Roaring with Ms. Rohrbach

To begin my Thanksgiving break, I got the opportunity to travel to my Cooperating Center to teach a lesson from the FFA Life Knowledge! I taught first period at Cedar Crest High School which is the Ag 4 class, of all seniors. After looking over the options for lesson topics, I decided to teach a lesson on First Impressions to this group of seniors. The main point that I wanted to get across was that people are making first impressions of us all of the time, and that we have to ensure that our best selves are being portrayed at all times.  I started the lesson by asking the students where first impressions matter and they responded with in interviews, first day of school, and meeting new friends. I responded by saying that honestly, anywhere and anytime could be a first impression on someone.  Their first task was to create a skit of first impressions. I created groups of 3 and 4, based on where the students were sitting in the classroom. I then assigned 2 groups to create bad ...

 I got the awesome opportunity to teach at State College High School for 3 days in the Plant Science Block. The Unit that we taught was on Hydroponics. I am so grateful for this opportunity to gain real life classroom experience, even though it was only for 3 days. We have a very interesting situation as State College uses a Block Schedule. So, I taught the first 44 minutes of the block and then my teaching partner taught the last 44 minutes of the block, which allowed for a 2 minute switch time! Now for the Lessons! The first lesson that I Prepared for the Unit was about the History of Hydroponics, Comparison to Aquaponics, and Pros and Cons of using Hydroponics over Conventional Farming. I followed the Teachers format for Bell work, which is a word of the Day and they google the definition and find a picture of it. I then used a Wordle to get us started, but realized my word being soil, was too easy and they guessed it on the first try. Guess you live and learn that some students...

Last week, as Penn State Ag Ed Students, we had the great opportunity to attend the Ag Inquiry Institute, put on by by some of Pennsylvania's, best Ag teachers! We got to hear from Ms. Krista Pontius and Mrs. Sherisa Nailor, both great role models in the profession. It was so much fun to be paired with In- Service teachers to discuss how they can apply the lessons into their Classrooms. A special thanks to PAAE and CPPD for supplying the materials and sending us home with over $500 worth of teaching supplies for our Classroom! The Lessons Oreo Cookie Investigation The first lesson that went through was the Oreo Cookie Investigation. We were trying to determine if Double Stuffed Cookies, actually have double the stuffing compared to regular Oreos. This was very interesting, as I never would have thought to use this in my classroom, but I learned that it is a good lab to introduce students to the Inquiry System. This lab can be has adapted as you want it to be for the students. We we...