Ecosystems and Fermentation (Week 12)

I think it's safe to say that when you return to your students after three days of being away, there will be adjustments to make. Luckily for me, my students were eager to get back in the swing of things. Despite myself being sick on Monday and Tuesday, having a substitute for the entire day on Tuesday due to Mrs. Cashell-Martin being sick, preparing for two weeks of teaching because of a pageant this weekend, this week was probably my favorite week of teaching.


The week began with most of my classes needing to finish the projects that I had left for them while I was out. Then, it was time to transition into our next units of instruction.

The week was rough to start with myself not feeling so hot on top of adjusting to the students again and the students adjusting to me, but by the middle of the week, I was 80% back in the game and ready to have some pretty awesome and engaging lessons with my students!

Two of my favorites were having my Forestry and Soils classes making ecosystems in a bottle to introduce the forest ecosystems unit. Complete with fish, of course! And my Introductory course was super engaged on Friday with an activity demonstrating the fermentation process in the rumen of a ruminant animal!



I am finally starting to recognize what works for each of my classes and how to get them engaged and keep them engaged throughout the entire lesson. I can finally recognize when they are lost or not understanding and figure out how to reword it or connect tehe dots so that I see that light bulb go off in their heads. While I have figured out a lot this week, there is always still learning to do!

So, some questions for my readers:
1. What suggestions do you have for keeping students on topic when conducting a lab experiment or activity? How do you acknowledge the connections that they are making, but also cut the conversations that are off topic.

2. What suggestions do you have for having live animals in your classroom? The students created these ecosystems, should they be responsible for the upkeep of these animals? Do you allow students to take these types of things home? What criteria/stipulations do you include if you do allow them to take the animals home?

3. Where have you found some awesome activities for your students to complete while other students are in the shop? We have three welding booths and 9 students in the class. I hate to have them all complete bookwork while they are not in the shop.