Got Beef (With Student Teaching)?

#psuaged22 Going Into Week Six

The fifth week of my Student Teaching Internship has came and went and just like that #psuaged22 is a third of the way through this experience. Thinking back to before I began this experience, I remember speaking with one of the Agricultural and Extension Education Program Managers at Penn State, Jon Seaman. Jon often compares Student Teaching to a meat processing facility, which I thought was too good of an analogy not to share with all of you. Therefore, please enjoy the following puns. They are pretty meat after all!

Tenderization

Up until this week, I have been going through what Jon refers to as the 'tenderization' stage of Student Teaching. Here I am adapting to being in the classroom environment, interacting with students, learning to plan curriculum, and slowly building myself up to take on a full teaching schedule. I have been picking up a class per week during my time at Cumberland Valley. I have really appreciated how this slow transition period has allowed me to adapt to teaching and planning for an increasing number of classes. Generally, the first few days of a week are much more stressful than the last few and that gives me more confidence moving into an even fuller class load the next week.

While these past few weeks have introduced me to the life of a teacher, they have also allowed me to root out some areas that I would like to improve upon going into the next two months. One of those areas includes being more assertive in the classroom when it comes to students who chose not to be engaged while I am teaching. Generally, I prefer to avoid confrontation and find myself intimidated when I need to reprimand students. While I have very few issues with the fantastic students at Cumberland Valley, this is an area where I would like to focus growth in over the next few weeks. (Beef) tips are welcome if you have them!

Ground Taylor

My sixth week of Student Teaching is what Jon refers to as the stage where I get crushed up and ground down and come out of the 'processing line' molded into the new (and lightly seasoned) shape of a first year teacher. In this week I will be picking up my sixth and final class at Cumberland Valley. As I continue to teach Ag Power & Technology, Food Science, Animal Science, and Plant Science and begin to teach Biotechnology, I know that there may be a few times when learning new content, growing student to teacher relationships, and juggling student learning through FFA and SAE may stretch me in uncomfortable ways. However, just as in Jon's analogy, I am going to come out of this experience made better in the midst of the learning curve chaos. Also, while some might be put off at the thought of being turned into a form of teacher ground beef in this analogy, I am okay with it as long as someone serves me up with pickles. 

CV FFA Adopted Ms. Carter For ACES!

The Sauce

Before I leave you until week seven, I wanted to highlight 'the sauce' of this past week. On Friday, my cohort members and I engaged in mock interviews in State College where I was able to focus in on my future as an educator. Over the next few weeks I am really excited to pursue a few employment opportunities and take what I learned during our mock interviews day into a few real interviews. Friday was also a chance to catch up with my cohort members. Hearing their successes and struggles was a breath of fresh air after being so focused on my experience as a Student Teacher. 

Additionally, this past weekend Cumberland Valley engaged in the Agricultural Cooperation Establishes Success (ACES ) conference. I really loved stepping into an advisor role in this way, apart from being a part of the after dinner teacher embarrassment session. It truly warmed my heart seeing all of my students enjoy themselves, engage with members from across Pennsylvania, and learn about leadership. As the weeks progress I hope to gain a better understanding of how to navigate the logistics of FFA chapter trips. Thank you for stopping by to read about my experience and, as always, your comments and questions are more than welcome!

'Taylor'ed with love,