this.
4. "There is no way the first year of teaching can be a happy experience... has this person actually taught before?"
- You know what, why reinvent the wheel? This was my thought after the reading the "key to teaching success is beg, borrow, and steal". There are an infinite number of resources available that will save time which can be spent doing something else... maybe forming relationships? Happiness is a choice and starting this semester I am going to utilize the resources at my disposal.
5. "How do you do it all?!"
- Reading the effective teacher qualities was important to understand the student's perspective of what they want and need from me to be successful learners. I feel confident to check off some of my innate characteristics such as humor, enthusiasm, variability, and task-oriented/business behavior, but what is exciting is that I now have goals for each lab. I want to focus on effective questioning, structuring comments, avoiding criticism, and clarity.
All of these readings reminded me that agriculture educators have a lot on their plates. To be effective agriculture educator I need to remember who we are teaching and why we are teaching them. Wong says, "The effective teacher affects lives" and is that not what we are striving for, impact of students lives? To this point my mindset has largely revolved around "what content am I presenting" and "how am I presenting it?" Looking forward I want to think "how am I being an effective teacher?" "What am I intentionally doing and saying to benefit my learners?"
Checking out edutopia.org through high recommendations, here is an article titled "5 Highly Effective Teaching Strategies" that drives home what our weekly readings discussed but also includes "metacognition strategies" as an effective teaching strategy which was a new concept supports ownership in student learning.
