Community Based Unit of Instruction

The idea of creating a community based unit of instruction was very enticing to me. I love the idea of collaborating with outside resources to make an impact. When Ms. Smith and I first began looking at our units of instruction we knew right away how we wanted to showcase our community based unit of instruction through our Horticulture II course. We planned to have our students create a landscape design for our school courtyard, and that is what we are working on implementing right now.

As we began our advanced landscaping unit, I taught our students the basics of landscape design. This was a review for our students as they all took Horticulture I last year with Ms. Smith. So for our purpose we were just reviewing the basic landscape design symbols and reflecting on how to use landscape tools effectively. Once we completed our review we began our design.

Our students were tasked with designing and implementing a landscape for our school courtyard. Our school courtyard is a very large empty space that offers a lot of opportunities for our future design. Our students were instructed to conduct client interviews of our school principal, students, and staff, to gain an understanding of how our school community wanted the landscape to be used effectively. This gave our students an idea of the purpose and mission our landscape should offer to our Kennard-Dale Family.

Next our students began drawing our landscape design. As they began drawing the design we incorporated two outdoor classroom areas for learning to occur beyond the classroom walls. In addition to our two outdoor classroom, we have an amphitheater area for presentation and ceremonies to occur. We created a large center piece in the middle of our landscape to illustrate our school pride and focalization of our purpose. Lastly, we chose to create a large patio area extending from our library. This area will offer seating and dinning areas. This is essential to this area as our library is being renovated into a more modern learning area for students.

Ms. Smith and I had many partners help us with the development of our desing. Our partners to this point in design are as follows:

• Our High School Principal Heather Venne
• Our Assistant Superintendent Dr. Bickford
• Our head of Maintenance Brian  McCleary
• A local concrete contractor Keith Smith
• A local landscape architect Ann Yost

All of our partners came into our classroom to give their expertise and perspective to our design creation. We are grateful to have their support and partnership as we move forward in our landscape design.

Currently our students are placing their plant material in our design and we are working to create a budget to present to our school board for approval.

I am beyond excited to continue to work with Ms. Smith and our students to create and implement an effective purposeful landscape meeting the needs of our school community.

"When one teaches, two learn"-Robert Heinlein

~Ms. Timmons

SLO/Action Research

Student Learning Objectives (SLO) are very important to the growth and the development of our students. I think creating an SLO is essential to ensure that teachers are meeting the needs of their students to foster the growth mindset and continue in a progressive nature forward in education.

I conducted and created an SLO/Action based research assignment in Ms. Smith and I's Animal Care and Management class as we were discussing our unit of poultry. After discussing with Ms. Smith we both wanted to conduct some research on our questioning techniques of our classes. So my guiding question for my research was as follows "How do my questions affect my student understanding of content material?"

I collected data over a two week time period in our class. Over the first week, I asked general questions to our students as I was teaching content. Ms. Smith recorded the questions I was asking our students so I could do some research on my questions at the end of the week. Some examples of questions that I asked included "what" questions. From my research these are basic questions that students may answer if they are able to remember information. These are questions that simply scratch the surface of our students' understanding and does not effectively demonstrate their cognitive understanding of information.

On the second week of data collect I began to ask our students more in depth questions and questions that are higher one the Bloom's Taxonomy scale. These questions included questions such as 'why' and 'how come'. These in depth questions ensured that my students had to apply their knowledge and understanding to tell me "why".

At the end of each week I gave my students a confidence quiz for them to evaluate their confidence of the information based on their understanding of material. Were they confident in the material we were learning? In addition our students had to create 2 future test questions to illustrate to me what questions they were able to form based on their understanding.

The results that I found were incredible. As the second week came to an end my students were very confident in the content material and the questions that they posed were very good. They were able to write questions that made them think about writing a complete sentence as an answer and not just one word. I was so proud to see the growth that our students had made through this research. In addition our students did incredibly well on their poultry assessment which made me very very proud.

~Ms. Timmons

Blessed Beyond Measures

Each day I find many blessings in my life. Each day I am reminded of the greatness and the faithfulness of a blessed life that I am given. Today I was reminded of one of the greatest blessings of my life. Today marked an ending of one journey and a beginning of a new journey. Today, was the day I had to turn in my 'teacher badge' at Kennard-Dale. Today was the day I had been wishing for, for months. But as today came and went, I found myself wishing it was any day but today.

