Week Ten: Public Speaking, Plants, Parents, and Preparation

 Hello, blog-readers! Here I am again on another Sunday morning, drinking my coffee, and thinking to myself, "Wow, Monday feels like it was 5 years ago". 

This week was the last full week of the third marking period and many of my students finally felt the same urgency I had been trying to convey to them for the last month. As the missing assignments flooded my inbox, I found myself wanting to grade them immediately. However, this quickly became overwhelming and I was not able to keep up. By Tuesday, I had reminded myself about the importance of space and being intentional with my time. I made it my new goal to have my grade books updated before I see my classes on Monday and Tuesday.

During my Food Science class this week we discussed the 4 P's of marketing (Price, Product, Place, and Promotion) and as I reflected on this week I realized I could also summarize my week in 4 P's. Keep reading to hear more about Miss Guise's Week 10 P's. 

Public Speaking - On Wednesday, the South-Central region held its first ever virtual leadership development event contests or LDEs. LDEs include contests like prepared public speaking, extemporaneous public speaking, and creed speaking to name a few. Cumberland Valley hosted the senior prepared public speaking contest and I learned so much about how to run an FFA contest. 

In the weeks leading up to the contest, we had to find a panel of judges and a judge to score the speech manuscripts. We also needed to think through the logistics of the day. We settled on a setup where students were assigned a time (one student every 20 minutes) and we would admit students into the main Zoom room as they arrived. In a separate breakout room, we had the presenting FFA member and three judges. As teachers, we split up the day-of responsibilities to make sure there was an instructor in each Zoom space. When I was in the speech room I was keeping time and when I was admitting students to the main room I was doing an audio/video check with the participants before they entered the breakout room with the judges. 

While Cumberland Valley did not have any students competing in this contest, I was very impressed by the caliber of the speeches. You could tell the students and their FFA advisors had spent many hours practicing and preparing. In the future, I believe I would prepare students for similar contests by hold mock contests so students would become comfortable presenting to unfamiliar adults and fielding questions from a panel. Based on my experience last week, I would say the contestants' scores separated during the question and answer portion of the contest. I could ask industry partners, FFA alumni, advisory board members, and fellow teachers to serve in this practice capacity. 

Plants - This week my cooperating teacher and I were also able to pick up more plugs from a local greenhouse. The school greenhouse is overflowing with petunias, vegetables, and all types of flowers! On the agenda for this coming week is getting all the plugs potted in larger containers before spring break. The three Introduction to Agriculture classes will be spending their class periods applying what they learned during our Plant Science unit to plan and prepare for our upcoming plant sale. 

Additionally, my Plant Science class is wrapping up their Floriculture unit, and Monday our order of miscellaneous spring flowers will be arriving from the local florist. I am looking forward to seeing the creative arrangements my students make while applying the concepts we have been studying the past few weeks like color, the elements of design, and the principles of design. 

Parents -  If you read my blog post from week nine, I wrote about a lesson I did with my agriculture classes where the students wrote a professional email to their parents about their missing assignments. I did not do this lesson with my Environmental Science classes for consistency purposes since a team of six teachers teaches this class to over 600 freshmen students. So, this meant that sending parent emails made its way to my to-do list. After I sent about 20 emails, I appreciated my lesson from last week even more - it was a HUGE time saver! 

When I emailed the parents of my Environmental Science students, I tried to include a positive statement about the student where applicable. I received a few responses from parents, all thanking me for taking the time to send communication home and they assured me they would work with their student to get the assignments turned in. In the future, I would love to find a system for sending positive reinforcement home with students. I've seen some teachers sending a post-card-like note home, some using sticky notes, and others using email. #PSUAgEd2021, how do you send positive news home? Do you have a particular strategy or system you think is manageable and not overly time-consuming?

Preparation - Just as we wrap up with the area LDE contests, it is time to start thinking about career development events or CDEs - and this year they will be virtual, too. CDEs are more content-driven than LDEs and typically have a hands-on practicum component. Based on which contests students signed up for, my cooperating teachers and I split up the coaching responsibilities based on subjects we were most familiar with. I will be coaching the Veterinary Science CDE team. I am looking forward to working with my team of three students after spring break as we practice breed identification, parasite identification, veterinary tools identification, math problems related to dosage, conversion, and invoicing, clinical procedures like properly restraining animals, and the team scenario related to veterinary telemedicine. 

This week was also #psuAgWeek2021 and while I was participating as a part of my Ag Advocate duties, my students were excited to join in with me! Friday's theme was the future of agriculture, and who better to share the day with than my students. The future of agriculture is in my classroom!

It's hard to believe that my student teaching internship is 2/3 complete, but I have been learning so much from my students and cooperating teachers at Cumberland Valley. I am excited to see what's next for me in Agricultural Education, many new opportunities are on the horizon! Check back next week for an update on my plant-related projects!