What Great Teachers Do Differently: Part 1

In preparation for my #PSUAgEd19 student teaching journey, I have been gifted with multiple virtual mentors to guide me in the process. Together, we have decided to dig deeper into the teaching world by selecting the book What Great Teachers Do Differently. 

When choosing a book to explore with my virtual mentoring team, this book caught my eye. Throughout my schooling career, there have been multiple teachers whom have stood out to me as great teachers. However, I was never quite sure what the underlying reason for them being great teachers was. I was hoping that this book would help me to discover those things that make great teachers so great and apply these ideas to my own teaching in the high school classroom. 

The first thing that caught my attention when reading this book was the very first chapter entitled: It's People, Not Programs. This phrase stood out to me due to the relationship that it shares with my school experiences. Although a school can have the most up-to-date technology, the highest rating programs, if the teachers and staff are not there to back up the programs; the school is nothing. Great teachers/staff = a great school/students. 

I believe that I can use this phrase in the Spring while student teaching at Boonsboro High School. Although I will only be a member of the Boonsboro family for a short period of time, my influence on the students can make or break the agriculture program and the school system in general. Going out of state to student teach is a huge undertaking and can be scary not knowing how the school systems are set up. However, I believe that if I take a positive mindset and focus on the person that I am and not the programs that are surrounding me, I can make a positive impact on my students both inside and outside of the classroom (FFA functions, being a part of the community not just "the Ag. teacher". 

In chapter 2 of the book, I found another phrase which stood out to me the most. The phrase included, "It's not what you do, its how you do it." This phrase stood out to me because I am pursuing a Special Education minor alongside my Agriculture and Extension Education major. Each student has individual needs, whether they are in the general education setting or not. All students are different and unique, therefore, not every student will "get" the concept that you are teaching right away. You may have to revamp the way that you are presenting the lesson in order to reach a wider audience and/or make students understand the concept more. 

I believe that I can utilize this phrase both in the Fall and Spring semesters. In the Fall semester, I believe that this phrase will help me both with my microteaching prior to student teaching as well as throughout my Special Education classes. I also believe that I will be able to utilize this phrase while planning my lessons. I think that this will help me to differentiate my lessons and be open to all types of learners. 

Chapter 3 of the book is devoted entirely to expectations and consequences. The chapter discusses in depth the importance of setting up clear expectations from the get-go and following through with consequences. Clear expectations and consequences account for good classroom management. Too many times, I have heard of student teachers entering a classroom and trying to be too friendly with the students. Teachers in general need to keep in mind that students are there to learn and not all of your students are going to like you. 

This chapter will definitely be something that I will look back on throughout my time prior to and during student teaching. The hardest part about coming out of college and teaching high school students is the small age gap between the students and teachers. While Agricultural Educators have more than just a "normal teachers" role (FFA Advisor, CDE Coach), we also need to be mindful of being personable and not personal with students. 

Chapter 4 dives into the difficult topic of self control. Specifically meaning something when you say it. This chapter also uses a parent/child relationship to reiterate this topic. A blurb that stood out to me included "Great teachers focus on the behavior they expect of their students, not on the consequences for misbehavior." Negative mindsets often destroy students. A teacher's tone of voice often determines the reaction of the student. For example, speaking softly and not directly stating consequences often gets through to students more clearly than yelling and directly stating a consequence. 

I know that in my household setting, sometimes I struggle with this concept. If my little brother is misbehaving and I am trying to get a point across; I often find myself yelling. Over the years, I have found that speaking softly and calmly accomplishes more than yelling and acknowledging direct consequences. 

Chapter 5 discusses prevention vs. revenge. Effective teachers focus on preventing the misbehavior from happening again whereas less effective teachers focus on the revenge or consequences of the misbehavior. The chapter digs into sending students to the office and a teacher's bag of tricks. I found the Teacher's bag of tricks incredibly helpful. This section describes how to handle misbehavior situations and arguments with students. Every teacher has the same tricks in their bag. The difference is simply who uses which tricks and when. 

This chapter is incredibly helpful when dealing with students who simply do not like you as a teacher/person. Students who do not respect you will often be the "problem" students in your classroom. Although, I do not want to generalize any classroom- ever! This chapter digs a little bit deeper into how to handle misbehaviors and being sure to respect yourself, your students, and your students parents. 

My mentor team had a lot of great feedback regarding the first part of the book. All of the information was relevant to situations which they have been in. My cooperating teacher was a great mentor when reading the chapter regarding expectations and consequences. I happened to be reading this chapter while attending the Maryland State FFA Convention. Ms. Cashell and I had a deep conversation regarding what it means to be personable with students compared to being personal with students. I intend to use all of the feedback which I received from my mentor team to continue to find ways to use the phrases and stories from within the book and input them into my future classroom. 