When I began this journey, I was scared to student teach. Actually I was terrified to student teach. But I knew I was given this dream for a reason and I had to see it through. And today was the day I realized why I needed to be an agriculture teacher. I have the opportunity to change lives, to bless others through my teaching. But most importantly I realized, I am the one being blessed. Our students think I am here to teach them (and I am) but they are actually teaching me. They are a blessing to me.

Throughout these past 15 weeks I have cried many times. I cried in school after a lesson went bad, I have cried to my cooperating teacher because I didn't know what the ceca does in an avian digestive system, and I have cried to Richie because I just wanted to come home. Today, I cried the entire way home, because I had to say "I'll be back soon" to Ms. Smith and our kids.

I have learned so much from Ms. Smith and our kids through this experience. I was stretched beyond my comfort zone teaching about animals that I really am afraid of (birds). I learned information I honestly never knew about the muscular system. I learned so much content just from teaching it to our students. I learned how to create various assessments and how to make learning fun through various hands on laboratory experiments (lots of food labs). The most important thing I learned was from our students. They made me realize how much I love teaching.

As I reflect on this week, and all that Ms. Smith did to make this week special for me, I am so blessed. I am thankful for my faculty family at Kennard-Dale and for all their support. My heart was over joyed with love as I received well wishes and hugs from our faculty. I am so thankful to be a part of a great faculty.

And as I read the notes that our students wrote for me, and look at the pictures from today I feel complete. I feel complete in knowing I touched a few lives and hopefully made them a little better. I feel proud. I'm proud of how far I have grown as an individual and as a teacher. I'm proud of the student that Ms. Smith and I have at Kennard-Dale and for the partnership that Ms. Smith and I have in our classroom. I feel fortunate for the forever family I have at Kennard-Dale.

As today draws to an end, I am sad and happy all the same. An experience that I at one point in time wanted to be over four months ago, I now wish it would not end and I can walk back into Ms. Smith and I's classroom with our students on Monday morning.

But, Monday will be a new day, as I finish my college career with a post internship seminar and gear up for graduation in two weeks. Monday will be a new day at Kennard-Dale and our kids will do just fine, I know, but I will be missing them like crazy and I will miss spending every day with my hero and speed walking every where with her.

As I told our students and Ms. Smith today and as I tell myself this tonight, it's going to be okay because "I'll be back soon".

"Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead" 1 Peter 1:16

~Ms. Jenna Timmons
Kennard-Dale High School
Agricultural Education

A Veterinarian in Training

One of my favorite components of agricultural education is SAE. I love when our students have the opportunity to take their knowledge beyond the classroom and apply it to their lives. I especially love when knowledge and passions come together and our students are learning while they are having fun.

On March 11, 2016 Ms. Smith and I had the opportunity to visit our student, Lydia at her placement SAE. Lydia works with a local small animal veterinarian in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. When Lydia first began her placement a few months ago, we were all so excited for her because her future plans include becoming a large and small veterinarian.

On our visit Lydia showed Ms. Smith and I around the hospital and mind you this was during business hours, so there were numerous furry friends in the building. Lydia showed us the patient rooms, the surgery room, various laboratory equipment including microscopes, and x-ray machines.

While we were on our visit Lydia demonstrated how a veterinarian can test samples to determine if an animal has any infections that need to be cared for.

We also had the opportunity to talk to the head veterinarian at the clinic. She gave Ms. Smith and I great news of Lydia learning and gaining veterinarian skills while working at the hospital. Lydia takes the vitals of the animals and is continuing to gain confidence in other procedures that a veterinarian must conduct.

Lydia is a great student of ours, and she is very dedicated to becoming a veterinarian. Ms. Smith and I were proud to see Lydia growing in her experience and learning numerous procedures a veterinarian must conduct each day. As this is still early in her experience Lydia has many opportunities to grow and gain responsibilities at the vet hospital. I look forward to checking in on her again and seeing all the progress she is making during her placement.

~Ms. Timmons

Life in a Science Classroom

I always enjoy being able to interact with other teachers in our building at Kennard-Dale.

