The End is Near

This week I began wrapping things up at Penn Manor…


In my Ag Science 3 course we finished our land use unit on Wednesday then Thursday I spent the day at the Eastern Region Public Speaking contest, and Friday during that class I sat in the office working on assignments as my cooperating teacher took over the class. It felt so strange, sitting there not teaching, I felt like I had left them, I just wanted to be in that room introducing the new unit.

My Ag Mechanics class continued to hone their welding skills as we made our way to the shop this week to practice running beads. It was great to spend time in the shop, by the end of the week my students were feeling comfortable in the shop and I was feeling more comfortable monitoring two projects at once. Half of my students are welding while the other half are working on their tool gauge project, which means I have been moving back and fourth from the welding area to the vise areas.

Another item that came to a close this week was my action research project. For my project my cooperating teacher and I were looking at the effects of co-teaching on learner satisfaction in a regular education classroom. From the results we have concluded that co-teaching in the form of one teacher teaching while the other drifts around the classroom resulted in the greatest learner satisfaction. While the single teacher teaching and moving about assessing students was the least favorable method of teaching as reported by the learners.

Finally this week I assisted with my final poultry judging practice. It has been a great opportunity to watch this team develop and see the many years of experience from my cooperating teacher be transferred to these students. It was an intense practice as they went through a class of interior and exterior eggs, ready to cook parts, and finally a set of oral reasons with me as the judge.

As the semester wraps up that also means the assignments have begun to wrap up as I look back at what I have done these past 15 weeks and prepare to share them with my cohort in two weeks. These 15 weeks have flown, but looking back over the assignments and opportunities a lot has been done and accomplished in this short time frame.

Looking back at just this week it was great to have the opportunity to spend Thursday at the public speaking contest. I had the opportunity to judge the extemporaneous speaking contest and watch as 7 individuals recited a 4-6 minute speech with on thirty minute of preparation. While I was jousting this event the Manor Parliamentary Procedure team was competing for a chance to head to states, the next step in their goal to make it to the national level. As I headed to the main holding area I quickly learned that the team had taken first place, even though they were not my team I was extremely excited for their win and demonstration of skills.


As my time at Penn Manor dwindles down the week ahead will be filled with many ups and downs as I prepare for the next chapter.

Till next time...