Planning My Way To Success

Like any task you do, the more you do it, the better you get! As I enter into my 3rd week of
the semester, there are some tasks that I have spent my entire life doing, and some things that I am just starting to learn. This week we are diving into exploring the skills and effective practices of writing lesson/unit plans. Being something that I have never done, the road is going to be bumpy for the beginning of the journey, but as I keep practicing throughout the semester, hopefully, this will become another common practice in my life.

During my reading this week, there were so many great lessons that I can apply, but sometimes it's hard to just remember the words without connecting them to something. As we adventure through my agriculture education journey, no trip is complete without a good soundtrack! Let's see how music relates to the reading from the book titled, Methods of teaching agriculture written by Newcomb, Warmbrod, and Whittington. 

3- Connections to Student Teaching 

• One Direction- One Thing

A major lesson in this chapter was about the interest approach of a lesson plan. It may take an experiment, demonstration, question, or story to grab your student's attention for the lesson. It takes that ONE THING  to get your student's interest focused on what they are learning. That one thing should vary based on your students and should be a connector to your lesson! 

• Selena Gomez- Tell Me Something I Don't Know

Students will often ask "why" when you are teaching a lesson. This chapter taught me to think about the why behind my lessons and then relay it to my students. By helping your students engage with what THEY DON'T KNOW is a great way to make your lesson more effective. We all have sat in a class where the material was repetitive and it's hard to keep your attention focused on the lesson. So, by having the students be the center of the learning, they are interacting with information that they don't know and are taking more away from the lesson! 

• Hannah Montana- Nobody's Perfect

It's hard to set realistic expectations and to humble yourself in knowing that everything you do is not going to be perfect. One important lesson from this reading that will connect with student teaching is the importance of making edits to my lesson plans and adapting them as needed. We all want to be perfect teachers, but remembering that NOBODY'S PERFECT will help me while student teaching. Continually making edits to my lessons is meant to help my students be more successful! 

2- Connections to Other Courses

• Plant Science 220 was one of my favorite classes at Penn State! My favorite part about each of the units was that it was taught in a practical way. The students were also able to select many of the units that were taught. The learning was student driven and very effective. I would like to carry many of these practices into my own classroom and lesson planning! 

• International Agriculture 490 incorporated many of these strategies from the reading into the lessons. From clear learning objectives being discussed to incorporating problem solving tasks, this class was very interactive and successful in not only developing my knowledge in the content area but also successful in developing various skills that will help in my professional career! 

1- Outside Connection

• One day I listened to this very inspiring Ted Talk that connects with this weekly reading. Not only does the title of the Ted Talk relate perfectly to a song previously mentioned, but it also is a way to connect the points in the reading about effective lesson planning to the main point of being the best teacher for your students. Taking the time to be an effective planner of units and lessons is the first step to being a great teacher! This Ted Talk then highlights the other steps to being the best teacher for your students! Please enjoy this Ted Talk from Nick Fuhrman titled, "The ONE THING all great teachers do!"

Fuhrman, N. (n.d.). The one thing all great teachers do. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_fuhrman_the_one_thing_all_great_teachers_do.