I had the great opportunity to observe a science classroom with Mr. Rupp one of our science teachers. Mr. Rupp is one that I met early on at Kennard-Dale as he is a teacher that Ms. Smith and I eat lunch with.

I observed Mr. Rupp's first period AP Biology class. This was a great class to observe because Mr. Rupp was teaching about growth populations, which is something I remember from my own science experience.

As class began, Mr. Rupp lead his student in a warm up activity which was a sample population problem in which the students were given variable that they had to explain the growth pattern using an exponential population formula. I though this was a great way to begin class as it allowed Mr. Rupp to see how his students understood the information that he taught the previous day. As well as connect material from the previous day to the current lesson.

Once the warm up was over, Mr. Rupp lead his students in short discussion of populations and factors that determine the growth rate of animal populations. After the discussion Mr. Rupp showed a short 12 minute video which gave an overview of animal populations and emphasized some key words such as carrying capacity, R-value, and K-value.

So key observations I took while in Mr. Rupp's class is his personality. He is very funny and I enjoyed seeing him carrying that into his classroom. He also has a great rapport with his students. In addition, Mr. Rupp has a great ability to move around the classroom and ensure all his students are engaged.

One take away I had from Mr. Rupp's classroom was his white board that offered food for though quotes. I felt this was just a simple way to give some advice and wisdom to students.

My class period with Mr. Rupp was very enjoyable and allowed me to expand my knowledge on animal growth populations.

~Ms. Timmons

Practicing for the Job Interview

The thought of a job interview always makes me nervous, and I'm not sure why. I think I get so nervous because I don't want to make a mistake and I know the interview process is the most important process of determining my likelihood of getting a job.

On Wednesday, April 6th I had the great opportunity of meeting with Mrs. Heather Venne, our school Principal at Kennard-Dale. Of course I was nervous, but I am beyond blessed to have the experience and practice my interviewing skills.

To prepare for the interview process I completed a standard Pennsylvania teaching application as well as submitting a cover letter and a resume`. I felt prepared for my interview in which I feel confident in my abilities to answer interview questions. Mrs. Venne and I participated in a mock interview just as it would be like for real.

Mrs. Venne asked me very in depth questions that really made me think about my understanding of education and especially my philosophy of agricultural education. Some of her questions challenged me and allowed me to use my 'tool box' of knowledge to demonstrate my abilities to be an effective teacher.

I had the opportunity to explain my SLO and how I was conducting research to gain a greater understanding of meeting the needs of our students.

After my interview I had the opportunity to talk to Mrs. Venne and gain feedback on what she expects to see in a job interview. I gained valuable feedback from Mrs. Venne and I was able to leave our mock interview with a great recommendation from our Principal.

My interview went very well and made me feel very confident in my abilities to conduct professional interviews in my future.

~Ms. Timmons

Collaboration of Agricultural Educators

On Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Ms. Smith and I attend the PAAE Southeastern regional meeting at Cumberland Valley High School. I have always looked forward to attending these meetings as they offer a great source of knowledge and collaboration among agriculture teachers in our local community.

At this particular meeting I was overwhelmed by the amount of leadership that is within our agriculture community. Ms. Smith demonstrates her leadership in various ways each and every day. However, at this particular event I saw Ms. Smith take on a different leadership role in which she was in charge of running the meeting. I was very proud of her and the way she demonstrated her leadership abilities throughout the evening.

We had various speakers at our meeting, and one speaker was from the Center for Dairy Excellence. I have spoke with these individuals before about the numerous resources they have for agriculture teachers and I feel like each time they give a presentation they have something new to offer. I learned of a curriculum of resources they have including lesson plans, activitie sheets, and labratory activities all focused around the dairy industry.

In addition, I am always amazed by the newest news from the department of education regarding agriculture. It never ceases to end. One topic of interest to Ms. Smith and I was the topic of the NOCTI exam. This caught our attention as we just gave the pilot exam to a our 'completers' and these students will be taking their NOCTI exam on April 22, 2016. I still struggle with the data collection and identification of students in our CATS and PIMS data records but Ms. Smith and I are currently working with our school administration to ensure that our system is up to date.

Overall, I enjoyed the meeting with our fellow agriculture teachers and I look forward to attending the next meeting to gain more information and knowledge.

~Ms. Timmons

"Learning ignites curiosity we never even knew we had"