Block and Bridle: Little International 2018

Each year Penn State’s Block and Bridle club puts together an event called Little International. I had heard of the event but wasn’t entirely sure what it was. When my animal science professor explained that it was a livestock show put on by Penn State students, my eyes lit up. 

You see, I have raised market lambs for my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) projects since my sophomore year of high school. I fell in love with the show culture and fell even more in love with market lambs. However, no one in my family has ever raised livestock before, therefore, it was a learning process to figure out all of the ins and outs of choosing, purchasing, raising, and showing market lambs. 

This past year, was my final year of being eligible to show market lambs at the local fair due to aging out at the age of 21. I was extremely upset to say goodbye to the show ring and wished that I had began showing sooner. 

Anyway, so when I heard that I could get one last hoorah in the show ring by being involved with the Little International competition, I jumped on the opportunity full force.

Practices began the week after spring break, which meant that we had one month to work with the lambs and get them show ready. Practices were Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 4:00 pm until 6:00 pm. Let’s be honest, who wants to be in state college at 6:00 on a Friday evening?

As the weeks went on, I found myself learning new things about showing and about myself. I learned how much I truly love showing market animals and how much I love teaching other people about market animals. I’m by no mean an expert in the sheep industry but I do try my best to learn and grow with beginner showman. 

The week of the show had quickly approached and the show jitters had begun. Monday afternoon, we put the lambs on the stands and worked with their legs, cleaned up the uneven wool, cleaned out the ears, and made the lambs look their best.

Saturday, April 14^th. The day of the show had finally arrived. Typically, on show days, I am a little bit nervous, but once I get into the barn, the nerves calm down. However, this show day I was particularly nervous. I got into the holding barns and was automatically in “the zone.” I got my lamb ready and was avoiding any and all contact with anyone around me. It was show time. Time to show the students at Penn State what a non-traditional ag kid was capable of doing.

The day ended placing third in fitting and fourth in showmanship. Not bad for the rookie. Following the Little International show, was the banquet. It was such an awesome experience to see everyone going from boots and jeans to dresses and heels. 

Overall, I am so thankful to have had this opportunity and look forward to supporting the rest of the students who choose to participate in the show!

Until next time! 

KRS

Teaching & Learning with Technology

Teaching and Learning with Technology? Technology has become so relevant in today’s society and simply continues to become an every day occurrence. Therefore, in order to reach our students, we need to incorporate technology into our lessons. #TLTSym18 was the first time that #psuaged19 got to sit down outside of class time and develop as professionals together. The symposium was an opportunity for each of us to grow professionally on an individual basis. We were able to interact with one another while being creative and attending workshops that interested us. I began my day with a workshop which discussed how professors were incorporating both face-to-face lectures and online lectures to better reach their students. I found this workshop especially interesting due to the fact that one of my SPLED classes is primarily an online class with one face-to-face session each week. This workshop truly opened my eyes to realizing how much time and effort our professors put into classes such as these and how they truly do look at how much the student improve in classroom setting such as these. I enjoyed the Keynote Speaker, Stephen J Dubner. Stephen did an excellent job of making his message interesting to a variety of audience members including a shout out to Norman Borlaug as well as incorporating hand hygiene and artificial insemination of monkeys. This professional development event allowed me to not only grow as an individual professional but to also bond with my cohort and get to know them all a little bit more.

PS- If you see a random person in the restroom with a notepad and pen, do not fret, it is likely Stephen J Dubner taking notes regarding hand hygiene.

Next Steps

What’s next? What do you want in a cooperating center? What are your strongest components of Agricultural education? What are your areas that need improvement?

All of these questions have been running through my mind for quite some time now, and to be completely honest, I didn’t have all of the answers to these questions. I still probably don’t know some of these answers, but what I do know, is that the Penn State Agricultural Education program always has your back. 

This week, I finished my student teaching application, handed in all of my observation hours this far, and did a lot of deeper thinking about what I want my student teaching experience to consist of. These deeper thoughts not only included what would be a good fit for me, but also, what I should be looking for in a cooperating center. 

The bottom line is that we don’t have all of the answers, and we may never have all of the answers. That is why I reached out to three previous Agricultural Education students from Penn State to help me determine the answers to these questions and to give me a little bit of a pep talk as I prepare to embark upon this journey. 

