Problem - Solving Based Lesson

When you hear that you have to teach an agriculture lesson that is problem based you would think that this is going to be easy right? Well, I thought that until I started to think about what to actually teach that would relate to what I am teaching this spring. Its a lot harder than you think.

I just started to research things that I have dealt with on my farm and came up with scours in calves. I am going to relate this back to my animal science class, if not it at least gives me the practice of doing a lesson like this.

Doing the research and trying to figure out how to make it interactive with my students was another hardship that I faced. I decided to cover the bacterial, viral and protozoans that cause diarrhea in calves. Putting these along with a situation at a local farm back home my mind said that it was all going to go well.

I went into lab thinking I am not as prepared for this like I have been with others but I got this. Animals Science is my thing right, how hard could it be.

Well lets say this week was what I am going to call my worst week. Yes, that's right, it even beats my gross interest approach lab. I feel like i flew through the information. I did not get the students involved like I would have liked to, overall it was not what I thought it would have been.

If I were to redo this lesson/lab, I would have it so that the students were taking notes during my PowerPoint portion and then used that information to give ideas on what could be causing the problem. I would have also slowed down talking. I feel that if it is information that I know then others should know it to and I do not have to take my time. Well that is not the case.

The next time I would change a lot of things but who knows after changing things it may not be what I want it to be after all. Well, guess we will find out when I do it again.

Until Next Time...........

Ag Mech Lesson Lab

Well this week was interesting. I did a micro teaching lab on a demonstration that dealt with a class in ag mech that I would be teaching this spring. I decided to do my lesson on how to connect PVC pipe together with different fittings. At 4 am about 2 weeks ago, my father and I were sitting in the living room and I decided to talk to him about what was going on in school. I explained that I needed a lesson and he gave me the idea. We decided that I would teach how to cut PVC, prime and cement that to a fitting and then take teflon tape and use it to attach another fitting. I have a very unique opportunity at home which was great for this lesson. With my father being a past agricultural teacher, I was able to have him demonstrate the lesson for me and then I did it for him. 

Things at home went great. I knew all the information that I wanted to go over while each step was being done. However, when I got into the classroom things changed. I did not use my lesson plan as I planned which caused me to forget some of the information I wanted to go over. I had it in my head that I have done this plenty of times while dealing with water lines freezing on the farm, that I did not need to use my lesson plan. I can do this all by my head. Wow, was I wrong. Lesson learned though. 

Besides missing some information, I also did not clearly think about how to split my groups up. I was not thinking and had them split into groups of 2 but only had 3 students. Therefore, I paired up with the other student and was not able to provide all my attention to making sure the students all understood what was going on. Also I did not have enough supplies for them to be in different groups. 

As far as classroom management I believed that I handled this well today. I have one student who is very arrogant and just does not want to do anything. I feel that I used her view of doing this lesson to teach the class the reason why we are doing it. However, according to my grade that was not the case. 

Overall, I believe that I am going to use this lesson while teaching. With a couple of adjustments, I feel that it is going to be great.