A Day at Big Spring Middle School!

On Friday February 16th, I got the Opportunity to travel to Big Spring Middle School, to observe Ms. Emily Jay! It was a great day, and a change of pace as 6-8 graders have a lot more energy than 9-12 graders. 
I arrived around 8am, and got there during their first period planning time. I got to observe Emily getting ready for her back to back classes of 7th and 8th graders in wood shop! I loved Emily's first activity of hide and seek with tree ID cards. On their virtual day students got the chance to learn about different trees and how to identify them. Emily reviewed this, by hiding 6 index cards around the room with 6 different facts about an Ash tree. Students had fun doing a scavenger hunt to find these cards and then read them to the class. They were able to use critical thinking skills to determine that the tree they were describing was an ash tree. After they figured out the tree, they were able to re-hide the cards for the next class, which they loved. I realized that with the middle school students, these small activities are what excite them!

After they completed the tree ID Scavenger hunt, it was time to move into the shop! Students were working on passing all of their safety tests for the shop equipment and moving into designing their shelf. Many students were working on drawing and measuring out the shelf on paper and making sure that they had a complete design for their shelf. During this time, I could see that Emily was being pulled in 15 different directions from all of the students. Each student was coming up to her to get confirmation on their drawing. Also, she was trying to ensure that students were wrapping up their safety tests. 

One thing that I noticed that she did was use other students to help her. She selected a few students that had already had their designs checked by her, and allowed them to check other students. I think this allowed the more advanced students to have a sense of purpose as they were able to play "Teacher". This also happened with the Safety tests. Another thing that I noticed was that every student was wearing safety classes, even if they were not working on a machine. This is a shop rule, no matter the situation. I thought this was interesting, as there is no question and fighting with kids to put on classes.

After Teaching her first two classes, Emily and I went to watch the Family and Consumer Science class. She was going to be picking up this class in the next few weeks, so she was getting in some observation. Then Emily had her prep and we were able to talk with Mrs. McIntire about the upcoming plans next week. Emily and I ate lunch and then got ready for her WIN period, which stands for What I Need. I thought this provided an interesting time for students, as on a 6 day cycle, she gets to see all of her periods for an extra 40ish minutes. During this time, she planted seeds with the students. 

After Lunch, Emily got to teach he 6th graders, and they were very rowdy! I was told that there was a 6th grade dance that night and they were all excited for it! During this class, I observed Emily using the Tree Activity that we got at Ag Inquiry Institute! I thought it was really cool to see this lab in action with students. I was also shocked that some of the 6th graders understood what was going on, but I think they did learn more about tree diameter and age!

Overall, I think this was a fun experience and getting a change of pace for the day at Big Spring Middle School. It was really nice to catch up with Emily and hear about how her experience is going!

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