Teaching While Learning

1. Weekends are never over rated. After what seemed like a month of committing weekends to the livestock show, a weekend in San Antonio with one of the most fun cowgirls I know was complete bliss. Until we nearly got ourselves run out of Texas. It's true what they say, everything is bigger in Texas, especially the egos.

2. Whoever said there's no money in agriculture was wrong. At the Aldine ISD Livestock show last week the champion steer sold for $16,000 and ALL of that goes to the pocket of the student. One student walked away with a cool 30g's this weekend. The show in general was a great experience, not only for the students but also for me. It was great to see students in official dress showing the animals they had been tending to for months and to see several succeed and make the sale. This is experiential learning at its best--I wish Kolb and Dewey were here.

3. Good people make all the difference. Ag teachers are some of the greatest people I know, especially the ones I get to work with. Working with the 9 agriculture teachers in the Aldine District the week before the show would hardly constitute as work to me. Between the laughs we managed to the entire show set-up and Tiff and I impressed some so much that several agreed their next wives would have to be from Iowa. Apparently, on the long list of things Texas is superior at, kicking livestock shavings and setting up pens is not one of them. Chalk it up as a win, Iowa.

4. Diversity is fun.

5. Goats are ridiculous. Picture for a moment a HUGE, stadium like space covered with carpet with a show ring in the center, well organized corals to one side leading to pig pens and on the other side tied steers and pens for lambs and goats. Imagine buckets and show boxes sitting neatly next pens and the smell of wood shavings filling the air. It's a nice image-- and one very common to anyone who has been to an indoor livestock show. NOW, imagine walking into this space and seeing goats, dozens of goats running around, standing on show boxes, and eating EVERYTHING. That's what the ag teachers walked into on Friday late-morning when we arrived at the Aldine livestock show. GOATS everywhere. And while there were not dozens of goats (I've always been a tad dramatic) there were close to 10 that would not stay in a pen to save their life. Suddenly I hated myself for thinking the species was cute my first day at MacArthur. Finally, after nearly an hour of chasing goats and re-chasing goats, we put all the goats in a different pen and decided students could get and separate theirs in the morning. It seriously reminded me of one of those carnival games where you pick out plastic duckie from a kidee pool. So many dang goats.

6. You can't always shoot from the hip. Being a native cowboy, Arkadie is a bit of a maverick when he teaches, with very little planning or lesson plans. He's constantly asking me what I'm doing during our prep period when I'm writing lessons then says something like "why Rudolphi? Just shoot from the hip." I suppose after 31 years of teaching you can shoot from wherever you like, but I know if I walked into class without at least a general idea of what I was going to do for class I'd be a mess. Like, for instance, my first week. Arkadie was teaching equine science and the lesson started off talking about measuring a horse, then somehow moved to treating a colicing horse, and then transitioned to the first horses ever domesticated. Somewhere amidst the feverish note taking a student made a completely off-the-wall comment and Arkadie threw up his hands and said "I can't do it Rudolphi, take over." I was not prepared, at all, to start teaching. There was no plan, no outline, no general flow of conversation. I was taken completely off guard-- thankfully there was only about 10 minutes left of class and I facilitated a make-shift class discussion about horses.

7. Sometimes you can shoot from the hip. Today instead of welding Arkadie and I talked to the students about coming adults, not becoming fathers, and finding a career instead of just a job. I've labeled these fireside chats; "Arkadie's Advice" and nearly once a week he sits down and attempts to make men out of the mis-fits in welding class.

8. Don't let teaching get in the way of learning. As a student teacher the emphasis should be on being a student first and then a teacher. However, with all the planning that's necessary and the general concern of how lessons will go, if I will run short on time or material, if students will understand anything, if the lessons are fun and exciting, if my objectives match my content, etc it's often easy to emphasize the teaching and forget that I'm a student first. I find that often times I get so bogged down with details that I stress myself out and take all the fun out of life. If I'm too focused on my content and my lessons I completely neglect the students. I forget to ask how their day is, forget to laugh with them, and show genuine concern for each of them. There are times my interest approach is going to flop (heard that!) but that's not my concern anymore. I've found out that if I first sign Kenny Chesney songs in the hall way with a student who has the name "Black Jesus" embroidered in his letter mans jacket, or discuss cowboy boots or Rodeo concerts with the girls, or bond with the only other red-head I've met in Houston thus far over the animals she's taking to the show--IF I LISTEN and LEARN before I try to teach-- the students will be much more receptive to me during class.

Now, I have taken it upon myself to be not only a student of MacArthur High School, but also a student of Houston, TX. This means with every opportunity that arises to go somewhere or do something I jump on it. I KNOW I should be writing lesson plans and reflecting on my day instead of going for sushi happy hour, but teacher burn-out is real, and if I'm going to sign a contract in a few months committing my weekends and summers to students, CDEs, FFA camps, and SAEs you better believe I'm going to have the California roll with extra wasabi (and at half price!). I am absolutely going to sit three wide with the windows down in a beat-up pick-up headed to south Texas to see Santa Gertrudis and Longhorn cattle, eat a brisket sandwich, talk cotton, spend a Saturday evening at the Rifle Club, and remember the Alamo. I am a student of this perpetually red, ridiculously proud state.

9. The south will rise again. Apparently most Yankees have the details of the Civil War completely wrong. Thankfully, Katie and I ran into a couple of gals of who were not only genuinely surprised we didn't take Texas History in the sixth grade but also willing to set us straight. I think I'll focus on agricultural education.

10. Not every day can be a good day. My mood today is less than enthusiastic about teaching and high school students in general. I feel as though I put so much effort into entertaining lesson plans and it's completely wasted sometimes on students who will not keep their mouth shut long enough to listen. I have a new tactic planned for tomorrow-- I'll let you know how it goes.

11. Not every day can be a bad day....at least let's hope not.

I'd like to again, thank my family, friends, and Canadians who keeps reading. If you need a warm place visit, Space Town is always an option and the Rodeo is coming up.