Ms. Walker's "Wise" Tales

The readings definitely gave me a lot to think about from the first day to effective ways to teach to planning. Here are some of the questions I have.... To my future students... What was your favorite/most memorable day of school? What did the teacher do to help make it the best day possible for you? To my cooperating teacher and university supervisor What is the best plan of attack to write lesson plans and planning for students you do not truly know or know what to expect? How do you predict skill level, behavior, etc.? To my virtual mentors and cohort... The one reading discusses the principles of teaching and learning and talks about motivation and success and how they can be connected. With that being said, how can we provide activities that are challenges for our students to push them to grow with still promoting success to help them stay motivated? As an educator, how can we balance these two things?

Woah, it's literally the first week and they are having us teach... wild but that's what we were here for right?!? Anyway, for my first quick mini lesson I taught about origami and how to make an origami butterfly. I felt very out of my comfort zone cause I have never done origami but it was actually fun to learn something new and teach it. It went pretty well I would say, always room to grow, but not a complete train wreck. Here's the play by play: After many failed attempts behind the sets. I showed up to my lab and taught the lesson. I demonstrated a step by step of how to make the butterfly while I had my "students" follow along with their own papers. After that we reviewed the steps and then I gave the task of them of making the butterfly and that went okay most of them were able to make them which was pretty encouraging. One main takeaway from this lab was that having a visual can be helpful so while I demonstrated the steps I think it would have been ...

4-H taught me lose gracefully and win humbly. This is way easier said than done, and is always something I am working on because I am super competitive. But I have learned that there are more important things than winning a flashy banner (even though that is nice), it is also pretty cool to see a little boy or girl win their first banner and remember back to when I won mine and how proud I was of that all of my hard work paid off and I can only hope to share that with as many younger members as possible. So, while, let’s be honest, it sucks to lose, 4-H taught me there is more to life than winning and learning and growing along the journey is most important. 4-H taught me the value of relationships. This goes along with my last point about how winning is not everything, the relationships I have built from 4-H will last a lifetime and way past when those banners start to fade. I have met some of the best people in my life through 4-H, which I have shared laughs, tears, adventure...

Due to Covid guidelines, along with some other factors, I was only able to visit one program in person, this year. However, I was able to visit another program online through zoom and another program over a phone call. So, in this blog post I want to take a little bit of time to talk about my expriences "visiting" with these programs. The first teacher I was able to talk to was Mr. Honeycutt from Northwestern High School. I was able to talk to him over the phone about his program and what all the do. I excited to hear about how active the FFA program was and how supportive their community is. Another fun thing about talking with Mr. Honeycutt was to hear about their Maple Syrup festival and operation, with is unquie to this program. Another program, I was able to learn more about was Manheim Central with Mrs. Anderson. I was able to have a zoom call with her, where I was able to see a littel bit of the set of the program and hear more from her. Some positives that came out...

As I was tasked with making a list of my top schools for student teaching, I was overwhelmed and honestly did not know where to even start. As I began to talk to some of my professors and friends, I began to realize I had an idea of what I was looking for and a place where I would fit best at. With not growing up in an FFA program I felt like that made my decision harder since I did not have as much background information on many programs. However, that led to my highest priority in looking for a program and that is a strong and active FFA program. I truly do not care if there are 20 active kids or 200 kids, I just want them to be active in events, competitions, and in the community. Going along with that a program that does SAEs is important just so I can experience both of those things that I did not have in my high school. Another thing, I want in the school I choose is a diversity of subjects and an opportunity to experience some type of ag mech. I would like to teach more th...

Welcome! As I head into the second half of my Junior, I am starting to think about student teaching and heading into the classroom. Here on this blog I will be posting updates about my journey to the classroom and my student teaching experience. But first, I want to take a minute to introduce myself and how I got here.  LEAD Society Trip to Montana Hi, I am Lacey Walker, as I said I am currently a Junior at Penn State and I am majoring in Agricultural and Extension Education, as well as minoring at International Agriculture. During my time, I have been able to play rugby for the women's team, participate in clubs like Block Bridle and LEAD Society. I have also being able to work for the Global Teach Ag Network which has helped expand my global learning and as Ag Avenger which has helped push me outside of my comfort zone in planning workshops and starting to prepare me for the classroom.  My time at Penn State has been great and has most definitely helped shaped me, but my lov...