Busy is an understatement

Finally, for the first time since the beginning of student teaching I have seen both A day and B day groups in person for both days! This is basically the first "normal" week in the six weeks that I've been here and it was also my first full week with a full teaching load. Phew! Talk about exhausting. 

Though it was a busy week, it was still a great week. In Plant and Greenhouse Science we were able to do a fun lesson on soil profiles with a COVID-safe adaptation to "dirt cups" (the clear plastic cups with layers of Oreo's and pudding essentially). We also finally got to do some planting for the spring greenhouse sale, spending class on Thursday planting plant plugs. This was a really cool experience because I got to see the behind the scenes of ordering plug trays, prepping materials, and most importantly, organizing kids during activities like this. 

For FFA Leadership, we have been working hard on speeches in preparation for the area competition at the end of March. Currently there is a lot of revising and peer reviewing being done, and soon we will be starting to practice running speeches and getting confident in speaking abilities. Personally, I love working on speeches. Prepared Public Speaking was one of my favorite competitions when I was in FFA, so it truly feels like I am coming full circle now coaching a group of students in this same competition. 

One of my favorite activities this week was with my Fish and Wildlife class. Right now we are looking at species interactions, and started the week looking with food chains and food webs, and finished it by talking a little bit about ecology. Specifically with ecology, we did a case study on elk in Yellowstone National Park. This was a fascinating case study where there was six sections that each gave new information, the next section building off the previous, with questions at the end of each. The students seemed to really enjoy this activity, too, and we had some great discussions about how species can impact the ecosystem and how the ecosystem can impact species.

I finished up the week with a full day of ag mechanics on Friday. This week I was focusing on electrical wiring and the different ways to wire different systems. My CT showed me some fantastic diagrams that she's made for the students, and I got to fill out my own and work through the different ways to wire. After pouring over drawings of wires and paths the electrons are flowing, I finally got to try my hand at physically wiring the different set ups on Friday. There was certainly a lot of trial and error at first, and I discovered muscles in my hands I didn't know existed, but after a little bit I got the hang of it and was wiring and unwiring multiple kinds of circuits. All in all, it was great practice and has me feeling much more confident in this particular section of ag mechanics.

[pictured below is the process I went through this week of drawing diagrams, practicing wiring, and finally putting my wiring skills to the test!]