Charm City-Week 11

Week 11 has come and gone, and I have only spent two days of the week in my program.
You may ask- why?

The reason being, the last three days of the week, I travelled back into the Keystone State and up to Happy Valley for the first ever, Spring Retreat while student teaching.


The three days began with presentation of the Project Learning Tree lessons that we had piloted with our students at our cooperating center. This experience allowed me to get a look into what my colleagues were teaching and how they were able to adapt and modify some of the PLT lessons for their students.

The day wrapped up with a financial literacy workshop by Dr. Curry, which by the way, is a lot harder than it seems! Finally, we were loading up the vans and headed to Charm City.

Charm City, also known as Baltimore, MD.



Charm City has an incredibly interesting take on agricultural education. While in Baltimore, we were able to see two different charter schools which utilize agricultural education for various ages, and a non-formal agricultural education site that caters to younger students within the Baltimore area.


Baltimore is an urban area, with a lot to learn. Students are engaged in what agriculture has to offer them, but also don't always have a safe space to go home to at the end of the day. I enjoyed my time in Charm City, learning how to increase student engagement, and take a look at how agricultural education can be modified for younger age groups.


Week 11 realizations:
1. You don't know what each student is going through every day.
2. You're never going to be a perfect educator, but you can try your hardest and grow each and every day.
3. Students need a safe place to call home, be that person.

Questions:
1. How do you gauge student's willingness to engage throughout the day? How do you address students who are tired because they may have some family issues that required them to stay up last last night, or not be able to grab breakfast in the morning?
2. What are some tips and tricks that you have found successful to show students that you care and give them that safe space that they so desperately need?