Seven in Seven.

The seven things I learned in my seventh week.

1. Teaching is like two-steppin'. I love going to school every morning, I enjoy seeing the students and I love talking about agriculture all day and I soak in every moment I get to spend with Arkadie. There are time, however, I feel teaching is like two-stepping in a huge circle at the Rifle Club on an old wooden floor; having a great time, but never going anywhere. I feel like in teaching sometimes I'm just going in circles repeating myself again, and again, and again. Two steps forward, one step back. Thankfully, if math serves me right we are still one step ahead--I HAVE to live in that step.

2. You have to celebrate the small victories. I administered my first real test last week. I'm usually completely opposed to old-fashioned, paper and pencil tests, but I decided after weeks of making books and posters it was time to gauge learning in a more concrete way. Knowing that how my students perform is also a reflection of my teaching I was nervous to grade the tests. I had helped both the ag teachers at Mac grade final exams and was mentally preparing myself for answers like "when they're cold" to the question, "when is it ok for girls to wear black pants as official dress as opposed a black skirt", and "Mr Arkadie" as the answer to "who is considered the founding father of The National FFA Organization". I was ready to feel completely depressed and spend the weekend trying to figure out why I ever thought I could teach. However, to my surprise my students knew the answers. They knew horse colors and markings, they understood colic and the digestive system, and some could even define 'monograstic'. Friday night I felt like Cam Newton accepting the Heisman—I didn’t deserve the attention or the prize but it felt right accepting anyway.

3. PowerPoint is not the answer. Planning for multiple classes each day and attempting to get through enough information and present it in an organized fashion often times PowerPoint seems like the most effective and efficient mode to teaching. However, when your bored just putting together a PowerPoint presentation you can be assured that the students will be bored listening to it. While I agree PowerPoint presentations are excellent for showing pictures and can supplement a lesson, they should never be used independently. I do use PowerPoint, but to supplement my lessons. There are times getting creative is difficult; thankfully I live with two other teachers, and when I needed help figuring what my students would use to “Brand” their piece of cake with frosting Tiff had the answer—ALUMINUM FOIL.
Which leads me to….

5. Teachers are friends. And resources. And lifesavers.

6. You have to put your money where your mouth is. After spending WEEKS in the shop explaining how to use the torch effectively it finally took me putting on my safety shades, taking the torch, and cutting a clean line before students realized pointing the torch at a 45 degree angle and pushing the melted metal with oxygen works much better than ANYTHING there were trying. There were, of course, some in the class who still refused to listen to me. That is, until, the smallest kid in the class who goes by the rapper name “lil Barbie” and sports a rat tail cut a perfectly straight line and then thanked me for teaching him with a fist pound. Job well done, Lil Barbie.

7. Priorities get completely re-prioritized. When I first got down to Texas I went nearly a month without talking to my dad, lost nearly all communication with my friends, and could not even begin to tell you what has happened on my favorite, and only, TV show I watch—the Office. In the past three weeks I have hardly touched my graduate thesis and lately gotten a little concerned by the amount of dirt compiling in our apartment. I know they said that student teaching would require every ounce of energy I had and that the students come first. What I didn’t know was that I would put AWAY, not aside, everything that I hold important and dear to me, and completely neglect all of the things I wanted for myself. I know I’m doing to this to get experience, but they way I see it, I’m preparing myself for a job I do not have the time to apply for—an honestly, a job I’m not even sure I want. After three consecutive weeks and weekends of working I finally took a trip to San Antonio. While the weekend was enjoyable I was so stressed out the next week and felt so far behind I nearly regretted going. Then I realized if I’m not careful I’ll spend 4 months in this state and see nothing but my apartment, the school, and the 4 roads in between.