I decided to reach out to three individual all for very different but extremely meaningful reasons. The most recent agricultural educator that I reached out to was Ms. Angela Becker, Ms. Becker has given me a little piece of mind since I have met her, always encouraging me and letting me know that everything will work out. Ms. Becker is from a county out west and is currently student teaching at Manheim Central in Lancaster County, which, happens to be where I am from.  

The next Agricultural Educator that I decided to reach out to was Mrs. Janae (Herr) McMichael. Mrs. McMichael was ironically, a senior and president of my FFA chapter when I was a Freshman in high school. Mrs. McMichael played a huge role in my decision to pursue FFA, Agricultural Education, and Penn State. Mrs. McMichael was a member of the 2015 cohort and is currently back at Lampeter Strasburg High School serving as an Agricultural Educator. 

The last Agricultural Educator that I decided to reach out to was Ms. Quinn Cashell. Ms. Cashell and I met on a complete accident. I had a discussion with Dr. Foster a few weeks ago about the possibility of going outside of the state of  PA to student teach. I originally thought of going to Maryland, Delaware, or Virginia. Maryland ended up being my top choice outside of Pennsylvania due to the proximity both to Penn State and Lancaster County. Dr. Foster had mentioned to me that Ms. Cashell was teaching in Maryland and would fit the requirements for a potential student teaching center, and the rest, is history! 

While talking to these individuals, I asked them to rank the following from 1 being the most influence in determining a cooperating center to 5 being the least influence in determining a cooperating center. 

From this experience, I have found that curriculum and cooperating teacher personalities were fairly large components of deciding where to go for a student teaching internship. I also found that while having a job during this process may be necessary, it is not ideal and should be avoided in order to give 100% to your students and your job as a future educator. 

I will leave you with one of the best pieces of advice that I have received from these mentors.

“Follow your cooperating teacher everywhere! Do everything with them! Do the hard stuff, ask to do the extra stuff, fully embrace and engage in the experience.” -Mrs. Janae McMichael

In the Beginning

Hello all! My name is Kayla Stauffer, and in the blink of an eye, I will have a room full of bright high school students calling me Ms. Stauffer.

While I’m not entirely sure where I will be a year from now, this blog will help me to navigate through this crazy, yet exciting journey that 9 of my closest friends with embark on together. This blog will serve as a safe place for me to express what is going on throughout this journey as well as just reflect on the gems, and "opps" (opportunities) that this journey will create for me. With that being said, here’s a little bit of background on myself and what my agricultural education journey has been thus far.

                I was raised in a small town called Willow Street in the southern end of Lancaster County. I was unfamiliar with FFA until I was introduced to the Junior FFA program in 7^th grade. My grandmother was a para-educator at the High School that I would soon attend and was always placed into the agricultural classrooms and told me how much she enjoyed working with the students and teachers and that if I wanted to be a veterinarian, I should try the animal science courses that the agriculture department offered. As the middle school years quickly passed by, I drifted from the idea of FFA and agricultural education. Beginning with my freshman year of high school, I was reintroduced to the FFA program and agricultural education through my Veterinary Science class.

Senior Pictures: 2015

               As the years once again flew by, I found myself falling more in love with agricultural education each day. I became more involved with the FFA chapter and began an SAE raising market lambs. I ended my journey through 12 long years of schooling with graduation in June of 2015. As the summer months came and went, I found myself packing up my ENTIRE wardrobe, and ANYTHING that I could possibly fit into my parents’ car and headed 3 hours away from home to the Altoona branch of Penn State University. At that moment in time, I had a feeling that teaching was where my heart was, however, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to teach. All that was relevant at the time was that agriculture had my heart.

September 2017- My final SAE project with market lambs

                However, I’m not the typical agriculture student that grew up on a farm and was solely invested in agricultural education whether that be FFA or 4H. 4H was never in my reach, therefore, I am unfamiliar with that area and extension in general. Agriculture was a huge part of my life, but I also had “the best of both worlds” from the age of 8 years old until my junior year of college. Beginning at age 8, I fell in love with the sport of cheerleading and gave up everything to be able to improve my skills and eventually make the high school cheerleading team, become captain of the team my senior year, continue my cheerleading journey into college, and begin my coaching career.

April 2016- NCA Cheerleading Nationals in Daytona, FL

                If you are not the “typical agriculture kid” and enjoy having the “best of both worlds”, I encourage you to follow this journey with me. Any suggestions, comments, or stories regarding agriculture, cheerleading, or any combination of the two, will always be appreciated and accepted. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about my journey and I hope that you continue to follow my journey.

Cheers, 

Kayla