Teaching Life Knowledge at Shippensburg

On Friday I traveled to Shippensburg High School, my student teaching site, and I was able to teach a lesson that was based on one of National FFA's Life Knowledge Lessons. Specifically, my lesson was titled "What are the benefits of Character and Integrity?". 

I taught a 40 minute lesson to Mrs. Bier's Ag Leadership class, after getting the chance to sit in on the chapter's FFA Meeting during FLEX.  Overall, I think the lesson went very well. I was excited to have my first official student teaching lesson be to the students I have gotten to know over the last 6 months. The Ag Leadership class has 8 students, each of which are the chapter's officers. 

Bellwork

We started the lesson with bellwork tying this lesson to the lesson I taught during their officer training where we talked about their strengths and weaknesses as an officer team. The students were able to share how they have been using strategies that we discussed to to fulfill their officer duties. 

Interest Approach

I think the students really enjoyed my interest approach to the lesson? What would you do if you found a wallet laying in the parking lot? What if it had no ID? I introduced this as a scenario and had them work in teams to decide what we would do with the wallet. I was surprised to see that they all agreed to turn in the wallet to the office, and I wonder if the questioning was more anonymous if the students would answer differently. 

Objectives 

The students definitely met each objective of the lesson, despite pacing still being something I struggled with. The objectives I set were that students would be able to: Explain the concept of character to peer satisfaction, Define integrity according to the National FFA Organization, and List three benefits of having character and integrity to teacher satisfaction.

Lesson Content

The lesson's content consisted of students determining their opinion about a famous person on a slip of paper. This was a very interesting activity because the students did this in 3 phases: By themselves without research, together comparing opinions, and finally with research. One group of students was assigned Saddam Hussein and did not know who he was. I think this made the activity more relevant, because they were really only determining their opinion based on who they thought he might be. This activity was wrapped up with some notes about Character, explaining how the activity relates to real life. 

Next, the students tried to define Integrity. We made a DIY word wall on the whiteboard and the students had lots of creative answers to help determine what integrity is. This was wrapped up with some notes on integrity and how to build integrity. 

Finally, as we were running out of class time, we discussed the benefits of character and integrity as a class. I was excited at the adaptability of this portion of the lesson so that the students were still able to fit in their evaluation of the lesson and their exit ticket. Even though we didn't get to the activity I had planned, I still think that overplanning is better than finishing with 20 minutes left in the class. 

Wrap Up 

We were able to wrap up the lesson by confirming that we met the day's objectives, completing an evaluation of the lesson, and finally finishing with an exit ticket and cognitive connect. I can't wait to see these students continue to grow as leaders as we move onto Public Speaking in January!

This experience relates to what I have learned so far in the semester about teaching, especially in the interest approach. I think the students were really engaged, trying to connect the wallet activity to the day's topic, and then rethinking the scenario as we uncovered more details about character and integrity. 

I learned that 40 minutes for this class is going to go by a lot quicker than planned, but also that I am looking forward to getting more direction from my Cooperating Teacher, Mrs. Bier. Getting the chance to discuss what went well and what didn't directly after the lesson was so helpful...And yes, I guess I really do need to stop clutching my lesson plan. 

I look forward to improving more and more as I begin student teaching at Shippensburg in January. I am very thankful that Mrs. Bier is being so willing to have me in her classroom! 

Here's to Part of the Whole Tree, 


Ms. Holtry 



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